From Psalms, Volume 1 - Psalms 1 to 41, Copyright © 2015 by James A. Johnston
ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS we learn in the Bible is that God talks. He is a speaking God. Genesis 1:3 says, “And God said, ‘Let there be light.’” God is not silent. He talks to us.
So how does God speak? Psalm 19 describes how God communicates with human beings. The first half of Psalm 19 teaches us that God speaks through nature—the heavens reveal God’s glory. This is what we call general revelation—God reveals his power and greatness through nature to all people everywhere. The second half of Psalm 19 tells us that God speaks through his Word, the Bible. This is special revelation—God speaks to anyone who picks up and reads the words of this Book.
God speaks to us through the skies and the Scriptures. The message of Psalm 19 is that the glory of God displayed in the heavens points us to the grace of God displayed in the Bible.1
Psalm 19 doesn’t stand alone like a tree in the middle of a field. It fits in the context of the surrounding psalms. The theme of Psalms 3—14 seems to be that God’s king is rejected by man; Psalms 15—24 teach that the king is accepted by God. David’s closing prayer in 19:14 places this psalm in this larger context: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.” The king is accepted by God because he hears God’s voice in the skies and the Scripture, and he obeys.
To develop this thought, we should notice that Psalm 19 is closely connected with Psalm 18 before it. One of the names for God, “my rock,” occurs three times in Psalm 18. David starts Psalm 18:2 by saying, “The LORD is my rock,” and he repeats that name two more times at important transition points (Psalm 18:31, 46). Psalm 19 ends with this same name for God, “O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (19:14). David also calls himself God’s “servant” twice in Psalm 19 (19:11, 13). This is significant because David is called “the servant of the LORD” only two places in the Old Testament (in the superscriptions for Psalms 18 and 36).
There are more connections we should notice between Psalms 18 and 19. Both celebrate God’s power in the heavens (Psalm 18:9–15; 19:1–6). Both celebrate the perfection of God’s Word (Psalm 18:30; 19:7–9). Both celebrate the blessings of obeying his commandments (Psalm 18:20–24; 19:11–14)—there is a great reward for those who keep his Word.2 So the two main points of Psalm 19—the glory of God in the sky and the grace of God in the Scriptures—actually start in Psalm 18.
Both psalms also focus on the blameless perfection of Jesus Christ, God’s servant. In Psalm 18 David speaks for Christ as he looks back on his life, saying, “I was blameless” before God (Psalm 18:23) and again “God . . . made my way blameless” (Psalm 18:32). In Psalm 19 David asks God to keep him from willful sins so that he will be “blameless” (19:13). So Psalm 19 is looking forward, asking for the blameless life of Psalm 18.
We all see the glory of God in the sky. We have the Word of God in the Scriptures. We ought to obey them perfectly, but we don’t. Jesus was the one man who did. Jesus Christ is the great Servant who was “blameless, and innocent of great transgression” (19:13). He could appeal to God with complete confidence and say, “Declare me innocent from hidden faults” (19:12). The words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart were acceptable in God’s sight.3 Psalm 19 is a window into the heart of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit inspired Psalm 19 so you could strengthen your heart in Christ today and learn to obey. You need to see God’s glory in the heavens for yourself. You need to love his Word. This is the example Jesus left so you could follow in his steps. The sky and the Scriptures teach God’s servants to obey him.
The Eloquence of the Skies
I can picture David staring up at the night sky in verse 1.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Creation has a message for those who notice and think about what they see every day. God has surrounded this world with a giant Omnimax screen running a full-length feature on an endless loop. Any time you lift your eyes, you see God’s glory in the sky above.
I was in Southern California a few years ago, and late one afternoon we went down to the pier and joined a crowd of people to watch the sunset. The sun glowed bright orange, then red, purple, and pink as it sank into the wide waters of the Pacific—beautiful! As the last light faded away, a man in shorts and a T-shirt started clapping, and soon everyone was clapping. In the beauty of that sunset, we saw something of the beauty of God. If the sky is glorious, the God who made it must be even more glorious.
The more we discover in the heavens, the more clearly we see God’s power. The magnetosphere is a magnetic field surrounding the earth, reaching 36,000 miles into space. It deflects most of the damaging particles of the solar wind into radiation belts around our planet. Some of these particles funnel down to the North and South Poles where they create the aurora borealis and aurora australis, the northern and southern lights. God is an amazing electrical engineer who designed this magnetosphere to make the skies beautiful as it protects our planet.
On February 27, 2013 a team of astronomers published data on a super-massive black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1365. Based on data from two X-ray telescopes, they calculated that the black hole was 3,000,000 kilometers across, and its outer edges were spinning near the speed of light.4 The pull of a black hole this size is so powerful it can disrupt an entire galaxy. How much more powerful is the God who created it?
We should be impressed when we see the power and majesty of God in the universe he has made. The word “glory” has the sense of being weighty or important. Glory is “that asset which makes people or individuals, and even objects, impressive.”5 God has revealed how important he is through his glory in creation.
Universal Witness
Every human being sees this display of God’s glory. The skies above are a constant and consistent witness across time.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge. (19:2)
Literally every day gushes out speech, like a fire hydrant. Where one day leaves off, the next day picks up. And where the days end, the night takes over. Day and night, this witness to God’s glory has been constant since the beginning of time.
This witness is also comprehensive, spanning the globe.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world. (19:3, 4a)
Language and culture are not a barrier. Distance is not a barrier either. The voice of the heavens reaches the farthest corner of the globe. A woman in New Guinea looks up and sees the Southern Cross. A man in Finland looks up to see the Big Dipper. Men and women in every age and every place have seen God’s glory in the heavens.
A Case Study
David gives us a case study to illustrate his point.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat. (19:4b–6)
Is there anyone who doesn’t see the light of the sun? It shines on every corner of the globe with such power that we can’t look at it.
The earth receives 120,000 terawatts of energy from the sun every day. How much is that? Picture Niagara Falls flowing at full force. Now multiply the height of the falls by 20—a kilometer of falling water. Now multiply the flow by 10—instead of 30 tons of water falling over each meter of the falls every second, picture 300 tons of water per meter. Finally, widen the
falls. Stretch them until they span a continent, with trillions of tons of water falling over them every second. And don’t stop there—widen them until they stretch all around the equator: a kilometer-high wall of water thundering down incessantly, cutting the world in half. That is what 120,000 terawatts looks like.6 That is what the sun constantly pours out on our planet every day. And God created it!
If you are a believer, God has surrounded you with a hymnbook. Wherever you are, day or night, you can look up and see the majesty and power of your God. And you can praise him.
If you are not a believer, you are responsible for what the skies above have been telling you since the day you were born. You ought to worship God. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:20,
his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
You may say to yourself, “I don’t hear creation telling me about God.” But think about it this way. If you shout at someone standing five feet away from you and he doesn’t respond, he is either deaf or he is ignoring you. If you don’t see God’s glory in the universe he made, you need the courage and honesty to ask yourself, Could it be that I am deaf? Or could it be that I am ignoring God, turning my back on him? The Bible says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.”
The Clarity of the Scriptures
The sky eloquently declares God’s glory, but we cannot truly know God without the clarity of the Scriptures. We can see the power of God by looking at the universe he created, but we can only know him personally through his written Word.
If you go to the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, you can spend hours enjoying Frederick Remington’s bronzes. As a sculptor, he catches a horse floating in mid-gallop with its mane whipping in the wind. You can feel the weariness of his “Mountain Man” leaning back in the saddle. He catches the energy of four young cowhands in “Coming Through the Rye.” All this is enough to convince you that Remington was a true master. But it doesn’t tell you anything about Remington as a man—what kind of person he was. Where was he born? What is his middle name? In the same way we can see the glory of God in the universe—his power, majesty, and wisdom—but we cannot know him personally and be saved without his Word.
God’s name is mentioned only once in the first half of the psalm—David uses the general name El in verse 1. In the second half of the psalm, David uses God’s name, Yahweh, six times in verses 7–9 and a seventh time in verse 14. God’s name Yahweh is often connected with his covenant and with redeeming his people. God revealed himself to Moses as Yahweh at the burning bush when he came to save Israel from the Egyptians. By shifting to the name Yahweh, David is saying that while the heavens teach us there is a glorious Creator, the Scriptures introduce us to God as Redeemer.
The Character of God’s Word
Verses 7–9 describe the perfections of God’s Word and its effects on God’s people. The five synonyms for the Scriptures in these verses also occur in the opening verses of Psalm 119, in the same order: “law,” “testimony,” “precepts,” “commandment,” and “rules.”
First, “[t]he law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul” (v. 7). The word “law” is the Hebrew word torah. Sometimes this refers specifically to the Law of Moses, but here it refers to all Scripture.7 God’s Word is perfect, complete, blameless, and without blemish. There is nothing missing from God’s Word—it is completely sufficient (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). There is not the slightest error in God’s Word—it is wholly true in every detail.
God’s perfect Word brings life to the human heart, “reviving the soul” (v. 7). There is some breadth to this expression. On the one hand, the Scriptures convert us. God uses his Word to give us life when we are dead in our sins, restoring us and returning us to our Creator. This phrase “reviving the soul” is also used for food that restores strength and vitality. There is the sense here that the Law of the Lord is our spiritual food.8 This was true for Jesus, of course. When he was tempted in the wilderness, he quoted the Scriptures. For example: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The Scriptures were bread and meat for Christ. And the Scriptures are bread and meat for Christians. God’s Word is our life.
God’s Word also teaches us: “the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” (v. 7). The word “simple” doesn’t mean a fool but someone who is uninstructed. The Bible makes us wise and teaches us how to live.
When my mother was a senior at Wheaton College, she took a class from Dr. Lois LeBar called “Christian Education in the Family.” On the last day of class, Dr. LeBar tried an experiment. She asked, “How many of you think your parents followed the principles we’ve discussed in this class in your family?” My mother raised her hand. She thought her parents had followed what she learned in class, and she expected the other students at this Christian college would feel the same way.
She was shocked to see only one other girl out of forty students raise her hand. After a long train ride from Chicago to Brooklyn for Christmas, she found some time alone with my grandfather. She asked him, “Dad, you never made it past eighth grade. How did you learn all these principles of Christian parenting I’m only learning as a senior in college?” My grandfather
didn’t say a word. He was sitting in his favorite chair. Right next to him was his Bible. He picked up his Bible, looked at it, looked at her, and set his Bible down again. She knew what he meant. She knew the place God’s Word had in his life and in their home. “[T]he testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” (v. 7).
Also “the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart” (v. 8). Notice the progression here. God makes us alive through his Word, makes us wise, and makes us glad. And to joy is added discernment: “the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes” (v. 8). Without God’s Word, we are in the dark. We stumble through life, walking into walls and falling into one ditch after another. With the light of Scripture, we see ourselves and we see the world. The psalmist says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).
In verse 9 David shifts to focus on the relationship between God and his people: “the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever.” The word “clean” often has the sense of being ritually pure. “The fear of the LORD” (v. 9) purifies God’s people. This lasting blessing endures forever, qualifying us to be in his presence for eternity.9
Those who are made alive and made wise by God’s Word do learn to fear him. Our instinct is to domesticate God and make him manageable. But the Bible teaches us that God is a genuinely frightening God. When Isaiah saw the Lord seated on the throne, with the train of his robe filling the temple, he cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost” (Isaiah 6:5). When the Apostle John saw the risen Christ in his glory, his knees buckled, and he “fell at his feet as though dead” (Revelation 1:17). The great prophets and apostles were terrified when they came face-to-face with the living God. God is truly fearsome, but he is good. If you know the God of the Bible, you love him and serve him with deep respect and reverence. You can’t play games with the Lord God of Israel. His glory is overwhelming. He takes your breath away. He is truly awesome.
David ends with this section with a final word: “the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether” (v. 9).
The Value of God’s Word
After rehearsing these six perfections of Scripture, it’s no wonder that David sings about the priceless value of God’s Word.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb. (19:10)
God’s Word is the greatest treasure for those who love him. We love the Bible more than we love money, more than fine gold. God’s Word is our greatest pleasure. Sweet honey represents the pleasure of the senses—the finest tasting food, the best-smelling perfume, the most fashionable clothes, the fastest cars, the best new songs. The Bible is better.
Do you feel that way? Do you love the Bible and treasure it? If you know God, his Word will be your treasure and your delight.
The Obedience of the Servant
The final four verses focus our attention on the obedience of God’s servant. He has seen the glory of God in the sky; he treasures the Word of God and obeys it.
God’s Servant Is Innocent of Hidden Sins
Moreover, by them [God’s rules] is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his10 errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults. (19:11, 12)
I learned Psalm 19 in the King James Version when I was a boy. The KJV says in verse 12, “cleanse thou me from secret faults.” But this verse does not say anything about cleansing.11 John Goldingay writes,
The verb is not one meaning “cleanse” but . . . “acquit.” The OT makes a number of references to acquitting the guilty, but always to affirm that God does not do so and that human beings should not . . . acquitting the guilty is an immoral act.12
David is not asking God to forgive his sin. Forgiveness is not mentioned in these verses at all. David is asking God to review his inner life and declare him innocent. As God examines him, a fair review of the evidence will lead to his acquittal.
None of us could say that. Our secret sins are no secret to God. Only Jesus alone obeyed God faithfully in the depths of his heart; as a prophet, David spoke for him. If we have hidden sins,
and we do, we need a Savior like Jesus who obeyed with every thought and every glance of his eyes. He can forgive our sin and teach us to obey from the heart.
God’s Servant Is Innocent of Willful Sins
God’s servant is also innocent of intentional sins. It would be nice if we could say that our sins are all just accidents, that we didn’t mean to disobey. But that is not true. We decide to sin more often than we care to admit. David refers to these willful sins.
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. (19:13)
David appeals to God for strength to obey, and he asks to be kept “blameless” (v. 13). As a prophet, David is again speaking for Christ. Jesus was fully God, and he was also fully man, a human being like you and me. As a man he prayed to the Father for strength not to sin during his earthly life. The triumphant words of Psalm 18:32 tell us that this prayer was answered: “God . . . made my way blameless.”
The word “blameless” in 19:13 is the same word that describes God’s Word in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect [blameless].” In other words, the servant in Psalm 19 has the same blameless, complete, perfect character as God’s Word itself!13 Jesus is in fact the Word of God incarnate, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3a). After speaking through the Law and the Prophets, God spoke his final word through his Son. Psalm 19 anticipates this stunning reality as the servant shares the same blameless character as the Word of God.
Psalm 19 ends with the servant’s closing prayer.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. (19:14)
Since Jesus was acceptable in God’s sight, we can be saved. Since he was innocent, he could die for sinners like you and me. God vindicated Jesus and declared that he is innocent by raising him from the dead.
We need to turn to him and be forgiven. We need to follow him. Jesus left us an example so we could follow in his steps. The sky and the Scriptures teach God’s servants to obey him. The skies and the Scripture point us to Christ, the one man who truly obeyed God.
From Psalms, Volume 1 - Psalms 1 to 41, Copyright © 2015 by James A. Johnston