Two Books

This week’s readings will bring us through several Psalms, including one of my favorites, Psalm 19.  The words to this Psalm from David have volumes to say about God’s creation and God’s Word.  Actually, you could say there are two volumes, or books, in this Psalm that reveal who God is.  In theology classes, you might hear them called general revelation and special revelation.  General revelation has to do with understanding what we can about God through His creation, while special revelation is concerned with knowing what we can about God through His revealed Word.

Regarding general revelation, everywhere we look we are surrounded by a panorama of God’s creativity.  John Calvin in his Institutes said that man literally walks everyday inside a theater constantly featuring the works of God Almighty.  In this Psalm, David spends his time recounting the glimpses of God’s “fingerprints”, particularly in the skies.  At all times, day or night, the heavens loudly proclaim the glory of the Lord, and there is no one on earth that can truly deny His existence because of it - no matter what they may claim to profess.

I wonder if you’ve ever taken the time to look at the sky - really look at it - and notice the ingenious work of the Creator in the mix of colors or the various cloud patterns.  Just like snowflakes (or so they say), no portrait of the sky at any one time is exactly the same as the next.  Incredible!  God could have surrounded us with a bland, gray dome for a sky, which would have been the same all the time, everyday.  But He didn’t.  I wonder how often we notice the variety that He has filled His creation with?

Yes, there is God’s general revelation, as we’ve seen, but it ought to be this general revelation that leads us to “grope for Him”, as the apostle Paul said to the Athenians (Acts 17:27); this next step is where special revelation comes in. 

And it is in this second portion of the Psalm that David sings the praises of God’s Word, His law, which is described as perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true and righteous altogether.  Words cannot describe the gift that the Word of God is, or at least ought to be, to us.  In it we find God revealing who He is to us, and calling us into relationship with Him.  Our hearts should greatly treasure its truths.  How much?  David tells us, “More to be desired are they than gold…sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” (Ps. 19:10).

We’ve taken just a brief look at these “two books” - general revelation and special revelation.  But may we pray together that we make the conscious effort to take these two books off our shelves, blow the dust off, and let them speak to us, each in their own unique way.