The Heavens Proclaim His Rightousness

In what way do the heavens proclaim the righteousness of God?

I think natural science has some insight into this question. It is not just that the heavens proclaim the Glory of God, though they do, and their voice goes out through all the earth, as Psalm 19 declares. But beyond the speechless majesty of day and night, of the sun running his course with joy and regularity, Psalm 97 says the righteousness of God is proclaimed by the heavens.

That seems at first glance a strange aspect of God’s character to derive from meditating on the heavens.

And yet, what is righteousness? It is the property of being in accord with what is true and justified. The psalmist, considering the heavens, I believe gained a sense of the fitness of the heavens from their predictable regularity as much as from their beauty and majesty. He saw that reliability as a sign of the rightness of the creation. And he sensed that it reflected the character of the creator, putting to shame the puny fabrications, the man-made idols, we so often make the focus of our attention.

Modern science knows an astonishing amount now about how the heavens actually work. There are mysteries still and many more wonders than ancient philosophers (or maybe even Victorian philosophers) could have imagined. But the underlying laws of physics are now matters of justified confidence.  Those laws enable us to understand both distant astrophysical phenomena  and laboratory experiments.

We have come to know “how the heavens go,” which Galileo contrasted with the revelatory purpose of the Bible as to tell “how to go to heaven.” The scientific knowledge we have gained is, however, not just technique; it is something at which to marvel. It possesses an extraordinary intellectual coherence, a sense of wonder, of rightness, even of justice, that reflects God himself.

Even the most secular of natural scientists experience this rightness, wonder, and awe. And for some, perhaps, it is a gateway by which they can sense the possibility of a spiritual reality. They belong perhaps to the other “peoples” beholding the glory, and sensing the righteousness, but not yet ready to “Rejoice in the LORD” with those for whom God’s righteousness is the example for their own.

“Lord Jesus Christ, image of the invisible God, first-born of all creation, for whom and in whom all things were created, in heaven and on earth, grant us to see your righteousness in our understanding of the natural world. Give us eyes to see you and rejoice in your righteousness as Creator and as Redeemer. Make us people who reflect that righteousness in our thought, word, and deed. Grant us grace to live out our spiritual understanding as well as our scientific understanding in ways that reveal your love to the world. We give thanks to your holy name.”