WHILE YOU SLEEP

Psalm 33:4-9

⁴ For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.

⁶ By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.
⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;^[a]
He lays up the deep in storehouses.

⁸ Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
⁹ For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.

“You’re the Word of God the Father—from before the world began

Every star and every planet—has been fashioned by you hand.

All creation holds together—by the power of Your voice

Let the skies declare Your glory—let the land and seas rejoice!

You’re the author of creation—You’re the Lord of every man

And Your cry of love rings out across the lands.”

S. Townsend and K. Getty

This is the first stanza of the opening hymn sung in the church where I worshiped this last Sunday.  It is a statement of a basic affirmation of our creed.  Very simply put, we live in a creation.  A creation has a creator and the Psalmist informs us He has done this by “the Word of the Lord.”  This statement is not unique and it warrants our interest.

When we read this in Psalm 33:6, we are struck with the likeness of John 1:3. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.   But there is some difference.  John is writing of the Personal and Eternal Logos while the Psalmist, as it is plain from Psalm 33:7 and 9 is writing about the Revelatory Word.  This word here in the Psalm is charged with the Almightiness of God.  God’s infinite power is overwhelming.  “Every star and every planet” in our so immense universe came into being from nothing by “the breath of His mouth.” 

What did the Hubbell telescope see at the farthest reaches of its space journey?  That which was communicated by its cameras was “some more”.  And there is no reason to suppose that the farther it goes it will tell of anything different than just “some more.”  This infinity is staggering.  But the Psalmist looks at this vastness, sees it and all that is in it, as the result of God’s making.  But he does not stop there.  He was so bold and specific as to tell us that He also sustains His creation, “He commanded and it stood fast.”

Paul, referencing this in Colossians 1:17, speaking of the Redeemer as Creator, completes his description by telling his readers, “in Him all things consist.”  As He created, even so He maintains. 

When we are told the creation came by the Word of God, we are to understand that His creation is the object of His communications.  Of whatever else the Word of God is, it is God’s self-communication. As He is Spirit He must reveal Himself.  This He has done by His Word.  Psalm 33:4 points the reader to the righteousness of God in the declarative Word.  The truth in it is the standard for understanding “His work.”

Psalm 19, as a statement of the responsibility and culpability of mankind to know God and glorify Him, gives a plain statement of the creation as the Handiwork of God.  It “declares”, “utters speech”, it has a “voice” and the “words to the end of the world.”  But with this clarity it is still only by the spoken or declarative will of God that His saving Grace is known.  His word is both in creation and to creation.  Verses 13-15 are a sure indicator of God’s personal concern.

The Word informs us of God’s omnipotence and of His will to communicate with His creation and it also directs us to the rationality of the creation.  The Scriptures are so replete with the orderliness of creation that it is difficult to point to any one statement, but Proverbs 8 is always there to assure us that creation cannot be separated from God’s Wisdom.

When we read in Romans 8:20 of the “futility” of creation it comes out of the purpose of God to punish man for his willful rebellion.  This futility is limited in scope and duration because God’s creation as the object of His Word has rationality created in it.  In the depth of the reaches of space, scientists studying the information returned from the Hubble telescope have found a mystery they cannot explain.  When all indications are that the universe should be on a schedule to implode, there is something that restrains this apparent coming destruction.  They do not understand it.  They do not know the origin of it.  They do not understand how it exerts its effect.  So they call it “dark energy.”

From Job 38 through 41, God questions Job with questions that at that time there were no answers to.  Many of those things that were not known are now common knowledge, but as God spoke to Job of His ordinance for the seas, “this far you may come, but no farther.”  There is “dark energy.”  And we do know what “dark energy” is.  It is God’s word, Psalm 33:9.