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It is charged against earnest Christians that they are unable to see the wonders of God in the world; that from holding so rigidly to the letter of the Scripture, the taste has been lost for the Divine displays in the firmament and in the glory of earthly nature. It may be true of some, but where this is so it is opposed to Holy Scripture and to Christ Himself. Nowhere shall we find any hymns in which the glories of God in nature are more tenderly and devoutly celebrated than they are in these Psalms. So, then, let us meditate —

I. ON THE WONDERS OF DIVINE GRACE IN THE HEIGHTS ABOVE. This Psalm is a night Psalm, called forth by the contemplation of the glory of the starry heavens. Wonderful is the scene which is opened to the eye when it looks from earth to heaven. Men need such a view. They would not then be quiet in having no certainty on earth concerning heavenly and eternal things. What wonders fill the heart when we look up into those distances of light. How flee, how calm, how regular they are as they float in wide space — how innumerable. And are they empty, and what is their destiny? But if I have no other theatre of His grace than that one so infinite I can call Him the Infinite, but the name of Father dies away on my lips. What is man when compared with immensity? The greatness of God crushes our hearts if we look only at the wonders in the heights above, and the expression of amazed and humble thanksgiving is also the language of doubt. "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" Let us, then, hasten on, that in the infinite we may see the Father, to consider —

II. THE WORKS OF GOD'S GRACE IN THE DEPTHS BELOW. They throw light upon His works of grace in the heights above. There are two kingdoms in which our Lord and God reigns upon earth:

1. The kingdom of nature. Now, would it not take away from His glory if His creative power had called forth so many worlds in the immensity above us, but His preserving and sustaining power could not keep pace with it? If the eye which guides the four thousand nebulae could not see the falling tear which is wept upon this little earth? But it is not so. The microscope, when the telescope was discovered to support human doubt, seems to have come into existence to meet that doubt. And by its means we find the infinitude of God in every flying straw and in the smallest grain. None can say where God is greater, in the great or in the little, in the immensity on earth or in the infinity in heaven. But if the flying straw and gnat display His wonderful works, what will He not have done in and for man? Man has a spirit which can think and soar and worship. But though it can soar to heaven, it brings down no certain news. I see the heavens full of stars, and man's heart of anticipations and forebodings. Yes, these are the only relics which man has rescued from the Fall. And no philosopher can still those longings and forebodings. But are they forever to remain unsatisfied? No, for see —

2. The kingdom of grace. Man, without Christ, might have expected that the Divine wonder-working power would show itself in and for his spirit more than in the flowers of the field. He needs it so much, but knows not the way of life. God, who feeds the ravens and gives food to the young eagles, was He not to have taken care to feed man's heart? Yes, for the Saviour came, God manifest in the flesh. And the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest," etc. So on the whole earth weary, heavy-laden men have ever since drunk of the water of life which quenches the thirst forever.

(J. Tholuck.)

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KJV: When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

WEB: When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained;