Hi Girls! Welcome to our Week Two Gathering in our Summer in the Psalms series, this week our focus being Psalm 19! I'm thinkin' that this is going to have to be a two part installment... it was just too good to try and condense down into one posting!
The theme of this Psalm is all about God's revelation to man - which in itself just astounds me, I mean to know that God Himself speaks to us - mankind, who every one of us was born into sin (Romans 5:12) and has no natural inclination to listen to God, and yet He graciously continues to speak, and through Psalm 19 we see Him speaking in three very specific ways. He speaks in the heavens (v.1-6), He speaks in the Scriptures (v.7-11) and He speaks in the soul (v.12-14).
One of the first things that I saw, was that each of these three instances of 'speaking', can be taken in the context of witnessing. In v. 1-6 we see the witness of the heaven's "telling" the glory of God; in v. 7-11 we see the witness of the Scriptures declaring the Word of God; and in v. 12 -14 we see the witness of the servant of God. Let's take a closer look at the first witness, that of the natural revelation of God's glory...
Psalm 19 was written by David, and it is clear that he was quite moved by simply observing that the heavens, in all of their expanse, were 'telling', not only of the glory of God, but also 'declaring' the very work of God's hands. It brought me such joy to see that it was the sun that David highlighted as the dominating influence in this witness! Light dispels darkness girls!
Now, if you could indulge me for a moment, I would like to look at something that is, in my opinion, just too good to pass up! I would like to contrast for a moment the 'sun' in Psalm 19 being a witness and glorifying God, with the 'Son' in Hebrews 1 being a witness and glorifying God.
I'm almost sure that some of you saw that word 'glory' in v. 1 and were probably thinking about what you learned through your study in John about glory. The word 'glory', whether in the New Testament Greek (DOXA) or the Old Testament Hebrew (KABOWD), carries with it the same meaning - to glorify God is to simply 'give a correct opinion, or estimate of Him'. So, in Psalm 19 we see the heavens 'telling' of the glory of God, by giving a correct opinion, a right estimate of Him, and using the sun to highlight this witness!
OK, so now this is where I got really excited in my own observations this week! I turned to Hebews 1:1 and saw the Son giving His witness of the glory of God..."God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets (that would be the Old Testament Scriptures girls, one of the three ways that He speaks in Psalm 19!), in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, through Whom also He made the world. And He (the Son) is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His (God's) nature and upholds all things by the Word of His power." Jesus is the ultimate Witness and it gets even better!
Now, back to Psalm 19. So we see that God's power and glory are seen in creation. Today, as far as I can see, science would have us study 'natural laws' and leave God out of the equation, but the Psalmist looked at the expanse of the heavens and saw God! There are so many powerful Scripture passages that reveal God as Creator, many of them I spent time contemplating this week as I sat outside under the wide expanse of the sky - here are a few if you would like to read them...Psalm 8, Psalm 29 and Isaiah 40:12-31.
Jesus Himself pointed others to look at the lilies of the field and the birds of the air in order for them to then in turn look beyond these 'natural' things and see the Father behind them all, as Creator, Sustainer, Provider (Matthew 6:24-34). Creation itself is not to be worshipped, we are to worship the Creator, yet creation ministers to our weary souls and continually speaks of the power and magnificence and glory and presence of God, pointing us to Him, the sustainer of Life. We will see later, that the enjoyment of creation itself is not Life giving, but simply points to the One Who is the giver of Life, through His Son, Jesus.
I saw something interesting in v. 2 - although the heavens are 'telling' and their expanse is 'declaring', and even though day and night they pour forth 'speech' and reveal 'knowledge'...there is no speech, there are no words, their voice is not audibly heard. Now, I do not want to take this farther than I ought, but let me suggest to you what I believe to be true...that there were no words, because The Word, praise God, was yet to come!
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him (didn't we just see that in Hebrew 1:1?) and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being....and the Word became FLESH and dwelt among us, and we saw His GLORY..." (John 1:1-3, 14a)
Creation itself speaks a universal language to all people groups and nations, pointing them to God and ultimately salvation. "For since the CREATION of the world, His (God's) invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20
Did you know that nature preaches a thousand sermons a day to the human heart? Think for instance about the cycle of each day, beginning with light and moving to darkness, from waking to sleeping - this is a picture of life without God. Remember in John when Jesus said, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light so that darkness does will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light." (John 12:35-36)
Each and every 24 hours, we have a reminder of this through our morning and night. Thing is, when it gets dark, artificial light has become quite popular! Or how about thinking about the seasons, from spring to winter, or even the seasons of life itself - life to death. Throughout Scripture we see examples of the grass being mown down (Isaiah 40:6-8) or a tree cut down (Luke 13:6-9, Matthew 3:10), or fire destroying the waste (Matthew 13:40-42). These are all the activities of nature but they are also lessons for the human heart. Let's be honest here, most people would really rather not think about such things, but nevertheless, everyday the heaven's are faithfully declaring the glory of God and pointing to Him and the salvation that only He can give, and as we will see tomorrow, God never intended that we leave all this 'declarin' solely up to the heavens...like Scarlett O'Hara, we need to be sayin' "Well, I do declare!" and then be about declarin' it!
You know, I cannot help but think back to last week and what we learned from Psalm 16...that those who go after other gods, other things, other stuff, that their sorrows will increase - but for those that belong to God there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore; there is counsel and security and we can look at all nature and know that all nature is pointing towards our Father God and doing it with great delight! (I mean take a look at some of the colours in a garden alone, creation delights in showing off the glory of God!)
The following hymn is just bursting from my heart this morning and so I am going to share a portion of it with you, (listen, just be grateful that all you have to do is read it and not actually hear me sing it, and count that as a mercy from God Himself!)...
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest;
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness,
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hands have provided -
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto to me!
Now, away you go and enjoy your God through His creation - and for Heaven's sake, go right ahead and take great delight in glorifying God right along with all the rest of creation, after all you are a "planting of the Lord for the display of His Splendor!" Isaiah 61:3
The theme of this Psalm is all about God's revelation to man - which in itself just astounds me, I mean to know that God Himself speaks to us - mankind, who every one of us was born into sin (Romans 5:12) and has no natural inclination to listen to God, and yet He graciously continues to speak, and through Psalm 19 we see Him speaking in three very specific ways. He speaks in the heavens (v.1-6), He speaks in the Scriptures (v.7-11) and He speaks in the soul (v.12-14).
One of the first things that I saw, was that each of these three instances of 'speaking', can be taken in the context of witnessing. In v. 1-6 we see the witness of the heaven's "telling" the glory of God; in v. 7-11 we see the witness of the Scriptures declaring the Word of God; and in v. 12 -14 we see the witness of the servant of God. Let's take a closer look at the first witness, that of the natural revelation of God's glory...
Psalm 19 was written by David, and it is clear that he was quite moved by simply observing that the heavens, in all of their expanse, were 'telling', not only of the glory of God, but also 'declaring' the very work of God's hands. It brought me such joy to see that it was the sun that David highlighted as the dominating influence in this witness! Light dispels darkness girls!
Now, if you could indulge me for a moment, I would like to look at something that is, in my opinion, just too good to pass up! I would like to contrast for a moment the 'sun' in Psalm 19 being a witness and glorifying God, with the 'Son' in Hebrews 1 being a witness and glorifying God.
I'm almost sure that some of you saw that word 'glory' in v. 1 and were probably thinking about what you learned through your study in John about glory. The word 'glory', whether in the New Testament Greek (DOXA) or the Old Testament Hebrew (KABOWD), carries with it the same meaning - to glorify God is to simply 'give a correct opinion, or estimate of Him'. So, in Psalm 19 we see the heavens 'telling' of the glory of God, by giving a correct opinion, a right estimate of Him, and using the sun to highlight this witness!
OK, so now this is where I got really excited in my own observations this week! I turned to Hebews 1:1 and saw the Son giving His witness of the glory of God..."God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets (that would be the Old Testament Scriptures girls, one of the three ways that He speaks in Psalm 19!), in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, Whom He appointed heir of all things, through Whom also He made the world. And He (the Son) is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His (God's) nature and upholds all things by the Word of His power." Jesus is the ultimate Witness and it gets even better!
Now, back to Psalm 19. So we see that God's power and glory are seen in creation. Today, as far as I can see, science would have us study 'natural laws' and leave God out of the equation, but the Psalmist looked at the expanse of the heavens and saw God! There are so many powerful Scripture passages that reveal God as Creator, many of them I spent time contemplating this week as I sat outside under the wide expanse of the sky - here are a few if you would like to read them...Psalm 8, Psalm 29 and Isaiah 40:12-31.
Jesus Himself pointed others to look at the lilies of the field and the birds of the air in order for them to then in turn look beyond these 'natural' things and see the Father behind them all, as Creator, Sustainer, Provider (Matthew 6:24-34). Creation itself is not to be worshipped, we are to worship the Creator, yet creation ministers to our weary souls and continually speaks of the power and magnificence and glory and presence of God, pointing us to Him, the sustainer of Life. We will see later, that the enjoyment of creation itself is not Life giving, but simply points to the One Who is the giver of Life, through His Son, Jesus.
I saw something interesting in v. 2 - although the heavens are 'telling' and their expanse is 'declaring', and even though day and night they pour forth 'speech' and reveal 'knowledge'...there is no speech, there are no words, their voice is not audibly heard. Now, I do not want to take this farther than I ought, but let me suggest to you what I believe to be true...that there were no words, because The Word, praise God, was yet to come!
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him (didn't we just see that in Hebrew 1:1?) and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being....and the Word became FLESH and dwelt among us, and we saw His GLORY..." (John 1:1-3, 14a)
Creation itself speaks a universal language to all people groups and nations, pointing them to God and ultimately salvation. "For since the CREATION of the world, His (God's) invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." Romans 1:20
Did you know that nature preaches a thousand sermons a day to the human heart? Think for instance about the cycle of each day, beginning with light and moving to darkness, from waking to sleeping - this is a picture of life without God. Remember in John when Jesus said, "For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light so that darkness does will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light." (John 12:35-36)
Each and every 24 hours, we have a reminder of this through our morning and night. Thing is, when it gets dark, artificial light has become quite popular! Or how about thinking about the seasons, from spring to winter, or even the seasons of life itself - life to death. Throughout Scripture we see examples of the grass being mown down (Isaiah 40:6-8) or a tree cut down (Luke 13:6-9, Matthew 3:10), or fire destroying the waste (Matthew 13:40-42). These are all the activities of nature but they are also lessons for the human heart. Let's be honest here, most people would really rather not think about such things, but nevertheless, everyday the heaven's are faithfully declaring the glory of God and pointing to Him and the salvation that only He can give, and as we will see tomorrow, God never intended that we leave all this 'declarin' solely up to the heavens...like Scarlett O'Hara, we need to be sayin' "Well, I do declare!" and then be about declarin' it!
You know, I cannot help but think back to last week and what we learned from Psalm 16...that those who go after other gods, other things, other stuff, that their sorrows will increase - but for those that belong to God there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore; there is counsel and security and we can look at all nature and know that all nature is pointing towards our Father God and doing it with great delight! (I mean take a look at some of the colours in a garden alone, creation delights in showing off the glory of God!)
The following hymn is just bursting from my heart this morning and so I am going to share a portion of it with you, (listen, just be grateful that all you have to do is read it and not actually hear me sing it, and count that as a mercy from God Himself!)...
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest;
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness,
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hands have provided -
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto to me!
Now, away you go and enjoy your God through His creation - and for Heaven's sake, go right ahead and take great delight in glorifying God right along with all the rest of creation, after all you are a "planting of the Lord for the display of His Splendor!" Isaiah 61:3
3 comments:
What a wonderful Psalm! As you said Cathie all creation points to God and His MAJESTY. But through His everlastimg kindness it leads us to Him.I loved what yoo said about the sun in the sky and Jesus the Son who is the Father's glory
Margaret, I am so glad that you are enjoying it as much as I am!
I just had to add th is. I was driving and listening to Beethoven's 6th symphony the Pastoral symphany. It is so beautiful it makes me cry, and to look aroound and see God's handiwork. Beethoven loved the outdoors and composed many of his works through inspiration on his hikes through the woods. He was such a tortured soul but he believed in God, and I just hope he is in heaven!
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