A few months ago, when Pastor Phil asked me to give today’s sermon I was considering preaching topically on either first fruits tithing or the role of men in leading their families. But when I saw that Pastor Phil was going back to the Psalms again this summer, I counted ahead and realized Psalm 19 would fall on August 13th. As I read this Psalm over and over, the Holy Spirit really convicted me to preach it. Many of you have heard it and maybe even memorized verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19 may be one of the most recognized and preached of all the Psalms.
Before we read Psalm 19, it would be helpful to remember who the author is. Like many of the Psalms, Psalm 19 is written by king David, inspired by the Holy Spirit. One thing I think, stands out above all about king David is his love for the Lord. We saw this in last week’s Psalm 18:1 - I love you, O Lord, my strength. In 1 Samuel 13 we see the prophet Samuel describing the Lord seeking a man after God’s own heart. Then in 1 Samuel 16:13 We see the Lord choosing that man, David, through the prophet Samuel as king, it says - Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. Before David was King he was a shepherd boy for his father Jesse, and as a shepherd boy he would have spent much of his time outside caring for his father’s sheep. Enjoying God’s creation and at times fighting off lions and bears. David was also a skilled musician and songwriter. Our Psalm today in fact is written as a song - starting out To the Choirmaster a Psalm of David. Have you ever listened to a song and wondered what the songwriter was thinking about when they wrote it? What was going through their mind that caused such pain or love? How they use words and images to convey what is in their heart in a song all tell a story that hopefully connects with the singers and audience. While we do not have the musical notes to accompany David’s lyrics as we move through these verses I pray that these words would resonate in our hearts. I will read Psalm 19 then pray that God would use His Word to speak to us today that we might see God and His Word rightly. Psalm 19 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. I have titled todays sermon: O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Today’s Psalm can be seen as three different parts that are all connected or like 3 stanzas to a song. The first stanza in this song can be seen in Verses 1-6 as David describes God’s revelation of himself in His creation. The second stanza in verses 7-11 describe God’s revelation of himself in His law. The third stanza in verses 12-14 describe David’s response that points to his need for a redeemer. I could do a sermon on each one of these 3 stanzas, but I am going to try to help us see an overview of each through David’s eyes and through the eyes of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for us today. If we look closely at verses 1-2, notice the focus of David’s attention is not just on God’s creation but on a specific direction – up – towards the heavens and the sky above. He doesn’t want our attention on the ground, but he wants us to look up, not because the heavens and sky are beautiful but because in them David sees the glory of God. David even uses words like declare, proclaim, pours out speech and reveals knowledge and that it occurs continually, every day and night. David is painting a picture with his words of the Glory of God displayed in his handiwork. David wants us to know that the heavens and sky are the obvious evidence of its creator. Just like a beautiful landscape painting with snow-capped mountains, valleys, trees and a crystal-clear stream. While we could all look at the painting and disagree about the quality or the colors that were used or even what it reminds us of. There is one thing we would all agree on – the painting must have a painter. That is the point David is making in verses 1-2. When you just look up you cannot deny there is a God. But even in the face of overwhelming evidence we still do not turn to God. David has already addressed this in Psalm 14:1-3: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. David wrote the Psalms about 1000 BC. Today man is still looking to the heavens to figure out how all creation came into existence. Because he cannot accept the proof when he just looks up. To give an example of this foolishness of the wisdom of man and the glory of God in the heavens. Since man has looked up we have tried to count the number of stars. Before the telescope most scientists counted over 1,000 stars after the telescope that number just continues to go up. Now one of the best estimates of our galaxy, the Milky Way put the number at 100 billion stars. Now some estimate that there are at least 10 trillion galaxies. If you do the math you come up with 1 with 24 zeros. The point is we don’t know, otherwise the number would not have just zeroes behind the one. The prophet Jeremiah tells us in the 6th century BC in Jeremiah 33:22 As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me." Isaiah also speaks of the stars in Isaiah 40:26: Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing. What an awesome creator we have, Isaiah tells us he not only knows number of stars he created, but he has a name for each one and they display the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. I could do a whole sermon on ways that the bible records God defining things about creation that man is still trying to define in by his own reasoning and science. If we believe God’s word like David. We do not need to worry about trying to make science fit the bible. The creator himself is holding all things together. Now back to our text today, in just the first 2 verses David states the obvious, and uses forms of speech to express what it is like, in verses 3-5 says but even though God’s creation doesn’t actually speak words it obvious to the whole world. David then describes the heavens as a tent that was set for another part of God’s creation, the sun. Here he compares the sun to a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and a strongman running his course with joy. In these comparisons, we see the joy in both the bridegroom as he starts his day perhaps at the anticipation of his wedding and as a strongman running a race and rejoicing at its completion. In verse 6 that rising and setting of the sun like the bridegroom and strongman turns to heat that nothing is hidden from. This verse seems to begin to transition us to something different. He could have used the word warmth instead of heat, but the emphasis here seems to be on the fact that nothing is hidden from it and using the word heat helps us see this point. The Apostle Paul tells that not accepting the creator by the proof of his creation, in light of the fact that nothing is hidden from us, is just suppressing the obvious truth that he describes in Roman 1:19-22: 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, Just like David’s conclusion in Psalm 14, Paul says they became fools, futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. While God has obviously revealed himself in his creation that we can plainly see with our eyes when we look to the heavens. The real problem is - God is not really saying words - and to truly know what the creator is thinking - we need to hear from him, otherwise we are hopelessly lost fools. The 2nd stanza of our Psalm or song today starts in verse 7 with two words -The law. To David, the Law or the Torah meaning the first 5 books of Moses or the Pentateuch or the Word of God from Moses. As we look at it from David’s perspective, we will also look at it from our perspective. Starting in verse 7 we see a pattern emerge. David is praising God but not just any god. The Word for God in verse 1 was the root word El, which means might, strong, or power which makes sense in describing how that name displays God’s glory in a general way. You can recognize it in other forms like Elohim or El Shaddai, kids in Kim and Lisa class I know have studied it – maybe for those taking notes you could see if you can remember any other names for God starting with El and share them afterwards with your parents. But here starting in verse 7 David begins a pattern using God’s name Yahweh, which is the name of the one true God revealed to Moses, the same God who created the heavens, but now we are talking about the God who has made himself known in a specific way through His Word. The pattern starting in verse 7 goes on to list 6 things of the Lord, of Yahweh. Each time repeating “of the Lord”. The law of, the testimony of, the precepts of, the commandment of, the fear of, and the rules of Lord. Then giving each one a description and a corresponding result. Let’s look at his first statement - the Law of the Lord is perfect. In fact, the word for perfect, in Hebrew means complete vs perfect as opposed to imperfect. A good scripture to memorize, which I know some of you know, at least I know most all of our Flashpoint kids had memorized is: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. God has revealed everything we need through his word that was true for David and is true for us. While it is written by man, it is clear that all scripture is breathed out by God so that the man of God may be complete. God has spoken so that we have everything we need to be complete. Here in Psalm 19 we are actually brought back to where we started with the summer of Psalms last summer with Psalm 1 where it contrasted the Way of the Righteous with the Way of the wicked. Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. As king, David would also remember the words of Moses as he describes what a king should do in when they are in the promised land. Deut. 17:18-19 18 “And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests.19 And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, As Psalm 1 says when you meditate on God’s law, day and night you will be blessed and in Deuteronomy 17 the king as the leader of his people shall write a copy of the law and then read it all the days of his life. As David continues this pattern in verses 7-9 what he is doing is meditating on God’s law or his word as he declares the truths about God. These are not David’s opinions about who God is – they are God’s own statements of fact revealed in his word. There is so much to try to cover here in this 2nd stanza of verses 7-11 that we won’t have time to go as deep on all of it, so we will take a couple more of them. In the 2nd half of verse 7 he says the testimony of the Lord is sure. David could have written the Word of the Lord is sure. Where does that testimony or word of the Lord start – with God our creator. He does not leave us wondering as to who he is and how he created. Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Now the wisest people on earth are still looking for the answer how did all of this begin, there have been many theories. One being the big bang. The best descriptions I have found breaks down these scientific theories to five necessary components to explain creation. There had to be time, power, space, matter, and motion. Let me read Genesis 1:1-2 and insert those words: In the beginning (TIME), God created (POWER) the heavens (SPACE) and the earth (MATTER). 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering (MOTION) over the face of the waters. While scientist continue to search for answers to how life began, we can trust the God who created it, not just by the physical evidence that it is obvious, but by God’s own testimony which is sure. Verse 8 speaks of God’s precepts and commandments, now you might ask what is the difference between a precept and a commandment. Hopefully many of us can say most of the 10 commandments from memory - I am the Lord your God you shall have no other gods before me – and so on… But how many know what a biblical precept is? The bible doesn’t actually come out and say this is what precept means. If you want to see how the bible uses the word precept in the ESV translation it is used 29 times and you can look at Psalm 119 and see 21 of them - Psalm 119 which is the longest chapter in the bible - so you can take 15 minutes and read more about precepts later if you like. I actually listened to a sermon on today’s Psalm 19 from David Platt and the last half of his sermon was just reading longer Psalm 119. I thought to myself, hmmm, that would certainly make writing my sermon a little easier. The dictionary defines precept as a general rule, using that - I think Jesus may give a better idea of what precept means when he was asked what is the greatest commandment, how did he respond? With the general rule for the first three commandments. That you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with our your soul and with all your mind. Let’s take a look back to David for a minute, remember one of the best descriptions of David was that he had a heart for God. Why did he have this heart? We can go to 1 Samuel 16:13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. After God chose David, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. David has seen many high points starting in his life since his anointing and the Spirit of the Lord rushing on him, like defeating Goliath and securing the borders of Israel, but he has also seen many low points like when prophet Nathan confronted him with his sin of adultery and murder. He also reminded David that through it all God did not abandon David from since he called him from his father’s field tending sheep to placing him on the throne. God was always faithful and true to his word even when David wasn’t. That is why David could say in Psalm 18:2 This Lord is my Rock. Now if we are honest, when we look at verses 7-9 there are parts of the pattern that are easier for us to accept, our sinful self would like to be perfect, sure, right, pure, clean and true – we also want our soul revived, wisdom, joy, and enlightening – we would prefer these things without and the law, testimony, precepts, commandments, fear and rules of the Lord, but God like any good father knows what we need and what is best for us. Think about children, they don’t always like rules, but they are necessary so that they understand there are limits and those limits are set for their own safety and good. In verse 10 David seems to make a shift from his pattern and begin to sum up all of God’s Law or all the different descriptions of His Word and say they are more to be desired than the finest gold or the sweetest honey. In other words, better than anything this world has to offer, the world that the same God created. The Words of Yahweh are the Words that David treasures more than any created thing. David knows this because he has experienced it. He had full faith in God to deliver him from Goliath like he had delivered him from lions and bears as he protected his father’s sheep. He knows there is great reward because he has experienced it. While King Saul sought David’s life, David trusted in God’s Word to deliver him as we see him recount in many psalms. The God who has revealed himself in his Word has proved to be a rock for David. Now in the 3rd and final stanza we see David start by asking a question: Who can discern his errors? Here David after meditating on God’s Word, the law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear and rules and all the righteous demands - how is it possible? And who can declare me innocent of things hidden within my heart. It is impossible to do it all especially when looking inside my heart at the things we often hide. Then what about these presumptuous sins? What would these sins be? How about when we act out of our own pride before we turn to God’s Word. Or when we presume to know what God’s Word says, but we have not read it or we have not meditated on it enough to know it before we act. The result that David comes to in this 3rd stanza is he needs a redeemer to keep him from error, hidden faults and presumptuous sins so they do not control him. His redeemer is the God who has revealed himself. God himself is the only one who can make him blameless so he can be found innocent in light of the perfect demands of God’s Word. So as we come to the end of this last stanza of our Psalm, where does that leave us? What can we take away from this Psalm? For those of us who believe in God’s Word we can look to the Gospel of John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In just those three verses we see John describing Jesus as in creation and as the word of God and as God himself then in he tells us in John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from Father, full of grace and truth. We believe that the whole bible is about Jesus from Genesis 1:1 where the word for the God who created is Elohim (the plural form of God showing the Trinity at work in creation). And the Gospel tells us that Jesus fulfilled the perfect demands of the law described in the first five books, and that he died the death and took the wrath of God the father that we deserved so that we might have eternal life. Our soul has been revived by his Word – the testimony of who Jesus is. Jesus is the new covenant spoke of in Jeremiah 31:33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Because of this heart change that God does by revealing himself in his Word, we who believe in it, can profess like Peter in Matthew 16:15 That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is the rock of our faith. We too can sing Psalm 19, like David, a song that praises the glory of Jesus in creation, for being the Word made flesh and redeeming us. Our worship should be praising the name of above all names the name of Jesus our Lord, our rock and our redeemer. But what about when life gets messy, when things fall apart. Some may say they need to go for a walk in the woods to connect with God, but while we know we can see God’s glory displayed there, it won’t help us when we need to hear from God. To do that, we need to open his word and ask him through the power of the Holy Spirit to reveal his wisdom and his will in his word. Or what about when you are without your bible and need him. That is when we need to have it stored up in our hearts and minds to recall it. I used to be one of those people that said I couldn’t memorize well. But I could often recall useless facts that serve no purpose. God’s word is infinitely more valuable than useless facts. Or what about when a friend needs advice, how quick are we to turn to worldly advice when we have the pure undefiled word of God. Or maybe there are times when we presume to know what God’s word says, but forget to check the source. We can easily get turned to the left or right when we don’t consult the directions that have been given to us. For many of us, and I put myself in the front of this line, we can easily sit down and watch a movie for 2 or more hours but struggle sometimes to read the word of God for more than 10 minutes. When we truly treasure it we put it at the center of our lives and meditate on it day and night. It looks like David, meditating on the Word, but for us we have the full revelation of his word from Genesis to Revelation. We should be doing this daily so that our soul is revived daily. His testimony will make us wise, enlighten our eyes and make our hearts rejoice like David. I would like to read Psalm 19 again and as you follow allow let us meditate on it and think of Jesus in this Psalm. There are many other images that may come to mind now for you as I read, like the word bridegroom which gives us a picture of Christ. Let this Psalm be our prayer today as we end or service. In the Book of Ezra when the prophet Ezra brought the Word of God out to read to the people, they stood in awe of the Word. Let us also stand today as we close. I would also ask that we read it responsively. To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. 1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. AMEN
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