Chapter 1: The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
General Revelation
What can we know about God merely from observing creation? The subject of general revelation deals with what we can know about God just from observing the natural world. This sort of revelation goes to all people from every era; every person has access to basic information about the Creator God. Psalm 19:1-6 illustrates this for us.
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. (Psalms 19:1-6)
Though God created the universe by speaking (Genesis 1), we see the creation itself still “speaks” about the glory of God’s creating hand. This portion of the psalm deals with what can be known about God simply by observing the sky. We see that it “declare[s] the glory of God” in verse 1. We daily see the skies, with the sun, moon, and stars, and they are all very beautiful. But that is not the glory of God per se, but rather we can see God’s kingship and authority. God is all powerful, having power that is great enough to create the sky and everything in it, because the Creator is greater than His creation.
In verse 2, that “day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” It is more than just day and night we are speaking about; from verses 4-6, we realize that David is talking about the process of day and night. As we see the heavenly bodies move across the sky, we see His power in action, because He has sustained this whole process day after day since the dawn of time.
Verses 3-4 shows that this declaring of God’s glory, day after day, can be understood regardless of what language one speaks, or where in the world they are. Everyone can know that the Creator God is all powerful by observing this daily occurrence.
The sun, as it seems to move across the sky, is likened to both a bridegroom and a strong runner. In our western culture, the prominent figure in a wedding is the bride. All of the bridesmaids are dressed alike, while the groom and his groomsmen are all dressed like penguins off to the side. But the bride is dressed radiantly and beautifully in white, and stands out from everyone in the room. In this illustration in Psalm 19, it is not so; rather, the groom is the prominent person. The sun, like such a prominent figure, is massive, bright and hot in all of its majesty. Like a strong athlete victorious in a race, it moves gloriously across the sky. But what does this say of God? God, who sustains the process of day and night, and who seemingly moves the massive sun across the sky, is far greater than the sun. Whoever this Creator God is, His power exceeds that of the sun because He created it.
In verse 6, we see that nothing is hid from the heat of the sun. All people everywhere know its heat, and by it, they know that God created the world to be habitable. We can know that He is good and provides for our needs.
In the book of Acts, the apostle Paul appealed to general revelation when speaking to non-Jewish audiences. He did this because they were not familiar with the God of the Bible. Paul needed some way to communicate the gospel to the masses, but they did not have the right starting place: a Creator God who was interested in the affairs of life. Non-Jews often were polytheists with very different perceptions and beliefs as to the nature of the world and religion.
An example is in Acts 14:15-17. The Lord had performed a miraculous healing through Paul, and because the people who witnessed the event spoke a different language, they misunderstood what Paul was saying, and thought that Paul was a god. So Paul attempted to correct their thinking:
Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:15-17)
Paul appealed to the Creator God, who gave us rain and harvests, providing for our needs. Everyone can know to some degree that the Creator God sustains us by providing us the food we need.
A significant passage is Paul’s sermon on Mars’ hill. Addressing a group of Greek philosophers of different persuasions, he told them about the Creator God:
Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:22-31)
The Athenians believed that the Creator God was unknowable. This is very common among religious people of all persuasions, and we will return to this notion shortly. We also see that God is not territorial or limited to a geographical place. As Creator of all He is also the Lord of all, who transcends His creation and sustains it. In verse 25, we see that we do not provide for God, but rather He is the great provider for us. He brought forth nations from one man, and scattered them across the face of the earth. But what does God want from humankind? “That they should seek the Lord.” The purpose of humanity is for them to seek Him.
Humanity may know much of what is said of God by all that is written above. However, God is declared as an unknown, just as the Athenians had said in their monument. A prominent religious text says this about the Creator:
But, after all, who knows, and who can say
Whence it all came, and how creation happened?
The gods themselves are later than creation,
So who knows truly whence it has arisen?
Whence all creation had its origin,
He, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not,
He, who surveys it all from highest heaven,
He knows-or maybe even he does not know
When I was in missions school, a former missionary who had served in an animistic tribe reported to us that the people he served believed in a Creator God, but he was aloof, and did not care about the affairs of humankind. He just sat in the sky, smoking a pipe and making clouds. The people’s real concern was the evil spirits; these were the spiritual forces the people had to appease in order to survive. Whether animistic tribal religion, or the major religions of the world, if they have a Creator God, he is seen as remote, and not getting involved in daily life.
Though we can know a lot about God through the created order, we realize that there are many things that we cannot know by simple observation. Even the things we can know we naturally suppress because of personal sin and deception by evil spiritual forces at work in the world. We see that there is yet another way we can learn from God, and that is through special revelation.
Special Revelation
There are different types of special revelation. These include dreams, visions, the Urim and Thummim (used by the high priest in the Old Testament, which we do not know much about today), the casting of lots, and theophanies (where God Himself appeared to people). Throughout the Bible we see examples of these. However, these things are not the primary means of God’s communication. God’s written word is the way God communicates to His people. This brings us to the second half of Psalm 19:
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer. (Psalms 19:7-14)
Notice the abrupt shift in direction David takes, from discussing the patterns of heavenly bodies, to God’s written word. The one thing that is noticeably different is how he refers to God. David refers to God once in the first six verses, and it is the generic term “God.” Throughout the Old Testament, we see that when we see the name God, the emphasis is usually on God’s mighty power. However, David is now calling Him LORD. This is symbolic of the Tetragrammaton, which are the four letters that spell God’s personal name in Hebrew. Why the change of name? David is no longer talking about God as the mighty King; he is now calling God by His personal name. We may know Him as the remote powerful king by observing nature, but by the LORD’s word, we know Him personally.
There are several different terms that David uses to refer to God’s word: law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear, and judgments. Many of these sound like legal terms, but I think we would be remiss to think that we are only talking about the torah, or the Law in the Bible, consisting of the first five books of the Bible. I believe this is talking about the entire written Word of God. More than anything, the Gospel of Jesus Christ epitomizes everything stated here in this Psalm. Think about this as we look at the rest of this psalm.
Psalm 19:7 is most intriguing: “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” The Word of God has the power to change a person. We cannot but think of Romans 10:17: “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” The Word of God stimulates faith in a person unto eternal life. Just think about that for a minute. The Word of God is “quick,” or alive (Hebrews 4:12), and it gives us life, and is the incorruptible seed that gives us eternal life (1 Peter 1:23).
The Word of God not only changes a person and seals one into eternal life, it also gives us wisdom (19:7). It gives us practical skill in this life and teaches us to walk away from evil. It makes us rejoice (19:8). God gives us His word to live and walk with Him, and this gives both Him and us joy. It enlightens the eyes; it allows us see the truth about God, the world and ourselves. We can see clearly when we have the Word of God.
Many other words are used to describe the Word of God: clean, true, and righteous. There are no impurities or lies in God’s Word. By verse 11, because of the pureness of God’s Word, David looks into the Word like a mirror, and sees himself as he really is. He takes heed and is warned, and goes further, saying, “cleanse thou me from secret faults.” The Word of God is clean, and is able to clean us. The Word of God is a light that exposes unrighteousness in us, so that the Lord can change us through and through.
The special revelation in the Word of God does what general revelation cannot do: it communicates to us the way of salvation in Jesus Christ and how to live the Christian life. We see this in Romans 10:18 which quotes Psalm 19:4. The former is talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, while the latter mere general revelation. What general revelation could not do, the gospel could!
Thank God for His Word, and for His goodness to us.
Next: Chapter 2: God Created the Heaven and the Earth