The Breath in Our Lungs

To the choirmaster.  A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 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. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. (Psalm 19:1-6 ESV).

 

There’s a wonderful song written by David Leonard, Jason Ingram, and Leslie Jordan, titled “Great Are You Lord” in which the chorus goes: Great are You, Lord. It's Your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise. It's Your breath in our lungs So we pour out our praise to You only. We have sung it many times in our church. Thinking of our reading today, I was reminded of the many ways we can give glory to God. When we speak, we can glorify God with our words. We can talk about God in ways that honor him. We can communicate God’s love for us and for the whole world. We also learn and grow to know about God’s glory when we hear others speak about it. Then with the breath He has given us, we can share it with others.

 

The whole of Psalm 19 shows that we can even learn about God’s glory through nature. It says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Another way to put it, according to this psalm, is that “the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” This is a strange and poetic picture. The sky can’t talk! The psalm acknowledges this: “They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them” (v. 3). And, yet the sky, by its simple, beautiful existence, communicates to the world about God, its creator.

 

God has created a beautiful world. This world, simply by being what God created it to be, gives voice to the beauty of God himself. People can glorify God with their words, by loving each other and themselves, and by caring for the world that God loves. The sky uses its clouds, rainbows, and shades of gray and blue to tell about the glory of God. Think of all that we can do as we use our words and even our whole life to share about the glory of our great God! We will explore this truth in more depth in the coming days. Today, think about the beauty you experience from simply seeing the handiwork of God in His creation.