Most of the quotes were compiled by Andrew Myers
“He made the stars also.”
Gen. 1:16
Ye stars! which are the poetry of heaven.
Lord Byron
Morning and evening, or whenever you go abroad to see the beauty of the outward heavens, say, I have a Father there, a Christ there; this is the pavement of that palace which God hath provided for the saints. Christians, it is a sweet meditation when you can say, He that made all things is there. It will be a delightful, profitable thing sometimes, with an eye of sense, to take a view of our Father’s palace, as much as we can see of it here below.
Thomas Manton on Ps. 19
“O give thanks to the Lord of lords… To Him that made great lights… The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endures forever.”
Ps. 136:3,7,9
He who crowned the heavens with stars was Himself crowned with thorns.
Thomas Watson
For astronomy is not only pleasant, but also very useful to be known: it cannot be denied that this art unfolds the admirable wisdom of God.
John Calvin on Gen. 1:16
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained…”
Ps. 8:3
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown; But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Praise ye Him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.”
Ps. 148:3
“Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!
O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!”
Gerard Manley Hopkins, “The Starlight Night”
To investigate the motions of the heavenly bodies, to determine their positions, measure their distances, and ascertain their properties, demands skill, and a more careful examination; and where these are so employed, as the Providence of God is thereby more fully unfolded, so it is reasonable to suppose that the mind takes a loftier flight, and obtains brighter views of his glory.
John Calvin, Institutes 1.5.2
“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
2 Pet. 1:19
God’s promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine.
David Nicholas
Indeed, [astronomy] may justly be called the alphabet of theology; for no one can with a right mind come to the contemplation of the celestial framework, without being enraptured with admiration at the display of God’s wisdom, as well as of his power and goodness.
John Calvin on Jeremiah 10:1
“There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs from another star in glory.”
1 Cor. 15:41
Men go forth to wonder at the heights of mountains, the huge waves of the sea, the broad flow of the rivers, the extent of the ocean, and the courses of the stars, and omit to wonder at themselves.
Augustine
Orion
“Seek Him that makes the seven stars and Orion… YHWH is his name.”
Amos 5:8
Men see every day the heavens and the stars; but who is there that thinks about their Author? By nature men are formed in such a manner as to make it evident that they were born to contemplate the heavens, and thus to learn their Author; for while God formed other animals to look downwards for pasture, he made man alone erect, and bade him look at what may be regarded as his own habitation…
The Prophet [Isaiah] therefore points out the wickedness of men who do not acknowledge what is openly placed before their eyes concerning God, but, like cattle, fix their snout in the earth; for, whenever we raise our eyes upwards, with any degree of attention, it is impossible for our senses not to be struck with the majesty of God.
John Calvin on Isa. 40:26
“Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.”
Job 25:5
O star of strength! I see thee stand
And smile upon my pain;
Thou beckonest with thy mailed hand,
And I am strong again.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”
Dan. 12:2,3
The best introduction to astronomy is to think of the nightly heavens as a little lot of stars belonging to one’s own homestead.
George Eliot
“He tells the number of the stars; He calls them all by their names.”
Ps. 147:4
Rather nice night, after all. Stars are out and everything.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
While other animals look downwards towards the earth, he gave to man a lofty face, and bade him look at heaven, and lift up his countenance erect towards the stars.
Ovid
“And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed”
Gen. 26:4
I have sometimes thought that a believer’s looking on a promise, is not unlike a man’s beholding of the heavens in a still and serene evening, who, when he first casts up his eye, sees haply a star or two only to peep, and with difficulty to put forth a feeble and disappearing light. By and by, he looks up again, and both their number and lustre are increased. A while after, he views the heavens again, and then the whole firmament, from every quarter, with a numberless multitude of stars, is richly enamelled as with so many golden studs.
So, when a Christian first turns his thoughts toward the promises, the appearances of light and comfort which shine from them, do oft times seem to be as weak and imperfect rays, which neither scatter fears nor darkness. When again he sets himself to ripen and improve his thoughts upon them, then the evidence and comfort which they yield to the soul is both clear and distinct: but when the heart and the affections are fully fixed in the meditation of a promise, Oh…what legions of beauties do then appear from every part of it which both ravish and fill the soul of the believer with delight!
William Spurstowe
“And he that overcomes, and keeps my works unto the end… I will give him the morning star.”
Rev. 2:26-28
Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.
Marcus Aurelius
When twilight drops her curtain down
And pins it with a star
Remember that you have a friend
Though she may wander far.
L.M. Montgomery
“Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!”
Job 22:12
Job’s intent here is to teach us to be astronomers.
John Calvin on Job 9
Alone with the stars: the misty river of the Milky Way flowing across the sky, the patterns of the constellations standing out bright and clear, a blazing planet low on the horizon.
Rachel Carson
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?… When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God [the angels] shouted for joy?”
Job 38:4,7
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
When we behold the heavens, we cannot but be elevated, by the contemplation of them, to Him to who is their great Creator; and the beautiful arrangement and wonderful variety which distinguish the courses and station of the heavenly bodies, together with the beauty and splendour which are manifest in them, cannot but furnish us with an evident proof of his providence.
John Calvin on Ps. 19:1
“There shall come a Star [the Messiah] out of Jacob”
Num. 24:17
Like the sweet stars of heaven, the truths of God shine most brightly in the darkest night of sorrow.
James Buchanan
Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.
Jonathan Edwards
“Thus saith the Lord, which gives… the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night…”
Jer. 31:35
Look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!
O look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
The bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!
Down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves’-eyes!
The grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies!
Wind-beat whitebeam! airy abeles set on a flare!
Flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare!
Ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.
Buy then! bid then! — What? — Prayer, patience, alms, vows.
Look, look: a May-mess, like on orchard boughs!
Look! March-bloom, like on mealed-with-yellow sallows!
These are indeed the barn; withindoors house
The shocks. This piece-bright paling shuts the spouse
Christ home, Christ and… all his hallows.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
The Morning Star
“I Jesus… am… the bright and morning star.”
Rev. 22:16
How oft, in some dark wintry morning, like the present, have I beheld the morning star shining with loveliness, when all the other lights of heaven were put out! But how little did I think of Thee, Thou precious light and life of men!
Thou art indeed the bright and morning Star in the firmament of thy church, in thy word, and in the souls of thy redeemed. Henceforth, dearest Jesus, let the morning visit of this sweet planet to our darkened earth remind me of Thee, amidst all the gross darkness by which in nature we are surrounded. Sure pledge of day as this beneficial star is, yet not more sure than Thou in the day-dawn and day-star of prophecy, which ministered to thy coming; and in the twilight of grace upon the soul, the forerunner of a glorious day.
Be Thou my morning song, my noontide joy, my evening meditation, and midnight light. Through all the wintry seasons of my pilgrimage, shine forth, sweet Jesus, upon my soul. Oh! ye sons of sloth, ye children of darkness, and of night, rouse from your beds of drowsiness, before the sleep of death seal up your eyes in everlasting darkness. Jesus, the Morning Star, now shines; and ere long, Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, will appear, no more to go down, and all the sons of God will shout for joy.
Robert Hawker on Rev. 22:16
“But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings”
Mal. 4:2
Upon sight of the Morning-sky, meditate, That if one Sun make so bright a Morning, what shining Morning will that be, when Christ the Sun of Righteousness shall appear, attended with all his bright Angels, Archangels, Cherubims, Seraphims, Bodies and Souls of Saints? When there shall be as many Suns on a Day, as there are Stars on a bright Winter’s Night.
Isaac Ambrose
“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father”
Matt 13:43
If it be in a winter morning you go out, when the sun is but rising, think, if one sun make so bright a morning, what a shining morning will that be when Christ, with all his bright angels and saints, shall break through the clouds, when there shall be as many suns as we see stars in a winter’s night? O! shall I be one of those that “shall shine as the sun, in the kingdom of my Father?”
John Willison
How Great is Our God
by Louie Giglio
A powerful message on our star creating God
“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God”
1 Peter 5:6
Book
Giglio’s photographic star-tour through the theater of God’s glory:
Indescribable: Encountering the Glory of God in the Beauty of the Universe
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