God's Word is Truth
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[ Intro ]
Understanding the Word of God and believing it come with a variety challenges and attacks from the world. The Bible is constantly under attack. People come up with a variety of reasons why they choose not to believe it. They may never give God and His Word a chance, from the get-go they shut Him out. Then there’s the classic claim, the Bible contradicts itself, it can’t be true. Or the one that probably gets more and more popular as time goes on, and sadly is a belief even in some Churches, “The Bible is outdated.” Many believers treat the Word like it’s a restaurant menu and they’re ordering a la cart. Picking and choosing each command they choose to believe necessary to follow. When we accept Christ in our lives we need to accept the Word of God as truth, all of it.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.
All Scripture is inspired by God.
[ pray ]
The main verses we’re going to focus on today are Psalm 19:7-14
We’re going to start by only reading verses 7-9. In these verses the psalmist is describing the Law of Yahweh in six different ways.
The instructions of the Lord are perfect,
reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right,
bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear,
giving insight for living.
Reverence for the Lord is pure,
lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true;
each one is fair.
In these three verses you see statements about the law and also what the law does for us. Think of the law as instructions for us, God’s revealed will. From verse 7, “Instructions” is translated from the word Law in the King James Version. His law, his instruction to us, is perfect. He never misguides. And when we follow it, our soul is revived. That’s what we receive.
He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.
We can’t claim to believe in God, choose to go our own path, and then say “God wasn’t ever there for me. My strength was never renewed.” He guides us along the right paths, but we must follow. We must trust His word as Truth and accept his instruction.
Moving on, the second part of verse 7, “decrees” here is translated from the word Testimony in the King James Version. The Lord’s testimony is trustworthy and we receive wisdom from it, even the simple and inexperienced will be made wise.
When it’s not convenient to follow the Lord’s decrees, we justify our actions by convincing ourselves God’s commands don’t apply to our situation. It requires submission and trusting God is all-knowing. His thoughts and plans are infinitely greater than ours. We must believe the scriptures in Isaiah 55:8-9
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Obeying his decrees require trust. Moving on to verse 8:
The commandments of the Lord are right,
bringing joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are clear,
giving insight for living.
Commandments, precepts, or directives from the Lord, found in the Word are right, pure, and clear. We typically think there’s no joy in following rules and laws. At least that’s the pitch of the world, go have fun! Indulge in your fleshly desires. Then why would there ever be a person who had lots of money and could get away with whatever they wanted, end up in depression and misery. You see it all the time. And it’s easy to point out celebrities because the news likes to focus on them, gossip about them, but anyone can self indulge. It’s not based on wealth or status. It’s a struggle for everyone, and we’ll never find joy or fulfillment in our self-indulgence. True peace and joy, is from accepting God and obeying His commands, all of them.
Verse 9:
Reverence for the Lord is pure,
lasting forever.
The laws of the Lord are true;
each one is fair.
Reverence or Fear of the Lord is pure. We show this reverence by obeying his laws.
Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom.
All who obey his commandments will grow in wisdom.
Praise him forever!
Contrary to what some may say about God’s commandments, they are fair. And fairness really isn’t anything we can try to talk about with God, after all, He sent His only Son to die on the cross so we could be forgiven. We did nothing to earn the salvation that is found in Christ Jesus. This reminds me of all the times as a kid when I couldn’t have something or wasn’t allowed to do something I would just yell at my parents, “That’s not fair!” Now years later I look back and I’m very happy my parents stopped me from doing certain things. The Lord knows what’s best for us.
Let’s move onto the next section, verses 10 through 11.
They are more desirable than gold,
even the finest gold.
They are sweeter than honey,
even honey dripping from the comb.
They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.
These verses are talking about the value of God’s commandments. Now when we think of Gold and Honey, we know there’s value in Gold and honey is sweet. To grasp the emphasis here, though, we have to put ourselves in the mindset of the people living in those times. Gold would have been the commodity with the highest value. And sugar was unknown to the people at these times, so honey was the sweetest thing they knew of. It was the sweetener of choice. Also, in those times they would sometimes use dates and boil them into a syrup, called date honey. But here we know he’s referring to honey from bees with the reference to the honeycomb. And he gives the visual of it coming directly from the source. So he’s saying God’s commands, His law, His Word, is more valuable and sweeter than anything you can imagine.
This reference to gold and honey is reiterated throughout the Psalms.
Your instructions are more valuable to me
than millions in gold and silver.
How sweet your words taste to me;
they are sweeter than honey.
Let’s move on to the final few verses.
How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart?
Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
Keep your servant from deliberate sins!
Don’t let them control me.
Then I will be free of guilt
and innocent of great sin.
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be pleasing to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
In verse 12, the psalmist is not talking about sin that is being concealed away from the outside world. But rather sin that is hidden to himself, sin that he doesn’t even realize he is committing. The psalmist is asking for forgiveness of those sins that are hidden to him. The psalmist continues on then about the sins that are committed willingly, with full knowledge of the wrong that they are. He asks for protection from these sins. That he would not fall into temptation, that he would not be in bondage to them.
You can tell in these the last few verses that there is a desire to be close to God and be found blameless. It’s easy for anyone to be complacent and not feel the need to follow all of God’s commandments, not to be blameless, not to be that close to God. And nobody is perfect, but being found without fault is what we are to strive for. Christ is who we are to live for.
Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.
Jesus is the only one to live without sin. He fulfilled the whole law. And He is the standard for how we are to live. When we do fail, though, it’s by God’s grace, through faith in Christ, we are forgiven. And we continue to seek after God and try to live like Christ.
Psalms 19 was written by King David. He did a lot of great works for God. He took down Goliath, won many battles while serving as king. He was a servant of the Lord. He’s known for being called the “man after God’s own heart”
But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’
But even so, David still had his struggles with sin. Probably one of the most well known ones was his act of adultery with Bathsheba. And he had a lot of guilt from that, it wasn’t until he truly confessed his sin to God did he feel joy and peace. You can read about that in Psalm 51.
Picking and choosing what commands we want to believe and follow won’t bring us close to God. When we do that we are trying to play god. We have to believe the law as it is described in verses 7-9, I’ll give a quick summary of that.
God’s law is:
Perfect
Trustworthy
Right
Clear
Pure
True
Fair
And what we receive when we believe and follow it is:
Strength
Wisdom
Joy
Insight
So the question is do we fully believe all of God’s Word and his commands? Is He our Rock and Redeemer?