Psalm 147:4 Bible Journaling Tutorial ~ With Colored Pencils

With only colored pencils and a stencil, this Psalm 147:1-6 Bible journaling tutorial shows how you can bring verse 4 “He counts the stars and calls them all by name” to life!

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In all of God’s creation, there is nothing quite so breathtaking as looking up at the night sky! All of us, from ancient times to modern days, have gazed in awe at the majesty of the stars. And, I think that’s why Psalm 147:4 stands out so much… verses 1-6 all sing God’s praises, but the fact that God “counts the stars and calls them all by name” really blows our minds.

Praise the Lord!
How good to sing praises to our God!
    How delightful and how fitting!
The Lord is rebuilding Jerusalem
    and bringing the exiles back to Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
    and bandages their wounds.
He counts the stars
    and calls them all by name.
How great is our Lord! His power is absolute!
    His understanding is beyond comprehension!
The Lord supports the humble,
    but he brings the wicked down into the dust.
Psalm 147:1-6 (NLT)

It reminds me of when Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:30 “And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” (NIV). There is just something extra special about realizing that God knows the whole universe—us included—in such intricate detail.

Of course, it’s never easy to capture this sort of heavenly beauty on a Bible journaling page, but with some inspiration from Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painting, and a stencil by the same name, we can at least try.

Bible Journaling on Psalm 147:4 With Colored Pencils and a Stencil

Before we dive in though, I just need to tell you one thing: Although it’s super easy to use colored pencils for Bible journaling, in this instance it was not a quick process. The whole page took me about 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete, just because of the details in the stencil, and the fact that I was coloring the whole Bible page.

With that being said though, I think it turned out pretty fantastic. It could never do enough justice to God’s heavenly creation, but at least it captures the awesomeness of how God knows every star by name, and He knows you and I in great detail as well! Check out the full video tutorial below, and if you need them, scroll down below the video for the supplies list and instructions.

Supplies:

You don’t need many supplies for this page! Just a Bible or notebook, some colored pencils, and a celestial stencil…

• This is the NLT journaling Bible I used
• Prismacolor Premier colored pencils (I used sunburst yellow, ultramarine, and black—from the 72-piece set) OR you could use another brand such as Arteza
• Paper Rose “Starry Night” stencil

Step by Step Instructions:

Whether you use the same stencil and colors that I did, or choose something different, the steps you take to create this page will be similar. Here is the whole process from start to finish:

1. The first thing you’ll want to do, is decide where to position your starry night stencil on the page, and what kind of scenery you want to add below the sky. I opted for some simple rolling hills, but you could add trees, people or animal silhouettes, or whatever you want. Use the black pencil to draw outlines where your landscape features will go.
2. Position your stencil, using tape to hold it in place, or just use your other hand to hold it down. Start by outlining the stars and swirls with a yellow or gold pencil (I used “sunburst yellow”). I wish I had colored the entire stencil in, rather than just outlining, because once I removed the stencil the yellow lines were hard to see. So, you may want to fill in all of the stars and swirls completely, before removing your stencil.
3. Before you move onto the sky portions, go ahead and outline/color in verse four if you want. (I colored it yellow, and outlined it in black).
4. Next, grab a blue pencil (I used “ultramarine”), and color in the sky around the stars. This part can be a bit tedious, since you can’t just color over the yellow parts (and risk turning them green); you’ll need to color carefully around the yellow for best results. If desired, you can color darker in the margins, and lighter over the Psalm text, which is what I chose to do.
5. Finally, it’s time to color your landscape features! Grab a black pencil, and fill them in as desired. You can start shading lighter, and then go over it again if it’s not dark enough (depending on the pencil, it can be hard to get a really solid deep black shade).

I hope you have fun with this Psalm 147 Bible journaling page, and that it reminds you of how great God is, and how great is His love for you!

Next time you have the chance, step outside to gaze at the night sky and marvel at the fact that God knows every star by name… and He knows you too! He knows your heart, your thoughts, and your comings and goings (Psalm 139:1-6). He has every hair on your head numbered (Matthew 10:30). Cast all your cares on Him, because He cares for you! (1 Peter 5:7)

Barbara Austin

Hi! Thank you so much for visiting Divine Creative Love. I’m a Jesus-lovin’ girl, lettering artist, designer, and general creative-at-heart. And, I have narcolepsy. I blog about faith in God, overcoming challenges, and creative topics such as Bible journaling. If you’re new here, be sure and subscribe to my list so you won’t miss anything!