The God of the universe and the God of my life
He made the stars also. (Genesis 1:16)
He makes me to lie down in green pastures. (Psalm 23:2)
I remember listening to Professor Dawkins addressing the Cambridge Union and quoting Psalm 19:1,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”
He said that was, “a god he could go for.” What he could not accept was a god interested in the detail of human life.
King David wrote the words Professor Dawkins read. King David also wrote Psalm 23. David did not separate the God who “made the stars” from the God who, “made him lie down.” David understood the true nature of God. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing. But that immense power is not only displayed in the vastness and order of the universe. It is also, and more astonishingly, displayed in His care for every detail of His creation; His interest in our lives.
Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:29-30, that God knows every sparrow that falls to the ground and every hair that falls from our heads. This was not a trite saying but one which enlightens our understanding of the nature of God. People find it hard to reconcile a creator God who made the universe with a God who is interested in a tiny creature. Atheists believe in mindless forces of nature producing a universe so complex, not only in its vastness, but in the most astonishing and microscopic detail on the earth. Jesus was explaining that God is God because He sustains the universe in its immensity and at the same time holds within His power and knowledge everything within its seen and unseen dimensions.
How is it that we as humans have a consciousness of our place in the universe and a remarkable understanding of the world we inhabit and have discovered so much about its intricacy? Why would the orderly painstaking research which emerged from our minds lead us to the conclusion that the universe is mindless? And why have people, in the words of Paul, “worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen” (Romans 1:25)?
Professor John Lennox once remarked that the sun is so large and so important to our earth yet it does not know I exist. But I know it exists. God made the glorious and beautiful stars but they have no relationship with Him. God made you and me, so tiny and so fragile, to have a day-by-day and eternal relationship with Him.
David looked up to the heavens and wrote of the glory of God in creation but he also looked at himself and wrote,
“I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvellous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well” (Psalm 139:14).
God also spoke to David of being still to know God (Psalm 46:10). These experiences led him to write “the Lord is my Shepherd” (Psalm 23:1).
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