GOD’S WORD: FIVE POINTS FROM PSALM 19



GOD’S WORD: FIVE POINTS FROM PSALM 19

INTRODUCTION

A. “The Bible is as necessary to our safe passage through this lifetime as oxygen is to sustain life.” (1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching)

1. Five points from Psalm 19 about God’s word.

I. GOD’S WORD IS RIGHT (Ps 19:7-9)

A. The “law of the Lord” is here used for all of God’s word (7).

1. Other names that are given for it in this text are “testimony,” “statutes,” and “commandment.”

1) These are all used to simply express “God’s word.”

B. God’s word is “perfect” (complete and fully capable to accomplish what it wills).

1. The effect from God’s word being “perfect” is that of “converting the soul.”

1) The soul is what it operates on.

2) Whenever it is applied to a soul, it has an effect.

3) It doesn’t say that it converts every soul, but it alone is sufficient and capable of converting the soul of man.

2. By placing this first in the list, it may suggest that this is the primary purpose of God’s revealed law.

1) It is given to convert us. It is a guide; it makes us wise, but the primary purpose is to convert us.

2) If we approach God’s word without the desire to be molded into the person God wants us to be, then really, we have used the Bible in vain.

3) We need to study the scriptures to be the person God wants us to be.

C. “The testimony of the Lord is sure.”

1. Note – there is a testimony in God’s word.

1) The witness of God is vouched in His word. In His word he testifies about the creation; He testifies against the wicked; He testifies in favor of His people; etc.

2. Further, the testimony is sure, solid, firm, true.

1) It is not an ever-changing statement. It is not a relative truth subject to revision. It contains absolute truth.

2) The effect is that it “makes wise the simple.”

Ps 119:99: “I have more understanding than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation.”

3) The simple are devoid of wisdom and yet when they open their mind to God’s wisdom the word transforms them into wise men.

4) I might also add, it makes fools out of those who use it wrongly.

D. Fools mishandle God’s word.

1. Ignore the context.

1) Don’t ask who is speaking.

2) Don’t ask who is doing the speaking.

3) Don’t ask what is the purpose/point.

2. Misapply Scripture.

1) Placing “…They will send gifts to each other” (Rev 11:10 – on a Christmas card)

2 Tim 2:15: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

E. “The precepts (statutes) of the Lord are right” (8).

1. This refers to the authority of God’s word to guide and oversee us.

1) The word’s lead is the right lead to follow.

2) They are right and just and because of that, it brings “rejoicing” to “the heart” of the man who follows them.

3) I might also add, to ignore God’s guidance is to bring sorrow and much regret into your life.

Ps 119:16: “I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word.”

Ps 119:54: “Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.”

Ps 119:92: “Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.”

F. “The commandment of the Lord is pure” (8).

1. We need to appreciate that God’s word has the authority to command.

1) When we are commanded by God, we are told to do what is for our benefit.

2) We are told from a pure source of what to do.

3) God’s commandments are pure, free from imperfection and corrupt tendency.

2. We see from these ordinances of what is right and wrong.

1) Our eyes are opened to a standard that is defined as righteous and by consequence we see every other standard as erroneous.

Ps 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

G. “The fear of the Lord is clean” (9).

1. Fearing God is clean.

1) We should not live life with “NO FEAR.”

2) There should always be the fear of God within us.

3) First a fear and trembling, then of reverence and respect.

Heb 10:31: “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Heb 12:28-29: “…offer to God an acceptable service with reference and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.”

2. God’s word endures forever.

1) Therefore His judgments are true and righteous (point of fearing God).

II. GOD’S WORD IS TO BE DESIRED (Ps 19:10)

A. David shows that God’s word is desired more than those things most prized by men.

1. There is gold and then there is fine gold.

1) Fine gold is gold that has been refined through fire where all impurities are removed.

2) David sees the wealth in God’s word as being greater than that substance which men search for so diligently here on earth.

3) Rather than a California gold rush which resulted in all kinds of evil and immorality, there should be a golden word rush where righteousness will flourish.

2. Honey is the sweetest substance on earth and yet God’s word is sweeter than it.

1) We eat honey not so much for medicine but for the pleasure of our palate.

2) That describes David’s love for the word.

3) He would rather feast on the word than taste the sweetness of bees.

4) There is honey and then there is honey in the honeycomb where the honey is the sweetest of all before it is weakened from the air.

III. GOD’S WORD WARNS AND REWARDS (Ps 19:11)

A. What if you are never warned in preaching?

1. Then the preaching is not the whole council of God’s word.

Acts 20:27: “For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose (council) of God.”

1) What if you don’t like warnings? Then you don’t like God’s word.

Matt 3:7: “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”

Acts 20:31: “Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.”

1 Cor 4:14: “I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you.”

1 Thes 5:14: “Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.”

Heb 11:7: “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

B. Some Bible warnings:

Gen 19:17: “So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, "Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”

1 Sam 12:15: “However, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as it was against your fathers.”

Heb 13:16: “Give glory to the LORD your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness.”

Heb 12:25: “See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven.”

2 Pet 3:17: “You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked.”

1 Cor 6:9-10: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”

1 Cor 15:33: “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits.’”

Gal 6:7: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

Eph 5:5: “Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.”

Luke 12:1: “In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples first of all, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”

Luke 12:15: “And He said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.’”

Phil 3:2: “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation!”

Col 2:8: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Ps 97:10: “You who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.”

Prov 14:16: “A wise man fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages and is self–confident.”

1 Pet 3:11: “Let him turn away from evil and do good; Let him seek peace and pursue it.”

Ps 37:7-8: “Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret––it only causes harm.”

1. There have been times throughout history where wicked men seem to get the upper hand and with false allegations punish the righteous.

Ps 35:20-21: “For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful words against those who are quiet in the land. And they opened their mouth wide against me; they said, ‘Aha, aha, our eyes have seen it.’”

1) Their motive is because they want what you have.

Ps 35:25: “Do not let them say in their heart, ‘Aha, our desire!’ Do not let them say, ‘We have swallowed him up!’”

2. God reminds us in these two chapters (Ps 35 & 37) that we can be hated and ensnared without cause.

Ps 35:7-8: “For without cause they hid their net for me; without cause they dug a pit for my soul. Let destruction come upon him unawares; and let the net which he hid catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall.”

1) They will reap what they have sown.

Ps 37:12-13: “The wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him; for He sees his day is coming.”

3. We can in times like these focus only on the evil: the plotting, the evil schemes, the continual harassment of sorts.

1) Or, we could focus on the good. The seeing various people come together for a shared common goal for a very uncommon people of God.

2) The being able to meet new people.

3) The being able to give of ourselves.

4) It’s hard to not want to lash out when we get hurt or when those we love get hurt.

5) But God tells us to replace wrath and worry with peace and refrain from pursuing evil.

IV. GOD’S WORD CLEANSES (Ps 19:12-13)

A. “Who can discern his errors?”

Ps 40:12: “For evils beyond number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; they are more numerous than the hairs of my head; and my heart has failed me.”

Isa 64:6: “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

1. Who can number up the sins of a life?

1) Who can count the number of impure and unholy thoughts which, in the course of many years, have found their way into the mind?

2) Who can count the words which have been spoken and should not have been spoken?

3) Who can recall all the forgotten sins and follies of a life?

2. The only way we can understand our error is by looking into God’s word.

1) That should be one of our most important purposes of coming to worship is to understand our errors so that we may get them washed away.

2) DELUDED IF NOT – Jas 1:22-24: “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.”

B. What reward? “Cleanse me from secret faults.” (also presumptuous sins (ignorance).

1. David could be praying for faults which he did unknowingly.

1) Presumption is doing things without authority – without checking with God first.

2) EX: I may presume you like beef, but you may not.

3) God has certain laws and His silence on a matter doesn’t necessarily mean that He is indifferent to it.

4) God is silent about using mash potatoes and gravy on the Lord’s Supper.

5) That doesn’t mean we can use it.

6) We would be committing a presumptuous sin by adding it.

2. Or he may be praying for sins which he tried to cover up, viz. sin with Bathsheba & Uriah.

1) When David was trying to cover his sin and hid it against God and man it was uncovered by God.

2) I am convinced that he was less happy than a bird trying desperately to escape the snare of the net or a lame gazelle being hunted by a pack of blood-thirsty beasts.

3) When your secret sin follows you, there is no peace of mind.

4) God has made the mind in such a way that wickedness has been gladly confessed to finally help heal the conscience.

Jas 1:25: “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides (continues) by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (cf. 1 John 1:8; Rev 14:13).

C. Psalm 32 – A Psalm of David (1-6):

“How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to who the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; ‘I said I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’; and You did forgive the guilt of my sin…Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not reach him.”

1. 1: Sin covered by God, not man’s schemes.

1) 3-4: Note condition when he hid his sin – bones grew old, groaned all day long, vitality was gone, felt old and worn out.

2) This is a picture of a man being consumed by guilt. His vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Hidden sin can bring physical manifestations.

3) 5: But then he changed when Nathan confronted him and pointed out that sin. He acknowledged his sin and confessed it to the Lord. As a result he was forgiven (2 Sam 12:13).

4) 6: Result – As a result, David speaks of even in a flood of great waters (trials) they (the waters) shall not come near him. The pardoned man has no fear when the world is overcome by flood or fire. He can remain safe in God.

5) Psalm 51:1-17 is a part of David’s confession to God and the older I get, the more it means to me as I read it.

V. GOD’S WORD TRANSFORMS THE HEART (Ps 19:14)

A. “The words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart”

1. Ps 51:12-13: When David was forgiven he wanted to teach God’s word to sinners.

1) Ps 51:14-15: He also wanted to sing aloud the righteousness of God.

2. Rom 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

CONCLUSION

1. Mark 9:7: “This is My beloved Son, Listen to (hear) Him!”

1. Heb 11:6: Believe

2. Acts 17:30: Repent

3. Rom 10:10: Confess

4. Acts 22:16: Be baptized.

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