Summer in the Psalms
Psalm 19
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church?06-23-2024
Brats
On June 10th, 1985, David Blum published an article in “New York” magazine entitled “Hollywood’s Brat Pack.” He was making a pun on the rat pack that included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, and Samy Davis Jr. (Did you know that technically there were six - Angie Dickinson?)
Blum invited several young, very popular actors (Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, and Judd Nelson) to hang out with him at the Hard Rock Cafe and after that experience coined the “Brat Pack.”
If you came of age in the 1980s, you know these actors and each of the movies. If you want to know who is in the Brat Pack, add the cast of “The Breakfast Club” and “St. Elmos’s Fire.”
The article was mean-spirited and cast these actors in a negative light, implying they were spoiled by the success they didn’t earn and that they were, indeed, brats.
Andrew McCarthy, a member of the Brat Pack, recently made a documentary about their experience after the article came out.
He talked to many of the actors included in the Brat Pack and he even sat down with David Blum and asked him if he regretted writing the article, which he said no.
Andrew McCarthy’s frustration with the label is that David Blum didn’t know them. How could he know any of them after one night at the Hard Rock Cafe?
He has spent the last 30 years having problems letting people get to know him because of this article.
If you just read the article that Blum wrote, does that mean you know Andrew, or Rob, or Molly? No. You would need a relationship with them to know them truly.
Here’s a question? Can God be known? And if you can, how?
We continue our “Summer in the Psalms” series by studying Psalm 19.
Psalm, 19 was written by David and he wrote it for the “chief musician.”
This was meant to be a song sung by the singers in the Temple and Jesus would have learned this song as a young boy.
Please turn with me to Psalm 19.
Prayer
Background of Psalm 19
Psalm 19 has been called one of the noblest examples of Hebrew poetry in existence. C.S. Lewis called Psalm 19 “the greatest poem in the Bible and the greatest song ever written.”
David wrote this psalm in the wilderness running from King Saul. The Hebrew is graphic and stunning, showing David’s deep love for God and His creation.
Only God Can Reveal God
God can only be known as He makes Himself known. Most religions of the world are about a man reaching up to try to find God. Christianity is a religion in which God reached down to us. God revealed Himself to man.
“Reveal” means “unveiling, disclosing something previously hidden.” God chose to unveil His glory and splendor to humans. But does this mean we can ever fully understand God?
As one of my seminary professors used to say, “The more you know about God the more you realize you don’t know about God.” How can a finite mind understand an infinite God? Job put it this way:
"Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens-what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave-what can you know?” (Job 11:7-8)
The Apostle Paul wrote that, other than His revelation to us, God is not only unknowable but unapproachable:
“God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.” (I Timothy 6:15-16)
I am thankful that God chose to reveal Himself in a way that we can not only apprehend Him but also have a relationship with Him.
In Psalm 19, David speaks of three types of revelations.
In verses 1-6, God makes Himself known through what theologians call “natural revelation.” He makes Himself known through the world. We see this when we look up,
In verses 7-11, God unveils Himself through “special revelation.” He makes himself known through the Word. We have seen this when we look down at the Bible.
And in verses 11-13, we see the response of the worshipper as we look inside at our heart.
The last verse has a Messianic hint of God’s ultimate revelation – the Incarnation.
Let Heaven and Nature Sing!
David, who grew up in the pastureland of Palestine, was accustomed to having the most magnificent view of God’s celestial handiwork.
There were no city lights, no pollution, or buildings to block his view. He would lean back, prop his head up on a rock, and watch the stars, moon, constellations, and planets do their nightly dance.
One of those evenings, he took out his lyre and began to sing a song of praise to the Creator of the Universe. Luckily, we have that song recorded in the Bible as Psalm 19.
He began:
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
As we look up we will see the Glory of God!
Facebook, I asked where or how people experience God. Here are some of their answers:
At the beach, in the mountains, watching a sunset, the lake, on a mission trip, through music, laying on a blanket looking at the stars, at camp, in the woods, alone at the piano, with other believers, driving in my car, and butterflies.
Some observations:
Proclamation of creation.
David began with the heavens and the skies proclaiming, declaring, and publishing the glory of God and the works of His hands. This implies a very conspicuous, noticeable revelation. Erwin Lutzer writes: “In creation, God went public.”
It is as if David sees the heavens as a preacher standing behind a pulpit announcing the glory, or weightiness, of God. The Hebrew word for God in these verses is the basic title for God – the Creator God. From the telescope to the microscope nature shouts the virtues of a magnificent God.
There is no pause in their song.
Day after day, night after night the heavens pour forth speech. The Hebrew word for pouring forth is “bubbling up” and pictures a natural spring that continually gives a fresh water supply. There is neither pause nor break in their concert of beauty, vastness, and steadfast order.
A Universal Declaration.
Although the creation is not endowed with the gift of speech, the heavens make a universal appeal to all the earth – “The hand that made us is Divine.”
In a choir of colors, patterns, light, contrast, shape, and proportion creation sings its praise to God. The same moon that we see in our sky is the same one that people in Taiwan, Tahiti, and Tanzania see. The same stars that look down on us at night were the same stars that David watched as he wrote this Psalm.
John Calvin wrote: “…there is not a spot in the universe wherein one can not discern at least some sparks of his glory.”
From Moscow to Memphis, from Rome to the rainforest, from Albania to Antarctica – everywhere there is evidence of God.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat. (Psalm 19:1-6)
(4) Star Power.
In a departure from the poetry of his day, David sees the sun as a show of God’s power and strength. Most poetry of the Ancient East deified the sun and encouraged its worship.
But to David, the sun is the greatest member of the heavenly choir. David pictures the sun as a newly married groom coming out of the wedding pavilion with great joy and radiance or a runner rounding the bases of a celestial baseball diamond.
The sun, the great circuit-riding preacher of the sky, proclaims God’s power, presence, and provision.
When I went to Indiana for the solar eclipse, when totality happened the temp dropped, the stars came out and a holy silence fell over the crowd. There was a holy moment when we were all awed by the spectacle.
Natural revelation reveals to us God’s creative power and greatness.
Whether in the beauty of a sunset, a beach, mountain ranges, a flower, the laugh of a child, or a snowflake, the creation is shouting that there is something more. The sights and sounds of nature awaken in us the notions of glory, beauty, and transcendence.
Nature gives us a proper perspective of ourselves.
I can still remember reaching the very top of a ridge in North Carolina and collapsing onto a mossy outcrop of rock.
When I caught my breath and my eyes focused, I was stunned. Growing up under the glare of city lights, I was not prepared for what I saw on that mountain that night. It seemed as if every square inch of the sky was full of stars. The Milky Way arched its way across the sky and provided me with a glimpse into the universe’s heart.
I said nothing because there was nothing to say. I was speechless. I felt so small in comparison to the great expanse above me. The silence was deafening as the celestial choir echoed in my soul.
In the evening, Theodore Roosevelt and his friend, the naturalist William Beebe, would go out and look at the skies, searching for a tiny patch of light near the constellation of Pegasus. “This is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda,” they would chant. “It is as large as our Milky Way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. It consists of one hundred billion suns, each larger than our sun.”
Then Roosevelt would turn to his companion and say, “Now I think we are small enough. Let’s go to bed.”
David had felt the same way:
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)
Natural revelation leaves us without excuse.
Because God has revealed Himself through nature, humans are responsible for responding to this revelation with praise and thankfulness. When looking at a waterfall, sitting on a beach watching the endless rise and fall of the crashing waves, or listening to a baby cry for its mother, God is whispering to us all.
The Apostle Paul says that we are without excuse if we deny God’s greatness:
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)
Natural revelation is so clear, so obvious, and understandable that we have no excuse if we deny Him. But deny Him we continue to do.
When the great physicist Albert Einstein was asked if he believed in God, he responded:
“We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. . . . That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human beings toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”
Although Einstein marveled at the design he saw in nature, he did not believe in a personal Creator.
Astronomer and writer Carl Sagan said, “Nature does not require a Designer. Maybe there is one hiding, maddeningly unwilling to be revealed.”
If someone is standing five feet from you and yells, if you don’t hear him you are either deaf or ignoring him.
The story is told that Napoleon overheard some of his men arguing about whether God created the world. He stopped their debate and with a grand sweep of his hands asked them what they planned to do with the evidence of the sky full of stars shining down on their ship.
Natural Revelation is limited in scope and function.
The creative order proclaims God as the creator and magnifies His greatness and power. This type of revelation speaks to man as a creature. The problem is that instead of answering our questions it propels us to deeper questions still like: “What is behind all this? Why am I here? Why is there suffering? What does the future hold? What is the meaning of life?”
Solomon agreed that we want to know more than what this created world can tell us.
“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
If we just had natural revelation, we would be aware that there is a God who is a powerful, strong creator.
But, as John Calvin wrote, this might very well led to us worshipping creation instead of the Creator. Because of the effect of sin, we are not able to rightly interpret nature’s display of God’s strength, and history is cluttered with people groups who worship the sun, the stars, or the mountains.
Another problem is the consistency of natural revelation. Day after day and night after night this revelation provides a backdrop for our lives. I had a friend who lived right by the airport. Every 15 minutes, it seemed, a plane flew right over the house, shaking the floorboards. They didn’t even notice.
The same can be said for humans who are surrounded by the most amazing miracles of nature and seem to be deaf to their lavish language of love for their Creator.
Two men were standing at the Grand Canyon. One man exclaimed, “This is the hand of God. I am amazed!” The other man said, “I’m amazed too. That’s the first time I ever spit a mile.”
Natural revelation is not sufficient to bring us to God. Is there someone out there? Yes, through His created world but even more so, through His Word.
Francis Bacon said there are two volumes to life: “The book of nature and the book of Scripture.” To begin to understand God, you must read both. Understanding gives way to worship when we realize the greatness and grace of our God.
The Bible Tells Me So
“The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. (Psalm 19:7-9)
As we look into the Bible, we will see the Greatness of God!
Billy Graham writes, “On the cover of your Bible and my Bible appear the words “Holy Bible.” Do you know why the Bible is called holy? Why should it be called holy when so much lust and hate and greed and war are found in it?
“I can tell you why. It is because the Bible tells the truth. It tells the truth about God, about man, and the devil. The Bible teaches that we exchange the truth of God for the devil’s lie about sex, for example; and drugs, alcohol, and religious hypocrisy. Jesus Christ is the ultimate truth. Furthermore, He told the truth. Jesus said that He was the truth, and the truth would make us free.”
David abruptly switches gears and turns his attention to God’s Word. He uses six synonyms for God’s Word –law, statutes, precepts, commands, fear, and ordinances.
David was speaking of the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, but his description is equally true for the whole canon of Scripture. David praises the qualities of the Law then its results. Let’s unpack these one by one:
The Law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. While we think of the law negatively, this word simply means “instruction or teaching.” The instructions of the Lord, the total body of practical doctrine, are entirely sufficient to base our lives on. Ancient Israel revered God’s Torah as an expression of His love for them. The law is perfect which means “whole, intact, or free from blemish.”
Interestingly, David uses Yahweh, the personal name for God. Natural revelation can not tell us God’s name. Nor can nature “convert the soul” as the old King James Version translates it. God’s Word can put us back on track when we have lost our way.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
Another translation is: “The testimony of the Lord is sure.” God’s Word is not a variable document that changes according to circumstances. It is dependable. The word statutes implies repetition – making something clear again and again. Wisdom is the ability to live skillfully.
Or as Dr. Frank Pollard put it “sanctified common sense.” Even if one does not have a lot of knowledge, one can still be wise if one depend on the Word of God to guide them. The entire book of Proverbs is dedicated to the subject of wisdom.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The word precept means something like our word “roadmap.” The Word of God sets us on the right path and there is great joy in being on the right road.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. These commands are divinely given imperatives – rules for living. Radiant can be translated as “shining” or “pure.” These are the “Thou shall not…” of Scripture. These commands shed light on the path in front of us. It makes the path straightforward to follow.
David likens the Word to a lamp in Psalm 119:
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
Many times we misunderstand the word fear about God. Martin Luther distinguished between two types of fear. The first is the fear a prisoner has for the executioner. The second is the fear a child has for her father. God does not want us to cower in terror of Him.
We are commanded to have an honest, healthy respect for God as Father. It is pure or “undefiled.” It is free of all the abominations of pagan religions.
• The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. God’s Word is the standard for righteousness. It is perfect, trustworthy, and precious. They are invaluable:
“They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;” (Psalm 19:10)
David states that the Law of the Lord is infinitely more valuable to him than all the gold he has acquired as king. He goes on to say that the instructions the are also inviting:
“…they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.” (Psalm19:10b)
David writes nearly the same thing in Psalm 119:
“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”(Psalm 119:105)
I have read that honey out of the comb has a sweetness, richness, and flavor far beyond what it has after being exposed to air. David considers God Word’s a delicacy that satisfies his deepest hunger.
Money and honey can’t compare to the Word of God.
The story is told of a missionary who met a blind leper who taught himself to read Braille with the stump of his hand. When he could no longer do that with either stump, he taught himself to read braille with his tongue.
The doctor told him that if he continued to do that with his tongue, he wouldn’t be able to taste food anymore. He said,
Food will still nourish me if I can’t taste it. But if I give up reading my Bible what is left to nourish my soul!”
They also have an inspirational effect:
“By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:11)
Scripture serves to warn us and to motivate us. Breaking God’s commands brings severe consequences. Keeping God’s commands led to blessing. It is really that simple.
Moses wrote:
“This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)
The Response of the Worshipper
The Law is precious to David and he prays that he might not sin against it:
“Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. (Psalm 19:12-13)
The clearer the Scripture becomes to us, the more aware we become of our sinfulness before a holy and righteous God. David offers up two prayers.
• A Prayer for pardon: “Forgive my hidden faults.” We all have blind spots that we can not see. We all have sins that God needs to bring to light. Sometimes we are not aware of the sinfulness of an action until someone points it out to us. How does this happen:
- A person may truly not know the action is sinful and when shown from the Scriptures why it is wrong will seek to change it. (see Philippians 2:16)
- Sometimes an action or habit is so firmly ingrained in a person’s personality that they see little hope of changing
- Sometimes we can be baffled by words or emotions that seem to come out of nowhere. (Especially when we hit our thumb with a hammer!)
The Apostle Paul struggled with this baffling form of sin.
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15)
David prays for cleansing, for acquittal, and for God to render him guiltless.
A Prayer for Power. “Keep your servant also from willful sin; may they not rule over me.” David pictures a continuum in which hidden faults are on one side and willful sins are on the other. These are the times in our lives when we sin on purpose. We know what God says but we do our own thing. This is the presumptuous, self-sufficiency that God hates.
We presume to know better than God or presume sin is not that big a deal. Interestingly, David does not ask for forgiveness but the power not to commit these sins in the first place. He recognizes these sins have the potential to trap him and “rule over him.”
2 Peter 2:19 says that “…a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”
A Prayer for Purity: “Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgressions” The result of David’s prayers is innocence before God.
He desires:
Purity in Speech. “May the words of my mouth…”
With our mouths, we can praise God or profane His name. As my mother-in-law always tells me, “Words are Spirit, use them wisely.”
Purity in thought: “…and the meditations of my heart be pleasing unto You.” (Psalm 19:14).
It has been said that we are a sum of our thoughts. What we think about will inevitably show itself in our words and actions.
That’s why Paul encouraged us: “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)
David’s deep desire is to have a consistent lifestyle of worship before a great and powerful God.
Special Revelation, specifically the Bible, gives us a blueprint for mastering life. All I know about how to be a good husband, father, co-worker, and minister comes from this book. While nature speaks to us as creatures, the Bible speaks to us as sinners.
The theologian Louis Berkhof states the main purpose of special revelation is “to change man’s entire spiritual condition by redeeming from the power of sin and leading him back to a life in communion with God.”
The Incarnation - God Came Near
This leads us to the third way God has revealed Himself. Look at the very last words of the song:
“My Rock and My Redeemer.” “My rock” is a description of the Creator God. “My Redeemer” can only be known by the special revelation of Scripture.
In the pages of God’s Word, we learn of the ultimate unveiling or revealing.
Jesus was fully God and fully man. How could I explain it any better than Max Lucado:
“It all happened in a moment…God became a man. While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived...The omnipotent, in one instant, made himself breakable. He who had been Spirit became pierceable. He who was larger than the universe became an embryo…God as a fetus. Holiness sleeping in a womb…God was given eyebrows, elbows, two kidneys, and a spleen…God had come near…It all happened in a moment, a most remarkable moment…the Word became flesh.” [From “God Came Near: Chronicles of the Christ” by Max Lucado]
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
Is there anyone out there and does He have anything to say? Yes! Yes! Yes! But only through His ultimate revelation – Jesus Christ.
God became a human to redeem us. The word “redeem” means to “buy back.”
Paul wrote:
“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5)
God became a man and lived a sinless life among us to teach us how to live well. Instead of us receiving the due penalty for our sins (see Romans 6:23) , He took our punishment upon Himself. He died, in our place, for our sins. Why would he do this? Because He loves you.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
We were slaves to sin, satan, and ourselves, but God, in Christ, redeemed us by paying the ultimate price – He sacrificed His life for ours.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
If you have not placed your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, do it this morning. Scripture says “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:8-9)
Read Psalm 19 every day for a month. Memorize verse 14. Let’s make every effort to live a life of consistent praise to our incredible God – our Rock and our Redeemer.
If you find yourself having trouble hearing God, He hasn’t moved.
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8)
We are going to end this morning by watching a video. During this video, thank God for His revealing Himself to us through natural revelation, special revelation, and most of all, the Incarnation.
Closing Prayer:
“May the words of our mouths and the mediations of our hearts be pleasing unto You, our Rock and our Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)
