Majesty
Instantly recognizable as part of “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh, this image is actually a still photo capturing one glimpse of the 360-degree video interpretation “Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience,” St. Louis, MO, December 2021.
Sermon Series “Through the Bible,” № 32, Psalm 8
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. —Psalm 8:1
A few weeks ago, NASA completed a mission that had been in progress for a long time. Nearly ten months after launch, the D.A.R.T. spacecraft crashed into an asteroid named Dimorphos. D.A.R.T. is an acronym that stands for “Double Asteroid Redirection Test.” Scientists are studying the impact this spacecraft had on the trajectory of Dimorphos,[1] more than they believed was possible.
The motivation behind this mission is related to growing awareness that there are many comets and asteroids with orbits that bring them relatively close to Earth. One day, NASA hopes, humans may be able to target an approaching threat soon enough that we can avoid a great disaster that would otherwise take place. At a great distance from Earth, the little nudge of an exploding spacecraft might be all that is required. NASA has found at least 26,000 asteroids that pass near earth, and tracks more than 2,000 that it considers potentially dangerous.[2] These scientists are among a group of people in our world who look up into the sky, and view the heavens with fear, a fear that has inspired several Hollywood movies about the end of the earth.
How different is the vision of the songwriter who gave us the 8th psalm. The psalmist’s scientific knowledge is primitive. Still we can appreciate his poetry. He represents another group of people in our world who look up into the sky, and view the heavens with awe, and find inspiration and hope. You might say the psalm writer sees a story told by the stars in the sky, moving through twists and turns toward a happy ending. What makes the difference in the way we interpret the story in the sky?
For a partial answer, it seems natural to turn to the writing of another astronomer, Dr. Allan Sandage. Sandage died a decade ago, but still is an inspiration to younger generations of astronomers and physicists. Sandage spent a professional lifetime looking for the secrets of the stars, peering through telescopes in many parts of the world looking for the origins and destiny of the universe. His observations of distant galaxies showed how fast the universe we can see is expanding, and therefore allowed a guess at how old it is, calculated to be roughly 15 billion years.
At age 57, Sandage announced he had become a Christian. In an essay, he shared thoughts about his journey from contemplation of the universe to belief in God. He offered fascinating observations and engaging questions.
Science, he said, “is concerned with the what, when, and how. It does not, and indeed cannot, answer within its method (powerful as that method is), why. Why is there something instead of nothing? Why do all electrons have the same charge and mass? Why is the design that we see everywhere so truly miraculous? Why are so many processes so deeply interconnected? …. The world is too complicated in all its parts and interconnections to be due to chance alone. I am convinced that the existence of life with all its order in each of its organisms is simply too well put together. Each part of a living thing depends on all its other parts to function. How does each part know? How is each part specified at conception? The more one learns of biochemistry the more unbelievable it becomes unless there is some type of organizing principle - an architect ….”[3]
Scientists, by observing the expansion of the universe, may have arrived at a better understanding of creation (in the “Big Bang”). “But,” he wrote, “knowledge of the creation is not knowledge of the creator, nor do any astronomical findings tell us why the event occurred. It is truly supernatural (i.e. outside our understanding of the natural order of things), and by this definition a miracle. … The nature of God is not to be found within any part of these findings of science. For that, one must turn to the scriptures, if indeed an answer is to be had within our finite human understanding.”[4]
When we contemplate the universe, we can view it not only through the lens of science, but also through the brushstrokes of art. I’m thinking in particular of the wonderful traveling “Van Gogh Exhibition: The Immersive Experience.” We spent a couple hours in the exhibit when it visited St. Louis last year. We stood – and sometimes sat – in the midst of images from the artist Vincent Van Gogh that were set in motion on the walls, ceilings, and even floor surfaces, all around.
The experience renewed my appreciation for some of Van Gogh’s most famous works, including the painting “Starry Night.” Some say it symbolizes his deteriorating mental condition, and foreshadows his suicide. But, like the sky and stars themselves, it’s possible to look at the painting, and see a different and more hopeful narrative.
A young woman named Briggit writes, “Starry night is like a dream. To me it means ‘dreams and hope’ … the darkness on it, the blue shades the grey, dark greens, life can be blue and dark sometimes, but then you look up and you see the stars.”
“When I think about starry night, I think about the beauty in life, I can see it, Van Gogh was struggling with a lot of darkness in his life but you see … yellow stars, the lights on inside the houses in the little village, beautiful, bright, right there screaming out of the painting, that’s hope to me, hope that doesn’t matter how dark, grey, black and blue life seems sometimes there’s always yellow in your painting, there always will be light at the end. Life itself is a starry night.”[5] A preacher couldn’t say it any better.
Three-thousand years ago, the shepherd king David enjoyed quiet evenings on the balcony of the palace. The dry air of the desert city provided perfect conditions for viewing the stars in the sky. One night the mystery of the Holy touched the king in a profound way. It inspired the poetry that became a psalm: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?”
As we survey the sky on a starry night, and contemplate the grandeur of space and time, it is only natural to ask questions of meaning and purpose. Where do we come from? Where are we going? Some of the most brilliant people among us have asked these questions, and heard an answer from above. May our search lead us, like them, to deeper trust in the One who created us, and has a purpose for us.
O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
NOTES
[1] Kenneth Chang, “NASA Smashes Into an Asteroid, Completing a Mission to Save a Future Day,” The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/science/dart-nasa-asteroid-dimorphos-contact.html? accessed 28 Sept. 2022.
[2] Katherina Buchholz, “This is how many asteroids fly past earth... And how many could be dangerous,” website of the World Economic Forum, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/asteroids-earth-space-danger-commets-nasa/ 1 July 2021, accessed 28 Sept. 2022.
[3] Allan Sandage, “A Scientist Reflects on Religious Belief,” http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth15.html accessed 28 Sept. 2022.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Briggit Parilli, “What Does Starry Night Mean To You,” website of the Van Gogh Studio, https://www.vangoghstudio.com/what-does-starry-night-mean-to-briggit-parilli/ accessed 28 Sept. 2022.
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