LOVE STORY PSALM 19 Main idea The most important part of a love relationship is that we honestly reveal who we are, what we are thinking, and what we are feeling. I. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US IN CREATION (VS 1-6) As we look at the created world we live in, at the entire universe, and at our created selves; it is irrational to deny the existence of a loving and orderly god. A. ACKNOWLEDGING AN INTELLIGENT CREATOR (1-2) B. SPEAKING BY MERELY EXISTING (3-4b) C. GOD S CHARACTER (4c-6) II. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US IN THE BIBLE (VS 7-11) In the bible god reveals to us who he is, who we are, and what he expects of us. A. THE LAW IS A WINDOW INTO THE HEART OF GOD (7-9) B. THE BIBLE TELLS US WHAT GOD VALUES (10) C. THE BIBLE TELLS US WHAT GOD EXPECTS OF US (11) III. WE REVEAL OURSELVES TO GOD (VS12-14) When we think about how much god loves us; we want to love him the best we can. A. WE HEAVILY DEPEND ON GOD S LOVINGKINDNESS (12) B. WE CAN TRY OUR BEST NOT TO SIN INTENTIONALLY (13) C. WE CAN DECLARE OUR LOVE FOR GOD IN WORD AND DEED (14)
Love Story Psalm 19 We have studied through a lot of Psalms that have dealt with the downside of life. In other words, the songs were primarily about the different kinds of sufferings we would have to face in life; sickness, betrayal, persecution, and all sorts of hardships that life brings our way. These sufferings could come as a result of our own sin, others sins, or from just living in a sinful and fallen world. In other words, none of us escapes suffering in this world. The Psalmist gave us several strategies on how to deal with suffering but what all the strategies had in common were that we should take our suffering to God, express our true feelings and desires, while humbly submitting to Him in prayer. This morning s song is a love song; a love song to God. In this Psalm, David sings about how God has revealed Himself to us and continues to reveal Himself to us. God does this because He loves us and wants us to be in a personal, passionate, and intimate relationship with Him. The way people engage in a true love relationship with another is to honestly share their thoughts, feelings, hopes, desires, and expectations with their partner. The main idea of this morning s text is this. THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A LOVE RELATIONSHIP IS THAT WE HONESTLY REVEAL WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE ARE THINKING, AND WHAT WE ARE FEELING. Since God is transcendent, we could know nothing about Him if He chose not to reveal Himself to us. That word transcendent means that God is far above us. He exists on a different plane that is invisible to us. If God chose not to communicate with us, we couldn t know anything about Him. Further, if He judged us without telling us about Who He is and what He expects of us; we would all be doomed to spend eternity separated from Him with no chance of making things right. This happens too much in human relationships where we are all on the same plane. Oftentimes people will not communicate their thoughts, feelings, hopes, desires, and expectations with their partner. They expect their partners to be able to mind read or be able to anticipate what they want or intuitively know what they are thinking. In premarital counseling, I spend about two months with each couple hammering home this concept. Make sure you communicate exactly what it is you want; otherwise you have absolutely no room to complain. The first question I will ask a spouse if she complains her husband never does the dishes or some specific task is, Have you asked him? You d be surprised how many times they answer, No. One such wife composed the following poem: If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was, and always will be yours. If it never returns, it was never yours to begin with. If it just sits in your living room, Messes up your stuff, Eats your food, Uses your telephone, Takes your money, And never behaves as if you actually set it free in the first place; You either married it or gave birth to it. The author of the letter to the Hebrews started out with these words: Page 2
1 Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. 2 And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son he created the universe. 3 The Son radiates God s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command Hebrews 1:1-3 / NLT To be sure, this Psalm is classified as a praise psalm. It s as if David is singing a love song to God. When we sing love songs, we usually talk about the characteristics we love in the other; their beauty, good looks, beautiful eyes, charming personality, faithfulness, etc. David does the same thing singing about the characteristics of God. In order for David to do this, he had to actually know something about God. David knew these things about God because God revealed Himself to David and to all human beings. This morning, I would like to do some theology and philosophy with you as we study through this song. David is going to talk about two ways God reveals Himself to us. The first is called General Revelation. In other words, God reveals Himself to everyone through nature. Secondly, God reveals Himself to us through Special Revelation. First of all, God reveals Himself to us through the Bible. The other piece to Special Revelation pointed out in the beginning of Hebrews is that God revealed Himself to us fully through the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. This morning s text will deal with God s revelation through nature and the Bible. I. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US IN CREATION (VS 1-6) Verses 1-6 demonstrate how God reveals Himself to us in creation. AS WE LOOK AT THE CREATED WORLD WE LIVE IN, AT THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE, AND AT OUR CREATED SELVES; IT IS IRRATIONAL TO DENY THE EXISTENCE OF A LOVING AND ORDERLY GOD. This is what we have called General Revelation. It is also referred to as Natural Revelation. In other words, God reveals Himself to human beings through the natural created order. Verses 1-2 cause us to look at nature and acknowledge an intelligent creator. Let s get right into some philosophy. Our schools, institutions of higher learning, and the powers of government would have us believe there is no God and the world we see is a result of atoms floating around, bumping together, and through evolution producing the universe as we find it today. The educational, political, and social powers are ruthlessly and relentlessly pushing this as fact and science. They teach this as scientific fact and anyone who dares to believe that God created the universe is superstitious, ignorant, and irrational. Based on this section, I hope you will see the powerful argument against these powerful institutions. Can I have a volunteer come up here? What do see in this shoebox? A simple toy that is not assembled. Close the shoebox and start shaking. Let s take our society s view of the universe. We will call it the atomistic evolutionary view. Actually this is an ancient view. (Stop shaking and look in the box. Is the toy assembled yet? Close the box and keep shaking. The view goes all the way back to Democritus. He said that atoms were floating around in the universe. They accidentally bumped into one another and the chain reaction ended up creating the universe. This is the view of the evolutionists. Through a series of Page 3
random events, natural selection and evolving species we get from primordial ooze to the complicated universe we have today. On the other hand, the school of Intelligent Design says that based on the complexity of the universe, we would have to conclude that an intelligent rational being created the universe. At this point we are not arguing that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ created the universe. The proposition is merely that the universe was created by an intelligent rational cause; nothing more. (Stop shaking the box and look inside. Is it put together? How long do you think you would have to shake it until the toy is put together?) Now please take the toy out and assemble it. For those of you out there looking at this simple toy; is it easier to believe that a person designed and assembled it or is it easier to believe someone put the pieces in a box, shook the box, and the toy assembled itself? Let s put up the two arguments. Those who believe in intelligent design cannot ask the evolutionists where the primordial matter came from and the evolutionists cannot ask where this intelligent cause came from. We will grant each one their primordial starting points. As we look at the complexity, order, and design of our universe putting together with that that we are intelligent, emotional, and relational beings; which theory seems to be more rational and explains the data better? Is it more rational to believe that random, non-thinking, non-feeling atoms bounced around, bumped into one another, formed an ooze, and out of that came the universe with thinking, rational, and relational beings? Or is it more rational to think that an intelligent, rational, and relational being created the universe and human beings? It is clearly more rational to believe that intelligence gives birth to intelligence rather than non-intelligence giving birth to intelligence. It truly is irrational to believe what our schools, society, and government is trying to get us to believe. In the end it makes no sense. Now if you were to go do some research and read up on the cosmological, teleological, and ontological arguments for the existence of God; you would readily see that they make sense and actually do appeal to our reason. If we just take time to observe the incredible complexity in creation, what it takes to sustain life on earth, what it takes for us to live, and love, and interact; our minds are naturally drawn to an intelligent creator. David looks at the stars, planets, moons, galaxies, meteors, the clouds, the rain, grass, trees, plants, and animals and says, The heavens declare the glory of God. In light of what we have been talking about, intelligent design, it s interesting to note that David doesn t use God s Hebrew Covenant Name YAHWEH. David uses the generic term for God which is El. Even though we know David is referring to the God and Father of Jesus, YAHWEH, He simply uses the generic term for God. In verse 3 through the second portion of verse 4, we see that nature speaks by merely existing. Creation is so beautiful and so incredibly intricately put together, that their mere existence points to God. To look at the beauty and majesty of an oak tree, the awkward waddle of a duck, the industriousness of an ant colony, the power of thunder storms, shout the existence of God. In Romans 1:18-32, Paul uses this very argument to say that people ought to be able to look at Page 4
creation and come to the conclusion that a purposeful God created it. His summary comes towards the beginning of the passage: 18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Page 5 Romans 1:18-21 / NLT That too describes the state of our educational, political, and social systems; minds that are dark and confused. Building on what we can see from nature according to Paul, David goes on to say that nature describes God s character in the last phrase of verse 4 through verse 6. Paul said that God s eternal power and divine nature are revealed in nature. David draws our attention to the sun. The sun provides light, warmth, and life. Without the sun, nothing could exist in our solar system. We know that we are exactly the right distance from the sun. Closer we would burn up; further away, we would freeze. We live in this precise delicate balance. Let s look at the sun phenomenologically. The sun rises every day in the east. It treks across the sky and sets in the west. Every morning it is there, runs its course, and sets in the west. We can count on it like clockwork. We don t go to bed wondering if the sun will show up tomorrow. We know it will. The God Who designed this is a loving and caring God. Without God s warmth, light, and life, we would cease to exist. For David the beauty, complexity, power, and dependability of creation pointed to a warm, loving, and powerful God. AS WE LOOK AT THE CREATED WORLD WE LIVE IN, AT THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE, AND AT OUR CREATED SELVES; IT IS IRRATIONAL TO DENY THE EXISTENCE OF A LOVING AND ORDERLY GOD. There is a lot to talk about concerning Natural Revelation. I have just given you a basic overview. At this point, David switches his attention to Special Revelation. Verses 7-11 are all about God revealing Himself to us in the Bible. IN THE BIBLE GOD REVEALS TO US WHO HE IS, WHO WE ARE, AND WHAT HE EXPECTS OF US. Notice the movement of this Psalm. David started from a broad revelation of God to a more specific revelation of God. The Bible gives us everything we need to know about God. If we Christians wanted to carry this further, we could say that God s revelation is laser focused in the Person of Jesus Christ. II. GOD REVEALS HIMSELF TO US IN THE BIBLE (VS 7-11) Verses 7-9 inform us that the law is a window into the heart of God. I think that too often we Christians pit the Old Testament against the New Testament. We say the New Testament is about grace, the Old Testament is about Law. I think that s misguided. Yes, the Old Testament refers to itself as Law. Law can refer to the Ten Commandments, to the first five books known as the Torah, or the entire Old Testament. David uses a lot of synonyms for law so I think he is referring to the writings of God as a whole; understanding that much of it was not yet complete at the time of his writing. If you look at these three verses, you will see a pattern with a couple of exceptions. Notice that David has now shifted to using God s personal covenant Name; the Name He gave to
Israel, YAHWEH. In our Bibles it is capital LORD. The pattern goes like this David will use the word law or a synonym of law and then attribute it to the LORD. The synonyms for law are statures, precept, and commands. After that phrase which goes something like, The law of the LORD is, he adds an adjective that describes the law. The law of the LORD is perfect, trustworthy, right, and radiant. After that phrase, he goes on to let us see the results of embracing the law. It gives refreshment to our souls, wisdom to our ignorance, joy to our hearts, and light to our eyes. In verse 9 David breaks the pattern a little. The first part of the equation stays the same. The fear and ordinances of the LORD are pure and sure. Only at this point he emphasizes the character and nature of the law. It endures forever and they are righteous. For David, the law was not just a bunch of rules and regulations to be followed religiously; they were a window into the heart of God. The law was meant to be life giving. In other words, we don t murder simply because the law said, Thou shall not murder, we don t murder because the nature of God is to give life. We don t steal simply because the law says, Thou shall not steal, rather we don t steal because God is our provider and our neighbor s provider. We love God because He first loved us and we love our neighbors because God loves us and our neighbors. When we read the Bible, the goal is to get to know God better. The Bible is God s love letter to us. As we get to know God better, we know how He thinks and what He expects of us in this relationship. In verse 10, the Bible tells us what God values. The world values power, money, and prestige. God values love; His love for us, our love for Him, our love for one another, and our love for the lost. God s Word is more valuable than gold because we meet Him in a very special way as we read, study, memorize, and meditate on the Bible. The love God extends to us is the sweetest love we will ever experience. David said it is sweeter than honey fresh from the honeycomb. God didn t leave us in the dark about His expectations of us. Verse 11 points out that the Bible tells us what God expects of us. We know that if we live according to God s commands, we will get the most enjoyment out of life. We know that there will be ups and downs in life. But being loved by God and one another brings a great deal of peace and joy even in the most difficult times. Most of you know the basics of the Serenity Prayer; Grant me the peace to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference. That was really a short summary of the prayer. What many people don t realize, the author had a second stanza to the prayer and an interesting ending. The last four lines of the prayer end, Trusting that You will make all things right, if I surrender to Your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Walking with God through life in an ongoing love relationship with Him is what brings fullness to life. IN THE BIBLE GOD REVEALS TO US WHO HE IS, WHO WE ARE, AND WHAT HE EXPECTS OF US. We have just talked about two ways God reveals Himself to us. There are many other ways God reveals Himself to us, but David has just pointed out two; nature and the Bible. Embracing God s revelation also has an effect on us. Verses 12-14 demonstrate that we reveal ourselves to God in this process. WHEN WE THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH GOD LOVES US; WE WANT TO LOVE HIM THE BEST WE CAN. Keep in mind Christianity is all about love. Jesus said the two greatest commandments were to love God and to love one another. He went on to say the entire law and prophets could be summed up in these two commands. We also said that when engaging God s revelation, we understand who we are in relationship to Him. Page 6
III. WE REVEAL OURSELVES TO GOD (VS12-14) Verse 12 reminds us that we heavily depend on God s lovingkindness. David realized that we are born into sin and have a natural bent towards sin. In Psalm 51, he painfully laid out that thought. Even if we were totally vigilant about not sinning in our lives, there are also areas in our lives where we are blind to our sin. If God did not love us and forgive us, there would be no chance of us remaining in a vital relationship with God. He knows we are weak and sinful and has made allowances for us. For believers, we know the blood of Christ makes up for our personal lack of righteousness. Verse 13 reminds us that we can and should try our best not to sin intentionally. We know that we will sin accidentally but we can try to avoid sinning intentionally. The Hebrews called sinning intentionally as sinning with a high hand. I think most of us try to avoid sexual immorality, stealing, killing, drunkenness, etc. We try our best and my guess is that for the most part, we are successful at this. As we progress in our Christian lives, we become more sensitive to sin and we start to grow as we start to avoid more sin. But the real growth and victory over sin comes as we fall more and more in love with God. In verse 14 we can declare our love for God in word and in deed. I love the way David ends the song, May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. There is no better way to end a love song or a love letter to God. WHEN WE THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH GOD LOVES US; WE WANT TO LOVE HIM THE BEST WE CAN. This is a great song David sang to God. It is something that we can think about. God loves us and desires that we love Him in return. THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF A LOVE RELATIONSHIP IS THAT WE HONESTLY REVEAL WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE ARE THINKING, AND WHAT WE ARE FEELING. Page 7