"People! People! Surely the Lord lives!"

I really like what I'm preparing to write about. It's painted on my bathroom door. And a really great downhere song called "Starspin" is based on it. The girls in my small group got to hear this during camp this summer. And I like it so much that I'm going to put it on my blog for all those in Internetland to read. And since I can sit here and think about what I'm saying and edit as I go, you might get the more complete version.

My favorite Psalm is the 19th one. Particularly the first four verses. Well, almost four verses. I tend to cut the fourth in half and not really talk about the rest of it. Not that it's not good. But it starts a new idea. Those first three and half verses in the NIV go like this:

"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."

Without even thinking about what that may mean, I'd like this passage simply because of how beautiful it sounds. The word "majestic" comes to mind whenever I read it. But as beautiful as it sounds, the message I have found in it is even better.

What does the word "language" make you think of? I know what it makes me think of. Words. Whether they be words I can understand or not, doesn't matter, I just think of words. Because I am a word nerd. And I am studying English in a university. As well as trying to learn German. So words are my life. What words mean, where they came from, how they are spelled, in what context they are best used; all of those things I consider on a regular basis.

But language transcends words. At the root of language is communication. The use of words is simply one way we humans communicate. But there is a plethora of other methods of communication out there in the world.

The heavens, nature, all of creation, has a language. They don't speak or write words, but they communicate. The first time I really thought about that, I was in awe. That's a big concept for my limited mind. I'm still kinda blown away by it.

And what is it that creation is communicating? The glory of God. Day after day, night after night. They tell of nothing else. All the time. Never stopping. Wow.

I feel compelled to stop for a brief word lesson. "Glory" is a word that is used a lot, particularly in the realm of the Church, that I feel that a lot of people don't really understand. I know I didn't understand it for a long time. So I looked it up in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary and this is what I found: glory - 1. a reason for pride; 2. great beauty; 3. fame.

So when "the heavens declare the glory of God," they are showing all the reasons God has to be proud, how beautiful he is, and making him famous. Wow.

This got me to thinking about my own languages. What am I communicating? Most of the time...nothing important. I'm tweeting about something weird my hair is doing, or talking to my friends for an hour about a video we saw on YouTube. Or maybe even something obviously destructive. Like gossiping about someone. Or being disrespectful. Or rude. Or not caring for someone right in front of me. Just walking by when a friend is obviously in distress. Everything I say, everything I do, communicates something. And I want to be communicating the right thing.

Can you imagine, if we all told of the glory of God just half as much as the rest of creation does, what a difference that would make? How different we would be? Our outlooks on everything would change dramatically.

David, when he wrote this particular Psalm, had the same idea. After going through and enumerating all these things that glorify God - the heavens, the law, fear of the Lord - the last verse, verse 14, says this: "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Amen.