Thursday 1 May 2014

May 1: Psalm 148:1-5

Key Verse: Psalm 148:3
Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light!

Devotion:
How many times have you read something like this and wondered at how the writer ever thought they could get the moon to praise God. The answer is simple. We don’t get to make the moon or anything else bow down to God. But how we see the moon is entirely different. We could look up at the moon and think that it must be some sort of a god because it affects the tides and even people to some extent; but then we would be barking up the wrong tree again!

If you have ever had the privilege of being able to take a close look at the surface of the moon through a good telescope you would see how strange it looks and the fact that it is just like a mini planet. It is floating round in space; I use the term floating lightly because when you see it through a telescope you get to see that it is really big, I mean huge, like a planet! So what is the moon doing out there and how can it praise God?

The moon is not glowing because of any chemical or atomic reaction raging inside of it. It glows in the night because it is reflecting the sun light coming from our sun. That is the one with the raging nuclear reaction going on bursting forward light, heat and other radiation. The moon can be seen in the day time because the sun shines on it. It can be seen at night time because it is not hidden behind the earth and so still is light up by the sun. It is only when it gets stuck behind the earth or between us and the sun that we get to see something different. These are just down to physics and where God placed them and not down to them being some sort of gods!

So how do they praise God? They seem to praise God because we see such majesty in them. They inspire us and keep us in awe. But we should not be in awe because they did something by themselves. No; our God created them and placed them there for us to see and for them to be of use to us. So they bring glory to God because of how we see them, not because of what they can do. Just like that we can bring glory to God because of how we are seen by others and not just by what we do!

Points to Ponder:
How do you compare to the moon?

Do you know God knows you too?