How Can the Heavens Declare God’s Righteousness?

What does Scripture mean when it says that “the heavens declare the glory of God”? Today, W. Robert Godfrey reflects on this phrase from the Psalms and considers how creation testifies to God’s glory and righteousness.

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: We’re recording live from Ligonier’s 2025 National Conference, and we’re joined by the Chairman of Ligonier Ministries, Dr. W Robert Godfrey. Dr. Godfrey, what does it mean that the heavens declare the glory of God? And how can the heavens declare God’s righteousness, according to Psalm 50:6?

DR. W. ROBERT GODFREY: Well, I think on the first point that the heavens declare the glory of God, that’s relatively simple and straightforward, I think. The heavens in their orderliness, as well as in their beauty, reflect something of the orderliness of God as Creator and the beauty of the creation that He established. And Paul makes the point, following on the Psalter, that this leaves a man without excuse. You can look at the world, and you can see there must be a Maker. Aristotle, the pagan philosopher, said, “Out of nothing, nothing comes.” And somehow modern philosophers want to say, “No, no, no, out of nothing, something has come.” And Aristotle was right on that one point, that out of nothing comes, and therefore there must have been someone to get creation going. And so, the creation points to the Creator and to His glory, to His power, to His accomplishment.

I always remember, since I’m a child of the sixties—not in the sense that I was born in the sixties, but I was growing up in the sixties—and so, one of my great favorites as a singer was Joan Baez. And Joan Baez talked about a man who had written a song that she loved. And in the song, a folk song, was the line: For life is short,

Be not too hard for life is short And nothing is given to man.

And at a concert, Joan Baez said, “I was sitting with the lyricist of that song and watching a beautiful sunset.” And she said to him, “How can you say nothing is given to man when you look at that sunset?” And he thought a minute and he said, “Alright, something is given, but it’s only temporarily loaned.” Well, the sunset had accomplished its purpose. It had declared the glory of God. It had testified that this is something given to us.

And so, that’s the easy part of the question. The somewhat more difficult part of the question may be, How do the heavens declare His righteousness? Glory is one thing, righteousness is another. And this is in a psalm where God is coming to His people and complaining about their failure to keep His covenant. And it is interesting in that verse 6 of Psalm 50:

The heavens declare his righteousness,
for God himself is judge!

And I think perhaps what’s in the mind of the psalmist here is that the orderliness of the change that we see in the heavens—whether night and day, or the movement of the stars, or the phases of the moon—all talk about God as a God of order. And that relates then to the notion of His being a judge, of being a determiner of progress, and that that points to His righteousness. It’s not just His power, but it’s also His ordering principle. And the ordering principle, I think the thought is, of ordering the heavens then means He is also an orderer of human life and the Judge of human life. And we ought to recognize that, and the heavens help us see that.

So, it’s a very interesting statement. And of course, the Psalms are poetry. They’re not meant to be the very strictest kind of logic, but I think it does point us to the fact that we see that the Designer of the universe has a moral dimension to His design, and we should be led to recognize that and fear that.