Frm the Heavens t the Heart Psalm 19 Frm the Heavens t the Heart Intrductin There is smething radically wrng with the wrld. A Lndn paper reprtedly nce asked the questin f famus authrs, What s wrng with the wrld tday? G.K. Chestertn respnded simply, Dear Sir, I am. Yurs, G.K. Chestertn. We may nt nrmally like t think abut it, but each ne f us wuld have t answer in much the same way. The wrld is full f prblems. And each ne f us causes ur share. In Psalm 19, David the psalmist shws us a path t changing that part f the wrld fr which each f us is mst respnsible. We will take the glry f Gd revealed frm the heavens, thrugh the Scriptures t ur wn heart. Frm the Heavens t the Heart Psalm 19 I take this t be the greatest pem in the Psalter and ne f the greatest lyrics in the wrld. C. S. Lewis in Reflectins n the Psalms Revelatin in Nature Psalm 19:1-6 19:1 The heavens declare the glry f Gd David cnsiders the heavens and sees Gd s glry. With a creatin s verwhelming, hw glrius must the Creatr be? 19:2-4 whse vice is nt heard This is a speechless testimny. It is a wrdless witness. But it cmmunicates thrughut all the earth t any wh wuld be willing t hear. Cnsider first the sheer size and mass f the universe. Accrding t astrnmers at Crnell, the size f the bservable universe is abut 14 billin light years acrss. The ttal mass is rughly the same as 25 billin galaxies the size f the Milky Way.
We knw the universe had a beginning because it is rapidly and cnstantly expanding. One reasn we knw this is thrugh the redshift bserved in the light f stars caused by the Dppler Effect. What happens, if the stars are all mving away frm us very rapidly and we reverse the prcess? If yu g back far enugh, they all start at the same pint. Mving frward, the universe keeps expanding like a large balln. Astrnmers see this as evidence fr Big Bang In ther wrds, the universe had a beginning. S hw and why did nthing suddenly give birth t everything? See Psalm 19:1. There is smething wrng with the wrld. S, there is a cmmn errr that can arise frm natural revelatin alne. The Israelites saw the sun and (ften) wrshiped the Lrd. The Egyptians saw the same sun and wrshiped Ra. The Greeks wrshiped Apll. It is pssible t deify creatin itself. Paul expresses it in Rmans 3:25: They exchanged the truth abut Gd fr a lie and wrshiped and served the creature rather than the Creatr. The Csms is all that is r was r ever will be. Our feeblest cntemplatins f the Csms stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the vice, a faint sensatin, as if a distant memry, f falling frm a height. We knw we are appraching the greatest f mysteries. Carl Sagan, in Csms Gd gives us a cure fr that. He gives us mre precise revelatin in Scripture. Revelatin in Scripture Psalm 19:7-11 Here the wrd law shuld nt be interpreted as referring nly t a set f rules, but is t be understd in its bradest sense as all the instructin and directin present in the entire written revelatin f Gd s will. Nupanga Weanzana, Bangui Evangelical Schl f Thelgy, C.A.R.
David sees the divine revelatin in its fullness. He sees: The Law Testimny Precepts Cmmandment Fear Rules, r Just Decrees f the Lrd He als sees its full effect. The Scriptures can: Revive us Make us wise Rejice us Enlighten us Further, they are: Enduring Righteus Sweet Mre t Be Desired Than Gld! Eve ate the frbidden fruit because it was gd fr fd and pleasing t the eye (Gen 3:7) hw much mre pleasing is the sweet hney f the Trah, and hw much mre beautiful the gld f Gd s wrd. Nupanga Weanzana, Bangui Evangelical Schl f Thelgy, C.A.R. We shuld cultivate a deep lve fr the Scriptures. David apparently had that kind f lve. This is... the language f a man ravished by a mral beauty. If we cannt at all share his experience, we shall be the lsers. C. S. Lewis in Reflectins n the Psalms That lve might be described as a deep appreciatin fr the sheer excellence f Gd s Wrd. The next step after knwing it is trying t live it ut. The Order f the Divine mind, embdied in the Divine Law, is beautiful. What shuld a man d but try t reprduce it, s far as pssible, in his daily life? C. S. Lewis in Reflectins n the Psalms But here again are the makings f a pssible trap. Because there is smething wrng with the wrld and als with each f us.
We can lve the Bible in an abstract way. We can becme nthing mre than experts and lack the needed experience f a transfrmed heart. The Pharisees saw that many, including certain fficers, were impressed by Jesus. They, hwever, remained unimpressed. Jhn 7:47-49 The Pharisees answered them, Have yu als been deceived? Have any f the authrities r the Pharisees believed in him? But this crwd that des nt knw the law is accursed. They were experts that lacked the experience f a transfrmed heart. Psalm 19 reminds us that we have t g deeper still. Reflectin in the Heart Psalm 19:12-14 Reflectin in the Heart Psalm 19:12-14 Thus, dwn belw every life there lies a great dim regin f habits and impulses and fleeting emtins, int which it is the rarest thing fr a man t g with a candle and see what it is like. Alexander Maclaren (1826 1910) Just as the sun in v.6 left nthing hidden, we need t let the light f Gd s Wrd int ur heart s inner reaches. Thse caverns that cmprise the deepest part f us need t be explred. Unless yu are Jesus r ne f the Apstles n yur very best day these places need sme serius cleaning. The psalmist s lnging is t be pure in heart. He wants his mtives and hidden faults expsed s that he can deal with them. Gd s wrd is t be the measuring line the standard t which he lngs t cnfrm. Frm the Heavens t the Heart Cnclusins What s wrng with the wrld tday? G.K. Chestertn respnded simply, Dear Sir, I am. Yurs, G.K. Chestertn. What s wrng with the wrld tday? Hw wuld we respnd? Unless each f us is willing t acknwledge that we are the prblem we can never be part f the slutin.
Psalm 19 has taken us thrugh: Revelatin in Nature Revelatin in Scripture Reflectin in the Heart The gal f the psalm is t take us frm the glry f Gd t a cmpletely transfrmed heart and life. We shuld never stp lnging fr a Christianity that is pure. We shuld cnstantly desire a clser walk with Jesus. Gd s revelatin leads us t mre than amazement r awe when we encunter natural pwers. It als leads us far beynd legalistic religin. It takes us t an encunter with Christ s persnal that ur fremst lnging can be t becme pleasing in Gd s sight. Let the wrds f my muth and the meditatin f my heart be acceptable in yur sight, LORD, my rck and my redeemer.