Psalm 19:1–14
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts 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 rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and 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 rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19 speaks of how the heavens declare the glory of God. It is hard to not see the handiwork of our Creator God in the beauty of the heavens.
The stars and sun point to intelligent design.
What do the heavens tell us? Like a giant megaphone, the number one message of the heavens is this: The Creator of the universe is intelligent, powerful, a lover of beauty, and He is infinite. God reveals Himself to us in and through His Creation. Whether we are using the most powerful telescope, the most detailed microscope, or simply taking time out to smell a flower, God’s fingerprints are everywhere.
Creation gives us general information about God, but doesn’t answer the bigger questions like, “How can I know God?” or “What must I do to be saved?”
We need more details, and amazingly, He has done just that.
In verses 7 to 11 of Psalm 19, David writes, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts 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 forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward..”
The Bible still speaks to us today. In and through the written Word, God reveals His nature, His laws, and His love for us. As beautiful as His Creation is, we need the Bible. It is the missing piece of the puzzle.
The ultimate revelation of God though, is through Himself. In the person of Jesus Christ, God came into this alien world, and He revealed Himself to us. In the opening verses of the book of Hebrews we read, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:1-3) There is enough in those 3 short verses to keep us going for all of eternity.
The book of Hebrews was written specifically to recent converts from the Jewish faith to Christianity, and the writer makes the point that Christ was and continues to be superior to the angels, to Moses and the prophets, all of whom God used to reveal Himself to us, and the message in the climax of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is superior to the Aaronic priesthood as a mediator between sinful man and a holy God. Jesus Himself is the great High Priest, while at the same time, He is also the sacrificial Lamb who gave His life as a sacrifice for our sin.
The high priest used to enter the Most Holy Place annually on the Day of Atonement to offer the blood of a lamb, but now, as the Great High Priest, Jesus has entered heaven itself to offer His blood as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of a guilty world.
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, and He remains the primary means of God speaking to us today, so just what is the unique message that He brings us?
Firstly, in Christ God speaks to us concerning His unique nature. We have always wondered about the nature and character of God. People have looked for an explanation for the origin of the universe and just how and where we fit into this world.
Some think of God as the all-powerful principle behind the universe. Some regard Him as a kind of detached mechanical engineer who started the whole thing off, but has left us to our own devices, with no real concern for what happens down here – they see Him as an unloving being who lives in the distant somewhere and is unmoved by the predicament of humans.
As Christians we hold to the first principle, that God is the all-powerful source behind the universe, but we also believe that He remains intimately involved in His creation.
The Old Testament is a record of God’s progressive self-revelation. He revealed Himself continually as people were able to receive and respond to that revelation. However, because of our sin, the extent of God’s revelation has always been limited – not that the problem lies with Him, but with us.
But despite our unwillingness to allow God to speak and our reluctance to listen, He continued to reveal more and more of Himself to the prophets, the priests, and the psalmists. This is the central theme of the Old Testament, but the picture which they received was limited. It was only partial.
As we move to the New Testament, there is a fundamental change in the revelation of God.
The moment God began walking this earth in human form, everything changed. Jesus consistently taught that God is good, and that God is love, and He taught His disciples to think of God not as just a king but also as our heavenly Father. He pictures God as the Shepherd who goes in search of a lost sheep, as a father who longingly waits with anxiety and eagerness for the return of a wayward son. He pictures God as a God who rejoices and welcomes the wayward son and immediately prepares a banquet. To understand the nature of God, we need to examine the nature and character and motives of Jesus Christ.
The simple answer to the question “Do you want to know what God is like?” is this: “Look at Jesus.”
In Christ, God reveals His true nature.
Secondly, through Jesus God clearly speaks about our need of salvation.
Jesus defined His purpose for coming into the world as meeting our greatest need. Joseph was told by the angel in Matthew 1 “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” John the Baptist said “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Jesus Himself said in Mark 10:45 “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
The depth of our sin and what it has actually done to us is dramatically revealed in the death of Christ on Calvary. To understand the true horror and awfulness of sin we need to see what sin did to Jesus when He died on the cross for our sins.
The penalty of sin is revealed by the death of Jesus on the cross. It was a substitutionary death. At Calvary we are given a clear picture of the Father’s inflexible justice. The cross is not only a picture of the depth of God’s love, but also a picture of His pure, holy hatred of sin.
The God of love and grace and mercy is also the God of justice. It is the law of God that the wages of sin is death. In a mysterious but miraculous way the God of justice has provided for our salvation by giving us a Saviour, Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was a substitutionary death, and in a way the human mind cannot fully comprehend, God let Christ be our substitute. He paid the wages of our sins.
The just, perfect law of God states that sin results in death, and the God of grace and mercy has provided a Saviour who died for our sin, so that we are now able to receive the gift of eternal life. So in and through the Cross of Calvary God speaks about His desire and His determination to redeem people from the tyranny and penalty of sin. God hates sin, but He is gracious, so He has made provision for His forgiveness and cleansing. That provision is through Jesus Christ. The Cross is one of the most powerful means of God speaking to us today.
Thirdly, in Christ, on Calvary, God reveals His love and concern for the unsaved. John 3:17 says “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” Do you want to measure the love of God? Look at the cross.
God demonstrated His immeasurable love for us by the suffering that His Son went through on our behalf when He was crucified for our sins. But the question is, what are we to do? How are we to respond to something which we could never possibly repay?
One of the ways we can respond to God’s grace is to work with Him in His on-going task and mission to save the lost. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, “Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
To meditate on the Cross and on what it means is a life-changing experience. But it needs to spur us into action.
The love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus brings countless blessings into our lives, but it also places us under a heavy debt of gratitude that should cause us to devote our lives to telling others the good news of God’s love.
God has spoken through His Creation, through Scripture, but He speaks most powerfully through His Son. Each of us needs to react in one way or another to the message of Jesus. Our choice is to either accept and believe His message, and then to respond by being salt and light in this dark world, or we can choose to reject Him, but we cannot be non-committal when it comes to hearing the message of God through Jesus.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.”
Jesus speaks not only for God but as God.
God has spoken to us right from the beginning, and He continues to do so today, ultimately through Jesus and the written Word of Scripture. Are we listening, and how will we answer His call on our lives?
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts 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 rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and 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 rock and my redeemer.
Psalm 19 speaks of how the heavens declare the glory of God. It is hard to not see the handiwork of our Creator God in the beauty of the heavens.
The stars and sun point to intelligent design.
What do the heavens tell us? Like a giant megaphone, the number one message of the heavens is this: The Creator of the universe is intelligent, powerful, a lover of beauty, and He is infinite. God reveals Himself to us in and through His Creation. Whether we are using the most powerful telescope, the most detailed microscope, or simply taking time out to smell a flower, God’s fingerprints are everywhere.
Creation gives us general information about God, but doesn’t answer the bigger questions like, “How can I know God?” or “What must I do to be saved?”
We need more details, and amazingly, He has done just that.
In verses 7 to 11 of Psalm 19, David writes, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts 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 forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward..”
The Bible still speaks to us today. In and through the written Word, God reveals His nature, His laws, and His love for us. As beautiful as His Creation is, we need the Bible. It is the missing piece of the puzzle.
The ultimate revelation of God though, is through Himself. In the person of Jesus Christ, God came into this alien world, and He revealed Himself to us. In the opening verses of the book of Hebrews we read, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power.” (Hebrews 1:1-3) There is enough in those 3 short verses to keep us going for all of eternity.
The book of Hebrews was written specifically to recent converts from the Jewish faith to Christianity, and the writer makes the point that Christ was and continues to be superior to the angels, to Moses and the prophets, all of whom God used to reveal Himself to us, and the message in the climax of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ is superior to the Aaronic priesthood as a mediator between sinful man and a holy God. Jesus Himself is the great High Priest, while at the same time, He is also the sacrificial Lamb who gave His life as a sacrifice for our sin.
The high priest used to enter the Most Holy Place annually on the Day of Atonement to offer the blood of a lamb, but now, as the Great High Priest, Jesus has entered heaven itself to offer His blood as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of a guilty world.
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, and He remains the primary means of God speaking to us today, so just what is the unique message that He brings us?
Firstly, in Christ God speaks to us concerning His unique nature. We have always wondered about the nature and character of God. People have looked for an explanation for the origin of the universe and just how and where we fit into this world.
Some think of God as the all-powerful principle behind the universe. Some regard Him as a kind of detached mechanical engineer who started the whole thing off, but has left us to our own devices, with no real concern for what happens down here – they see Him as an unloving being who lives in the distant somewhere and is unmoved by the predicament of humans.
As Christians we hold to the first principle, that God is the all-powerful source behind the universe, but we also believe that He remains intimately involved in His creation.
The Old Testament is a record of God’s progressive self-revelation. He revealed Himself continually as people were able to receive and respond to that revelation. However, because of our sin, the extent of God’s revelation has always been limited – not that the problem lies with Him, but with us.
But despite our unwillingness to allow God to speak and our reluctance to listen, He continued to reveal more and more of Himself to the prophets, the priests, and the psalmists. This is the central theme of the Old Testament, but the picture which they received was limited. It was only partial.
As we move to the New Testament, there is a fundamental change in the revelation of God.
The moment God began walking this earth in human form, everything changed. Jesus consistently taught that God is good, and that God is love, and He taught His disciples to think of God not as just a king but also as our heavenly Father. He pictures God as the Shepherd who goes in search of a lost sheep, as a father who longingly waits with anxiety and eagerness for the return of a wayward son. He pictures God as a God who rejoices and welcomes the wayward son and immediately prepares a banquet. To understand the nature of God, we need to examine the nature and character and motives of Jesus Christ.
The simple answer to the question “Do you want to know what God is like?” is this: “Look at Jesus.”
In Christ, God reveals His true nature.
Secondly, through Jesus God clearly speaks about our need of salvation.
Jesus defined His purpose for coming into the world as meeting our greatest need. Joseph was told by the angel in Matthew 1 “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” John the Baptist said “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Jesus Himself said in Mark 10:45 “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
The depth of our sin and what it has actually done to us is dramatically revealed in the death of Christ on Calvary. To understand the true horror and awfulness of sin we need to see what sin did to Jesus when He died on the cross for our sins.
The penalty of sin is revealed by the death of Jesus on the cross. It was a substitutionary death. At Calvary we are given a clear picture of the Father’s inflexible justice. The cross is not only a picture of the depth of God’s love, but also a picture of His pure, holy hatred of sin.
The God of love and grace and mercy is also the God of justice. It is the law of God that the wages of sin is death. In a mysterious but miraculous way the God of justice has provided for our salvation by giving us a Saviour, Jesus Christ. His death on the cross was a substitutionary death, and in a way the human mind cannot fully comprehend, God let Christ be our substitute. He paid the wages of our sins.
The just, perfect law of God states that sin results in death, and the God of grace and mercy has provided a Saviour who died for our sin, so that we are now able to receive the gift of eternal life. So in and through the Cross of Calvary God speaks about His desire and His determination to redeem people from the tyranny and penalty of sin. God hates sin, but He is gracious, so He has made provision for His forgiveness and cleansing. That provision is through Jesus Christ. The Cross is one of the most powerful means of God speaking to us today.
Thirdly, in Christ, on Calvary, God reveals His love and concern for the unsaved. John 3:17 says “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” Do you want to measure the love of God? Look at the cross.
God demonstrated His immeasurable love for us by the suffering that His Son went through on our behalf when He was crucified for our sins. But the question is, what are we to do? How are we to respond to something which we could never possibly repay?
One of the ways we can respond to God’s grace is to work with Him in His on-going task and mission to save the lost. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, “Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.”
To meditate on the Cross and on what it means is a life-changing experience. But it needs to spur us into action.
The love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus brings countless blessings into our lives, but it also places us under a heavy debt of gratitude that should cause us to devote our lives to telling others the good news of God’s love.
God has spoken through His Creation, through Scripture, but He speaks most powerfully through His Son. Each of us needs to react in one way or another to the message of Jesus. Our choice is to either accept and believe His message, and then to respond by being salt and light in this dark world, or we can choose to reject Him, but we cannot be non-committal when it comes to hearing the message of God through Jesus.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son.”
Jesus speaks not only for God but as God.
God has spoken to us right from the beginning, and He continues to do so today, ultimately through Jesus and the written Word of Scripture. Are we listening, and how will we answer His call on our lives?