More Personification -- The Universe is Saying Something

Is the universe silent? Does it hold its tongue, keeping the secret of its existence locked up forever? Does it torment us with its eternal empty stare, or does it laugh at us when we shout back, longing for answers when none are given?

A quote from one of my favorite Psalms:

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.

(Psalm 19:1-4)

Here is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful personifications in all of the Bible. It's not unlike the quote from my last post (Job 38) where the starry host is depicted as singing for joy at the creation of the world.

In this Psalm, the heavens are certainly not silent. They are communicating something, and they are communicating in such a way, says the Psalmist, that everyone on the earth can clearly understand what they are saying. It doesn't matter what language we speak, we can hear what the universe is telling us. This communication is persistent -- it is "day to day" and "night after night". The universe is relentlessly telling us something.

What is it telling us?

Simple. It's telling us that whoever made it is really, really cool. It's proclaiming His glory. It's shouting out, with every breath, the amazing nature of God.

Like C.S. Lewis discovered when he read "Phantastes", the universe is alive, and it is not silent.

Paul certainly thought so. In Romans he mentions this at least twice. In chapter 1, he says that the godless are "without excuse" because they "suppress the truth ... since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them."

In Romans 10, he quotes the Psalm above:

But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did: "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."

(Romans 10:18)

In this passage, Paul argues from Psalm 19, that all the world has heard the message of the universe. There is no one that has failed to hear the witness of the universe.

Another of the most beautiful personifications in the Bible is spoken by Jesus, in Luke 19. In this passage, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, riding a donkey, as the crowds begin to gather around him and worship him.

As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, "Teacher, rebuke your disciples!"

"I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

(Luke 19:36-40)

This is very powerful imagery, and somehow it resonates with me deeply. As I read it, I can imagine all of the universe just quivering with excitement that God's plan of redemption is unfolding as Jesus rides to Jerusalem. What God asks of the stones seems too much -- he asks them to hold their peace, to refrain from shouting out in their exuberant joy. It seems an impossible task, because the stones, along with the rest of creation, are panting for redemption. If the people don't praise Jesus, they won't be able to take it anymore. They must cry out -- someone has to! It is too precious a thing to be taken for granted. It must be known and proclaimed.

The scientist among us scowls at these remarks. "That's just poetic language. It's not really true," he says. Ah, but Jesus is speaking about a truth that is deeper than science. This truth is beyond literal fact; it is soul-truth.

In Romans 8, Paul crystallizes this idea, and takes it a few steps further:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

(Romans 8:18-23)

Here, the personification works in the reverse. Modern readers might prefer the passage to read the other way around: "We wait eagerly for our redemption, and the universe also waits for its redemption." If we were simply projecting our experience onto the world around us, we should expect the passage to read that way. But, no, the passage is reversed: "The universe has been waiting for its redemption, and so are we."

I don't think this ordering is an accident. Paul's personification is more than a literary device; it's a truth in its own right. The universe was waiting for its redemption long before we started waiting for ours. This is no projection of our experience onto the universe. Rather, it is we who relate to the universe's experience!

The universe is really longing; the stones really want to shout their joy; and the heavens are really declaring the glory of God. This is Biblical personification, and I think it's hitting on something more real and more true than anything the language of literalism can describe.