You asked

how did ancient israelites understand 'the heavens' and their relationship to divine action?

Adds the setting and its conversation across both testaments.

Psalm 19:1-4a

“The heavens declare the glory of God. The expanse shows his handiwork. Day after day they pour forth speech, and night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech nor language. Their voice is not heard. Their vocal sound goes out through all the earth, their words to the end of the world.”

Psalm 19 is a wisdom psalm that celebrates God's revelation through both creation and his law. It moves from the grand, silent testimony of the heavens to the specific, spoken testimony of the Torah, written by King David or a later poet reflecting on these themes.

How might noticing the natural world around us prompt a deeper sense of wonder or purpose?

Then — the setting

Ancient Israelites viewed 'the heavens' (שָׁמַיִם, shamayim) as a tangible, though vast, physical structure created by God. It wasn't an empty void but a 'firmament' (רָקִיעַ, raqiaʿ), a solid dome separating earthly waters from heavenly waters (Genesis 1). This celestial realm was God's dwelling place, from which he observed, spoke, and acted. Unlike neighboring cultures where celestial bodies were often deities themselves, for Israelites, the sun, moon, and stars were God's created objects, placed by him to give light and mark seasons. They were witnesses to God's power and order, continuously proclaiming his glory without spoken words, a universal, silent testimony that required no translation.

Across the Testaments

In the Old Testament, as seen in Psalm 19, the heavens are primarily a testament to God's creative power and glory, demonstrating his existence and attributes through their order and majesty. While they don't explicitly teach moral law, they prepare the hearer for the more specific revelation of God's law. The New Testament largely affirms this understanding, with passages like Romans 1:20 explicitly stating that God's eternal power and divine nature are 'clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made.' It also introduces a further dimension, seeing the heavens as the 'third heaven' or paradise where God's presence is most fully realized (2 Corinthians 12:2-4), and as the location from which Christ will return (Acts 1:11), connecting the physical heavens to eschatological hope and Christ's ultimate authority.

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

Romans 1:20
Paul speaks of God's invisible attributes being clearly seen through creation.
Genesis 1:6-8
Describes God's act of creating the 'expanse' or firmament, separating waters above and below.
Job 38:4-7
God challenges Job to consider the foundations of the earth and the rejoicing of the morning stars.

Ask your own follow-up