Psalm 19 – “Worth More than its Weight”
This is part of our summer Psalms series in 2009, where we are preaching through some of Pastor Duane’s favorites Psalms. This week is an exegetical sermon on Psalm 19 and is about how God’s Word is Worth More than its Weight. This sermon looks at the way God’s Word works in the world, in a book, and in a human heart. This sermon was originally preached June 14th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
June 14th, 2009
Psalm 19 – “Worth More than its Weight”
God’s Word in a World, a Book, and a Heart
I. God’s Word in a World (v1-6)
II. God’s Word in a Book (v7-11)
III. God’s Word in a Heart (v12-14)
Introduction
Good morning, my name is Duane for those who don’t know me. I’m a pastor here and I get the joy of preaching most weeks here under our head Pastor Jesus Christ.
This summer we’re preaching through various Psalms and this week we’re going to study Psalm 19. Psalm 19 was written by King David. It was written as a song intended to be sung when God’s people got together each week for worship. In some of your Bible’s you might even see a little annotation at the top of it, “To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.”
For thousands of years God’s people have been doing what we’re doing here today…getting together, singing some songs under the direction of a choirmaster (otherwise known as a worship leader) and then studying God’s word with the help of a pastor.
We didn’t sing today because we’re currently choirmasterless. We’re looking for one…in fact next Sunday after service we’re having a bbq at our house, we’d like to invite any musicians or those interested in the future of our music worship here to come over and get to know a guy we’ve been spending some time with who may be Jesus’ man for us to oversee our music worship.
Well, let’s read Psalm 19 and pray over to ask God to teach us this morning.
Lord God we thank you for your Word. It is incomparable. I pray today that as we study this chapter in your book that it would effect us and cause the increase of our affection and worship of your glorious name. In the name of your Son Jesus, Amen.
So there are really three main sections to this Psalm as you can see from the outline. There is God’s Word which speaks to us through the world he has made. There is God’s Word which speaks most clearly and directly to us through the book he has inspired and compiled together for us. And there is God’s word which speaks into the very heart and soul of our being, convicting us of sin and drawing us unto himself who redeems us.
I’ve titled my message today, “Worth More Than It’s Weight.” The very first line starts off by saying, “The heavens declare the glory of God…” The word “glory” literally means weight. It is my conviction today that the weight and the worth of God’s word as it points us to our maker and our savior is the greatest treasure a person could ever possess. I mean that.
It has been a precious treasure to many people throughout the ages. C.S. Lewis said this particular Psalm, Psalm 19: “I take this to be the greatest Psalm in the (whole) Psalter.” Of all the Psalms this was his favorite.
It’s inspired a lot of poets to write their own forms of it.
John Milton wrote:
These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! Thine this universe frame,
Thus wondrous fair; Thyself how wondrous then!
Unspeakable, who sitt’st above these heavens
To us invisible, or dimly seen
In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.
Poetry upon poetry. Amazing.
This Psalm has also been a really special one to me personally. I’m an outdoors guy. If I have a choice I’d much rather be outside doing something then be inside in front of a computer or a TV screen. All growing up I was always into sports…my favorite one of all, the only one I still regular do…surfing. Because I get to be outside, in the water, in the face of the sun, connecting with the power and beauty of God at work. This Psalm talks directly about that.
Then on top of that, which is great in and of itself…other than Psalm 119 there is probably not a Psalm written which more expresses my personal feelings about the Bible itself and its place in my life. The Bible truly is my source of wisdom. It rejoices my heart. Open my eyes. Puts holy fear into me…warns me and rewards me. It is sweet to my taste and is my most valuable possession. I love the Bible.
And perhaps most of all…this Psalm addresses my heart. It points out that despite the wonders of God’s creation and God’s words that there is much meditation and words of my mouth which do not reflect a love for God’s world and what he has written…I need a rock and a redeemer. This Psalm very vividly points me to Jesus.
So, like most the Psalms I’m preaching through this summer, they are very intimate and special Psalms to me.
I. God’s Word in a World (v1-6)
Okay, well let’s get into these verses. First, God’s Word in the World. What these words in the most simplist form are saying is that there is a message to be heard from the things of the world…the heavens, the skies, the day, the night, the earth and the sun have something to say. They are as Mathew Henry described them, “natural immortral preachers…(who) speak in their own tongue the wonderful works of God.”
Now obviously, or at least hopefully obviously, we realize the Bible isn’t telling us that we’re supposed to talk to the stars or the clouds or the sun. Most people would think you were crazy if you were like, “Dude guess what the sun told me today…I’m going to win the lottery.”
Some have made that mistake. Ra Annu or Shamash was the sun-God worshipped by thousands of ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians. Today, many who are into astrology either seriously or causally think that the stars have a message to tell us…depending on whether you’re an aries or a virgo or an aquaries or whatever your horoscope sign is.
Others, go to the extreme opposite end and say that there is no message to be discerned or inferred from what we see and experience in the world. What is just is. Questions about where everything ultimately came from or started are simply unknowable. Richard Dawkins, a famous athiest says that suggesting God is simply, “a great excuse to evade the need to think.”
His idea is something called panspermia, a widespread seeding of sperm in the universe by aliens. To suggest God as a source is considered weak, foolish, silly, unproductive and unhelpful.
When it comes to value judgments of beauty, significance or meaning…they are just seen merely as the projection of human emotion. A colorful flower isn’t more beautiful or meaningful than a bag of trash…it just looks different and has a different function.
Nothing can be significant because then there would have to be something outside of it all ascribing significance and worth to the world. God.
,
The Bible says here that all of creation is in fact a creation by a creator and is ringing with praise for its creator. There are four things it does, and the Hebrew words are participles which mean they are ongoing…so literally: the world keeps on declaring, keeps on proclaiming, keeps on pouring out speech, and keeps on revealing.
So what is this knowledge coming from the world that has inaudible words which can be heard by all humans who speak all kinds of different languages. For sure there are all different kinds of languages but every language and dilalect has a word for “sun” and it means something. The question is what does it mean?
Perhaps thinking about the heavens and the sky and the sun will help.
Do you know how many stars there are? Experts say that with the naked eye we can see about 5,000 stars. That’s how many David would have been able to see when he was writing this. I took an astronomy class at SDSU several years ago now. The school has an observatory out near alpine…one evening we had a field trip out there. They have a couple of these big telescopes out in the forest away from the city lights, they look like big huge dome balls. You walk into them and go up into a spiral staircase and look into the eye hole of a telescope the size of a car and you can see way off into space.
In the milkey way, the galaxy we live in, there are a lot more than 5,000 stars. If you multiply 5,000 by 80 million that’s how many. 400 billion stars. But that’s just one galaxy. There are 125 billion galaxies, the largest one being thirteen times the size of the milkey way. That means that the amount of stars in the universe are approximently the number 10 with 21 zeroes after it.
The sky above proclaims his handiwork. In the passage we read together from Isaiah 40 this morning, it says God knows their exact number and has named every one of those stars. I looked it up last night on the internet and discovered that you can buy your own star at buyastar.net for $39.95. Apparently God is selling them off.
But have you ever thought about what stars are? They are powerful, burning, balls of fire. The sun is a star. Verse 6 says nothing is hidden from its heat. I heard theologian Wayne Grudem speak once about the power and heat produced by the sun.
He suggested that to give us an idea of this power and heat to begin by thinking about our vehicles, the car you drove to get here this morning. Think of that power and think of all the power produced by all the cars and semi-trucks and trains and jets of the whole world. Think of the power of all the hydroelectric dams across the world, turning the flow of water into electricity. Think of all the nuclear energy plants. Think of all the dynamite that has been used to build tunnels and coal mines. Think of the power of fires that can sweep across acres and acres of land burning them up in an instant. Think of all that power across the whole world and put it all together and then add that with all the power ever produced in all of history. It would only be equal to power and energy that the sun produces in one second.
The sun is tens of thousands of nuclear explosions continually going off. God made the sun to telll of his glory. Do you know how big the sun is? If you hollowed out the sun, 1 million planets the size of the earth would fit into it. It burns at 29 million degrees farenheight. The message of the sun is that there is something greater than it, something greater than a galaxy full of stars, and something greater than a universe full of galaxies…God, the skies are saying I am made by a powerful God.
God’s imprint is everywhere. It goes out, verse 4, “through all the earth…to the end of the world.” The smallest plant speaks to the glory of God. One of the smallest things most immediate to us is the human cell…too small for my eye to see. But under a microscope it can be seen and studied. Inside every cell is my own personal DNA, a code full of information…which if I could unravel it and hold it in a straight line would be about six feet long. And if I then took out a pen and began to write down ever letter written on that six foot long strand of DNA it would take up about 75,000 pages of the New York times. It is pouring out speech, I am made by an intelligent God.
The last little illustration David throws in here is so funny to me because it’s about sex. He is thinking about how great God’s creation is and how the sun is shouting out with joy that God is great and what comes to David’s mind is his wedding night. It’s comedy. Look at it, the sun comes out verse 5, “like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man, runs its course with joy.”
I’m not sure if I quite get the picture here but it kind of sounds like after his wedding night he gets up and leaves in the morning and then runs through the town full of energy and joy yelling, “I’m not a virgin anymore, yes!!!” J I don’t know you tell me.
Either way, what is unique about what he adds here is that the message of creation is a message of joy. The heavens and the earth delight to give praise and glory to God. Remember that, we’ll come back to it.
But get this point for now, how God’s Word is at work in the world and intended to effect us. Here is how it works…when we see shades of green and colorful flowers we are to hear the voice of God saying, “I am the God of color.” When we see thick billowy clouds we are to hear “I am the God of the clouds.” When we feel the heat of the sun and have to shield our eyes from it’s bright light, we are to hear, “I am the God of the sun.” When see the oceans waves swell up and roar, we are to hear, “I am the God of the seas.” When we see the starry sky we are to hear, “I am the God of the stars.” The world is shouting of word of God who says, “I AM!”
II. God’s Word in a Book (v7-11)
And yet that is not all that God has said. As great as God’s word is in the world he has yet given more, specific written words in a specific language, put down on paper and compiled together into a book.
You would think that God’s Word in creation would be enough but as you and I know, sadly it’s not. With so clear and bright displays of his glory, we ought to be ravished with awe at God’s infinite goodness, wisdom and power but instead we are blind to his glory. So God writes a book…which if creation itself is so great, has got to say something about how great the book he makes is. Greater than the sun and all the stars and greater than all the earth.
God’s word is great. There are essentially five different synonymns here for God’s Word: law, testimony, precepts, commandment, rules…they are used specifically to point out that the written words did not have their origin or intention in the will of men, like the way other books. Notice with each word it is combined with the phrase, “of the LORD.” Law of the LORD. Testimony of the LORD. Precepts of the LORD. Commmandment of the LORD. Rules of the LORD.
Now obviously, none of the books of the Bible were written by the very finger and pen of God, except the ten commandments, and Moses lost his temper and broke those. So when the Bible attributes words written by the hands of human men, whose personalities and writing styles we can pick up, it’s saying that through the ages God superintended the writings, instructing the writers what to write and preserving and keeping them from making sinful human errors. So that the real author, is the author behind their pen, the divine author…it is of him, of the LORD.
Which his how the books were collected and compiled. The ones which obviously bore the imprint of the divine author behind the human author were for the most part easily recognizable and had already been circulating among God’s people being used in worship services.
Knowing this alone, that the Bible is the very Word of God ought to be enough to compel and quicken our hearts to want to read it and invest ourselves in it. But God is gracious with us and so here in Psalm 19 he tells of the practical benefits of reading the Bible. If maybe you’ve been like, “yeah I know I’m supposed to read the Bible but does it actually do any good?” Here’s your answers of how it will.
Let’s go through them quickly. There’s eight things it does: it revives the soul, it makes wise the simple, it rejoicing the heart, it enlightens the eyes, gives us fear, gives us truth, warns of evil, and it enables reward.
In reviving the soul, the Bible is the perfect means which can address the healing we need from the scars and damage of our own sins and the sins of others against us. In it and through it the soul is renewed.
When Jesus was speaking with a couple dudes one time about the Bible after Jesus left one commented to the other…”did not our hearts burn within when he opened up the Scriptures to us?” The Bible is the key to keeping us from burning out. When we begin to burn out it’s because God’s Word is not burning within.
In giving us wisdom, the Bible is a sure guide to tell us what we need to know for life and godliness. We are not left to speculate and have to sort through the mass of every whim and idea that is out there on google.
And on top of it the Bible is an open book, it is available to anyone to test and try. This is called the perpescuity of Scripture, most often it speaks plainly and clearly. You don’t have to be a well educated person to be able to read and benefit from it.
In giving us joy, the Bible offers and points us to the right pleasures, how to be satisfied and happy. We live in a world where so many things seek our attention promising us pleasures. But they are fleeting and leave us unsatisfied. The Bible is right and its words bring us true and lasting joy.
In enlightening our eyes, the Bible is pure, without corruption in what it shows us. There is no danger of seeing things falsley is Scripture is the lens through which we see everything. It enables us to have a perspective which is not all-knowing but does view the things which matter correctly.
In giving us fear, the Bible properly places what we should be afraid of and what we shouldn’t. Often we fear things we shouldn’t and often we don’t fear things we should. Fearing the Lord is the only fear that truly matters.
In giving us truth, the Bible is righteous all together. It doesn’t just argue to tell us what is right but tellls us why things are right and how they relate to God…and it does in remarkable fashion, weaving together one big, overarching story of God and his grace.
You get a feel for the great unity of the Bible here. One of the most amazing things about the Bible is the great unity and uniformity it speaks with concerning who God is. You have a 66 different books, 40 different authors speaking with one unified voice. That is unparalled. You put forty Psychologists in a room and even let them talk to one another and come up with who God is. There would be a huge lack of unity.
In warning us, the Bible tells us in advance what the pitfalls and traps men and women of God have made throughout history so that we might learn from them and know not only how to avoid them but how to repent and find grace when we do fall.
And lastly in rewarding us, the Bible promises that it will bear fruit in us. In Isaiah 55:11 God says, “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Sometimes it might not seem like reading the Bible is doing anything for you…but God promises it will, it will change you and work in you as it continually points you to himself.
In the middle of stating these practical benefits, David sort of breaks out and cannot contain himself and erupts into expressing his love for the Bible. Look at with me, verse 10, “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings from the honeycomb.”
This statement is amazing to me. More than gold, sweeter than honey! It seems that the pursuit of so many in our day and in our cutlure and in our city is the pursuit of gold.
At the group home for teenagers that I work at on Thursdays and Fridays they are super into listening to “Lil’ Wayne” all the time. Most of his stuff is pretty foul…but I guess I appreciate the honesty in one of his songs about what the pursuit, hope, and goal of his life is.
I need a Winn-Dixie grocery bag full of money
Got money and you know it
Take it out your pocket and show it
Here we go, one for the money, two for the show
Now clap your hands if you got a bank roll
Got money and you know it
Take it out your pocket and show it
I was talking to a guy at 7-11 the other day about lottery cards. I’ve never bought one but I was asking him about it. Things are pretty tight financially for us right now so I have to admit I was tempted with the thought of hope winning the lottery and thinking that would solve all my financial problems. I didn’t buy one, but here is what I found out. Last year California made $3,049 billion dollars off people buying lottery tickets.
More to be desired than gold, even much fine gold…I mean think about it. The game shows on TV, MTV cribs, the fasincination with celebrities and their homes, cars, their clothes and how they spend their money. It seems like riches is the things everybody wants or wishes they had most.
Actual gold is expensive. I know. I bought a gold ring for my wife over eight years ago now. I not only saved up a bunch of cash but sold all my baseball cards, my electric guitar and amp and weight set in order to buy that thing.
A gold bar, which weights about 25 pounds and is in most central banks is worth about $382,000 dollars. Now imagine what David is saying. If I had a choice to have just one gold bar versus have the Bible…I’d take and want the Bible in a second. That’s an expensive Bible.
Think about the time and the effort and the energy that is put into the pursuit of money. If even a fraction of that was energy was spent in pursuit and desire of God’s Word, our lives and our city would look a whole lot different. More to be desired than gold…
If a friend called you up and told you that you would get one of those gold bars for free if you simply drove across town to go pick it up, no strings attached…what would you do. You’d anxiously drive over there in a second. What if you saw your Bible like that? When you wake up in the morning, when you come home from work, desiring the Bible, more than gold.
When you experience the goodness of the Bible you will come to love it and want and need it more and more. That’s when you cross over into the place where it becomes like honey…it is sweetness to you. Its taste is a pleasure.
The Bible speaks louder than creation itself, it speaks right into our lives and shows us how to live and how to love. It is at once both the most profound and theological book ever written and at the same time the most poetic and practical book ever produced. God’s Word in God’s book is simply unparralled.
III. God’s Word in a Heart (v12-14)
And now we come to our last main point, “God’s Word in a Heart” with the words “Who can discern his errors?” in verse 12. Here’s the way I take those words.
I take them as a summary of everything said up to that point in the Psalm. I think David looks back upon what he has written that God has given him…a great poem and song about the glory of God shown in the world and the Word of God given in written form…and I think he’s both amazed and crushed at the same time.
He’s amazed at how wonderful God is and all that God has done, God is perfect, without error. As Anselm said, the being of which none greater can be conceived. He’s amazed at God. But then his words move immediately to contrtion, to humble brokenness. He’s immediately convicted of his own sinfulness.
Look at it. Beginning with the second half of verse 12, “Declare me innocnent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocnent of great transgression.”
David is crushed. He realizes that despite how great God’s Word is in creation, it wasn’t enough to bring him to rejoice in God along with the sun. Remember I said we’d come back to it. The heavens and the earth delight to give praise and glory to God. But David realized it barely moved him like it should. How easily numb we grow to the greatness of God’s glory shone all around us.
Then he realizes how great God’s written Word is. How it ministers to his being so kindly and preceisly. He remembers times when the Bible was worth more than gold to him and was like honey to his mouth…but he realizes that even with the immense aid of God’s Word that it too failed to keep his heart and life free from sin.
So what does he do? Start complaining about that creation just isn’t good enough or that the Bible is hard and boring and difficult in some places? No. He turns inward and realizes that it is his own sinfulness which has corrupted him.
And so he moves to prayer. The whole tone of the Psalm changes…it moves away from declaration to all out petition.
Look at what he says,
Verse 12 he realizes he’s guilty. What he needs is to be declared innocent…but he has hidden faults. Things maybe no one else knows, but he knows God knows, who judges the thoughts and attitudes and intentions of the heart.
John Calvin says these secret sins are “blind faults we don’t think are sin.” But the more we examine ourselves the more we would find “an abyss of sins so great as to have neither bottom nor shore (in the ocean).”
Presumptuous sins in verse 13, are when presume you know better than God and intentionally go against what you know he has directed you not to. Rather than ask, seek and submit to God we go against him on our own.
Look what he says here, he realizes that unless God keeps him from going that way, it’s the way he’s going to go, the sin will have dominion. Without God’s restraint we will sin. Sometimes we want so bad and defend our supposed “free will.” We don’t want that, because our will is to immediately move away from God and into sin if God does not hold us back.
Lastly notice the end of verse 13 where he realizes what he needs is full aquittal. Blamelessness. God is holy and cannot be in the presence of sin and sinful men. And the transgression is great. Dismission God’s glory in the world all around us. Not trusting and desiring but rather slighting God’s Word?! It is a great transgression.
So what does he do…he casts himself before the mercy of God. God’s Word is most at work when it is at work in the human heart to humble the children of men and to cause them to feel great remorse and to call upon God for salvation. And that’s what David does here.
David was a wicked man in his life. He was an adulterer, cheated on his wife with another man’s wife and then had that man murdered. But the Bible says David was a man after God’s own heart. I don’t think it’s because of his adultery and murder but because God is pleased to see repentful men.
David says here, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.” He’s asking God for a heart change. If you’re wondering where Jesus is in this Psalm, this is it. Here’s where the gospel comes blazing in.
Change my heart oh God my rock and my redeemer. David realizes the he needs redemption and that only God can redeem him. His life is a mess, so up and down. He needs a rock and a redeemer.
Sometimes people ask me what about people in the Old Testament before Jesus, how were they saved if at all. This is a great text because it shows how. David called out to God to be his redeemer. So David was looking forward in time to Jesus, when God would come down and do what he needed to do to redeem men. David looked forward to Jesus in the way that we look backward to Jesus, the redeemer.
How did Jesus redeem? He declared the glory of God every day of his life. He lived by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And then he went to a cross to take on the punishment that such great transgression deserves.
Conclusion
Let’s conclude. Here’s my conclusion. This Psalm is ultimately about Jesus.
This Psalm is about Jesus because he is God’s Word in creation. Colossians 1:16 says, ” by (Jesus) all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” Jesus is the glory of God that the heavens declare. They declare worship of the Son of God who according to Heb 1:3 continually upholds all things by his powerful Word.
This Psalm is about Jesus because Jesus is God’s written Word which became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus spoke and his words were Scripture. It is Jesus and his word alone which can revive the soul, make wise the simple, rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes, give us holy fear, give us righteousness, warn us of sin, and give us great reward.
This Psalm is about Jesus because Jesus is God’s Word to the human heart. Only in Jesus is there no error or sin and thus only he can take our place and pay the penatly we owe for our sin. And it is only through him that our hearts get changed so that its meditation and words become pleasing in God’s sight.
So my plea today is to worship Jesus along with the rest of his world. My plea is to love the Jesus of the Bible and read him often. My plea is to confess your sin to Jesus and have him continually change your heart and redeem your life.
Without Jesus life is a up and down unstable mess. We need a rock under our feet. It’s Jesus. Jesus died on a cross set on a rock so that for all time we might have the strength and stability he provides for us.
Let’s go to him in prayer.
