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"The heavens declare the glory of God": The limits of general revelation
Trinity Journal, Spring 2000 by Hoffmeier, James K
The relationship between general and special revelation has long been discussed in the history of the church. Romans 1 is the critical NT text which treats the former! At the same time, Ps 19:1-6 is considered the OT locus classicus for the subject of general revelation. This psalm, in my opinion, has not always been used with care by those who have adopted a more inclusivistic soteriology. Based upon exegetical work on 19:2, and an investigation of this psalm as a literary unit, I will suggest some implications regarding the paramount question: what can be known about God from general and special revelation, especially in matters of salvation?
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Beginning with Paul (Rom 10:18, which quotes Ps 19:4) to theologians of the present time, these verses stand at the center of most discussions about general revelation. Recently John Sanders, in his book, No Other Name, cites this passage, and Paul's usage of it, to argue for an inclusivist position, believing that salvation can ensue from general revelation? Interestingly, Sanders does not quote from or refer to any part of Ps 19:7-11, the focus of which is special revelation. In so doing, he is rather selectively appealing to the biblical evidence, and uses Ps 19:2-6 as a proof text that he evidently does not fully understand. On the other hand, Clark Pinnock comes to the same conclusion as Sanders in his book, A Wideness in God's Mercy,3 without any mention of Psalm 19. Pinnock avers,
Because of cosmic or general revelation, anyone can find God anywhere at anytime, because he has made himself and his revelation accessible to them.4
He accuses Karl Barth of being Christomonistic, saying, "Barth could only see God reaching out to people in and through Jesus. To maintain this position, of course, he had to ignore a good deal of scriptural material."5 On the latter point, one could say the same for Pinnock for completely overlooking Psalm 19 and Sanders, who ignores the latter half of the psalm.
Let us turn now to the psalm, which C. S. Lewis called "the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world."6 Most commentators recognize a three-fold division of this psalm:
I. The Glory of God as revealed in Creation (vv. 2-6)
111. The Perfect Law of Yahweh (vv. 7-11)
III. The Psalmist's prayer (vv. 12-15) 7
Meanwhile, some scholars see only a two-fold division of vv. 2-6 and vv. 7-15,8 but they believe that the "prayer" (vv. 12-15), which concludes the psalm, is thematically linked to the second part of the psalm.
Form critics classify the psalm as a "hymn to creation"'9 or a "wisdom hymn," with the first two parts being a "hymn" and "wisdom poetry" respectively. 10 Based on differences in style, metre, and language, the two parts are widely believed to have originally been two separate poems." Because of the similarity in the imagery of the sun in part one and that of other Near Eastern solar hymns, a Canaanite original has been suggested as the source behind this pericope.12 Despite this possibility, the psalm is regarded as having both thematic and liturgical unity,13 and thus constitutes a coherent unit.14 Bearing this unity in mind, one must look at the psalm as a whole to appreciate the relationship between the two sections before drawing theological conclusions about the role of general revelation in theology.
First, one must have a proper understanding of the poetic structure of the opening sentence of the psalm before interpreting it.
The A B C C' B' A' pattern in the Hebrew alerts the reader to the close relationship between the two statements, and that "the glory of God" and its counterpart "the works of his hands," are the focal point of the verse. In light of this structural observation, two important exegetical issues need to be explored. First, why is the term El, not Elohim or the divine name, YHWH, used here? Second, what is the "the glory of God" (k^sup e^bod 'el) and what does it tell us about general revelation?
The use of El, rather than the fuller form Elohim for God, has contributed to the argument that this is a Canaanite hymn to El, the creator god of the Ugaritic pantheon.16 Even if this is the case, the psalmist certainly understands El to be equated with El-Shadday or YHWH. However, El is used with such frequency in the Psalms (e.g., 5:4; 7:6, 11; 10:11-12; 161; 17:6; 18:2, 30, 32, 47; 22:1) that one can hardly conclude that each occurrence of the shortened form, El, means that a Canaanite original lies behind the hymn. Clearly, the terms El and Elohim are used interchangeably in the OT, especially in poetic literature like the Psalms.17
The word "glory," kmb6d, has a wide range of meanings. It appears to derive from the word for liver, kabed, which is a dense and heavy organ-hence the meaning "heavy.""8 Just as in English, the idea of "weighty" leads to the concept of importance, respect, and glory.19 Bound up in this word is the idea of something which "catches the eye" and impresses the viewer.20 Gerhard Von Rad puts it this way:kabod is "that asset which makes peoples or individuals, and even objects, impressive, and usually this is understood as something that can be perceived or expressed."21 Consequently Isaiah can speak of the glory of Jacob (Isa 17:4) and Kedar (21:16), when referring to a people.
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