Message
Series: Responding to God
How To Praise
A sermon on Psalm 19.
You can listen to a full recording of this message at http://www.nec.org.au/listen-to-a-sermon-series/responding-to-god-psalms/
Read Psalm 19 straight away.
Hymns contain exuberant praise of the Lord, or they give us a reason for praising the Lord. They are a celebration that God has entered our lives and our community. How does Psalm 19 do that?
Well, part of the Psalm focuses on God’s creation – and why we should celebrate and praise God for that creation.
Another part of the Psalm focuses on “the law of the Lord”. That is a reference to the first five books of the Bible – sometimes it is also called the Torah. And the Psalm is saying that we should celebrate that God has given His Word.
Celebrate creation. Celebrate the Bible. Why? Because it is through these two approaches that God is telling is that He wants to have a relationship with us. There is a strong connection between creation ... and the Word of God.
Let me show you how Psalm 19 makes that connection. We begin by acknowledging that
God reveals Himself through the mighty forces of nature.
• The heavens declare the glory of God.
• Day after day ... night after night
• Their voice goes out into all the earth.
At night the night sky speaks. In the day the day sky speaks. Every moment of every day the message is the same. “God did this”. Nature does not whisper, it shouts and it shouts continually. But not everyone is listening.
We went for a holiday to Canberra in 2003. On the holiday we visited an observatory which had a “star show”. About 20 of us went into this round room where, on the ceiling, all the stars were laid out. People oooohed and ahhhhed as they sat there in this tiny room which little lights artificially representing the night sky. That same evening many of those same people would walk outside and see the real thing 10 million times bigger, more unpredictable and suspenseful, and not one of them would make a comment.
Through creation God is shouting but many people are stone deaf. Despite God’s power being so clearly on display the reality is that many people have lost their ability to hear what God is saying. Part of the problem is that people do not know what sort of God they need.
Often we want a God who works on our terms, not His way.
If there is a God why do bad things happen? Surely God would want good to happen all the time.
How can God allow people to suffer? If we are created by Him wouldn’t He want to take better care of us?
Where was God when I needed Him? He seemed silent and distant – He didn’t do what I wanted.
We want a God that we can control. That we can manipulate. That works according to our rules. And when He doesn’t we switch off because we don’t think He is communicating in a way that we can understand. But He communicating. It is as we read in verse 3.
There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
A person in France can look to the heavens … and see the hand of God.
A person in Iceland can look to the sky … and see the power of the Creator.
Our neighbour in Brisbane can search the skies and hear the voice of the Maker.
As the heavens go about their ordinary business the message is there for all to see. God is saying, “I am here”. And He is showing Himself in a way that we should be able to understand.
They say that ours is a visual age.
People need pictures not lectures.
People need visual stimulation to be interested.
Our eyes are the tools of discernment.
It may be true that we are more visual, but that doesn’t mean we see more clearly than our ancestors. We have become spoilt. There is so much to visually stimulate us that we don’t get as excited. We are so used to being entertained that we don’t stop and really think about the meaning behind it all.
That is what this Psalm is doing. The Psalm makes us think about the meaning of it all.
God reveals Himself through nature but we need to stop and focus on the message.
Just one aspect of creation comes in focus ... the sun.
In many ways the sun is the mightiest aspect of creation as far as we are concerned.
• The sun contains 99.85% of the mass in the solar system.
• Four million tons of hydrogen are consumed by the sun every second.
• More than one million planet Earths would fit inside of the sun.
• At its core, the sun’s temperature is about 15 million degrees Celsius
• 100,000 million tons of dynamite would have to be detonated every second to match the energy produced by the sun.
It is no wonder the sun has been worshiped in so many cultures.
Egyptian, Indo-European, and Meso-American cultures all had sun-worship religions. One tribe within the Meso-American culture had been worshipping the sun for centuries. They had even offered human sacrifices to the sun. But then the chief of the tribe started to think about what they were doing. For centuries the sun did the same thing – it came up in the east and went down in the west. This chief concluded that behind the great sun must be an even greater power that kept the sun on course. From that day a search for God began – ultimately this whole tribe came to know Jesus.
And that is the whole point.
When we stop to listen to the declaration of the heavens we can hear a message of hope.
Through creation God is saying “I am here and I have put this all into place”. If God has put it all into place that is very significant.
If God can arrange the heavens the way that He did then we can also be sure that He can arrange the circumstances of our lives.
If God is able to bring order out of chaos in the heavenly realms, then He can bring order into the chaos of our lives.
If God can create the grandest aspects of nature then it is nothing for Him to create peace in our lives.
God is there and He wants to interact with us. That is the message which the heavens declare. That is the reason we give Him praise. But it is not the full message. We can’t fully understand who God is by just looking at the heavens. That is why in this Psalm God reveals Himself through His Word.
The Psalms starts doing this in verses 7-9 where 6 dimensions of the Word of God are focussed on.
God’s law is perfect. It contains no inconsistencies. It does not have any missing links. And this law is not designed to burden you but bring revival – the law points us to a God who wants a relationship with us.
God’s statutes are trustworthy. A statue is another name for a covenant. God has declared that He is going to make an eternal bond with us which will never be broken – not even by our sin.
God’s precepts are right. As a doctor is able to prescribe the right medicine, so God’s Word can be prescribed for our fatal sickness – the sickness of sin. The precepts of God are the antidote we need for eternal life.
God’s commands are radiant. They are designed to make our mind clear about what is right and what is wrong. They give us the ability to know good from evil. They help us to deal with evil. And in the process we are drawn closer to God as we understand what He wants from us.
Godly fear brings purity. It means we go through life not taking God for granted. Instead we seek to keep on looking at out heavenly Father with awe and love knowing that we would be lost if it was not for Him.
God’s ordinances are sure. An ordinance is a judgement that is made about a certain person or situation. As we look at our relationship with God we can be sure that His ordinance … His judgement … will surely be, “Well done good and faithful servant”.
Phrase is heaped upon phrase as the Psalmist sings an accolade of praise about the revealed will of God. As the various dimensions of the Word are described one fact comes out.
God reveals Himself through His Word because He wants us to trust in His answer for our eternal well-being.
The message of the heavens is “I am here”.
The message of the Word is, “I want a relationship of trust with you”.
But it is so easy not to trust isn’t it.
When you learn to drive with a driving instructor you are given a whole heap of training and you are told exactly what you should do in certain situations. I know of a young person who was always told by the driving instructor and his father, “If you lose control in the wet turn in the direction of the spin”.
So when the time came that he lost control in the wet what did he do? He don’t turn in the direction of the spin – that doesn’t make sense. It makes more sense to turn into the direction you want to go. At the crucial moment he didn’t trust the training – and he was in all sorts of trouble.
The same can happen in our lives … at the crucial moment we look to the Word of God and we think, “No, it can’t be possible”.
Does Jesus really pay for my sin?
I am guilty. He is innocent. Yet He is the One who is punished.
I am responsible. He did nothing to deserve it. Yet He takes my place.
I rebelled. He was obedient. Yet God pours out His anger on Jesus.
I am the enemy. Jesus is the Son. Yet He is the One treat as a criminal.
Does Jesus really pay for my sin? No. It can’t be possible. It doesn’t make sense. And we keep trying to make ourselves right with God on the basis of all sorts of dead-end solutions.
Is it true that the actions of the past really don’t matter?
I don’t have to pay for all my mistakes before I come into the presence of God.
I can be made holy and have peace just by asking for forgiveness.
I don’t have to fear that God will look at my actions and dismiss me from His presence.
I can be seen as Jesus is seen. Holy. Righteous. Pure.
Is it true that the actions of the past really don’t matter? No. It can’t be possible. And we keep carrying the guilt and the shame despite the fact that we could have put it down a long time ago.
It can’t be possible. That is what we think. But that is not what God wants.
God reveals Himself through His Word and we need to stop and listen.
The message of the heavens is “I am here”.
The message of the Word is, “I want a relationship of trust with you”.
Start listening to that message and praising God for it.
• They are more precious than gold.
• By them your servant is warned.
• Then will I be blameless.
• May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
This Psalm has moved us from looking to the heavens and realising that there is a God to looking at ourselves and realising we can have a permanent relationship with this God.
Nothing is hidden from His divine stare; a stare which looks at the very depths of our being - piercing the essence of our soul.
God sees all the errors; the faults, the failures, the frailties.
God sees all these aspects of our heart yet He cries out with compassion.
He cries out through His Word with a love that was willing to sacrifice His only Son. He cries out with a mercy so tender that it would not even break a bruised reed. He cries out the promise of salvation written on the palm of His hand. A salvation which was brought with the cost of Jesus’ blood poured out.
That is what this Psalm is all about ... it belongs to the “genre family” know as Hymns. Like many other Psalms in that genre it is giving us reasons to worship God. In this case the reason is quite incredible.
The God who put everything into place is the same God who has His eyes set on me … on us.
The witness of the heavens and the Word cannot be denied.
“I am here” says the Lord.
“I want a relationship of trust with you”, says the Lord.
Now how are you going to respond?
