The Price System Declares the Glory of God

In a 1980 sermon, John Piper remarks:

• David said, "I will magnify God with thanksgiving." The word "magnify" can be used in two different senses. It can mean: make something appear greater than it is, as with a microscope or a magnifying glass. Or it can mean: make something that may seem small or insignificant appear to be as great as it really is. This is what our great telescopes help us begin to do with the magnificent universe which once upon a time spilled over from the brim of God's glory. So there are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.
• When David says, "I will magnify God with thanksgiving," he does not mean: "I will make a small God look bigger than he is. He means: "I will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is." We are not called to be microscopes, but telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor's product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is. The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.

Art and I are trying to do something in Mere Economics. As we put it on page 88:

• The heavens declare the glory of God, and so does the price system. As Vernon Smith reminds us, the price system facilitates the world's work, and it does so without a boss or a czar ordering people or products around. By telegraphing changes in supplies and demands (read: "human wants") it coordinates the efforts and desires of people who will never know or often even know of each other. If humans had invented the price system, it would be our greatest achievement. But we didn't. It's God's gift for our good his glory.