They continue this day according to thine ordinances:
For all are thy servants (Psa 119.91).
Everyone observes the natural world with religious and philosophical presuppositions, whether conscious of them or not. The prevalent notion that modern scientists are wholly objective in the analyses of their observations, and that therefore their conclusions are infallible, is, of course, a myth. This helps account for how that in many areas of scientific inquiry fashionable explanations come and go. It is not that the reality of the created order is changing, but man’s knowledge of it is growing, and his interpretation of it is as error-prone as fallen humanity itself, and also as capable of reformation and progress.
While Scripture is not a science textbook, neither does it oppose the thoughtful investigation of all that is outside of God—indeed, it praises the same. God himself brought all the animals before Adam for naming according to their kinds (Gen 2.19-20). This is the earliest example of classification, a basic step in the development of scientific reflection. Still renowned for wisdom, Solomon spoke of trees, beasts, fowl, creeping things, and fishes in such a manner that people came from the ends of the earth to hear him (1 Kgs 4.33-34).
Scripture advocates a theological cosmology, an understanding of the origin and development of the universe that rests upon God’s revelation of himself and his works, especially his scriptural revelation. Foundational to this perspective are the biblical doctrines of creation and providence. The universe has not been eternally pre-existent. It came into being out of nothing by God’s fiat. He shaped it into an orderly cosmos which he pronounced to be “very good” (Gen 1.31). From then on, it exists in its actual state and activity because God preserves and governs it, down to its smallest particle and bundle of energy. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (#9, 11) is right to say,
The work of creation is, God’ s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good. . . . God’ s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving, and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.
The so-called “natural laws,” those supposedly fixed by “nature,” are actually the constant operations of God’s sovereign power causing things to exist and behave as they do. This realization does not destroy the pursuit of true science, but rather promotes it, as it credits the one true and living God with making and preserving all things according to his wisdom which includes “second causes,”
Although in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; so that there is not anything befalls any by chance, or without his providence; yet by the same providence he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently.1
All this has the most profound implications for our spiritual welfare. Our psalm text relates it to the faithfulness of God himself and the dependability of his Word.
CREATION’S CONSTANCY
As Puritan Thomas Manton observed, “The prophet is proving the immutability (changelessness) of God’s promises from the conservation and continuance of the whole course of nature” (in loc.). “They” surely has reference to the heavens and the earth (vv. 89-90), as the context requires.2 The Hebrew Scriptures regularly use the two together as a convenient designation for all created things, that is, everything outside of God himself. The verb means to stand (e.g., like pillars), remain, endure.3
As the psalmist beheld the massive glory of the heavens and the earth, and the regularity of its systemic operation in the heavenly bodies and cycles of earthly patterns and life, he did not attribute these to any inherent powers in them (ascribing self-sufficient deity to them, “Deism,” the clock-universe), nor divide up the responsibility and management for various elements to pagan deities (sun god, moon god, sea god, fertility god, etc.—the chronic idolatrous tendency of Gentiles), but rather of all to Yahweh alone, the great God of Israel.
Their continuance and constancy are “according to thine ordinances,” the rules established from the beginning that determined their properties and interactions—from atomic forces, gravity, wave propagation, and magnetism to the currents of wind and waves. As long as God wills these phenomena, they continue.
CREATION’S GOD
The second line forcefully redirects our attention from creation to creation’s God. “For all are thy servants.” This is a beautiful, poetic personification even of inanimate things. Throughout heavens and the earth, in all times and places, from the remotest galaxy to the space beneath your fingernails, God rules. God commands dirt to turn to mud when it gets wet, and it does. Tigers stalk and devour their prey because it is their God-given nature to do so. Only man and fallen angels dare to rebel, but even these are unwittingly carrying out the divine decree and furthering the accomplishment of the eternal plan.
This verse features a rare figurative use of the word “ordinances,” which more typically means God’s written commandments for man (cf. vv. 7, 13, 20, 30, 43, 106, etc), or the just response of God to man’s sin (vv. 84, 120; cf. Deut 32.41). This usage accords more with the ideas expressed in Psalm 148:
3 Praise ye [the LORD], sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. 4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. 6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree [i.e., ordinance] which shall not pass.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: 8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: 9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl.
At the end of two chapters in a classic book reviewing God’s sovereignty in his creation and administration of it all, A. W. Pink triumphantly wrote,
The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. His government is exercised over inanimate matter, over the brute beasts, over the children of men, over angels good and evil, and over Satan himself. No revolving world, no shining of star, no storm, no creature moves, no actions of men, no errands of angels, no deeds of Devil—nothing in all the vast universe can come to pass otherwise than God has eternally purposed. Here is a foundation for faith. Here is a resting place for the intellect. Here is an anchor for the soul, both sure and steadfast. It is not blind fate, unbridled evil, man or Devil, but the Lord Almighty who is ruling the world, ruling it according to his own good pleasure and for his own eternal glory.4
Because these religious truths are not just ideas but the metaphysical reality of how things really are, they provide a stable philosophical foundation and catalyst for scientific advances. Many of the greatest minds in the Western world presupposed these very same things as they made great discoveries and proposed highly complex mathematical formulas that remain valid and relevant to this day. See the religious commitments rooted in a biblical worldview of men like Newton, Pasteur, Galileo, Kepler, Faraday, and Maxwell (all in the top twelve), not to mention many others who made it to the list of “The Scientific 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Scientists, Past and Present.”5
Even more importantly, this theological cosmology bolster’s the Christian’s faith that God can be trusted to keep his Word, that his gospel of grace through Jesus Christ our Lord is not a cunningly devised fable but truly good news for sinners, and that obedience to his revealed will is the path of joyous and eternal blessing.
Look above and behold the mighty sun, radiating its light and warmth. Take time on a clear evening for gazing upon the tranquil moon, in its monthly phase, and the fixed pattern of the stars behind it. Remember God’s promise to us after Noah’s flood, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Gen 8.22). Creation possesses constancy because of creation’s constant God. Nothing is more certain than him and his Word. They are but fools who are professing themselves wise while rejecting his verbal revelation, even if the world regards them as leading scientists (Psa 14.1; Rom 1.22). Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day and night. He alone shall prove at last to be like the fruitful tree planted by the river (Psa 1.1-3).
The Lord give us grace to embrace the truths of his absolute sovereignty over all creation and his absolute fidelity to his Word. Amen.
Notes:
1. 1689 LBCF V.1; WCF is the same here.
2. The NIV errs here in its tendency to paraphrase and misinterpret by rendering, “Your laws endure to this day,” even though the Hebrew can be rendered strictly, “According to Thine ordinances They have stood this day, for the whole are thy servants” (YLT). There is no corresponding Hebrew word for law in verse 91.
3. TWOT #1637.
4. The Sovereignty of God, end of chapter 3.
5. http://www.adherents.com/people/100_scientists.html
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