Seeing the Splendour of God in the Sky: A Reflection on Psalm 148
This brief reflection on Psalm 148 was written while on board a ship travelling through the arctic waters off Norway last September.
Psalm 148 (NIV)
1 Praise the Lord.
It feels like praising God is all I can do as I stand on the upper deck of the ship watching the northern lights dancing across the sky. The stunning beauty of the lights as they glow, their pearly luminescence a stark contrast to the darkness of the sky. Some of them have a green tinge, though not as green as the colour my camera shows as I take photo after photo on night mode.
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon;
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavens
and you waters above the skies.
The northern lights can't be seen all year round; it's only as the days begin to shorten and nighttime darkness stretches longer that they are visible to our eyes. In the arctic, where I'm travelling, there is the midnight sun in summer and in the wintertime there are polar nights – a long winter night that lasts for weeks, where the sun never rises above the horizon. It's in this darkness that the northern lights can be seen, and as I watch them, I am amazed at the grace of God, who has added this extra set of lights in the sky for those times when there is less or no sunshine.
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for at his command they were created,
6 and he established them for ever and ever—
he issued a decree that will never pass away.
When the northern lights are brightest they look like pathways through the sky. Sometimes they appear as giant luminescent tubes that bend across the whole sky, always moving. My photos capture only a single moment in time, they can't show the change and movement of these incredible auroras. It's easy to see how they could be the inspiration for sci-fi travel, but these extraordinary lights are not the imaginations of a sci-fi writer, they are the works of our creator God who gives us the sun to light the sky during the day and the moon and stars as lights at nighttime (Genesis 1:14-19). And in the long dark nights of the arctic winter God gives the aurora borealis, the northern lights, to light up the sky. Yet, as well as creating them as lights, he also gave them startling beauty and grace for our pleasure.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,
stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle,
small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations,
you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and women,
old men and children.
As the heavens shout praise to God they also inspire our prayers of praise. Praise the Lord who made the heavens and the earth, light and dark, mountains, fjords and islands. Praise the Lord who gives us the sun, the moon, the stars and the aurora's – lights to light our path and show us our way and that demonstrate the awesome nature of God.
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,
the praise of all his faithful servants,
of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the Lord.
God bless,
Selina Fyfe.
