April 19
Paths In The Sea?
Ps 8:8 …the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the paths of the seas..
Ge 1:1 ¶ In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth.
Scientists now know that the earth was created by a big
bang. They also know by study of meteorites that the material in them is the
same age as the earth. But they do not know what caused the “big bang”.
Ge 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the
ground,…
Wonderful old Matthew Henry
summarized this verse in his 6 volume commentary. He said “And God created man
from the dust of the earth….The workmanship exceeded the material.” But modern science also knows that is not
true. A puddle of water had some dissolved minerals in it, then a lightning
bolt, or cosmic ray or something caused those chemicals in the water to take on
life.
It took a few Gagillion years but the result is
a myriad of animals, plants, bugs, birds, and man. The diversity that evolved
is nearly unimaginable. From that puddle of water eventually came trees and fleas, rice and mice, whales and snails, dogs
and frogs, slugs and bugs, gnats and cats, etc. Evolution is true and the Bible
is false. That is what they want you to believe. Even if scientists have not been
able to duplicate the creation of life from dead minerals, they are convinced
that God is a liar and they have the truth.
The same is true of our verse today. The
psalmist mentions “paths of the sea”. What are paths of the sea and why would
they be included in a psalm that is exalting our God? The phrase seems at worst
meaningless and at best a poetical expression.
Great Bible scholars like Matthew Henry are
silent on this phrase. They could make no sense of it and therefore did not
comment on it.
Some history may shed light on it. In the
1700’s when England ruled the seas there was a nautical mystery. It took weeks
longer to sail to New York than it did to Newport Rhode Island. Some leading
thinkers in England correctly guessed that the sea must have some kind of
current that flows from America toward Europe and the ships headed to New York
had to fight against the current.
Benjamin Franklin helped that study in 1769
by dragging a thermometer behind the ship he was on. He noticed there was a
place where water temperature was higher.
He published a map of the gulf stream in England in 1770, which the
British ignored for years.
If you had asked the British about our verse
they would have scratched their heads and perhaps made a wild guess at its
meaning. But today, with our knowledge of the gulf stream as well as numerous
other ocean currents the verse makes perfect sense. The inspired author of the
psalms wrote “…paths in the sea..” because God knew about them. Perhaps you may
think that an ocean current is not a path. But the Gulf Stream is usually about
60 miles wide and about 3000 feet deep. Almost like a huge river.
So what is the point? Only that the Word of God
is sure and accurate, even when it mentions things we do not understand.
Ps 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words:
as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven
times.
Just because you do not understand a passage, or
are unlearned about some reference the Bible mentions does not mean the Bible
is wrong. It means you do not have sufficient knowledge to understand it.
Scientist take what they know and use it to judge
the Bible as false. That silliness has been going on for centuries. The
Catholic church locked up Galileo for saying the earth rotated around the sun.
Dr.’s in Vienna nearly revolted when it was suggested that they wash their
hands between every patient, even though Leviticus describes how to stop the
spread of germs.
Le 15:13 And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of
his issue; then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and
wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean.
The lesson for today is to know that the Bible is
accurate. But while it is not a science textbook, what it does say is accurate.
There are many scriptures which mention scientific phenomena that were unknown
or not understood when they were written, such as the paths of the sea. I
believe they were written for our encouragement that the Bible is accurate,
truthful and can be depended on. What a delight to stand looking into the
heavens on a clear night and see the handiwork of God. Or walking through a
garden and marveling that the Creator could encode all the instructions for
tiny seeds to grow into flowers, vegetables, trees, or grass. Let us conclude
with the same psalm we started with.
Ps 8:3 ¶ When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
Please remember that pure science is limited. If a
scientist finds a fossil in Nebraska he can record it’s weight, size, exact
location, temperature, and perhaps identify the creature it came from. But he
cannot tell how it got there, why it is there or even that it is where the
creature died. If the scientists comments on anything he cannot measure with
certainty he has moved from science to speculation based on his personal
philosophy.
Ps 8:9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent
is thy name in all
the earth!
What a fantastic privilege we have to be able to freely
read the Word of God. It is a sure buckler for our souls, the Sword of the
Spirit and a light for our paths. May we not allow those who do not believe it
to confuse us with their philosophy.
Ps 119:89 For ever, O LORD,
thy word is settled in
heaven.
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