Psalm 19
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.3 They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.6 It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.11 By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.12 But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Anyone who looks at creation and says there is no God is deceiving themselves. Just to look at the sun, a fireball 93 million miles away that keeps us from freezing to death, causing plants to grow so we don't starve, and faithfully rises in the East and sets in the west on such a predictable schedule that it is recorded before it happens. Not to mention that, but if it was any closer we would burn up and any further, we would freeze. If the color was any redder or bluer, photosynthesis would be impossible. God arranged everything just right so that man could exist and live to glorify God. And then the stars are so vast that you can come to two conclusion. One, there must be other life out there and we have spent billions of dollars looking for that life and made countless movies and TV series about it, yet we have found none. Or, second, they are put there to show to man how awesome God is - to remind us and to tell us how big He is and how small we are. Romans 1 says everyone knows about God from creation but they either suppress the knowledge so they don't have to bow the knee to Him, or make themselves manageable "gods" to worship that actually are lesser in power than us or inanimate so they don't require anything of us.
So this is where creation leaves us with the conclusion that there is a God who is eternal, immaterial, uncreated, outside of time and space that is so powerful that He could create this universe we live in. We owe our very existence on a daily basis to Him. But this isn't enough. This is general knowledge leading us to God, but God introduced something to give us specific knowledge of Him and it is called the Word or the Bible. Look at verse 7. It says" the Law of the Lord is perfect refreshing the soul". If you look at the Hebrew it is basically saying, there is a perfect way to live and you have not followed it. However, if you look into the Word you will find a way for your dead spirit to come alive. And the verse 8 and 9 say if you revere and worship this God and follow His laws, your life will be joyful, radiant, your paths and direction for life will be clear and you will be living the life that the creator had planned for you. Don't you think that the One who created mankind would know how man is meant to function. It's like the fishing pole I used at the beach this week. The reels were not meant for sand or salt water so you had to be careful not to set it down on the beach and get sand in it, and wash it out real good with a hose when you were done. We were meant to live worshipping God and obeying His commands not to restrict us or because He is a megalomaniac, but because this is the right way to live that gives the optimal blessed life.
So, all we need to do is live a perfect life and do everything He commands and we will live a blessed life pleasing to Him. The problem is we can't. David says in verses 12 and 13 that not only do we do willful sins but we do unknown and unintentional sins and the perfect, right, righteous law only serves to condemn us. The good news is found in verse 14 where David foretells of a redeemer who is Jesus. He perfectly obeyed the law, took our condemnation on Him on the cross, rose from the dead and gave us the Holy Spirit to be born again into His image. It's like this; you can bark and eat dog food but that doesn't make you a dog no matter how intently you do it. However, if you are a dog, you will bark and eat dog food because it is in your nature. You will do it to your heart's delight. The same is true in our life - when we have the Holy Spirit, obedience comes easily and naturally and joyfully. The Laws will become sweet like honey not a burden to carry.
This is the essence of Psalm 19. If you want to learn more about the first 6 verses, watch this video.
No comments:
Post a Comment