Psalm 19
All right, let’s hear from God’s
word together from Psalm 19. This is from King David. In the
beginning of verse one, it says, the heavens declare the glory
of God. The sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there
words whose voice is not heard. Their measuring line 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, which comes out like
a bridegroom leaving his chamber. And like a strong man, it runs
its course with joy. It’s rising from the end of the
heavens, and its circuit is to the end of them. And there is
nothing hidden from its feet. The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving 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 rules of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than
gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings
of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant
warned. In keeping them, there is great
reward. Who can discern his errors? Declare
me innocent from hidden faults. 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.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in your sight. Oh, Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. This is God’s holy word
for us. Let’s pray for just a moment.
Our God, we thank you that you write these words to us, that
they Revive our souls, they make us wise, they rejoice our hearts,
they open our eyes, and that these words endure forever. Our
Father, we have delighted in things which will pass away.
We have delighted in things which you have made for our good and
our enjoyment, but we have also put eternal trust in them. And so we ask that this night
we would put our eyes, our hearts, and our affections on things
which will last forever. And that is your holy word, which
means more to us than anything in the world. Give us eyes to
see and ears to hear and hearts to understand what we hear from
your holy word tonight. And we pray this in Jesus’ name.
Amen. Well, here’s the big question for us tonight. And it’s simply
this. How can we know God? How can
we know God? This is a question I think we’ve
asked before during our Sunday night studies, but it’s an important
one. It helps us remember who we are
and who God is, but it’s also very helpful in that it gives
us a proper understanding of how to evangelize those who may
not know the Lord Jesus Christ. How can a person know God? Well, that question is answered
very well In fact, very nicely and neatly in Psalm 19, and it
gives us two ways that a person can know God. According to Psalm
19, if you look at verses one through six, a person can know
God, now understand this, not in a saving or salvific way,
but a person can know God that he exists through creation. The second way we can know God
is found in verses seven through 11. And that way is more specific,
and it is in a saving way. It’s in a way that can show a
person their sin, their need for a Savior, and the way of
salvation in Christ Jesus. And so the second way we can
know God is through His holy word or His divine revelation. Theologians of old have said
that there are two books. There’s the book of creation,
and then there’s the book of revelation. There’s the book
of creation that through the created things God has made,
one can see that there is a God. But more specifically through
the book of Revelation, one can understand that God is not just
a creator, but he is a redeemer. And so we’ll look at those themes
tonight. But back to the question, how can we know God? How can
a person know God? Well, if you put your ear out
to the world, and even to a lot of the modern church, People
will tell you that knowing God is a feeling. I just know there’s
a higher power, we hear people say. Or we hear sometimes the
answer this way. I’ve looked at all the major
religions of the world, and I found that Christianity is the best. Some will tell you the way they
know God is through a mystical experience. There are even Christians
who are writing books this day and time, they’re saying that
they know God not through the holy scriptures, but God speaks
to them in some sort of way. I’d like to figure that one out.
But that’s at least what people claim. But we see clearly from
the scriptures tonight, from Psalm 19, and Paul echoes and
uses it in Romans chapter one, we clearly understand through
the word that we can only know God through the two ways he speaks. One is through creation. It’s
not enough to save you. The second is through his revelation,
and it is enough to save us. Some of you are in the Confession
of Faith class, and you’ll probably think back a little bit to your
study of the first chapter of the Confession of Faith that
tells us that God wrote to us the scriptures for all kinds
of reasons, but one of the big reasons he wrote the scriptures
to us is so that we would know the way of salvation for mankind. And so without the scripture,
without the copy of God’s word that we have, we could not know
God in a saving way. Now think very practically about
that for a moment. Think about our brothers in the
Gideon’s ministry. What is their whole ministry?
It’s to put the word of God into the hands of people. I was blessed
last year in meeting with one of our local Gideon’s to see
that they’re giving out copies of our English standard version
of the Bible. Very good faithful translation. But without the
Word of God in the hands of people, without preaching, without the
proclamation of God’s Word, there is no salvation. So back to our
question, how do we know God? Well, let’s look first at the
first major way, and that’s through creation. If we read verses one
through six, it tells us very clearly that we can know God
through creation. It’s not enough data to save
us, because creation doesn’t tell you about your sin. Creation
doesn’t tell you about your need of a Savior, and it doesn’t tell
you about your provision of a Savior in Jesus, but it is enough to
tell us, as Paul says in Romans 1, it leaves all men without
excuse. And so here’s an important thing
for us to consider. If God speaks clearly of himself
in creation, who can read that book? so to speak. Who is able
to see in creation that there is a God? Well, the answer according
to the Apostle Paul is that everyone who can see creation must know
that there is a creator. One cannot look at the world,
one cannot look through a microscope, one cannot look and hold a brand
new baby or see the stars on a clear night. One cannot look
and say, very definitively and conclusively, there must be no
God. For the scriptures tell us that
creation tells us that there is a God. So everyone can read
creation. What does creation tell us? Well,
it tells us that there is a God. It tells us that He’s a glorious
God. He’s a majestic God. He’s a creative God, that He
exists and He has power and that He ought to be sought and thanked
and worshiped. What does the Apostle Paul say
in Romans 1 is the greatest sin of the generation who rejects
God? They see him, but what do they do with that knowledge?
They suppress it. They put it away. They put it down. They
want it to go away. They want God to go away. And they exchange the creation
for the creator, he goes to tell us. But what’s our problem? Why do we not read well? If we
were to ask for hands raised tonight and say, who of you in
the congregation are readers? Some of you might raise your
hands. Some of you might tell us that you love to read books.
You’re at the library all the time, that you have a Kindle,
you have books on your tablet. Everywhere you go, you’ve got
your nose in a book. Well, others of you may not raise
your hands. And if we were to ask why, you’d
say, well, I don’t like to read. My eyes hurt. I’m lazy. I’m rather
a TV watcher. I’d rather be working or doing
something with my hands. I’m more fidgety. We can give
all those excuses. Well, what is the reason that
humans don’t read the book of creation and see that there is
a God? Well, the reason is sin. The
reason is our fallen condition. The reason is we take what is
obvious and we suppress it. We put it away. So when you’re
banging your head against your television set at night after
watching the evening news saying, why, why, why? What in the world
is going on? What’s wrong with the generation
around me? This is your answer. God has clearly made himself
known to the generation that is before us. And what has that
generation done that don’t have faith in Christ? They have pushed
that knowledge away. They have suppressed the knowledge
of God and said, I don’t want to see him. I don’t want to hear
him. I don’t want to know him. I don’t want his influence in
my life. Sin does that. It’s why we don’t read the book
of creation. So we suppress the obvious knowledge
of God. And then what do we replace God
with? We replace him with other things. Why does God say, you
shall have no other gods before me? He knows that we’re idol
makers. And so we replace God with other gods and idols. And the apostle Paul says to
us in Romans 1, you have then solicited the wrath of God. You have called down God’s wrath
upon you for this sort of behavior. Now, this has been about 20 years
ago. Somebody told me that this was
the meaning of Romans chapter 1 meant, and I got really offended. I said, there’s no way in the
world that God would hold people responsible for pushing him away,
for suppressing his knowledge. It sounds rather offensive. But
you know who should actually be offended? And this is what
the Apostle Paul will say in Romans chapter, what, 11? Nine through 11 when he speaks
of God’s sovereignty. But who should really be offended
that we take the beauty of creation and say, there is no master artist.
It should be the artist himself. And so we ought to take great
care when we enter into truths like this to take God at his
word. And to take him at his word that
he says, I am everywhere. I make myself known, and you
people, right, he’s got the right to say that, you people, you
sinfully suppress your knowledge of me so that you can live as
you please. So it may sound offensive, but
it’s what God’s word says, and this is how he explains mankind. So let’s think about God’s general
revelation here for just a moment. Verse two tells us this. Day
to day pours out speech. and night unto night reveals
knowledge. And go back to verse one, it
says the heavens declare the glory of God. You see those words
there, declare, pour out speech. There is a voice that is heard
in verse three. And so it’s as if every day and
every night creation is proclaiming from the mountaintops. It’s proclaiming
from the depths of the seas. It’s proclaiming in the maternity
ward. It’s proclaiming in the, lens and the view of the microscope,
I exist, God is saying. I am here and I am majestic and
I make wonderful and amazing things. From telescopes to microscopes
and all that we can see in between, God is saying to us that I exist. Now what is the speech that is
given? Well, it speaks of the skies, the clouds, the lightning,
the stars and the moon and the comets, the deepness and the
vastness of space. And it’s interesting, isn’t it,
how we never seem to have enough of space. We’re always wanting
to go here and go there and send up a satellite there. We want
pictures from this place and soil samples from that place.
We can never get enough of space and we’ve only begun We’ve barely
begun to even enter space as we know it. We love to go to
the depths of the sea. We love to go, what is it, 20,000
leagues below the sea and see what is there. We love to look
at the skies and to study birds. We love to study the atmosphere
and all these wonderful things God has made. And God is saying,
these are the very things that tell you who I am and how wonderful
and majestic I am. He goes on in verse two to say
that his knowledge is not only continually coming to you, but
it is plentiful. Day to day pours out speech. Night to night reveals knowledge.
God is constantly speaking and he’s speaking. How do we how
do we say it? He’s being wordy. Right. We look at creation. And we can’t
help but notice everywhere we look, every turn we take, that
there is a God and he is wonderful. So day after day and night after
night pours forth speech and the words are coming continuously
and plenteously. So God’s words about himself
through creation are plenteous. He uses language like the creation
pours forth or it gushes speech. Some of you probably think back
to science class and what a terrible time that was,
what a painful hour, a day that must have been for you and memorizing
your chemistry charts and your periodic tables and studying
about this, that, and the other. But those are the things that
teach us deeper and deeper about God and his creation. I remember
being a senior in college and had to take But it took two years
of biology to graduate. And our college was a pre-med
school. So biology was not easy. I was smart and took one semester
at Alamance Community College and I slept through class and
did quite well. But I went back for my second
semester at the college and it was really hard. And even on
graduation day I was crossing my fingers saying, did I get
through it so I can graduate? And I went up and told the professor,
who was a little skeptical of me because I wasn’t the Rhodes
scholar. In his class, I said, you know
what, I may not have done well in your class, but I learned
a lot about God. And it was a Christian school,
so he thought that was pretty good. And I hope he thought maybe
more so that the mission was accomplished than just making
this or that of a grade. But our science classes, our
math classes even. The classes that we take, our
visits to the planetariums, our visits to the science centers
and to the zoo, they all show us that God plentifully pours
out speech that speaks of who he is and what he is able to
do. Not only is his speech continuous, not only is it plentiful, there’s
a third thing about his speech about himself, it is universally
revealed. Notice what he says in verse
three or four and four, there is no speech Nor are there words
whose voice is not heard. Their measuring line 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. It comes out like a bridegroom
leaving his chamber, like a strong man. It runs its course with
joy from the rising of the end of the sun to the end of the
heavens. It’s circuit to the end of them.
There is nothing hidden from its heat. God is saying, knowledge
about me is universal. Everybody, even how do we say
it when we get theoretical about evangelism, even the innocent
native on a faraway island, right? Well, first of all, there is
no innocent native where all are born in sin and full of trespasses
and cursed by God from birth or from conception. But there
is no one innocent for how does God reveal himself day after
day, night after night, with word after word after word. And
now he’s saying, knowledge about me is universally revealed. There
is no speech. There is no language where I
am not proclaimed. There is no place where my voice
is not heard. Now, you need to know this is
not the message of salvation. This is simply the message that
there is a creator. So when you’re cruising down
the Highway, and you’re listening to NPR, which I do from time
to time, and you hear somebody giving a speech or a talk, and
it’s totally disconnected from the God of the universe, what
do you need to have in mind? Psalm 19, Romans 1. God has declared
himself to be in existence. He’s declared himself to be the
creator of the universe, and what is this sinful person doing?
They’re suppressing the knowledge of God and exchanging truth for
a lie. But God is saying that truth
about him is universally revealed. I don’t know if any of you are
nature lovers, but if you’re a nature lover, you love an aspect
of God’s creation that is helpful in understanding who he is as
creator. So it’s good as a Christian to
be a nature lover, right? Not necessarily a tree hugger,
but a nature lover. We love what God has made. So there’s, back to the big question,
how do we know God? Well, there’s two ways. There’s
two different ways. One is through creation. One
is enough to let you know there’s a God, but the second way is
through his holy word, and that comes through what we call special
revelation, and that’s the scriptures. Now let me point out something
to you before we transition from this first section to the second.
Notice in verse six, it says, it’s rising, it’s from the end
of the heavens, And it’s circuit to the end of them. And there
is nothing hidden from his heat, from its heat. What does that
seem to say to us? Revelation about God is universal. It goes everywhere. Where does
the heat of the sun go? It even comes through the clouds. It comes around the trees. It
comes through our room. There is no escape from the Son.
And so there’s a sense here we must understand, there is no
escape from God. His light and His feet can come
directly to us. Now notice as we move from verses
1 through 6 to verses 7 through 11, notice the titles for God. Look at verse 1, it says, the
heavens declare the glory of God. And in the Hebrew, that’s
simply the title El, which is God the creator, God the maker. And when you get to verse seven,
it says, the law of who? The law of Yahweh is perfect. That’s God’s divine personal
name. Remember when Moses was at the burning bush and he was
gonna go see Pharaoh, who shall I say has sent me? You tell him
that I am has sent me. Tell him that Yahweh has sent
you. And so we see a shift here, not just from God the creator,
but a shift to God the Redeemer. And that’s an important distinction
here in Psalm 19. So we go from God the Creator
to God the Redeemer, and we see in verses seven through 11, God
revealing himself to us in his holy word. And I want us to look
very quickly at the nature of God’s word, what it is and what
it does. It says in verse seven, the law
of the Lord is perfect. And then what is its benefit?
It revives the soul. The law of the Lord, the instruction
of the Lord, the scriptures of God tell us what we are to believe
and what we are to do in life, and it is perfect. It gives peace
to our souls. And so if you want to have not
peace in your life, close your Bible and put it away. Close
your Bible, put it away, stay away from preaching, keep yourself
out of the path of God’s word, watch a bunch of TV, do a bunch
of mindless things, Stay away from the word of God and guess
what? Your soul will not be revived, but what will happen? Your soul
will dry up. And so the law of the Lord is
perfect and it revives the soul. The second thing it does is it
tells us in the second half of verse seven, the testimony of
the Lord is sure and it makes wise the simple. That second
part of verse seven is almost like the whole verse of Proverbs.
You’re foolish. And you need to become wise.
The way you need to become wise is by listening to the word of
God. And so it says, secondly, they’re the testimony of God,
his statutes, his truth. They are they are pure. They
are sure they are from God who himself can attest that it is
his holy word. His words are trustworthy and
they will make you wise. And so what’s the opposite of
that? If you wanna be a fool, don’t trust God. Don’t trust
his word and you will continue in your foolery, so to speak. Well, the third thing pops up
in verse eight. The precepts of the Lord are right. And what
is their benefit? They rejoice the heart. The precepts
of the Lord, his orders, his precise instructions of what
you are to do. Notice these are all just synonyms
for the law of God, the law of the testimony. The precepts,
the commandments, the fear of God, His rules. But the precepts
of God, they cause us to rejoice in heart. What do precepts do?
Any of y’all K. Arthur students in years past?
I don’t think she’s on the radio anymore, but what was her little
Bible study called? Precepts by K. Arthur. And what is a precept? It helps
you go the straight way. And so if you want to get yourself
straight, get under the word. We had a good old James sermon
this morning, and a number of people said, wow, that one stepped
on my toes. But that’s what the word of God does. It steps on
our toes and it says, get straight. Go this way. And so the heart
rejoices that we get straight by being students of the word.
The fourth thing it speaks of there in the second part of verse
eight, it says, the commandment of the Lord is pure, and its
benefit, it enlightens the eyes. Commandments are similar to precepts,
and they endure. They are pure. And guess what? If you’re corrupt, if you’re
ungodly, it won’t help you. But it opens our eyes to see
what is good and right and true. The fifth thing it speaks of
in verse 9, the fear of the Lord is clean, and its benefit is
that it endures forever. What is the fear of the Lord?
It’s the response of reverence to the Word of God. We believe
the Word of God, we proclaim the Word of God, we read the
Word of God, but we also reverence and fear the Word of God and
go in holy tremblings and do the Word of God because why?
It’s pure and it endures forever. The words of the world will not
last, but God’s Word will last forever. And so we fear God. And then the sixth thing and
the final thing it gives The rules of the Lord are true, and
they are righteous altogether. God’s word, his ordinances, his
verdicts, his judgments, everything he proclaims and teaches, they
are sure and righteous, and they will warn us, but also reward
us. And then verses 10 and 11 elaborate
on the wonders of God’s word. More to be desired are they than
gold, even much fine gold. They are sweeter also than honey
in the drippings of the honeycomb, and moreover by them is your
servant warned, and keeping them there is great reward.” Now let’s
be kind of practical here for just a moment. We all get away
from the Word at times. Maybe we travel a little bit,
we get away from church, or we get busy and our quiet time is
put aside. watch TV instead of listening
to a sermon or we get away from the word, whatever that is for
you. And we wake up from our stupor sometime later and we
say, Oh God, why did I get away from your word? It’s driving
me up. Why did I get away from your word? My eyes are, you know,
why did I get away from your word? My life has been on a zigzag
erratic path lately. Notice what the psalmist says,
it’s more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold. It’s
sweeter than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Those
are things in the ancient myriads that a person could hardly get
their hands on, and even in our day. But we put our lips to things
which will pass away. We put our eyes on things which
are fine, but they will not feed us like God’s word. And so let
me encourage you, if you don’t have a love for God’s word, Ask
God to give you a love for it that will bless you and help
you. So what are the two ways that we can know God? One is
through creation, won’t save you. The second is through the
word of God, which can save you. The only way to see salvation
in Christ, though, is through the scriptures. Now, remember
how the sun, in verse 7, gives off its light and its heat, and
it penetrates, it gives its warmth, it goes everywhere it wants to
go. Remember that the Word of God does just that as well. We’ve
heard of that in our study of Hebrews. In Hebrews 4.12, it
says the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It
penetrates, it goes deep into our lives. And so in the same
way the sun is full of heat and energy and it can penetrate and
expose and shine its light into us, the word can do that even
more so. And it wonderfully benefits us.
Now, let’s end by looking at what Psalm 19 does for us. Yes, it shows us there’s a creator.
Yes, it reminds us that there is a redeemer. But it also elicits
a response in us. And we find that response in
verse 12. So after the psalmist speaks of creation and redemption,
he says in verse 12, who can discern his errors? Declare me
innocent from hidden faults. 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.
What does God’s revelation do for us? It shows us our sin. It shows us how we fall short.
It exposes us. in a way that reveals to us where
we need to repent and again believe the gospel of God. If you read
literally every psalm in the Bible, it says something good
and positive about God, and then it shows the response of the
psalmist. Well, what’s the proper response here? It’s confession
of sin. And so God’s word always leads
us to confession. And he says that God would reveal
three things, his errors, his faults, and his willful sins. He wants God to show him where
he has been naive yet sinned, where he has done something he
didn’t know he did or didn’t willfully or rebelliously sin. Show me those faults. Show me
my faults because I’m just a sinner by nature. I’m a sinner and fallen. But then also he says, show me
my presumptuous sins. Show me the sins where I have
willfully known the way of God and known the way of man. And
then he finally ends with a prayer. He says, let the words of my
mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your
sight, oh God, my rock and my redeemer. And so may we understand
who God is better by looking at creation, better by studying
his word, but also better because we are quick to repent of our
sins. and have that relief where he can bless us even more. Let’s
pray together. Our God, we thank you that you show yourself to
us in so many ways that we can’t help but know that you’re around
and you’re with us. We pray that you’d forgive us
when we quench your Holy Spirit, when we ignore your holy word,
and when we go off on our own. We pray that this night, this
word would encourage us, that it would help us stay closer
to you, that we would love your word more than fine gold, more
than the drippings of the honeycomb, and that it would be sweet to
us and that it would bless us and revive us and make us wise
and cause our hearts to rejoice and do all the things it promises
to do and benefit us. This we pray in Jesus name, amen.