David doesn't argue--he sings!
Taking it that Jewish tradition is correct David wrote
this in Psalm 19:1, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies
proclaim the work of his hands." He goes on to say that their message
goes out ceaselessly to the ends of the earth.
Because this is true—and it is, of course—we believers
are tempted to claim that you only have to look at the creation to know
that "there is a God." But that certainly isn't what David said.
We mustn't make less of what David said. He
didn't say that the creation declares the glory of some god or other.
Gentiles might say such a thing—and they often did. Ancient nations (and
moderns ones too) look at creation and say it proclaims the glory
of———or someone else. But that's not what David said. He makes the claim
that the one true God that manifested himself to Israel is the creator
and that when the creation speaks it speaks of Him.
If you had asked David how he knew that—for the moment
shelving any discussion about "inspiration"—he would have told you that
he had been taught it since childhood. In this text he isn't making an
argument based on reason, he's proclaiming his faith, he's proclaiming
truth that God had revealed about himself. When he says the heavens
proclaim God's glory he knows it because he knows the God who made it!
There is no philosophical argument here. It is theology and faith pure
and simple. There's no "design proves a designer" about this text. For
David "God" is not the conclusion of a syllogism or a logical inference
from empirical realities.
Certainly he knows that the God who made the creation is
all-powerful but he knows that because God told him! If you took a walk
with David some star-filled evening or some blazing sunlit morning he'd
sing you a song about the glory of God in these things. And if he did
he wouldn't be "inferring" anything! He'd be bearing witness to
the faith of his people and of his own heart; a faith that was revealed
to him. Once you know it is God (the one true and living God, who
revealed himself to the human family) you look at the splendour of the
creation and say it is God's handiwork. But when you say it is God's
handiwork you wouldn't be saying anything as shallow as: "This is the
work of some supernatural being(s)," as Anthony Flew now says.
If you made a rational argument to David and said that
you were doing what he was doing in Psalm 19 he'd laugh out loud. We
mustn't reduce an inspired utterance to a rational argument. We mustn't
say, "See? David is saying you can reason from the creation to God!" He
says no such thing! We mustn't claim that a rational argument could
produce a Psalm 19! It just isn't so!