Life, the Universe, and Everything in It

January 12, 2010

One of my favourite passages is in Psalm 8. Maybe it’s because science and technology are an area of interest for me—I cannot help but marvel when I read what David penned:

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?

Psalm 8:1-4 (NIV)

I’m sure the stars seemed brighter in David’s day. At least they would have been easier to see (with the naked eye) than today living in a brightly-lit city. Of course David’s “consideration” of the heavens, moon and stars would have been different from ours. David didn’t have access to all the space telescopes we have today. For me this only solidifies that David’s words were divinely-inspired.

I happened to come across an interesting article on Popular Science’s web site. In it they share a video that was created for an exhibit at the Rubin Art Museum. The video simulates, to scale, the journey light takes as it travels from Earth through space. All the way to the edge of the known universe (then the video reverses). I generally take things from Popular Science with a grain of salt, given their prejudicial favour against Creation, but this video simulation really helps put into perspective just how small we truly are in light (pun intended) of all that God has created. It lends credence to David’s closing words in Psalm 8:

Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8:9 (NIV)

Click the link to watch the video.

youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U

After watching this I was reminded of a message I shared a few years back, Beyond Wonder. At the time our church was doing a series on how wondrous God is. (Regrettably the media files for this message are no longer available.)