“The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.”
~ Psalm 97:6
Hi James and Ellen,
The eastern horizon began today’s morning by putting on a bright red show before a glowing yellow globe crept over the edge of planet Earth to bring light to where your grandmaa and grandpaa are living. Do you like to watch a sunrise? Do you like to watch a sunset? Have you ever wondered – as the sun disappears in the evening, whether or not the sun will appear again the next day? Your grandpaa is looking to the east right now. The sun is beginning to heat up another day. When your grandpaa gets to his office at OC International’s headquarters, your grandpaa will be able to look to the west where he will be able to easily see Pikes Peak. Your grandpaa is really not into mountains. Your grandpaa is a lot more captivated by flat plains and rolling oceans. Pikes Peak though and the rest of the Rockies are intriguing to your grandpaa because of all the stories that they could tell. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have seen meteorites one right after another flashing across a dark night sky. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have seen tornados spinning down from clouds. Your grandpaa has seen the northern lights doing its very graceful, colorful dancing act. During the seven weeks that your grandmaa and grandpaa spent with the summer team that went to Colombia in 1976, your grandpaa was asked to drive the small truck that was used to carry the guys and gals who were on the summer team to the different ministry locations. While on their way to a dirty Venezuelan border town called Maicoa, your grandmaa, grandpaa and Carlos Guererro – a young guy who was on the summer team who spoke Spanish, drove for a time along the edge of the Caribbean. Your grandmaa and grandpaa will never forget the Caribbean’s bluish, green water nor the sight of a long row of palm trees tilting over a pristine stretch of light sand towards the constant lapping Caribbean waves. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have been in idyllic settings that belie describing with words. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are fascinated by the colors and variety of flora, the uniqueness and diversity of fauna, the intriguing beauty of butterflies and the clouds that are doing their thing in their playground. Since your grandpaa almost seventeen years ago wrote a devotional on this psalm song, your grandmaa and grandpaa were accepted by Adventures in Missions as missionaries. Your grandpaa over the past fourteen years as an Adventures in Missions missionary has led short term ministry teams that went to Peru and Ecuador in South America, to Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua in Central America and to Puerto Rico and Haiti in the Caribbean giving your grandpaa the chance to personally witness God’s handiwork in different venues
Have you ever wondered about the exact order that everything seems to be in that is everywhere around you? God is Who is controlling and manipulating everything around you – from the air that you breathe to the food that you eat to the sights that you see. God is Who created everything in a precise ordered way. God’s hand is firmly on everything so that everything that He created – which is everything, will unfold in a fixed ordered way just as He planned before He created everything and how everything would exactly unfold. The beauty and order of everything that is around every guy, gal or kid is sufficient for him or her to believe that there is a Supreme Being and to want to personally know the Supreme Being Who is in absolute control of everything. The Psalm 97 psalm song writer knew this. This psalm song author scribed his psalm song to celebrate the Supreme Being – Who is God, Who reigns over planet Earth. This psalm song’s author used a stylistic Old Testament poetry device to use the words be glad and rejoice and then to use these same words again but reversing these words and saying rejoice and be glad to link thematically this psalm song’s two main divisions. God is constantly showing off His majestic glory to all the guys, gals and kids who are living in the countries and in people groups on planet Earth. God never stops showing off His majestic glory to the guys, gals and kids who are standing on planet Earth’s land while at the same time to the sailors who are on ships that are sailing on planet Earth’s seas. God is constantly using awesome sky displays to show off of His power and glory. Massive, roiling thunderstorms show off God’s power and glory. Sudden flashing streaks of lighting and booming, reverberating peals of thunder show off God’s glorious presence and His booming voice as dark storm clouds hide the sun as a metaphoric but visual veil of a Supreme Being in complete control of what is happening and what is about to happen.
The obviousness of a Supreme Being – Who is God, being in complete control of everything should shame guys and gals who worship manmade things that are handmade from clay, wood, stone and metal who think of themselves as being the center of all life and who ignore the clear-cut, precise order of everything created around them. Verse 6 says, “The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.” The orb that God designed in His universe that is known as earth is filled with an infinite display of creativity that could never have happened by chance to speak to kids like you, to guys and gals like your dad and ma and to old guys and gals like your grandmaa and grandpaa to let everyone know that He is the author of it all. No guy, gal or kid will ever arrive at heaven’s door and be able to say that he or she did not know that a Supreme Being existed. Just as everything around you is showing off and proclaiming God’s magnificent glory, this is exactly what God expects all of His specially elected kids – like you, your dad and ma, your grandmaa and grandpaa . . . to do. Is God’s magnificent glory being reflected through your lives in a way that other kids can see that you are God’s specially elected kids?
Psalm 97 (510)