(Psalm 19:1)

With the reappearance of Halley's Comet many of us have taken fresh interest in the heavens at night. How good if the viewing of the stars turns our thoughts and hearts to God as it did David's. Many a night, as he was watching his sheep, he undoubtedly spent hours watching the stars and listening to the message they tell. "Message they tell?!" you ask. Yes, for as he wrote in Psalm 19:2,3, he says, "Day unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." What did he mean? Let me try to tell.

David knew first of all that God had created the stars from Genesis 1:16, where we read, "He made the stars also." He also knew as he noticed the various stars appearing in the same place in relation to one another that it was God who set them where they are and kept them there. By the Holy Spirit's inspiration he wrote in Psalm 8:3, "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained (or, set in order in their specific place)." He was amazed at the magnitude of this mighty power of God in contrast to man's littleness and exclaimed, (vs. 4), "What is man that Thou art mindful of him?"

Then, too, David knew that God gave names to the stars which He alone could number. In Psalm 147:4 we read, "He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names." From the earliest of times, as indicated in the book of Job, God had revealed those names and their meanings, and also the various constellations. In Job 38:31,32, God speaking to Job said, "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth (the 12 signs of the Zodiac) in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?" (Arcturus means, "He comes.") It is striking to know that not only "the Hebrews knew the meaning, but also the Aztecs, the Babylonians, the Norsemen, the Egyptians, and the Chinese all recognize the same constellations (with essentially the same meanings) and the same names of the stars (also with the same meanings)"! This was God's way of declaring His glory in the heavens to man before there was any written revelation as we have in the Scriptures. The meanings of the names of the stars (also with the same meanings)"! This was God's way of declaring His glory in the heavens to man before there was any written revelation as we have in the Scriptures. The meanings of the names of the stars and the 12 signs of the Zodiac set forth God's Son—His Glory—as the coming Deliverer of sinful man from the bondage of the serpent—Satan.

In Genesis 1:14 we read of God's purpose in placing and naming the stars. They were to be for "signs and for seasons." The signs indicate prophetic events, and the seasons were to indicate the times pertaining to the signs. Thus the great prophetic events in the eternal plan of God were unfolded. These events had to do with the great drama of redemption which was to be presented on the stage of planet Earth by God Himself.

"By means of these star-signs, man was to be continually reminded that what God promised in the hearing of our first parents was certainly going to come to pass. The coming "Seed of the woman" was ultimately to triumph over the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The havoc brought about by the introduction of sin into the world was to be reversed and man was to be delivered from his bondage by the promised Redeemer. When He came He would bring about reconciliation between man and God, though the Redeemer Himself was to be wounded in its process. This is the heart of the story that is written among the stars, incredible as it may seem."

This is not astrology. Astrology with its horoscopes is the result of Satan's perversion of the truth of God, and man of God's glory in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

By the testimony of God in creation, as seen in Psalm 19:1-6 and His testimony in His infallible Word the Bible (Psalm 19:7-14) still stands, and forever will, as Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My Word shall not pass away" (Matt. 24:35). It is worthy of note to see in Romans 10 that the apostle Paul in presenting the Gospel links the Word and creation together as God's testimony to man. In verse 17, he says, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." And in verse 18, "But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world," referring to Psalm 19:3,4.

I owe much of these notes and quotations made in them to a book entitled, "God's Voice in the Stars," by Kenneth C. Fleming. I heartily recommend it to our readers interested in the subject. It is a book of 143 pages with illustrations, and a chart of the heavens (now out of print).