The Witness of God

The Witness of God in the World

Psalm 19

     The tittle of the message this morning is the witness of God in the world. That is the theme of Psalm 19, God makes Himself known to us in two predominant ways, nature, and scripture. This is what theologians refer to as general revelation and special revelation, or God’s works and God’s Word.  This is a beautiful poem written by David, about the existence of God and he teaches us how we are to respond to God’s witness in the world.

Psalm 19 KJV 1900

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, And night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, Where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, And his circuit unto the ends of it: And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: And in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me: Then shall I be upright, And I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

(pray)

     You and I could never know God except God take the initiative to reveal Himself to us. God is completely unknowable; except He chooses to make Himself known.

God is a Spirit. He doesn’t have a human body, so we cannot see Him, touch Him. For the most part, God chooses to remain inaudible, so we cannot hear Him talk to us, or communicate with us in the way we communicate.

     This infinite God must take the step to make Himself known to finite human beings. The greater must make Himself known to the lesser. The Creator must take the initiative to reveal Himself to His creation. So, the question becomes How does He do that? How does God reveal Himself to us?

     It gives me the image of an artist who has created a sculpture for a museum and the sculpture is draped in canvas. No one has ever seen it except the artist, and everyone is waiting, when suddenly at the appointed time the canvas is removed and reveals the sculpture to the world, for all to see.

God removes the canvas and reveals Himself to us in two very specific ways that are called general revelation and special revelation, or nature and the Bible.

     General revelation is called that because that’s what it does. It gives us a general knowledge of God through nature. We can look at the beauty and complexity of the world we live in and determine there is a Creator.

That the world could not come into existence by random chance but there had to be divine design, and intelligent being behind it all. But general revelation is not enough.

    No one has ever been saved by general revelation, No one could ever know God and live for Him through general revelation. So, there had to be more, there had to be special revelation. There has to be a deeper more personal way for God to make Himself known to us.

     So, God gave us special revelation. He gave us the written Word of God. God speaks to us through His Word, and He teaches us; how to know Him and how to live for Him. And that is what Psalm 19 is about. David shows us the two witnesses of God in the world and how we are to respond to them.

     The first witness we see in this Psalm is the witness of nature, Vs. 1-6. God makes Himself known through creation. Creation itself necessitates a Creator. The world does not self-create. Out of nothing, nothing comes, and God is the great uncaused cause of all things.

     Vs. 1 says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God. And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”  The heavens here is a reference to otter space; the moon, the sun, the stars the skies, everything above us. And by telling here, David means they are speaking to us. They are telling us about the glory of God.

     Abraham Lincoln once said, “I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down on the earth and be an atheist, but I can’t see how anyone could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.” David would say it another way in Psalm 14:1, “A fool says in his heart there is no God.”

     When we look at the world we live in, in terms of the physical creation, it speaks volumes to us about who God is. It speaks of His power, His majesty, His magnitude. He hung the planets on nothing and flung the stars into the sky. The dimensions of outer space can’t even be measured. It is so vast we can’t even find the end of it. All of that speaks to how incredibly powerful God is. It speaks of His glory. Can’t you see it? Can’t you hear it?

     John Calvin said, “the universe is God’s theatre, He uses to display His glory.” It’s as though God is just showing off in all the world. Creation is bearing witness of a Creator, and it is God Himself who is making Himself known to us.

     Notice Vs. 2, “Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” In other words, this revelation of God is constant. It is unending. There is never a dull moment. There is never a time when God is not revealing Himself to us. 24 hours a day 7 days a week you can see Him, you can hear Him. He is speaking to us of His existence and His excellence.

     Yet this speech is silent. Notice Vs. 3, “There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard.” When God speaks it is with a universal language that is silent. Yet it is so loud that everyone can hear it in every corner of the world.  The heavens, the earth, the mountains, and the seas all speak to us. The human body speaks to us of a Creator.

     Before Pastor Bob Wood ever went into the ministry, he was a scientist. And he once told me, he would believe in the existence of God for no other reason than the human eye. It is incredible how the human eye works with the brain.

     When light shines into the retina it sends an electrical signal through cells called photoreceptors. That signal travels through these photoreceptors from the retina along the optic nerve, to the brain and the brain takes those signals and creates the images we see, and it does it instantaneously. That is amazing and it is not an accident it is by design of the master craftsman Himself.  God has put His fingerprint on everything we see.

     Vs 4 says, “Their line has gone out through all the earth; and their utterance to the end of the world.” This witness of God covers the four corners of the earth and can be easily understood by every man, woman, and child. It is global, unrestricted, unhindered, easily heard. Paul would tell us in Romans 1 that if we don’t recognize it, it is our own fault, and we have no excuse.

     Then David, the great teacher he is, In Vs. 4-6 he gives us three powerful illustrations of the sun. He uses just one part of God’s creations, to describe how incredible God is. In Vs. 4 the universe is like a tent for the sun that God just puts it away in at night. That big burning star in the sky is like a tiny little lantern to God, and He hangs it on a pole in the middle of a tent, and he is talking about the universe.

     Then in Vs. 5 David describes the sun as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. The image here is of the husband coming out of the honeymoon suite and his face is glowing and beaming with joy because he has married the love of his life. And David says, that’s what the sun looks like every morning, when it comes up in the sky.

     And finally, David compares the sun to a strongman rejoicing to run his course. The picture here is of an athlete who gets up every day to run. And he never gets tired, he never drops out of the race. And that is what the sun does, it comes out every morning and it works its way to the finish line and then it goes away and reappears in the stadium tomorrow.  All of this speaks to who God is. His power and His precision. Creation is His testimony, and it bears witness to His existence.

     This is what we call general revelation. God makes Himself known to us through nature. But it’s not enough. We need more. We need special revelation. We need God to tell us who He is and what His purpose is for our life. And that’s what we see next in Psalm 19. We see God’s witness through scripture, Vs. 7-11.

     I want you to notice David doesn’t waste a word here. He packs the information in here for us so tight you almost miss it. Notice in Vs. 7-9 there are six names for the Word of God: law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, and judgments. Then David gives us six characteristics: it’s perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true. But he’s not done yet, then he gives us six results of the Word of God, It will restore the soul, make the simple wise, rejoice the heart, enlighten the eyes, endure forever, and is all together righteous. This is a loaded cluster of verses here, and it’s all about God revealing Himself to us through the Word.

     Notice Vs. 7, The law here refers to the teaching nature of the scripture. We are schooled by the law of God. It teaches us basic truths for life. It informs us of God, man, sin, and salvation. And David says, “it’s perfect.” And by perfect he means complete, flawless, without spot or blemish. He is speaking of the sufficiency of scripture. God has provided everything we need for life and to prepare us for eternity.

     And His testimony is sure. You can count on it. You can believe it. You can base your life on it. In fact, Jesus told us in Matthew 7 that the man who hears my word and puts it into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on a rock. Let me ask you this, what are you building your life on? Because if it’s not built on the rock, it’s just sinking sand and it’s not going to last.

     But if it’s the Bible then it is giving you wisdom. It makes the simple wise. Think about it like this. Nature reveals to us there is an incredibly wise Creator and scripture reveals His wisdom to us. Why would you not want that in your life? Jesus said, “man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”

     Notice Vs. 8, “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” By “right” he means morally and ethically upright. They are straight, and they are strong. They are divine guidelines for life. Hebrews 4:12 says, “The Word of God is active and sharper than any two-edged sword.” It will cut you to the bone. Steven Lawson says, “I have read many books in life, but this book reads me.”

     But how does the Word of God rejoice the heart? It gives us clear direction about every decision we have to make. We don’t have to wonder and guess what we should do. The scriptures teach us how to live a life that is pleasing to God, and we reap the benefits of that. It brings joy to our hearts and peace to our soul.

     Notice Vs. 9 “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.” This speaks of having reverence for God. Reverence for His sovereignty, authority, power, and holiness. It’s the fear of the Lord that should cause us to sit up straight in our chair, and listen to what He has to say because He could rip the roof off this place if He wanted to.

     It’s the fear of the Lord that drives the gospel and causes us to seek forgiveness and grace we don’t deserve because the opposite is unthinkable. That we would be judged, condemned and separated from all that is good for eternity.

     And by clean David is talking about purity. The fear of the Lord cleanses us and purifies us. It compels us to live in obedience and to walk in holiness, and it endures forever. The Bible is not going anywhere. It will never pass away, it will never be amended, updated, edited. It remains permanently right and eternally true. That means what is right is forever right and what is wrong is forever wrong.

     In Vs. 10 again David the master teacher begins to illustrate for us, but this time it’s about what the Word of God means to Him personally. He says, “it is finer than gold and sweeter than honey.” According to David if you come across an armored vehicle that is flipped over on it’s back, and it has thrown gold all across the road, and you see a Bible laying over on the sidewalk, go for the Bible, forget the gold. The Bible will be more valuable to your life. It will elevate your life.

     And in Vs. 11 we see that David believed there were consequences for not obeying the Word and rewards for living by it. It says, “ Moreover, by them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is a great reward.” This teaches us there is a right way to live and a wrong way to live and this is not hate speech. If I am doing something I shouldn’t be doing tell me so I can fix it. Proverbs 14:12 says, “there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end is death.” When Taylor was a little girl, she got here rear end spanked for running across the road in front of cars, and it wasn’t because I didn’t love her, but because I did. When God says, “Thou shall not,” it’s a warning of consequences for disobedience. But it’s also telling us there is a blessing for obeying.

     This is the special revelation of God. God reveals Himself to us through His Word. The next thing I want you to see in this Psalm is the impact of God’s witness in our life, Vs. 12-14.

     Here we see God’s witness to David was like a mirror causing him to look at himself, and it should do the same thing in our life. When you behold the glory of God in the world and you learn of the grace of God in His Word, you should be confronted by the fact that you are a helpless sinner who needs a Savior.

     And we see David cry out to God in three ways. First, He cries out for forgiveness. Notice Vs. 12, “Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.” David has become aware he is a sinner. His conscience is seared. Right and wrong have been written on his heart and he cries out to God for forgiveness. In fact, he wants to be forgiven of sin he’s not even aware of yet. That is the true nature of repentance.

     Let me ask you this, has this happened in your life? Have you repented of your sin. Have you cried out to God for forgiveness? Do you recognize you need a Savior? Because the sin in your life is so great you’re probably not even aware of it all. That’s where David was in this Psalm.

     2nd he cries out to God for power. Vs. 13, “Also keep back your servant from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression.” David knew he was going to need God’s help to overcome the battle. He knew that God was the only one that could change him and if he was going to be clean God had to do it.

     “Presumptuous sins’ here are willful acts of rebellion against God. Things that we do, and we will continue to do because we are stubborn, and refuse to give them up, not even for God.

     Finally, we see David cry out to God for acceptance, Vs 14. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.” David longed to please God and be acceptable to Him in every area of his life. From the words of his mouth to the meditation of his heart. David wanted to be redeemed.

     Is that your desire today? Do you want to be redeemed? Do you want to be made new? To be cleansed from the inside out and be acceptable to God in every area of your life? That’s what this Psalm teaches us.

     It begins in the heavens, and it ends in the heart. It teaches us that the God who made the moon, the sun, the stars and the sky is reaching out to us because He wants to have a relationship with us. All of revelation, whether it is general or special is God speaking to us with one goal in mind; He wants to know you and be known by you.

     God has removed all of the barriers that separate us from Him, and He provided a redeemer for us. He gave us His Son and it is through the cross of Jesus Christ that we can be forgiven. Jesus sets us free from the power of sin in this life and the penalty of sin in eternity. It’s in the righteousness of Christ that we stand cleansed in the sight of God, not our own.

     So, God is speaking to us through the world and through His Word. He is making Himself known. The question is are you listening?