Psalm 19:1-6
I like to call this one the “revelation” Psalm, because it deals with God’s revealing of himself. The first six verses deal with his general revelation to all humanity, while the remainder talk about his special revelation.
We’ve discussed the concept of General Revelation before, but we’ll examine it in greater detail today. As its name suggests, it’s God’s revelation of himself to all humanity, and to which everyone has access. Romans 1 and 2 divide it into what we might call the inner witness and the outer witness: He’s revealed himself in creation and he’s revealed himself in our consciences.
Whenever you talk with a skeptic who wants to trip you up, one of their favorite objections tends to be “What about the Pygmy in Africa who’s never heard?” They’ve never had access to a Bible or a missionary, so how could they end up in hell? How could God hold them responsible for rejecting a message they’ve never heard?
The Biblical answer to this is found in today’s passage, along with other ones. God has revealed himself in creation, and according to Romans sinful humanity is without excuse. The Psalms unequivocally state that “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Verse 2 says that their testimony is 24-7: “Day after day. . .night after night.” One of the interesting things about verse 3 is the seeming contradiction to verse 2: It says "They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them." In other words, theirs is a silent testimony. The sun, the moon, the stars, all of creation is telling us something, but they're not using human speech. What exactly are they saying?
Very simply, they’re telling us day after day and night after night that “Someone created us. We didn’t make ourselves. Someone has put us into place, has started up our dance in the heavens.”
But if they're wordlessly sending out this message all the time, then why do we need missionaries? There are quite a few reasons for this, but one of them is that general revelation is not enough to save anyone. Now, I know that when Jesus said that if anyone asked or sought or knocked, they would find him. God never turns away anyone who really seeks him, so if that poor African looked at creation and used that as a starting point and really sought the Lord, he'd find him. But the problem is that on our own, no one will ever seek God. As C. S. Lewis so famously put it, to talk about “Man’s search for God” is like talking about a mouse’s search for a cat. So I have to clarify and reiterate: The main problem is not the insufficiency of General Revelation; it’s the sinfulness of the human heart.
For someone to really be saved, they have to be exposed to Special Revelation, which we would never find out on our own. We can know that God is all-powerful, that he’s incredibly wise, and that he provides for us in some fashion. Our conscience can tell us that there’s a right and wrong, and that we’ve committed wrong. But to know that he’s gracious and merciful, and that there’s a way back to him, we have to have something more. And that’s the subject for tomorrow.
Father, I don’t want all this theology to distract me from the incredible creation which you’ve designed. Truly the heavens declare your glory, the skies proclaim the work of your hands. Just from that alone, you are worthy of all praise and thanksgiving.
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