Ten Thousand Times a Thousand Still

Photo credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Ten thousand times a thousand still-

The might of suns reduced to sand-

Thus so the vaunted sons of earth

Are brought to naught at His command.

-- K. Hartnett, December 2001

He brings princes to naught, and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. (Isaiah 40:23)

Globular Cluster M80 - Lessons in Humility

Scores of globular star clusters like this one- located in the summer constellation of Scorpius- are found orbiting the center of our huge spiral galaxy, the Milky Way.  Most contain hundreds of thousands- some as many as a million- stars.  The entire galaxy is thought to contain approximately 150 billion stars!  If this were not hard enough to comprehend, astronomers now know there are also billions of galaxies stretching through space as far as telescopes can see.  The scriptural analogy between the number of stars in the heavens and the grains of sand on the seashore turns out to be a well-chosen one.  Most astronomers believe globular clusters contain among the oldest stars in the universe, but several recent observations about the types of stars at their centers, and the number of stellar collisions they manifest cast some doubt on this understanding.

He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite. (Psalm 147:4,5)

God is frightfully powerful, and this is indeed a powerful understatement.  Psalm 33:6 tells us that “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.”  Each of the heavenly host- each twinkling star- is really an unimaginably  colossal cauldron of churning and flaming plasma.  Our small sun alone could hold over a million earths inside.  That there could exist a being who simply speaks such items into existence is truly a cause for wonder, fear, and humility.  In fact, He treats the stars as if they were so much sand.  Little wonder then that God simply laughs at the pride of men and devils who oppose him (Psalm 2:4).  In the end, He will banish His enemies by a word that strikes like a sword from His mouth (Revelation 19:21).