Lessons from the Dark of Night

Undoubtedly, King David had spent many youthful nights tending to his father's sheep, beholding a night sky endlessly adorned in starry splendor. Galaxies danced before his eyes. I do not imagine the sight was lost on him when he was older — when he eluded Saul in the wilderness, for example, or after becoming king of Israel. Indeed, we have David's grown-up reflections on the night sky recorded for us in Scripture. Gripped by such sights, David wrote "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Ps 19:1). Over and over again, such a sight spoke volumes about who God is, not only to David, but to all of mankind spread across the earth.

Continuing, David exclaims how such praise is heard by all men in all places: "Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world" (Ps 19:2-4a). When I am in distant places, I am especially awed by the stars above like David was. Have you seen the beauty of a very dark sky, too? May we all hear the chorus of God's praises these stars sing.

This universal testimony of nature is one reason mankind is completely without excuse (Rom 1:20). There are no people in distant jungles who have never heard of the glory of God. Strikingly though, in our sinful condition, the glory of God, made obvious by the stars, makes us recoil against and reject God instead of worship him. Many are driven to worship the work of God's hands instead of the Creator himself (Rom 1:23). If God did not reveal anything further than the testimony of the night sky, man would be entirely without hope.

While the testimony of nature is enough to reveal certain aspects of God, and is sufficient to condemn unbelieving man, the testimony of nature is limited. It cannot save. If it could, we would not send missionaries into all the earth. But God did not simply give us nature's proclamations and praises and leave us without further witness. God gave us his own words designed to draw us away from sin and to genuine praise. Therefore, David's meditation in Psalm 19 moves from the revelation of God in nature to the revelation of God in Scripture, which he describes as "perfect," "sure," "pure," "clean," "true and righteous altogether," more desirable than gold, and sweeter than honey.

One application that David finds from meditating on the Scriptures is to seek discernment from God and freedom from sin's dominion; "let them not have dominion over me!" (Ps 19:11-13). In this way, Scripture reveals even further the glory of God (who God is) and the story of God (what God is doing) through the gospel to take man from the dominion of darkness into the light of his gospel.

In an earlier Psalm, the same starry sky encourages David to deeply reflect on his own position in the cosmos. He, like all of mankind, is so small when compared to the galaxies of lights paraded above our heads. "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?" (Ps 8:3-4). David is awestruck by the fact that God cares for man who is so small in the grand scheme of creation. Yet David's meditations go beyond what he can see revealed in the starry night. He reflects upon the creation story of Genesis and is filled with even more amazement. David continues, "Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet." What's revealed in Scripture further captures the awe and wonder David feels because man, while so small in comparison to the stars above is given the ability to rule over God's creation. How is it possible that God would so richly endow humanity, that he would "[crown] him with glory and honor"? Angels are not even given this honor!

The creation of man comes as the final installment of God's creative enterprise. And we must be surprised by the text of Genesis just like David was. God, the rightful owner of all that he had just made, immediately places the things he created into the hands of the man and woman. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Gen 1:27-28). What is mankind that it should be honored in this way? It is astounding, isn't it? This is exactly what David is reflecting on when he ponders the grandeur of yet another vast Israel sky. Man is so small and yet has been entrusted with so much.

Of course, we know there is more to the story. Adam and Eve's sin comes crashing into the picture; way too much is forfeited. The endowment is coughed up. It all goes dark so fast and mankind is plunged into ruin. Instead of exercising dominion over the earth, man is subjected to the ruthless tyranny of death's reign (Rom 5:14). With sin's permeating domain, what would become of David's praise that opens and closes Psalm 8, "O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens . . . O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Ps 8:1, 9)?

Hebrews rightly sees that the purpose for mankind, first revealed in Genesis and later meditated on by David, may have been lost in Adam but—grace of all graces—not by mankind forever! Hebrews sees that Scripture's purposes for man, far from lost, are fulfilled by the last Adam and Son of David, Jesus Christ, who became fully human to take up the baton that man left in the dust, liberate his people from lifelong slavery to death, and ascend triumphantly to heaven's throne as king, exercising his dominion in all the earth for God's glory. The world was subjected to man at first; the world will be subjected to the man Christ Jesus at last.

Yet Christ's route to glory is also astounding. It comes through his own death. "But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone . . . . Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery" (Heb 2:9, 14-15). "After making purification for sins," we are told, Christ "sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs" (Heb 1:3, 4).

The next time you behold a starry night, don’t only stare in wonder at the stars above but rejoice in God's greatest revelation: his glory in Christ Jesus our Lord through the gospel, not only in the exaltation of Christ to his right hand but in the grace extended to us who were once under the dominion of death whom Christ is "not ashamed to call...brothers!" (Heb 2:11). May we learn many lessons from the dark of night and the glory of Christ.