"What Are You Looking At?"

I’m thankful to have this opportunity to share God‘s Word, with God‘s people, in God’s house here at Love Fellowship Baptist Church. I also thank my friend Pastor Gerald O’Guinn for this opportunity to share with his congregation. I have known Pastor O’Guinn for about 25 years or so. At one point we were coworkers here in town, and I think I probably first met him on the basketball court in our work basketball league. And for the past 20 or so years that I’ve known him, he has been a man of single focus. He is focused on Jesus Christ and preaching His Word.

It is good to see other friends of mine here: The Scotts, etc.…….

At this time I ask that you open your Bibles to Psalm 19. I will be reading from the New King James Version of God’s Holy Word.

Psalm 19:1-14 (NKJV)

The Perfect Revelation of the Lord

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

2 Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

3 There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

6 Its rising is from one end of heaven,

And its circuit to the other end;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10 More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned,

And in keeping them there is great reward.

12 Who can understand his errors?

Cleanse me from secret faults.

13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;

Let them not have dominion over me.

Then I shall be blameless,

And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen.

I have entitled this message, “What Are You Looking At?”

As I spoke with Pastor O’Guinn, a few weeks ago, he shared with me that he has been preaching through the Psalms, and I wanted to share a little information about the Psalms to start us off this morning. There are 150 Psalms, and Psalms has been sometimes referred to as the hymnbook of the Bible.  These Psalms were written over a period of about 900 years of Jewish history. Most, if not all of these Psalms were to be sung and accompanied by a stringed instrument. King David was the inspired author of most of the Psalms, at least 75. David is the inspired author of the Psalm we will be examining this morning, Psalm 19. It has been said that Psalm 19 is a condensed version of Psalm 119, which is the longest Psalm in the Bible at 176 verses. The author of Psalm 119 is unknown, however, many people have attributed that Psalm to David because of the similarity of Psalm 19 and Psalm 119, and of David’s other the writings. What they have in common is the emphasis on the importance of God’s Holy Word, the Bible.

It seems to me that this Psalm has us to direct our attention into 4 different areas.

We are to look upward, then downward, then inward, then toward.

First we are directed to:

1. Look Upward

David directs us number one to look upward, look up!

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

David first looks upward and recognizes God’s glory through the creation he sees in the sky.  Heaven sometimes refers to the place where God dwells, but in this context, it is referring to the sky.  Heavens, space, sky, expanse, firmament are all words used to describe the sky. I can imagine King David looking up into the sky and just marveling at God‘s handiwork. The sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the sunsets, the sun rises. All are magnificent testaments to a powerful, creative, awesome God.

Ancient people used to worship all of the different heavenly bodies (the sun, moon and stars) as gods.  Some still worship them today, instead of worshipping the God who created them.

The sky displays God’s handiwork or creativity, His design. David marvels at the beauty in the sky that God created. It is interesting to me that I have never heard anyone say to me, “Look at all of this beauty that the Big Bang produced.”

2 Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

David says that the sky (the heavens) speak to us daily, and the night sky reveals knowledge to us.  We have one big light that dominates the daytime sky (the sun), that David talks about a little later.  I want to focus on the night for a second, because the night reveals the vastness of space that we can’t see during the day with our eyes. I can remember as a child going to my grandparent’s home deep in Alabama near LaFayette.  They lived in the country and there were no street lights anywhere.  It was a different kind of darkness there. One night when we were there, my brothers and I went out. My older brother was driving.  He stopped the car in the middle of nowhere and turned off all the lights.  We just looked at the stars.  It looked like someone had taken a bucket of shiny glitter and tossed it across the sky.  There were tiny lights everywhere.  I grew up in Nashville where the city lights drown out many of the stars, and even here in Chattanooga the street lights drown many of the stars out. But when you get away from the city where there are no lights, you get a different appreciation for the heavens. There are so many stars we cannot count them.  I went to the NASA website and even they said we don’t know how many stars there are. In our Milky Way galaxy alone there are estimated at least 100 billion stars, and I’ve seen estimates to up to 400 billion stars.  I had heard when I was in college that there were about 100 billion galaxies. But that estimate has been revised recently to 2 trillion galaxies in the universe! (That each have 100 billion to 400 billion stars). I am saying all of this to say that the universe is extremely vast and complex.  So big, so large, so humongous that it baffles the human mind. And it begs the question, where did it all come from? Then you say, with all of the order and beauty in the universe, someone had to create it, but who is powerful enough to create all of this? It must be a god. Genesis chapter 1 states that God created all of the heavenly bodies on the 4th day of creation.  That would include the sun, the moon, the stars, planets, comets, etc.  I can imagine David gazing into the nighttime, Middle Eastern sky, perhaps when he was a shepherd boy and pondering the awesomeness of God. Simply by looking up into the heavens man can know that there is a God and can perceive His eternal power. Rom. 1:20 states 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. But in Psalm 14:1 we read that, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”

Not believing that God created the heavens is not an intellectual problem, it is a moral problem. We, the people, don’t want to have a Creator.  That would mean that things were created by His order, in His order and that He has rule an reign over us. To many of us that is unacceptable.

David continues…

3 There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

In other words, without saying anything audibly.  Without saying anything that you can hear. The heavens, the sky speaks to us to let us know that a great God who created this.

4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

Their line or communication goes everywhere in the world. This message of the creation goes everywhere to all people, all over the world.

In the sky He has set a tabernacle or some translations say tent or dwelling place for the sun.  This is poetic language, and we know the sun doesn’t have a tent to go into.  But during the night, from our vantage point, it appears that the sun sets or disappears, or goes into its house….until the next day.

5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

David describes the sun here as beaming with joy and excitement as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber to go get his bride for the wedding.

And like a strong man to run its race.  Can you imagine Usain Bolt lining up at the Olympics for the 100m dash? He claps his hands together, says its “SHOWTIME” and gets down into his stance ready to burst out of the starting blocks. That’s the way David pictures the sun in this Psalm.

6 Its rising is from one end of heaven, (point with my finger)

And its circuit to the other end;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The sun is a constant reminder of God’s creative power. It also speaks to us of some of God’s attributes.

The sun is dependable. God is dependable – the sun traces its path across the sky day by day, month by month, year by year.  We can measure its path.  We can measure it so well that we can predict when eclipses will happen months, years and centuries from now.  We know that whatever is going on in our life, we can always depend on the sun to come up tomorrow. The sun is not going to say one day that I don’t feel like rising. That’s the same way God is…if I can’t depend on anyone else, I know I can depend on God.

The sun is life sustaining. God is life sustaining – the sun is the fuel for life on this earth. Without the sun, there is no photosynthesis to produce green plants that animals and people eat. We can see some of God’s life sustaining power by the sun, but it can’t tell the whole story. God is the ultimate source of life. (Not some unknown process that created life on this earth.)  When I was in seminary, we talked of the law of biogenesis.  Life can only come from life.  Life cannot come from non-life.  Scientists cannot create one living thing. Not one. Not a plant, not a blade of grass, not an ant, nothing. They might be able to manipulate something that is already living, something that God created, but they cannot create life. In Acts 17:28, the Apostle Paul states, 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’  God sustains life here on earth. Revelation 4:10-11 (NKJV) 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 11 "You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created." It is only by God’s will that anything exists and He holds everything together. John 1:1-4 states 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

The sun can sustain life. God cannot only sustain life, He can give life. Jesus is life.

These first 6 verses have had us to look upward, but looking upward shows only the natural revelation or what some theologians call the general revelation of God.  General revelation is not enough revelation to save someone.  It only lets us know that there is a God.  We need more information to know who that God is.

Then we are directed by David to:

2. Look Downward

We are directed to look downward into God’s Word. The next 5 verses of this Psalm point out the all sufficient nature of God’s Holy Word. 6 different synonyms are used for the Word of God, our Holy Bible: we have law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear and judgments. 7 different synonyms are used in these verses to describe the Word of God: perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true and righteous.

7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;

The Law of God is perfect or flawless.  It is without error, and it can change people. David says that it converts the soul.  It revives the soul. Proverbs 30:5 says that 5 Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Are you trusting the Word of God as truth? Do you realize that it has power to convert your soul?

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

God’s Word is sure.  It is reliable and certain.  You might not be able to count on many things in this life, but you can count on God’s Word. It is sure, and it can be trusted to make one wise.  The word simple means someone that is naïve, not discerning, someone that is easily fooled.  God’s Word can even make the simple wise…..but church, it does no good if we won’t read or study it.

8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

God’s word and the commands contained within are right. One writer put it this way: “They are morally right, they are practically right, and they are universally right. They are right because it is the revelation of a God who is holy, true, and always right.”  We can find joy in the truth of Word of God that will rejoice our hearts and drive us into a relationship God revealed in his Word.

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

The Bible is not tainted.  It is not contaminated. It comes straight from a pure source…a Holy and Righteous God. It is pure as crystal clear water from a fountain, and it will enlighten the eyes or make your eyes light up, which speaks of giving you knowledge or understanding of the truth.

9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;

Fear is here a synonym for the Law, for its purpose was to put fear into human hearts. Deuteronomy 4:10 states “especially concerning the day you stood before the Lord your God in Horeb, when the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to Me, and I will let them hear My words, that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’” Here fear is the same as reverence or respect. It is deeply connected to the awe and majesty of God Himself. The Word is clean.  There is no corruption in the Word. It is so clean that it can make you clean.  The Word will last and last. Isaiah 40:8 states, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.” The Bible is never out of date.  I went on a long trip a while back with the family, but we when we got ready to leave, I felt a little uneasy because I realized that I forgot to update my standalone GPS unit with the latest maps from the internet.  God’s Word is better than a GPS.  You never have to worry that you forgot to update it. You never need to update it.  It is applicable for all time, in every age in history.

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

David sums up this exposition on the perfect Word of God by throwing up his hands and saying it’s just true and righteous altogether. It is never false, it can always be trusted. It is never unrighteous. It can cause believers to obey God and lead lives that are righteous and pleasing to Him.

10 More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Here he is saying that the Bible is better than money. He would prefer God’s Word over money if he had a choice.  Many people have won lotteries thinking that all of their troubles would be gone, only to find out that the money was the beginning of their troubles.

Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Some of you might not like honey, but David is just using an illustration of something that you would love to eat….or our favorite food being far less sweet or refreshing than the Bible.

11 Moreover by them Your servant is warned,

And in keeping them there is great reward.

For David, keeping God’s statutes, God’s Word, which warned him of the dangers of folly and sin, brought great reward. God’s Word can protect us from dangers seen and unseen.  We don’t realize how many times in our life that obeying God’s Word protected us from something we didn’t even know about.  And that protection was a reward we didn’t even realize we were getting. Just like our children don’t know about or realize some of the dangers around them that they are protected from by simply obeying their parents. Looking back, I did not understand a lot of the rules my parent’s had growing up.  “Don’t go over to this person’s house, don’t hang out with this person, be back home at this time,” they used to say. My parents just wanted me to trust them….believe that they had my best interest in heart. Looking back now, I can clearly see many areas in my life where I was protected by their instruction. That was a great reward!  God is the same way.  God just wants us to trust him…even we don’t understand Him….Like my Pastor says, “trust His heart, even when we can’t trace His hand.”

So after looking upward to the sky and downward into the Word, next we are directed to:

3. Look Inward

12 Who can understand his errors?

Cleanse me from secret faults.

Church, we need to be careful. Very careful. We live in a day when people say that, “I believe that most people are good and honest.” We live in a day in which some of our political leaders even say, “I’m not aware of anything that I need to ask forgiveness for.” It might sound nice….

But my Bible says that “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard.” (Romans 3:23)

My Bible says that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9

My Bible says “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8)

David, a man that God describes as a man after my own heart, asks “Who can understand his own errors…..or rather what person among us can understand all the sins in lurking, and waiting, in our own hearts….ready to spring to into action, even after we are saved. He asked God to cleanse him from the sins he wasn’t even aware of the sins that he had hidden in his heart.  The Scripture had exposed him to sin that he was previously unaware of.  He was convicted.  Scripture, the Bible, God’s Holy Word shines God’s holy light into the dark places in our lives.

David looked inward. Are you looking inward?

13 Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins;

Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression. David wanted to be free of presumptuous sins.  Those are proud sins. Those are arrogant sins.  Those are sins we plan out. I like the way that Pastor David Guzik pointed these sins out. He says that any one of these 5 things that make sin presumptuous: When we know better.

When friends have warned us. When God Himself has warned us. When we have warned others against the same sins. When we plan and relish our sin. David was guilty of some presumptuous sins (some really big offenses to God) as recorded in the scriptures, and we have been guilty too.  He didn’t want those types of sins to have dominion over him, or master him, or rule over him.  We shouldn’t either. He asked God to keep him from those types of sins, to hold him back. If he can escape their domination, David writes, he shall be innocent of great transgression. Specifically, the great transgression of departing from God and revolting and rebelling against Him.

14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

Be acceptable in Your sight,….

David wanted every word, every song, everything he said to be acceptable to God.  He even wanted the meditation of his heart to be acceptable to God.  That word meditation means to ponder, to muse, regurgitate, think aloud, consider continuously, and utter something over and over again. Church, we all know how to meditate, because we all know how to worry. Worrying is simply negative meditation. We replay bad, negative things in our mind when we worry. We even come up with bad results in our minds to situations that never even come to pass. We are not called to worry, but David realized that meditation on God’s Word is important.  The Psalm writer in Psalm 104:33-34 states, “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 34 May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.” Meditation according to Donald S. Whitney is defined as “deep thinking on the truths and spiritual realities revealed in scripture for the purposes of understanding, application, and prayer.

In Joshua 1:8, the Bible states:

Joshua 1:8 - 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. David wanted to be right in God’s eyes. He wanted to think on things that were pleasing to God. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul caught on to this when he states to the church at Philippi in Philippians 4:8, “8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Church, we look upward into the sky and realize there is a God….but that is not enough to save.

Church, we look downward into God’s Word and realize the truth and purity of it. We realize the great instruction we can get from it, and that God has a high standard. Church, we look inward and realize that compared to the standard that we see in God’s Word, we fall woefully short of meeting it. David asked to be cleansed from his sin. He wanted to be held back from his presumptuous sins. This brings us to our final point. He looked toward God, as He is revealed in His Word.

4. Look Toward

14….O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. David realized that God was his strength. Some translations use the word Rock here. God’s strength is like a mighty rock that rescues us and gives us a firm standing place. He realized that God was his Redeemer.  God would save him. Redeemer is that great Hebrew word goel, the kinsman-redeemer. It was the goel who bought his relative out of slavery, who rescued him in bankruptcy and total loss. King David looked to God Himself as his kinsman-redeemer. David recognized his spiritual condition as one of complete bankruptcy. David put his trust and hope in God as his strength, as his rock, as his Redeemer.  He believed that God was the only one that could do something about his condition. He believed that God was the only one that could do something about his situation. In light of the general revelation of God in the created world, In light of the special revelation of God in His Holy Word, In light of us being made aware of our sinful condition through his Word,

Who are you putting your trust in as a Rock and a Redeemer? Church everyone is need of strength. Everyone is in need of redemption. In the Old Testament there is an illustration that may help us understand. It comes from the Old Testament book of Ruth. It is the illustration of the kinsman redeemer. You see, in the Old Testament a member of the nation of Israel fell into slavery either because they went into debt or somehow they lost all of their possessions, or as in the case of Naomi because her husband Elimelech and then her two sons died, because all the male members of the family died, she lost all the houses and lands and all the possessions that she had. Her daughter-in-law, Ruth, was forced to go around into the fields. Naomi told Ruth to go find that man Boaz because he was their kinfolk. He was part of their family. He had the legal right to redeem them. He could purchase the right to take them out of poverty. He could bring them back into prosperity. In the Old Testament there were four conditions that had to be met before a kinsman redeemer could pay the price.

He had to be a kinsman. He had to be part of the family. There had to be a blood relationship. He had to be acceptable to all the parties involved. He had to be able to pay the price, i.e. he couldn’t himself be in debt, because if he were in debt he couldn’t pay the price of redemption. He had to be willing. The story in the book of Ruth tells us that Boaz took a liking to Ruth. Then he realized that he was kinsman to Ruth and to her family and he had the right of redemption. But chapter four tells us that he wasn’t the number one kinsman because whoever was the closest kinsman had the first chance, then the second, third, fourth, etc. And Boaz was number two in line. So they have a meeting and Boaz talks to the number one man. He tells him that he is closer to the family than Boaz is and has the right to redeem the family and pay the price to bring them out of poverty. The number one man agreed he would do it. Then Boaz tells him that there is a little catch, because along with paying the price he would have to take Naomi and Ruth, and assume the whole family responsibility. The number one guy says, “I just changed my mind. I think I’ll pass. It’s all yours.” So Boaz says he would pay the price. They exchange their sandals, which was the public way of saying he would assume the debt and pay the price himself. So Boaz and Ruth were married and Ruth came into the line that eventually came down to David and down to the Lord Jesus Christ. But it is a perfect example of Boaz who was kin, who was acceptable, who was able and who was willing to serve as a redeemer.

Even so our Lord Jesus Christ is our kinsman. “Though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor.” “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” He became one with us. The Lord of glory became our kinsman! So he fulfilled the 1st requirement…check. Was he acceptable?  Yes, because he is the God-man, acceptable to God and also to man. He was 100% God and 100% man. So he fulfilled the 2nd requirement…check. Was he able?  Yes, because he was totally without sin. He could pay the price because he had no sin debt of His own. He fulfilled the 3rd requirement…check. Was he willing?  Just look at the cross and you have your answer! So the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the Old Testament illustration and became our kinsman redeemer. He paid the price.

Our natural condition was characterized by guilt: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Christ’s redemption has freed us from guilt, being “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Ephesians 1:7 - 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace Galatians 3:13 - 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),

Christ is our Redeemer!

Church, what are you looking at?

David invites you….I invite you to:

look upward to the heavens to see God’s creation,

look downward into the Bible to see God’s Word,

look inward at our own hearts to see our sinful condition in light of God’s Word,

then look toward Jesus for strength and redemption from your sins!

Amen