PSALM 19
“YOUR WORD IS TRUTH”
When Jesus was praying for His disciples in what has come to be known as The High Priestly Prayer (John Chapter 17), He said this to His heavenly Father: “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17). Those four words – Your word is truth – summarize what I believe is the central message of Psalm 19. God’s word IS truth because it reveals the very character and heart of God.
The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us. Unfortunately, we live in a world filled with people who don’t know the truth, the truth revealed in God’s word, the truth that sets people free, the truth of the gospel, the truth revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Many people have the philosophy espoused by Gustave Flaubert – he was a French novelist of the 19th Century. This is what he wrote: “There is no truth. There is only perception.” In other words, what he was saying is truth is relative. It’s not absolute. It’s only what you say it is – my opinion versus your opinion. But clearly that is NOT what the Bible teaches. God’s word IS truth.
So, with that little introduction, let’s delve right into the truth, God’s word, into Psalm 19.
READ Psalm 19:1-6
I just love the way David describes sunrise through full day sun and then sunset. It is very beautiful from a poetic standpoint. I love that.
“The heavens declare the glory of God.” The stars, the moon, the sun, the planets, the galaxies, even the clouds, all offer testimony to the greatness of their Creator. Now, these first six verses from this psalm describe what theologians call, “General Revelation,” God’s revelation of Himself and His attributes through the natural, physical world that He created. What can we learn about God from nature? What is it about God that the heavens are communicating? [class responses: His glory, His greatness, how awesome He is, His power, how infinite He is, intelligent design, beauty]
If you did not have the word of God and you just had creation; let’s say you are an aborigine living in the bush lands of Western Australia or you are some native on an island in the South Pacific isolated from the rest of the world; and you did not have anything else except the heavens, the creation, what could you know about God?
Listen to the Apostle Paul’s statement concerning general revelation in Romans Chapter 1:
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made [general revelation]. So, they are without excuse [the people who have seen this]. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things [talking about idolatry].
Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God [which they saw in nature] for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (Romans 1:18-25).
[One class member said, “We don’t get an exemption just for being ignorant. I thank God that He revealed His word to me.”]
Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, seems to think (very strongly) that general revelation is sufficient [to know about God]. He says basically that everybody everywhere is aware of God’s existence through nature. They are aware of His power, His glory, His wisdom, His beauty and His goodness based on what He has been shown us through general revelation, through nature. But mankind failed to honor and glorify his Creator. Obviously, this was all created. Someone created it. But they failed to honor and glorify the Creator. Instead, man elevated himself and the creation that he observed above God. Man chose to worship the creation (which could include himself because he is part of the creation) rather than the divine Creator. Then, man wildly speculated about God (ideas expressed in all the world religions) which produced misconceptions about God. And wrong ideas about God, of course, can lead to all kinds of immoralities.
Even if you never heard the gospel or read the Bible or been in a church, you can still know some things about God. True, but now we go the next thing… There are some obvious limitations to what you can know about God through nature. For example, how can you know about the Lord Jesus and about what He did on the cross for us? How can you know about the triune God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)? How would you know about the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit? Or about salvation, or heaven, or hope, or eternal life? How would you know about how God dealt with His people Israel back in Old Testament times? How would know about God’s mandate to the church? How would you know about what is going to happen in the millennial kingdom? How do we know about all those things? The Bible. These are things we know because of God’s holy word. Theologians have a term for that – “Special Revelation.” God revealed Himself through the spoken word, dreams, and visions. These revelations were then written down, then compiled and, by His sovereign oversight, they were passed on to us centuries later in the canon of holy scripture. That is the Bible, right? And that is where we go next in this psalm.
READ Psalm 19:7-10
These verses here are really a tremendously rich passage of scripture. We could go a lot of different ways with this and spend some time here.
[I passed the following out in class: “Parallels between Psalm 19 and Psalm 119 The Word of God Psalm.” Ps 19:7 “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul.” Parallels in Ps 119:41, 50, 81, 146, 155, 158, 174; Ps 19:7 “The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” Parallels in Ps 119:34, 47, 66, 98-100, 104, 125, 169; Ps 19:8 “The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart.” Parallels in Ps 119:14, 54, 76, 111; Ps 19:8 “The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Parallels in Ps 119:52, 59, 81-83, 86, 105, 130; Ps 19:9 “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever.” Parallels in Ps 119:3, 9-11, 38, 67, 101, 172; Ps 19:9 “The rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.” Parallels in Ps 119:89, 128, 137, 138, 142, 151, 160]
I want you to notice in v 7-9 the six synonyms for God’s word – law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear and rules. What you notice is that all six are the words of the Lord. They are from Yahweh. They are from God.
“Law” is teaching or instruction. Certainly, the Bible has plenty of that, right? “Testimony” is the witness, the witness of God and the witness of others. “Precepts” are principles or guidelines for living, such as the Proverbs. “Commandment” refers to God’s authority. Commandments are not suggestions or guidelines. You better follow these. Obedience is expected – blessings if you follow them and curses or punishment of some kind if you do not, consequences. “Fear” is talking about awe or the reverence for God, which the word of God produces in us. “Rules” are God’s judgments, a legal term talking about how a judge renders a verdict. I just want you to see that these words are similar but they are not the same. There are some differences. All refer to the word of God.
Now, notice the six attributes of God’s word in these verses – perfect, sure, right, pure, true and clean. “Perfect” refers to completeness, the sufficiency of scripture. We don’t need anything else. God’s word is enough. We don’t need the Book of Mormon. We don’t need the Koran. We don’t need the Eightfold Path. We don’t even need an edict from the Pope, do we? God’s word is sufficient. In fact, Revelation 22:18 warns us about adding anything to His word. “Sure” talks about being reliable or trust-worthy. “Right” speaks of God’s word guiding us in the proper way. God’s way is the best way. “Pure” talks about God’s clear direction. Psalm 12:6 says, “the words of the Lord are pure words.” “Clean” is speaking of holy, without evil. “True,” God’s word is the complete source of truth. There are no errors.
Now, notice the six things that scripture does. God’s word does something? Yes. It acts. It does something in our lives. It revives the soul. It makes wise the simple. It rejoices the heart. It enlightens the eyes. It endures forever and is altogether righteous.
It “revives the soul” speaks about refreshing or restoring. But the best word is transforming. God’s word transforms the soul – salvation. Romans 1:16, Paul says, “the word of God is the power of God for salvation.” It “makes wise the simple.” It is the wisdom for life. I am a simple guy. I am glad it does that. By applying God’s word, it allows you to make right choices. It “rejoices the heart.” It produces joy, comfort, hope. A lot of our hymns talk about that, the joy, the comfort, the hope we have as Christians. We get that from the word of God. It “enlightens the eyes.” What does that mean? That is talking about seeing things from God’s perspective. Proverbs 6:23 says, “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.” Then “endures forever” means it never changes. Did you know that God’s word does not need updates? God doesn’t have to send out an update every 100 years or so. It never changes. It endures forever, from generation to generation. It is “altogether righteous” means that it is totally right.
[One class member said, “The greatest miracle was that God asked man to follow Him. And then He gives us the word to transform us so that we can follow Him.”]
We get really excited about God’s word and what it does in our lives, how it changes lives and how it guides us and all these things. And for these reasons, v 10, [paraphrasing] “There is nothing more desirable or sweeter in the world than the Word of God.” The Bible proclaims a revelation of God’s glory that surpasses that of the heavens. Much deeper.
How should we respond given all of this about God’s word, about God’s revelation of Himself to us? Well, David wraps up the psalm with a very interesting practical application for himself and for us.
READ Psalm 19:11-14
“Moreover, by them [God’s words] is your servant warned [David is speaking of himself]; in keeping them there is great reward [David knew that]. Who can discern his [David’s] 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, O LORD, my rock [my strength] and my redeemer.”
Since the Word of God is truth (we have established that), and if you read it and apply it to your life (like David did with the scripture he had), you will become keenly aware of and concerned about sin in your life. One of the things the word of God does is it shows us God’s perfect standard through Jesus. We can see that. The word also reveals God’s heart, what God wants. And as we see that and read that we cannot help but become deeply and profoundly convicted of our own sinful state. We see ourselves. I think that what is happening with David here is that he begins to be aware of his own sin.
He mentions two different kinds of sins here. One is hidden sins, what he calls in v 12 the “hidden faults”; and then “presumptuous sins.” Now, why does David do this? Because the Law of Moses did this. The Law of Moses actually distinguished between these two different kinds of sins and how to deal with particular kinds of sins.
Hidden sins, hidden faults are sins that we commit unintentionally. Did you know you can do that? I must confess that I am guilty of this myself. At the time you do it, you may not think you are doing anything wrong (in my case I was just being stupid). You do it and then afterwards you realize, “What was I doing?” You are convicted it was wrong. Now you have to go ask forgiveness and do some damage control. Face it, sometimes we can get in our flesh and become prideful and do things without thinking.
Then you have sins that are presumptuous sins. Those are sins that we commit knowingly. We know fully well that they are wrong but we do them anyway. We commit them with our eyes wide open. We know they are sin. So, the psalmist is convicted of his own sin and he approaches the Lord humbly in order to deal with his sin. He does that, to his credit, rather than denying his sins. Forgiveness can only come by, first, being completely honest with God about your sin. Then you rely on His grace. Do I deserve to be forgiven? Do you deserve to be forgiven? No. It is God’s grace, right? So, you are honest with God. “I messed up. I blew it. I am sorry.” He knows your heart.
The psalmist here is actually praying that the Lord keep him from sinning. He wants to do the right thing. He really does. He knows that by keeping God’s word – he even says so in v 11 – there is great reward. But he also knows his own heart (the human condition, our bent to sin). So, he says, “Lord, let them not [speaking of his sins] have dominion over me!” He knows his bent toward sin. It is better to be completely innocent and blameless than to be forgiven. It is better not to have sin to begin with. And David knew that from his own experience. He understood that, even if God forgives him or any person of their sin, there are still consequences like he faced. Our lives should not be filled with damage control all the time.
“Lord, keep me from doing [these sins]. Lord, help me.” And we have the Holy Spirit to help us. But God’s word as well to remind us of the way that we should be living. So, David knows that if he is going to have a deep and personal relationship with God, the kind of relationship that he really wants, he needs to avoid sin altogether. And God’s word helps him to do that. I love Psalm 119:11 – “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”
Then David closes with those words in v 14 (I use this often in my own prayer life): “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.” In other words, “May all I say and think about please You, honor You, glorify You, O Lord.”
[One class member said, “Martin Luther used to pray before he preached, ‘Lord, guard over my lips lest I bring offense both to Thee and to me.’”]
The psalmist refers to God as “my rock and my redeemer…” Psalm 18:2 says, “The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” And then Job 19:25: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth.” Our Redeemer, Jesus Christ lives – even if Job did not know Jesus specifically, we do, right? – and He is coming back here again someday! And God’s word tells us that too.
The hymn I have chosen to close with today is “Trust and Obey.” It says, “When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word.” That is what this lesson has been all about.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet,
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.