Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars; He calls them all by name. Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; his understanding is infinite.
Psalm 147:1-5
Do you know how many stars in the sky? There are an infininate number of stars that even astronomers cannot even put a number to. They can say with confidence that there are more stars than can be numbered (a minimum of billions-most likely trillions). Now those are fun words to say (billions and trillions), but do we realy understad the magnitude of them? If you were to count a million one dollar bills, how long would it take you? Let’s assume you can count 1 bill in 1 second and you did this 8 hours a day for 5 days (like a typical work week). It would take you nearly 7 WEEKS to complete the counting! And it would take over 133 YEARS to count a billion dollars. (Can you imagine having that for a job? Ugh…)
I love the reason why God created the stars. in Genesis 1:17-18 it says “God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.” I love the fact that his purpose in doing this was to “separate the light from the darkness.” I also love the bigness of our God. The way that He knows all the stars by name, how well does He know me and my situations I am in? He knows me more so than I do. I rest knowing that He knows the bigger picture. I may never understand my life or why things may happen, but I do know that God knows and hears my deepest cries for help.
In regards to last week’s ministry, I have to remind myself that God was there for those children far before I got there. His heart breaks even more so than mine does for them. I have to trust that they will remain safe, find freedom and live as a child of God. Psalm 147:1-5 brings comfort to me. He is the God who cares enough to heal the brokenhearted, knows the stars by name (and can count them!-Isaiah 40:26), and has an infinite understanding. He knows. That is all I need to know, He knows. He knows my pain, their cries for rescue, your deepest sorrows. Cry out to Him. He is not a God of shame or guilt, instead He is a caring God. Run to Him for He knows.
