Psalm 19

Good morning, Providence Bible
Church. If you would open your Bibles to Psalm 19, please. Psalm
19 is a wonderful little psalm. It’s very memorable. I’m sure
it’ll be very familiar to you. If people were to pick their
top 10, it would be in there. I know you’ve heard it before.
It is a psalm about God and him revealing himself to his people.
how he reveals himself. And David is considering that.
And I think it’s appropriate today, because David’s going
to point us to God through creation, but especially in his word and
how God has revealed himself that way. Why do I say it’s important
today? Because we do live in an age
of confusion. There is no objective truth anymore. God is true. He is truth. Everything he says is true. His
judgments are right. They cannot be questioned. We
look around society today, that’s not the case. We have the sexual
revolution, redefined morality. We have the marriage revolution,
redefining marriages and what they are. We have the gender
revolution, forgetting or changing who God made people to be. We
have the judgments of the courts that are rapidly obscuring this
truth. In years past, I think there
was four or five different attacks on scripture or ways to view
the world. We had sociology, social reordering
of society, things like that, evolution, atheism. Today, truth
is whatever you think it is. That’s what kids are learning
in our colleges. It’s whatever you think it is. Religion is
whatever you think it is. It’s my truth, and you can’t
say otherwise. And Christians, have truth, and
we say, no, there is an objective truth and a truth giver, and
that truth is black and white, and we know what marriage is,
and we know how to live, and we know what God has commanded,
and people don’t like that, and culture gets angry with us. And
this Psalm reassures us of that. It reassures us that we do have
God’s revealed truth to us, and David is just encouraging us
to walk in that. So I think it’s very appropriate
However, as I read this psalm, I don’t think David, when he
wrote this, was thinking about atheism. He had another psalm
for that. The fool says in his heart, there
is no God. I don’t think he was looking at the pagan cultures
around him, wondering about idolatry, those who worshiped God’s creation. The last verse in our psalm says
he was meditating. He says, may the words of my
mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you.
I think he was doing his devotions. thinking, how do I know God?
How has he revealed himself to me? And he looks up maybe as
a shepherd boy with the sheep at night and sees the stars and
the moon. He sees the sunrise and he says, wow, God, I see
you there. And then he looks down in his
lap doing his devotions at the parchment, the Torah, the scrolls,
the prophets, and sees that God communicated and showed forth
himself through his word. And he’s just thinking about
that and he pens this song. We have three stanzas. The first
stanza is God revealed in creation, God’s revelation in his works
of creation. The second stanza is God revealing
himself in his word, his special revelation to his people, where
he reveals himself personally. And then the third stanza is
David’s response. What did that make him do? Read Psalm 19 with
me, if you would. for the choir director, Psalm
of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God, and their
expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day pours
forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no
speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard. Their
line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterance
is to the end of the world. In them he has placed a tent
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It
rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from
one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord
is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than
gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the
drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant
is warned. In keeping them, there is great
reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me from hidden faults.
Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them
not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, and
I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in
your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Three stanzas. David looks up at God’s creation,
specifically in the heavens. and then he looks down at God’s
word and he responds with humility and repentance. We’ll take it
from verse one. The heavens are telling of the
glory of God. This is the sky and everything
that’s in him, everything that’s not earth, sun, moon, and stars. He’s gonna say in the next verse,
the expanse, the space where God hung them from horizon to
horizon, and they’re speaking. The heavens are telling They’re
explaining and revealing. They’re bearing witness to the
glory of God. This glory is God’s majesty.
It has a sense of weightiness. He’s worthy. He’s glorious. He’s powerful. To the glory of
God. And their expanse from horizon
to horizon where God hung them is declaring the work of his
hands. Psalm 8 verse 3. David writes,
when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the
moon and the stars which you have ordained, it’s the handiwork,
it’s the finished work, like finished carpentry, like a master
artist, a master craftsman, working beautifully and skillfully, making
a masterpiece. David looks up, considers all
this, And he doesn’t, he’s not tempted to worship them like
idolatry. He says, I see God. I listen
to them. They’re telling and they’re declaring.
They’re telling me about God’s glory. And I’m looking at him
and I see the masterpiece of God, the handiwork of his fingers.
If you look at a masterpiece, a painting, for example, it might
be beautiful and you can sit and have your breath taken away
from it. But big deal, what about the one who painted it? What
does it say about him? He’s skillful. He’s artistic,
he’s wise in how he puts the colors together. That’s what
David is saying. I look at creation and I see
the creator and wow, it’s telling me about the creator. He’s glorious
and he has handiwork. He’s very powerful, he’s excellent
in the work. Verse two, day to day pours forth
speech and night to night reveals knowledge. In the day you have
the sun, at night you have the moon and stars. They’re pouring
forth speech like bubbling out all the time, like a spring. They reveal knowledge. They’re
putting something on display about God. And all of these verbs,
they’re telling, they’re declaring, they’re pouring forth speech,
and they’re revealing are all in They’re continuous, it’s like
they keep on telling and doing it nonstop. All day long, the
sun is declaring this. And it’s 24-7, because all night
long, the moon and stars come and they declare the same thing.
We’re talking about God’s glory, his masterful handiwork in detail
and creation, and knowledge. This word knowledge is nuanced
with wisdom. It’s not just knowing how to do it, it’s knowing how
to create it, knowing how to put his skills into his creation. David maybe was reading Genesis
1. Then God said, let there be light,
and there was light. God saw that the light was good,
and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the
light day, and the darkness he called night, and there was evening,
and there was morning one day. Genesis chapter 8, after the
flood, while the earth remains, the Lord makes a promise While
the earth remains, seed time and harvest and cold and heat
and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease. From then on, all the way to
now, God has established and preserved his creation without
variation. And that reveals something about
God, too. He’s powerful. He’s sustaining it. He created
and sustains it consistently, giving time and seasons and calendars
and harvest and rains David is just considering this, and he
says, wow, God, you are glorious. The handiwork of your creation
is magnificent. The knowledge that you applied
in wisdom is amazing. Solomon picks this up in Proverbs
8. He personifies wisdom. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence,
and I find knowledge and discretion. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom
I am understanding. Power is mine. By me kings reign,
and rulers decree justice. And then he talks about when
God created. The Lord possessed me at the
beginning of his way, before his works of old. From everlasting,
I was established. From the beginning, from the
earliest times of the earth, when there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no springs abounding
with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills,
I was brought forth. While he had not yet made the
earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world, when
he established the heavens, I was there. when he inscribed a circle
on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above,
when the springs of the deep became fixed, when he set for
the sea its boundary so that the water would not transgress
his commands, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him as a master workman. I was daily his delight,
rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the world, his earth,
and having my delight in the sons of men. It’s God’s common
grace to all people. He says in Deuteronomy 4, when
you look up and you see the works of my hands, don’t worship them.
They’re telling of me, and they’re for all men. God is good to all
men through his creation. David says, look up. When you
see the sun, moon, stars, and space in the expanse, they all
tell, declare, pouring out, and they’re revealing God’s glory,
his handiwork, his knowledge, his wisdom, and his power to
sustain it all without variation. They are God’s preachers. They’re
his heralds. They’re bearing witness to the
power of God in creation. David looks at creation and he
doesn’t say there is no God. He’s not tempted to worship them.
He says, God, you are amazing in what you revealed of yourself
through creation. They’re his witnesses, his heavenly
heralds. They proclaim 24 hours straight, one message, day and
night, day after day, and they’re talking about God. Verse three,
there is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard.
You cannot hear them audibly with the ear. You hear them with
the eye, if I could say that. This is poetry, so you could
twist words. You hear them with your eye as
you look around. They communicate as in pictures. To be noted,
looking at creation will never bring you to salvation, because
faith comes from hearing, and that of the word of God, Romans
10, 17. But creation is a revelation
of God nonetheless. Verse 4, their line has gone
out through all the earth and their utterances to the end of
the world. This is just the measuring line. You think of architectural
drawing when the foundations were laid through all the earth,
every square inch of it. Their utterances, more communication
words. I would have needed a thesaurus if I was writing this. David
is just Four or five different words communicating the same
thing here. Their utterance is more communication language.
To the end of the world, all of it. There’s nowhere where
their message about God is not heard or understood by men. Their
language is universal. They speak to all men, they articulate
that one message clearly, and they repeat that message during
the day and night repeatedly. From the first day God created
until today and until the end of time. This verse four is actually
quoted in Romans. chapter 10, Paul is talking about
the Israelites, how they are without excuse. And we know that
they had the revelation of God given to them, but he talks about
creation and he quotes this verse, but I say, surely they have never
heard, have they? Indeed they have. Their voice
has gone out into all the earth and their words to the end of
the world. So the Jews were without excuse.
And Paul starts out his letter of Romans saying that in Romans
chapter one, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth
and unrighteousness, because that which is known about God
is evident within them, for God made it evident within them.
That’s the testimony of the conscience. But here we have creation in
verse 20. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes,
his glory, his artistic skill in creating, His knowledge and
wisdom and power, His invisible attributes, His eternal power
and divine nature have been clearly seen being understood through
what has been made so that they are without excuse. God’s creation
testifies, reveals. A Puritan put it like this, the
sun, moon and stars are God’s traveling preachers. They are
apostles confirming the works, the words of God. That’s where
David’s gonna go after he considers creation straight to God’s word.
and they are judges condemning the works of men. God’s creation,
his revelation of himself in creation, will hold man accountable. All men are accountable to the
testimony of creation and reprobate, suppress the truth, that’s unbelievers,
but believers like David see God on display. David continues
with the exact same argument. He just changes the metaphor
here from looking up, he picks out one of the heavenly bodies,
he picks out the sun, And he describes this in poetical language,
personifying the sun. Him then, he has placed a tent
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. It
rejoices as a strong man to run his course. I can almost see
David in Jerusalem looking at the mountains and the sun is
rising and he sees the light coming forth and it peeks behind
the mountains. He says, that looks like coming
out of a tent. And it’s radiant. It’s brilliant,
like a bridegroom on his wedding day, excited, dressed in all
of his fine apparel, coming out of his pavilion. And he’s strong,
like a brave warrior athlete. And he’s gonna run his course
and no one’s gonna stop him as he goes across the sky. That’s
what David’s picturing here. Verse six, it’s rising is from
one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them,
from horizon to horizon. Look as far as you can east and
as far as you can west. the son’s gonna run his course.
And there is nothing hidden from its heat. That’s the same point. No one can escape the testimony
of creation. And he says heat, I kind of thought
here, maybe this is just in case a blind man who can’t see God’s
creation, he’s gonna feel it. So he’s without excuse too. I
doubt if that’s what David had in mind. The point is, all creation
is preaching without words, but in a way understood by every
person, everywhere and every time. No one can get away from
this testimony. And though men may plug their
ears to the heralds of God’s gospel as they preach the word
throughout the world, no one can silence these. They hear
them, they understand them, and they’re held accountable. They
proclaim God’s glory, his work, his knowledge, his wisdom, and
his power, which Paul says is enough to hold them accountable.
But creation does not proclaim who this creative God is, what
he is like, man’s sinful state and what God has done to redeem
him out of it, which is all found in God’s word. And his word is
necessary for salvation. And David knew this. I think
he goes from looking up to looking down into God’s word. And we
have a second meditation, second stanza. It’s all about God revealing
himself in his word. First things, I’m gonna read
this through, but the first six sentences, the first three verses
in six sentences, David gives six nouns and they are metaphors
for God’s word. Just different words that he
uses to describe one thing, God’s revelation of himself in his
word. But he’s communicating one thing,
the word of God, but he’s gonna look at it from different angles.
And at each six, one of those, he’s gonna use an adjective to
describe that word. So we have the word described
as precepts, testimonies, commands, and judgments. We have it described
as pure, right, perfect, clean. And he’s gonna give us six verbs,
six things that this word does. Makes man wise, it converts his
soul, grants him discernment by enlightening his eyes. So
David’s just considering God’s word and all that it does for
him, all that it is, all that God says, all that the word itself
is, and he’s meditating on it, and he puts this down. Let me
read it through. Let me point out one more thing. Look at verse seven. The law
of the Lord. Capital L, capital O, capital
R, capital D. He lists the Lord six times here.
If you look back at verse one, he puts God there. The heavens
are declaring the glory of God. The word God is different than
the word Lord. God is El. You think of Elohim? That’s the
name for God in Genesis 1. In the beginning God created.
Elohim is plural. That means the Trinity was involved
there. In verse 1 he just says, this Creator God. But the word
Lord is Yahweh. It’s when God appeared to Moses
and his people and revealed himself and declared, I am your covenantal
God who will swear by myself to love you and deliver you,
and I will not change my mind, and I will put my love upon you,
his covenantal loving kindness, my loyal love, and I am the self-existent
one, totally sufficient within myself. So David goes from the
impersonal creator God in verse one to Israel’s personal God,
who has revealed himself in his word. Let me read this. The law
of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord
are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true, they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than
gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the
drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant
is warned, in keeping them there is great reward. We’ll take it
from the top. First of six. The law of the
Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. This word law in Hebrew
is Torah. Technically, it would be the
first five books of the Bible that Moses wrote. Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. To a Jew hearing the word Torah,
they would think of instruction. It is God’s instruction to them. And he says law of the Lord,
as I already pointed out, this changes the relationship. This
is the God who revealed himself personally to his people through
his word. The self-existing, self-sufficient,
self-revealing God. The covenant-keeping God who
keeps loyal love to his people. The law of the Lord is perfect.
It is blameless. It is without corruption. It’s
complete, perfect in all its parts, perfect as a whole. You
are not to add to it, alter it, or take away from it. Basically,
it’s perfect. The law of the Lord is perfect.
And what does it accomplish? Restoring the soul. This word
restoring could be converting. Grant salvation. It means to
turn to or return to. It brings salvation to a person
or it brings a wayward sinner back in repentance to God. And we, I think, find that strange
when someone says the law, the Old Testament law, is perfect
for converting people to salvation because we in the New Testament
come across, like in 2 Corinthians 3, Paul writes, the letter kills
but the Spirit gives life. The testimony written on stone
is an administration of death. And we know that the law brings
death. It doesn’t save anybody. But I think we forget that in
the Old Testament law, it was not without a gospel. If you
look at everything in the sacrificial system, it pointed to another.
It pointed to a sacrifice. And the Jews looked for the perfect
sacrifice that God would provide. Like Abraham told his son, the
Lord will provide his own sacrifice. If a Jew back then came and thought
the sacrifices really saved him and thought he could go through
the motions, yeah, it wouldn’t save him. But as David, if he
came and he offered sacrifices in faith, looking forward to
the one whom God would send, his Redeemer, which is actually
in our last verse. Oh Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.
We know who the rock is. We know who the Redeemer is.
So even in the Old Testament, saints were saved by faith. Through
the Word of God, through Scripture alone, through faith alone, they
were saved by the grace of God alone, in Christ alone, looking
forward to Him, even though they couldn’t see Him as clearly as
we do looking back, to the glory of God alone. Same salvation,
same faith. The law of the Lord is perfect,
restoring the soul. It can convert you and bring
you back to God. David says Old Testament law
is the perfect instruction from the Lord that will save men’s
souls, bringing a lost sinner to salvation. But he goes on,
the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Testimony, everything God says
about anything. against sin, for righteousness,
the fall, man’s depravity, a call to repent and be saved. And this
testimony is plain, discernible, infallible, and it is to be accepted. Why? Because it’s sure. This word sure means firm. It’s
on a firm foundation. It’s trustworthy because it’s
on the Lord himself. I find this very comforting.
When we come to the word of God, it’s no mere man’s speculation.
or philosophies. It’s from God and it’s sure,
it’s objective truth. And when you stand on that, you
stand on sure footing. Think of it as a solid foundation
for life. God’s testimonies are a solid
foundation for your life. And what do they do? They make
wise the simple. It doesn’t say fool, the simple. The fool rejects instruction,
but the simple-minded knows he’s simple-minded, knows he’s naive,
knows he’s inexperienced, knows it’s a dangerous world out there,
and he turns to the testimonies of God that are sure and a sure
foundation, and he studies them, and he walks in them, and guess
what? He is wise. Psalm 119, David writes, O Lord, your word
makes me wiser than my teachers. because he has the wisdom of
God. The simple-minded, the one who doesn’t know, turns to the
testimonies of God because God is wisdom himself. And when he
walks in them, he becomes wise. So first, the law converts. Second, the testimony makes wise.
He moves on, the third thing. The precepts of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. Precepts, basically how God wants
things done. Has he told us how he wants things
done? Did he tell the Israelites how he wanted to be worshipped?
Does he tell us? Yeah? Does he tell us how to arrange
ourselves in the church under elders and deacons? Yeah? Does
he talk about marriage? All of these things, they are
right. They’re straight. They’re not crooked. They’re
just. It’s in an ethical sense. They’re
not crooked. They’re without hypocrisy. They are straightforward
and they are just. Think of a road map. You’re not
zigzagging back and forth, tossed to and fro by every wind and
wave of doctrine. They are right. It is mapping
a straight course in your life. God has given instructions. And
what do they do? They rejoice the heart. That
we have precepts, and they’re right, and they rejoice David’s
heart, they should rejoice our heart. God’s direction on how
he wants things done will bring joy to the heart. God is right, and through this
we have a roadmap and we know exactly how to live in this crazy
world that is going to and fro and redefining everything, but
we have the objective truth of God given to us, and I’m super
happy about that, that I only have one place to look, one place
to be instructed. Notice the progression here.
We have the word, the law, testimonies and precepts, converts, makes
wise, and it gives joy. Free grace and salvation and
learning from God leads to joy in the heart. And David’s following
the progression. You don’t just get converted
and live how you want. You get converted and become a disciple.
The word disciple means learner. That’s what they did in the Old
Testament. And you can go ahead and draw
the connection here between what David had. I don’t know how much
he had, maybe a fourth of our Bible, but we have the whole
canon. That’s the word of God and it’s
revealed to us. And so go ahead and draw the
connection from the Old Testament saint to yourself in that seat
and the new covenant, the better covenant, the superior sacrifice
through Jesus Christ. All of this applies to us exactly
as it did then the fourth one. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. Commandments, edicts given by
a king, divine law. You shall, you shall not. Whatever commandments the Lord
gave, and again, these are just metaphors for the entire word
of God that David would have had, just poetically moving through
it. What are these? They’re pure.
It means they’re clean. No mixture of error, infallible,
inerrant. What we would say there without
corruption or pollution, no unwholesomeness. And what’s the result of God’s
commandments? They enlighten the eyes. A discerning eye. You see the way you see the right
way and you can discern the wrong way. You think of having your
eyes in light and you’re not going to stumble. You’re not
going to trip up and fall. because you have God’s commands
and they are pure and they will keep you from stumbling around
following every crazy philosophy because you’re going to have
discernment. The fear of the Lord is clean.
The fifth one, the fear of the Lord is clean. You might say
that’s not a metaphor for the Word of God. No, it’s not, but
it is part of what the Word of God does in the heart of man
when he gets converted, studies, As a simple-minded one and becomes
wise, his eyes are enlightened and he rejoices in his heart
and he studies God’s word and he sees God, he fears the Lord. It’s the beginning of wisdom,
right? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear
of the Lord is clean. It’s genuine, it’s without hypocrisy.
It cleans and it keeps you clean. Let’s think about the fear of
the Lord. What comes to mind? Terror? like you’re absolutely
frightened, or maybe perhaps a slave, fearing his master and
respecting him, doing his will instead of his own. Or maybe
fear like the Israelites when they were in the presence of
God at Sinai and God spoke and they said, Moses, tell him to
stop or we will die. I would say all three. But not to be afraid of him.
He’s a good father. You don’t fear a good father,
but you respect him. You know he can discipline you.
So the fear of the Lord is respect, not a slavish respect, but like
a child, it’s reverence and awe. Here’s a definition for you.
The continual awareness that our loving heavenly father is
watching and evaluating everything we think, say and do. And David
shows this fear of the Lord in the last verse. He says, May
the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart. God is
even seeing his heart knows if it’s going to be a mockery, hypocritical
words from his mouth, from a heart that’s not thinking deeply about
these things. So the word brings the man of God to a humble fear
of the Lord, and it’s clean. It’s genuine. Sincere. And that kind of saint. Endures
forever. enduring forever. It’s part of
the way God preserves his saints. The perseverance of the saints,
God preserves them through his word. They walk in his word continually. They don’t forsake it. If a saint
ever forsakes later in his life, he was never a saint, right?
And that’s what 1 John 2 says. The fear of the Lord is clean.
The result? that man will endure forever.
And follow the progress again, the word converts, the word makes
wise, the word gives joy, the word grants discernment, and
the word preserves in the path to the very end with God in eternity. And David throws one more in
for good measure, our sixth one. The judgments of the Lord are
true. Judgments, legal decisions. Whatever the judge decides, that’s
what it is. And they’re true, they’re faithful,
they’re honest, totally dependable. They are righteous altogether,
they’re full of right, they’re full of just, justice. There’s no bribery, there’s no
favoritism, there’s no nepotism. God’s judgments are right. I
kind of gave reference to our courts today. There was a court
last week in Texas that allowed a seven-year-old to undergo chemical
castration because he wants to be a girl. God’s judgments are
right. Don’t look around and depend
on the culture. Depend on God. Walk in God, walk
in his truth, walk in his judgments because they are righteous altogether,
either in his word or illustrated in history from his providence
on nations. They are absolutely truth itself. With all this in mind, as David
is thinking about God’s word and meditating on God’s word
and went from God revealing himself in creation to his glory and
power and wisdom and knowledge, and he looks in God’s word and
how God has revealed himself as the covenant-keeping God,
Yahweh, self-sufficient in himself, who covenanted by himself to
love his people and the loyal love of God in this and shared
himself in his word and through his prophets and the Torah and
everything David had and he reads it and studies it and considers
it and says, wow, it saves my soul. It opens my eyes and grants
me discernment. It makes me wise. It will save
me all the way to the very end. And he stops and he asks himself,
do I value it? And he’s gonna ask himself two
questions. What do I like better? The word or wealth? Or what do
I like better, the word or pleasures? And that’s the next verse. He
answers it for us, verse 10. They, that’s the word of God. He described it in six different
ways. They, the word, are more desirable
than gold. Yes, than much fine gold. They are perfect, they are sure,
they are right and true. They result in conversion, wisdom,
joy, discernment, and preservation. He says, I want them more than
anything else in this world. And that word desire is a strong
word. It’s a passionate desire, almost
like sanctified coveting and lusting, like there’s nothing
else you’re gonna go after more than this. One Puritan put it
this way, to desire it with a miser’s abatee. Meaning be greedy for
it, keep it, don’t lose it, and don’t spend it. God’s word should
be everything we strive for and what we hold most valuable in
our hearts. And see the progression here. More desirable than gold,
yes, much fine gold. Gold, fine gold, much fine gold. Good, better, best. It’s beyond
that. This should be what we seek after more than anything
else. And he goes to pleasures. Does he like the word as much
as he likes pleasures? Sweeter also than honey and the
drippings of the honeycomb. So who knew David had a sweet
tooth? He liked honey. He says, God’s
word is sweeter to me than even honey and not just any honey,
fresh honey that’s dripping right out of the honeycomb. And you
almost get the sense David’s saying, you know, it doesn’t
get any better than that. And God’s word is sweeter to me than
that. And I did think about honey and I felt bad for David because
he didn’t have a dairy where he can go and get a fresh glass
of milk, ice cold, right out of the cow. And there’s nothing
better than that. So I can’t relate to the honeycomb, but
I can relate to that. Whatever food or pleasure that
you love in this life, God’s word should be more pleasurable. More sweet to you than that.
David says it was to him as he’s meditating through this. Earthly
enjoyments and wealth are good and they’re a gift from God.
But David says God’s word to his people is way, way, way better
than any of that. Ultimately, God’s word is the
only thing that will ever satisfy you. Wealth won’t. I forget who
they asked. They asked a wealthy man, Rockefeller,
how much is enough? He said, one more dollar. Right? And with food, you eat it, and
then you’re hungry again. God’s Word satisfies. It satisfied David, and it’s
all David wants. He goes on with more benefits
of the Word, verse 11. Moreover, by them your servant
is warned. In keeping them, there is great
reward. Warnings. These are admonitions.
Scripture is loaded with them. The book of Hebrews has some
of the most shocking warnings that are in there. And admonitions,
they’re just gentle or friendly reproof or counsel and warning
against sin. Some are stronger than others,
but the intention of the warnings are like a road sign that says,
curve ahead, slow down to 20 miles an hour. You think of a
bunch of teenagers cut that down and you were driving doing 65
and you snuck up on it, you’d go crashing right through the
curve and off a cliff. David says, I love the warnings
of your scripture. I need them. They’re good for
me. They’re another benefit of God’s
word, not only to bring to salvation and make wise, but they warn.
In keeping them, there’s great reward. There’s a reward, a great
reward. As believers, we don’t earn wages
of sin, but we earn a reward of grace. The language points
to a future event at the end of life when the work is done.
And these are rewards of obedience in keeping them. This is a life
lived in obedience to the word of God. There’s great rewards
and it points to a future event. What’s David’s response? The
last stanza. After looking up, considering
God in creation, and all that that communicates to him, though
that can’t save, and then he looks down into his Torah, his
scroll, and studying and reading all that God had said, and just
marvels at all the wisdom and life that’s there, and how thankful
he is for it, and how he orients his life according to it, and
how it’s more desirable. I think at this point, I’m not
as sanctified as David. I would be pretty arrogant about
it and cocky and think, yeah, I have it all figured out because
I have God’s law and everybody else around me and the world
is just stumbling around in darkness. That’s not what David did. As
he considers all this, it drives him to repentance and confession.
In light of all this, he’s looking at his heart and he’s humbled
and he confesses. Repentance and humility, verse
12. Who can discern his errors? Acquit
me of hidden faults. Also keep back your servant from
presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me. Then
I will be blameless and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.
Who can discern his errors? It’s a rhetorical question. Answer,
nobody. Who can discern? Should have
an exclamation mark behind it. It’s rhetorical, it answers its
own question. And he puts errors here, and I kind of wondered
at that, because sins are heinous. Psalm 51, he says, my sin, iniquity,
and transgressions are ever before me, and those are all strong
words. An error just kind of seems like, yeah, it’s just a
little mistake. An error is a moral mistake. And I think he’s comparing
here, because the next verse, he talks about presumptuous sins,
and in the Old Testament, those are bad ones. So he’s just saying,
look, even the ones I’m too ignorant to even know about God, the small
ones, the sins of omission, that poor guy I walked by and didn’t
notice, because I had a rock in my shoe, versus the willful
one that I did. He’s considering them all. Who
can discern his errors? Nobody. Equip me from hidden faults.
This could be sins that he’s hiding in his heart, but I don’t
think so. I think it’s the hidden faults that he can’t see. I think
all of us, if God were to search us, if we could sit and confess
sins for two days straight, God would find a truckload more that
we don’t even know about. And he’s confessing those. He’s
very concerned about personal holiness here. And he goes to
his second prayer request, which is the heinous ones. Also, keep
back your servant from presumptuous sins. He’s asking God to restrain
him, restrain him from himself, restrain him from what he knows
is in him to do. to help him in that. Presumptuous
sins. The word indicates an intentional,
rebellious act. It’s deliberate, committed with
full knowledge that God commanded against it. It’s premeditated. It’s willful, done in arrogance.
It says, in effect, I’m going to do this. Nothing’s going to
stop me. I know what God says about it
and I don’t care. I’m going to do it anyway. And in Numbers
15, if you were to read there, there’s no sacrifice offered
for the presumptuous man. He is to be cast away from God’s
people. Kind of similar in the New Testament when we do church
discipline and cast people out from amongst our fellowship.
They’re presumptuous. They know they’ve been called
to repentance and they don’t care. David says, keep, restrain me
from those, because I know it’s in me too. The ones I don’t know
about and the bad ones I do, Lord. Equip me from hidden faults. Free me from them. Restrain me
from willful acts of rebellion. And he goes on, third request,
Let them not rule over me. Don’t let them have dominion
over me. Have command. Don’t let me be habitually enslaved
to those sins. Deliver me from that. And if
God does these three requests, he says, then I will be blameless
and I shall be acquitted of great transgressions. What did he ask
for? Forgive me, restrain me, and deliver me. And I’ll be innocent. This is forgive me of hidden
faults. Restrain me from presumptuous
sins. and don’t let them rule over me, then I will be innocent. And he’s not saying he’s gonna
be perfect here and totally blameless, but it is a humble man that comes
to God in repentance. He will be forgiven and restored
and washed. And the last verse, verse 14,
it’s David’s final request. He just adds some prayer requests
as he thought about this. And here’s his last prayer request
to God. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh,
Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart. I’m sure that this could be for
all of us, for anything David said. I think specifically it’s
this song. That he’s been chewing on and
meditating on and thinking about God’s word and creation. And
he writes this song and he sings this song and he He repents,
he says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart, the things that I’ve been saying here, be acceptable. Let it not be a mockery. Let
it not be hypocritical. And we can do that, right? I
think all of us could probably pray a really flowery prayer
and our hearts are not in it. God knows that. It’s part of
the fear of the Lord. God knows the thoughts of man
as well. David is asking God, forgive me, receive me, let it
be acceptable in your sight. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable. Before your sight,
God’s entire person, he knows all and sees all. And the last
part here is where we find Christ. Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Oh Lord is David’s covenantal,
loyally loving God. His rock is his strength. We
saw last week in Psalm 27. God puts him on a high rock,
his defender. And we know because we have the
rest of scripture, the rock is Christ, the chief cornerstone
laid in Zion, a stumbling block. But the chief cornerstone of
God, the foundational stone that he’s building his church on is
living stones. The one who is his strength.
And his redeemer. He knows he has to be redeemed.
He knows someone has to buy him out. A payment has to be made. He’s looking to the sacrifice.
He’s looking to another, not to his own self-righteousness.
Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. And that’s the way he presents
his prayers to Christ, to God. It’s almost like us saying, in
Jesus’ name. It’s on the name of Christ that
we enter the throne room of God, in the grace of God, through
the Holy Spirit of God. So he says, these are my prayers. These are my thoughts. This is
my song. These are my words. Accept them,
Lord, on the basis of Christ. And grant me forgiveness and
sustain me and restrain me. I started out saying we live
in a confused world and maybe us older people aren’t exposed
to some of the things that are out there. My kids have friends
that are in public schools and universities and taking some
of the classes that they have to, and there’s just a lot in
this culture that is changing. And we may look at it and shake
our heads and feel despaired, but it’s nothing new. Jesus says,
I am truth. What did Pilate say? What is
truth? Even back then, they denied objective
truth. We have truth in God’s word. We see God in his creation and
we have him revealed in his truth. And that should give us comfort
and that should drive us like David to seek that truth in earnest. So I’m just going to wrap up
just the second stanza mainly. the Word of God and everything
David said about it. He gave six nouns describing
the Word of God, six adjectives, and six verbs. And I’m gonna
wrap it up with four summations of that. God’s Word is authoritative,
God’s Word is adequate, God’s Word is accurate, and God’s Word
is absolute. God’s Word is authoritative.
Note the nouns, law, testimony, precepts, commandments, fear,
judgments. These are words of authority. God’s word is authoritative. We live in a culture that despises
authority, but Christian, we embrace God’s authority and we
submit to it. We don’t make it the Bible end. or the Bible Plus,
or the Bible Plus that psychology over there. It’s just God’s authority
alone. Second one, God’s Word is adequate.
If God’s Word restores the soul, it’s the means of salvation,
it’s the means of bringing you back to God. If it makes wise
the simple so that we can walk a blessed life, if it rejoices
the heart so we do not collapse in despair, if it enlightens
the eyes so we do not stumble through this world, then God’s
word is sufficient to meet every need, why go elsewhere? There’s
nowhere else to go. 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17, you know
this well. All scripture is inspired by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,
for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be
adequate, equipped for every good work. God’s word is adequate
and it makes the man of God adequate. God’s word is authoritative and
we don’t have his authority, Preach that it is authoritative
because of the one who gave it, whether it’s accepted or not,
just like the revelation of creation. God’s Word is accurate. Note
the adjectives. It’s perfect. It’s sure. It’s right. It’s pure. It’s clean.
It’s true. It’s perfect, complete, having
integrity. It’s sure, it’s a solid foundation for life. It’s right,
it’s mapping out a straight course for his people. It’s pure, there’s
no unwholesomeness in it. It’s clean, it will cleanse from
sin. And it’s true, it’s totally dependable. If that’s true, entrust
your life to it. Following God’s word, you won’t
be led astray. Don’t turn anywhere else. And
the last one, God’s word is absolute. We had these descriptions. It endures forever and it is
altogether righteous. The judgments of the Lord are
altogether righteous. It’s absolute language. God’s
standards are unchanging. They apply to every person in
every culture at any time and they are absolute and they are
right. And this revelation from God
demands a response from man. Creation itself will hold man
accountable. How much more God’s people who have his word given
to us, how much more so us than David who had a little part of
it, we have the whole thing. God even told us how it’s all
gonna end. He shared that with us. Like David, this should not
have us walk around proud. It should drive us to repentance
in humility and the fear of God. And that as humble servants of
God, we would do likewise with his creation and we would proclaim
and share the gospel and talk about the rock and the redeemer
that grants life and converts the soul. And that people would
get saved and learn and walk wisely and rejoice with us and
endure forever in heaven with us. This should comfort us that
we have God’s word. Let’s pray. Our Father in heaven, we do thank
you for all your glory, how you have revealed yourself to your
people through your creation, your creative acts. And we look
at the sun and seasons and days and time and rain. When we look
at your creation, Lord, we just stand in awe. We thank you for
that. We glorify you in it. It is good and beautiful because
you are good and beautiful. But help us, Lord, to move beyond
that. Help us to consider it rightly, knowing that all knowledge
is God’s knowledge, and anything science learns, they’re just
uncovering it, because you have created it so, and that we would
glorify you in it. But let your people go beyond
that, and go to the word, and that we would be serious about
it, and that we would value it more than anything else, and
we would love it more than anything else, all of it. The warnings,
Lord, that keep us on the track, The salvation that’s offered
in there, the instruction on how to live as a saved person,
that we would be joyful. That we would endure. And that
we would declare your judgments that are right to this world
around us, not to to beat him over the head with it, but as
humble, repentant people who acknowledge our own sinfulness
and the fear of the Lord are sharing the gospel with others
that we would do likewise with your heralds in the heavenlies
that are proclaiming your glory and knowledge. and wisdom, Lord,
that we would proclaim the gospel to you, to people, the gospel
of you to people around the world. Help us to be serious people
of the word like David was, and that we would cherish it like
he does, and that we would line our lives up with it. Be with
us today and as we go forth in this endeavor with your grace
and help. In Jesus’ name, amen.