First Sunday in Lent (4)
Psalm 19
The heavens declare
the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his
hands.
Day after day they
pour forth speech;
night after night they display
knowledge.
There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out
into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the
world.
Humans may be divided by language, culture and race, but, says the Psalmist, they are united in their experience of the heavens above us all. There is no language group across the world that does not hear and is not awed by the language of the cosmos. In this connection, Evening Prayer for today offers us a passage that is excitingly relevant to an event of exactly one week ago, an event which, like the heavens above, could be experienced by all humans everywhere. Thanks to the global reach of the internet, people everywhere could witness and join in the excitement of the landing of another human-made robot on the dusty ground of another world. Seizing the opportunity to listen to the voice of Mars were spacecraft this time from three different language groups: Arabic, Chinese and English. Whether seeking for water or for traces of microbial life, these missions face daunting challenges, but one thing is the same on Mars as on earth. As the Psalmist goes on:
which is like a bridegroom coming
forth from his pavilion,
like a champion rejoicing to run his
course.
It rises at one end of
the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is hidden from its heat.
The lonely robot can witness, on every sol, the rising of the same sun, it can be energised by its light and be warmed by it in the way that Albertans can still feel the sun’s radiant energy even on a blisteringly cold but clear day in winter. And as David could lie on his back next to his sheep at night, marvelling at the starry host and the knowledge that they display night after night, the lonely robot can also peer through the dusty but dry air to take in that glory, its cameras sending back pictures of the same constellations that David would have known about.
But God, as the Psalmist goes on, speaks to us in another language besides that of the starry hosts that do his bidding in the immeasurable spaces above us.
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the
Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the
Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the
Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
A different sun,
different words, a different kind of light. If only humans could come together
to study the words of God with the same dedication as they study the language
of his Creation. Especially as humans today know what David could not yet know:
that visiting another world is something that the Creator did first, and not
just as Creator but above all as Saviour.