Psalm 19 - The Heavens, The Word & the Glory of God
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
I have the pleasure today to continue in our Summer of Psalms series. We kicked it off last week, Pastor Andra did, and we're gonna be in Psalm chapter 19. So if you guys wanna flip, tap, click over to that this morning, we're gonna be in Psalm 19, but I love Psalms. And there's been a couple seasons now, I think we're in our third season of, in a rotation of summers of doing summer in Psalms. And what I love about the summer in Psalms is it's just, this is time to kinda take a little bit of a step back. I know we got a lot of people traveling, we got a lot of graduations, we got people going here and there. And I love about the Psalms is it's still kind of a giant overarching series, but at the same time, we just kind of dive into one chapter at a time and there's 150 of them. So it'll probably take us a couple summers to go through all of them alone. We could do a summer in Psalm 119 by itself if we wanted to one year. But the book of Psalms is so much different than any other book in the Bible. And what I mean by that is there are 150 chapters of Psalms. and divide it up into five different parts, or maybe you could call five different subgroups. And that they are over 40 to a dozen in each of these sub books in the Psalms. And there are so many different authors. That's what I love about this. There's so many different people's perspectives. There's so many different people's hearts and experiences they're having with God Almighty, from Moses to King David, King Solomon, to Asaph, to the sons of Korah, to Ethan, to Herman. And there's actually over 50 Psalms that there is no author attributed as well. And this time of this book actually spans about a thousand years, which when you think about that, you think, man, that's pretty incredible to have a book to cover over a thousand years of life. Big themes of praise, God's power, forgiveness, and it all sums up in a perfect little bow that I just absolutely my type A personality love. In Psalm 150 verse six, last verse in the entire book of Psalms, it says, "Let everything that breathes sing praise to the Lord." Praise the Lord.
That's what it's about. That's what life in itself, if you were to boil down everything that we in our life would just breathe praise to God almighty. That our life, how we live, how we love one another, how we care for each other, how we serve one another, how we go to our job, how we do school, how we go from places, how we grocery shop, how we go to Costco and deal with that parking lot, how we do everything would just bring honor and praise to God. There is this level of raw emotion in the Psalms that I just absolutely, sometimes we think maybe we have to pray a certain way. We're talking to big G God, right? I get asked all the time as a pastor, how do you pray? Teach me how to pray. And I was like, you're having a conversation with me, right? They're like, yeah, teach me how to pray. I was like, have a conversation with God. And they're like, well, you know, if I don't have like, if I don't speak in those right words, if I don't speak in King James, sayeth, loveth, shalleth, Lord blesseth, meeth, pleaseth. Like if we don't talk in King James and God doesn't hear me and I go, no, no, no, no, no, that's not how it is. You're having a conversation with a relational, loving, caring God who deeply knows you in the ways that even your closest confidant doesn't even know you. And we're gonna see that today in the book of Psalm 19, but this raw emotion, sometimes unpolished, sometimes not polite, sometimes not even PC. We see these Psalms in this book and I want us to remember and to be reminded that God's not afraid of our real life. God's not afraid of what we're going through that we can't get real with Him. He's a big God. He can take it. He can take it. And when we might find ourselves in life, and I've been there before when I just wanted to just punch God, 'cause I don't understand why He's doing what He's doing. He's just right there just to wrap you up in the midst that He loves us. And we see that in Psalms and specifically songs of men that we'll get to later in this series, but this honest, true, personal conversation that we get to kind of peek behind the curtain of people's personal relationship with God is such an incredible, incredible guide for our life in how we can have this relationship with God ourselves.
Last week, Pastor Andre kicked us off with Psalm 29. And he talked about this idea of reminding us to listen for the voice of God. And that we might find ourselves with people in our life that are trying to tell us that they are God and that they know the best for our lives. And they wanna either with hopefully good intentions, maybe not steer us in the right way, but that we know that there's people with bad intentions that try to pull us away, especially it talks about the enemy being one of great disguise, trying to pull us away from the truth of God's voice. In the Psalmist in 29, King David, he says, "Listen for the voice of God." Push in, fight with everything you have to hear that voice from him because only in him can we find the true voice of God, which brings strength and peace. And this kind of peace that we've said before that just is beyond understanding. This peace that we can only have when we rest in the truth of God.
And so today Psalm 19, this is a really unique Psalm. It's unique in the way that it's written in three different parts from three different authors spanning three different time periods. And yet has the same cohesive thought and theological truth drawing us in to the character of God. These three sections in verse one through six talk about creation and how creation speaks and gives praise to God. And then verse seven through 10 talk about this idea of the instruction for life, the speech of God and His word. The original Hebrew word here would be the Torah, the original Hebrew scriptures and how that speaks to God's truth for our lives. And then verses 11, 14, there is the shift that the author itself then becomes the reader servant in finding speech in a prayer to God on our behalf. And what I love about this is this big theme of this entire Psalm is on creation and God being the creator. This first part of the Psalm describes creation in praise to God. And it talks about this idea of joy that comes when we look at the created world around us. And then it pulls us in to the joy that is found in God's word. And then ultimately into the joy that is found in a deep personal relationship with God himself. And it talks about this word of God being our rock, kind of coming full circle of this idea of nature being revealing who God is himself. And we can understand God in so many facets in life. I think sometimes we think of this big dude upstairs, this God of heavens that is disconnected or as far from us, or is so impersonal to who our life is here today.
But the Psalmist here wants to remind us that that's not who God is. That God is not a hidden God, but he is more a revealed God in so many ways, whether it's the created world around us, whether it's his scriptures that he gives us in the Bible to read, and in this deep, honest, personal relationship that we have with him. And that is in this personal relationship that we find communion and relationship and intimacy through prayer. I wanna jump in this first section of Psalms. So you wanna turn Psalm 19, starting in verse one, it says this, it says, "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 reveal knowledge. Yet they have no speech. They use no words. No sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun. This first section here is so interesting because it takes us to this place where there's this beautiful duality and back and forth play between artistry and theology. and theological truth. The heavens is being the subject declare or are resounding being a verb, the glory of God who is the object of this entire Psalm. The work of his hands being God's hands, the object proclaim or is declaring verb, the skies, the subject of this. There's this theological balance and these two colas of this opening verse that go back and forth about how God dwells in the heavens and yet the heavens praise God glory. And at the same time, the skies, the created, the lower firmament, as you might know, or the level beneath the heavens, the sky, the moon, the stars, actually in turn praise the work of God's hands. So it's like this beautiful dance back and forth, all resounding on the glory of God. And then in verse two and three, there's the beginning to be this continued statement of repetition day after day, night after night, emphasizing that creation speaks a message about God and passes on this knowledge of God forever and ever and ever and ever, amen. It's only then in verse three that we shift to state that though this message is sent back and forth for all eternity, it cannot be interpreted in the traditional understanding.
What do I mean by that? Well, I mean, it's this fundamental paradox of God's creation actually resounds with a speech, but it is in a way that human beings can neither hear nor understand. There is no speech, there are no words, There is no voice particularly heard. And yet this knowledge of who God is in creation is personified and expressed. But not just any type of knowledge, it's knowledge specifically of the Lord God Almighty. I struggled to understand that at first. I was studying, I was like, how does this all this work? And I was reminded of that feeling you have maybe when you just sit on the beach and you just stare into the waves. To sit there and just to look out into complete total abyss. Or maybe you prefer when you find yourself sitting by the lake and the cool waters lapping on the shore and being surrounded in the shadow of tall, tall trees. There's just something there that speaks to our soul. There's something there that says we're not alone. That there's something else out there that put this together and put this on earth and made it happen in such a unique, intricate, specific, orderly, not a happenstance fashion. And there's just this peace that comes over us. My wife and I had the opportunity to sneak away for a few days, thanks to Papa and Mimi, to watch the kids for us for our 16 year anniversary. And we got to go up to Lake Tahoe. And we were able to be out there for two nights, but I remember the morning of the first day after we'd been up there. And I just got this chance to sit on the little deck outside of our hotel and just to be in the presence of just God in his creation and the cool breeze and the shadow of the trees and just the peace of God was in that space. And yet it spoke words to me and yet there were no words. You could just feel something there. And as the Psalmist said, we'll read a little bit, it refreshed my soul to just sit in that place with a cup of coffee and just talk to God. And honestly, not much was said. It was just a moment that I was able to have in that space that God knew my soul was growing weary and I needed His refreshment in me. And I just found myself sitting in this space without words, without verbal communication, just something that I knew He was there. And this is what the Psalmist is saying, that in space we can find something that is felt, that is experienced, that is heard deep within us. This is actually a little bit in contrast to the culture of the day when the Psalm first section was written because Israel's neighbors actually worshiped the sun, the moon, the stars as divine beings themselves. And the poem here of the Psalter is stressing that the created things that are the sky are not God, but they are merely something, a phenomenon of the creator God Almighty Himself, whose true end is to praise God, the one true God. and this voice and this tongue of nature as it may speak, not in the words that human beings that we can discern, it is something deep down in our soul that connects us to God himself.
The psalm continues in verse five. It is like a bride coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and it makes it circuit all the way to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth. The second stanza takes a little bit of a shift, even though still part of the first section brings us a narrow focus to the sun specifically. This idea of rising and going is this measure of the day and the night. In Hebrew culture, it is said that the sun was to have its tent in the heavens, that the sun was to rise and it was the sun was to go down and it was to have its tent in the presence of the heavens of God almighty. This going out and running its course or its circuit and to return home. In the ancient near East, the sun was worse, the God of justice. And the Psalmist here is playing on this cultural idea that a Sumerian hymn calls the sun god a hero, a strong man or a warrior, and that it goes out and it conquers all, and it returns home victorious to his wife. The writer here is playing off of these cultural polytheistic ideas that these gods or the sun being a god himself, but it isn't polytheism that the Psalmist is talking about, but rather reminding us, the reader, that the sun is not a God, but something created by God. And it is God who sets the sun in the heavens, not the sun itself. The sun runs a circuit, not for itself, as the ancient Near East would believe, but runs the circuit that God has appointed to it. And that the sun is said to rejoice as it runs its circuit in the songs of praise directed towards God himself. The son or the created is giving worship to its big C, creator. Verse six says that nothing is deprived from its warmth. I think this word warmth here is a little bit deceiving. It's the original Hebrew is actually talking about this idea of heat or wrath. If you're thinking the terms of the sun and the culture, that the sun god would be this god of justice, one that just tears through everything and it kills and it conquers, it consumes with fire, everything set before it. I felt that this week when the sun, anybody else? The wrath of a hundred degrees is upon us. This idea or imagery of extreme judgment, devouring thirst that nothing, even the ends of the earth as it says, can escape it. But there's a subtle message wrapped here in this stanza. The writer wants to remind us that God being above and over all of creation, including the Son, who the surrounding cultures see as a God, is actually declaring that God is in God's glory. And that God's glory comes to His holiness, sometimes seen as themes in the Old Testament of Hebrew scripture as a fire. We see that in the Israelites when they're first out of Egypt, that God is a pillar of fire by night. that this fire as seen by most cultures as this horrific, terrible thing that wants to kill and destroy you is actually seen as something that is holy, is refining, is a light guiding us darkness. And that sometimes even in the church, it's been misrepresented as the God of fire and brimstone. Repent or go to hell, preachers yelling at you. But there's this duality of this fire that yet, yes, it is burning and hot and consuming, but also at the same time, I think of a warm fire on a cold night that warms, that sustains life, that helps us, that cooks food for us, that sustains us, brings nourishment. And this idea of, yes, God is both judge, judge in his permanent, hard, there's no compromise. But at the same time, he is caring, he is loving, he is guiding, he is life sustaining. And the Psalmist here is playing on as we see a verse and we think, man, that's so harsh. How can God be so hard? I thought God was supposed to be loving. And yet there is judgment. He calls us out on the carpet at times, but it's only because He loves us and He cares for us and He wants the best for our lives. I see this in the fact that the sun doesn't change. God doesn't. Rather we, in our circumstances, our choices, Our decisions, our moments in life change. But God is there day after day after day, always coming back around.
The Psalmist continues, verse 7 through 10, “The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The three steps 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 decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold. They are more than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.” This is where we shift into the second section of the Psalm, and the tone here changes, right? We just go from the sun being consuming and harsh, and just burning to this idea of then the scripture, the word of the Lord is refreshing to our soul. Like a drink of cool water on a hot day, just that ah moment. This is the word of God. There's also a change in the original word for God here. It goes from a generic L, meaning God of nature, to this more personal relational God that the Hebrew people did as Yahweh. To go from a God of just nature that is around us to a personal God who loves us. The word of God is said in these first six lines full of synonyms. Did you catch those? It talked about the law, the statute, the precepts, the commands, the fear, the decrees. Each of these in reference to the word of God better knows we had today the Bible and these verses and words and chapters and books are all instructions for us for right living. There is this connection now between the law or the nature of God and his created order into the law of God, His Word, the Torah, the Scriptures for our lives. There's connections here between talking about rejoicing as it circles the earth and at the same time the precepts of the Lord. The Scriptures are right giving joy to our heart. Joy is seen in created order and joy is seen in His Word for lives. The Sun shines over all creation, talking about light, and the commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to our eyes. The light from the Sun continues throughout all a universe. It doesn't just shine past earth and then just fade off, but light continues on through the vast expanse of the universe, and so do the fear of the Lord is pure and during forever. This beautiful imagery of the created order and and particular set emotion details isn't just creation but we find ourselves too in that creation being created in the image of God ourselves and God giving us his word to know who he is not just from a generic knowledge of the created order around us, but a more head knowledge of who God is in his character. Verse 10 closes this section. It says, "They are more precious than gold, much more pure gold. They are sweeter than honey than honey from a honeycomb." This verse continues to echo God's creation in the first six verses, affirming that the word of the Lord is more desired than anything in creation. Playing off of this imagery of the sun becoming both gold and honey, sharing this golden hue of the sun. It's beautiful picture here of this, but speaking more so of gold and honey as status in that day. If you had gold, you You were set. You were wealthy. You were beyond ready to eat on a regular basis. You were first class. You were top of the top. And the Psalmist here is reminding us that even the word of the Lord is greater than the greatest desired of life itself. Not just gold, but absolutely pure gold with no imperfections, which I don't even know if they were able to refine it that pure in that day. But talking about honey being something that does not spoil, does not fade, does not go bad, it lasts almost forever. And to have that to be consumed in sweetness and to have this joy and pleasure in eating that the word of God is even greater than any of all of that. Anything that you would want to pursue as the thing in life, God's word rises and sets above it all.
The Psalmist finished in verses 11 to 14. "By them, your servant is warned, in keeping them there is a great reward. But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins that they may not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” The shift in poetic style as well. And that here the Psalmist himself becomes our servant to the reader in praying for us in his words and in his speech towards God. this beautiful shift and this idea of this coming from abstract speech from nature into the speech of God's word for our lives, into the speech of the scene for us in the way that we live out our life. Verses 11 and 12 there discuss the rewards. What does it say there? It says, "Great reward is found in the instruction of God." This isn't talking about this cause and effect of, "Okay, if I obey everything in the word of God, then there will be great reward for me. I will prosper. I will have everything perfect in my life. Nothing bad will happen to me." No. Talking about the fact of the opposite of that, when we follow the instruction of God, there is great reward in the life of God that is given to our soul. I think sometimes in life, we want God to bless us and then we'll be obedient. But God doesn't work like that. God asks and calls for our obedience and then his intimacy comes on to our life. That's how God works. And the Psalmist here is reminding us and saying this way that protect us in your salvation, God. See, we have on the backside of this, the great reward of knowing the story of God after this, Jesus coming to earth, dying for our sins, rising again, ascending to heaven and sending upon us, those who have accepted him, believe in him, the gift and leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is the greatest thing that we ever asked for. The Psalmist here is praying for something like that, but not knowing what that thing is like. And yet we have that. So for us to see the revelation of God in this unspoken knowledge of God, to then see His word given to us to revealing who He is, God's character, His nature, His son, the Holy Spirit is then infused into our lives how we go about our daily life, living the way that God has called us to in ways that we know we need to make a right decision, talking about the willful choices, the willful wrongdoing, the willful right doing, but also as it says in here, these hidden places, these hidden spots where we might not know the details of God in this moment, we know because of who God has revealed himself in nature, who his scripture is and the truth and the word that he's given us, we know how we are to act and live and fulfill the life and calling that he has for each of us.
This author's prayer, I kind of rewrote it in my own words. And it would be, God, let your word of your truth speak over not just me, but also the reader. Let your holy light illuminate our errors as the sun, both hidden and unknown, willful and known. Let your freedom be found in the almighty God and not our sinful nature, in the desire to be blameless, removed from innocence of any transgression, to be holy God as you are holy, bringing you Father, Lord almighty, into our entire being through our words of our mouth, our souls, our hearts, thoughts, even before they become words. May we all do in our speech, finding revelation in the unspoken speech in your creation and your word become pleasing, something that you God would find full of rejoicing that my life would be a pleasing sacrifice, bringing glory, honor, and praise to you God, acknowledging that you God truly, The one and only is this character and this nature that you Lord are my rock. One where I can find refuge, safety, security, and freedom. And even the greater is the character of God, my Redeemer. The only one by which we are saved from being lost, gone, tossed out without any value. God picks us up, dust us off, even brings us back into value. we are called a child of Him. He is given our name. We have an inheritance in Him. We become a child of His. And when all hope seemed to be lost, God shows again and again and again and rescues us.
That's Psalm 19. In creation, the Creator that was once hidden is seen in plain sight. And in God's word, the Lord Yahweh comes to us in a personal way. We meet God in this gracious and merciful who is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, showing faithfulness to the thousandth generation. The heavens, the Word, the glory of God. So the question for us is what do we do with this newfound knowledge? Will we pursue God as as more precious than the greatest desires of our heart, more than gold, more than honey. God's not a hidden God, as some believe. God is a very revealed God in everything that is around us. We can know God in a vague, impersonal nature connection, but the good news is it doesn't stop there. We can have a personal knowledge of God in deep, deep intimate relationship. That's the God that I want. That's the God that I need. That's the God that I serve. Let's pray.
Jesus, thank you for Psalm 19. God, I'm so grateful for the sermons who wrote this Psalm for us to be reminded today that you, God, are revealed all around us. There isn't a place on this earth that we can go where we do not see or experience or see who you are. But it doesn't just stop there, God. You've given us the knowledge of your word, your scripture, your holy, holy instructions to show us how to live our lives, to show us how to worship you. God, I pray that we would be reminded today of who you are. You're not just the big guy upstairs, you're not some impersonal God looking to strike us down when we first mess up or to just have smash us because you can just for your own pleasure. God, you desire deep relationship with us. God, I pray for those who today might not have made that choice, that they would say yes to you, to say yes to God, come into my life. Forgive me of the things that I've done wrong and that I've messed up. Remove my sin, go in my place, redeem me, make me whole. Have your spirit come upon me, have your new life pour into my heart. and God that I would live in the calling and the purpose that you have for my life today and forevermore. Jesus we thank you for today. God we worship you, we praise you, and give you all the honor and glory that nature does as you being our great creator. We thank you Jesus. Amen.