Star Song – Heart, Mind, Soul, and Strength

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth . . . as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” The LORD speaking in Job 38:4

Last week the NY Times ran an article about black holes in space singing. I spent hours reading other sources and listening. But black holes aren’t stars. Do stars also sing? It turns out that they do! What?! Wow! So maybe the comment in Job 38:4 wasn’t just some kind of imaginative poetic metaphor?!

The cosmic glow of the Carina Nebula as seen in a stunning 3D reconstruction. The Carina Nebula contains two of the most massive and luminous stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The original image was taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope.

Have you ever read a portion of Scripture that gave you pause? I know sometimes a passage just doesn’t fit my filter. For instance, this verse mystified me for years. It claims that stars sang while God formed the earth. Was it literal sounds or was it a personification- assigning human traits to an inanimate object thus making it symbolic? Or were the stars allegorical representing angels since angels are mentioned in the same sentence?

I decided to look up the word ‘star’ used in this verse in Hebrew. Out of 36 verses in the Old Testament where this same Hebrew word is used all but one refer to literal, physical stars in space. So if this verse says that literal stars sang together how do I accept this intellectually? I believe the Scriptures give a true record of God’s actions and men’s activities. But what do I do with this?

Here are some excerpts from scientists about the music of stars:

“We can’t hear it with our ears, but the stars in the sky are performing a concert, one that never stops. The biggest stars make the lowest, deepest sounds, like tubas and double basses. Small stars have high-pitched voices, like celestial flutes. These virtuosos don’t just play one “note” at a time, either — our own Sun has thousands of different sound waves bouncing around inside it at any given moment.” Elizabeth Landau NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program

“The inside of a star is a noisy place to be, as many stars hum songs to themselves. We can’t hear these songs directly because the sound waves cannot escape the star, but they do create a visible effect on the surface.
Sound waves continuously bouncing around inside a star cause it to swell and contract, and these movements cause changes in the temperature at the surface, which can be detected as variations in the brightness of a star.” BBC Sky at Night Magazine April 20, 2020 Amanda Doyle

photo-Part of the Milky Way NGC 3603 is a prominent star-forming region in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20,000 light-years away. (NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage/STScI/AURA/ESA-Hubble Collaboration)

Listening to adaptations of the waves generated by stars is mesmerizing. The sound waves inside a star aren’t perceptible to humans. In order for our ears to perceive the sound from some stars, the waves would have to be raised 86 octaves. Other stars have higher pitches than we can hear. Here are two adapted star soundtracks:

383_JPL-20180730-STARSf-0001-stellar_waves.mp4. Sorry- limited technical skills over here. Please copy and paste to view.

It’s even believed that ancient sound waves may have sculpted the way galaxies formed Scientific American 2014
“Sound waves that rang out in the early universe sculpted its structure.” From an article titled, “Ancient sound waves sculpted galaxy formation”. Space Magazine 30 March 2012 by Anil Ananthaswamy

“The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born.” Psalm 33:6

“Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years. Let these lights in the sky shine down on the earth.” And that is what happened. God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set these lights in the sky to light the earth, to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness.” Genesis 1:14-18

So if the literal stars sang, what about the one verse in the Old Testament where the word star doesn’t refer to stars in the expanse of space? That one verse was a prophecy about the coming Messiah.

“I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel . . “—Balaam in Numbers 24:17

This Old Testament verse prophecies that a man who will come in the future will be like a star in Israel. And he will be a ruler. The star and the scepter in this prophecy are partially fulfilled in King David and further fulfilled by the Messiah.

“I, Jesus . . . am both the source of David and the heir to his throne. I am the bright morning star.” Revelation 22:16

Jesus shone brightly in the darkness of human sin. And he is the ruler of a kingdom of grace.

“his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” John 1:4-5
“For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son”. Colossians 1:13

By Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld – Die Bibel in Bildern, Public Domain

Not only is Jesus the symbolic Star coming from Israel to shine and rule, but there was a special, physical star that heralded his arrival. At Jesus’ birth, God allowed the Magi to see an unusual star they recognized as symbolic of the birth of the Star of Israel who would rule. It seems that both the Jews and these Gentile Magi believed that a star would announce the coming of the Messiah. When these foreign stargazers came looking for the baby king in Jerusalem, the Jewish scholars understood. They immediately referred to the ancient Scripture that prophesied his birthplace and directed them to Bethlehem. Here’s what one commentator said,

“the appearance of a star in Israel was a sign of the Messiah’s coming,,, the Magi were informed by Zoroastres their founder, who, being of Jewish extract, had got it from this prophecy of Balaam; it is evident that the Jews expected the appearance of an extraordinary star at the time of the Messiah’s coming; for so they say more than once, in an ancient book of theirs, that when the
“Messiah shall be revealed, a bright and shining star shall arise in the east;” Zohar
Exposition of the Bible by John Gill

Things to think about:
~Just because we don’t yet understand Scripture, doesn’t mean Scripture isn’t true.
~The One who spoke billions of stars into being also sent his Messiah to deliver us from our own darkness
~This kind of God deserves our trust and praise

“Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars
Praise him, you highest heaven. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created.” Psalm 148:3-5