Speaking of Glory
About 60 years ago, C.S. Lewis wrote a short book called Reflections on the Psalms, which is a general commentary of sorts mainly written for us common folk. When he came to Psalm 19, he called it “the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”
One of the greatest lyrics in the world! This is high praise, and I’m excited for God to speak to us through this text this morning.
There are 3 key movements in the poem. As Lewis says, “six [phrases] about Nature, five about the Law, and four of personal prayer.” Each section shows us a different angle of the glory of God, starting with the heavens and ending with our own hearts.
Our three points this morning are:
I. The World of Glory
II. The Word of Glory
III. The Way of Glory
But before we begin, let’s pray. “Father in heaven, you are our rock and our redeemer. Would you please come now, by your Spirit, and revive our souls, rejoice our hearts, enlighten our eyes to see and be changed by this Psalm. We need you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
The World of Glory (v1-6)
Let’s start with verse 1 together. “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.” In this first line of the ancient poem, David sets his mind initially on the heavens - the sun, moon, and stars. Because of telescopes and technology, we can let our minds continue to linger upon the creative wonder of God’s handiwork declared by the solar system, our galaxy, out to the trillions of supernovas, black holes, far-off planets, and endless incredible sights and truths present in the wild and wonderful universe God made.
For some illustration on this, take some time later today and search ‘Cosmic Reef.’ You may have heard that the Hubble Space telescope just turned 30 last week, and in an anniversary image, captured this incredible shot of two nebulas 163,000 light years away from us. NASA named the shot Cosmic Reef because “the sparkling, brilliant structures resemble a cosmic coral reef glistening in some secret corner of a deep ocean.”
An astrophysicist interviewed for the space.com article said, “This image is amazing, it’s really showing how powerful Hubble is.” How powerful... Hubble is? Yes, this telescope is no doubt impressive, and we can be thankful for the ways science shows us more of God’s work in creation. How about the Being who made it?
Psalm 19 tells us that God made this massive universe not to show us how great a telescope is, or how great we are, but to display and proclaim the glorious craftsmanship of God Almighty.
Whether we have a gigantic space telescope or our own two eyes, there are a few things we can learn in observing the heavens and listening. What do the heavens declare, specifically, about the glory of God?
First, the heavens are HIGH. They are, in a sense, untouchable. When you go outside on a clear night and you look up at the stars, how do you feel? Most of us feel small. Job 22:12 says “Is not God high in the heavens? See the highest stars, how lofty they are!” It’s good for us to remember that in the same way the heavens, the stars are high and lofty, that God is also high and lofty.
Second, the heavens are BEAUTIFUL. They inspire awe & wonder. They teach us that God makes beautiful things, and his majesty is beautiful. David says in Psalm 8, “O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.”
Third, the heavens are PURPOSEFUL. God made them for a reason, and he made them for us. Genesis tells us why in the creation account, “And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years” (Genesis 1:14).
So we’ve seen that the heavens declare God’s glory, and they proclaim specific things about his handiwork. In verses 2-4, we see how all-encompassing this general revelation is. It happens every day, and every night (v2). And the “voice” of the heavens goes out to ALL the earth, to the end of the world. This reminds us of Romans 1, where Paul writes, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."
David ends this first section with a specific example from creation - the Sun. He talks about how every morning, from our perspective, the Sun bursts out from his room like a man on his wedding day (with excitement and anticipation), and like an athlete, He finishes each race every day with strength, power, JOY (and endurance). His rising is from one end of the horizon, and its circuit to the end of them. Nothing on earth escapes the Light and Heat of the sun (even though sometimes in January it can feel Iike that in Minnesota). All of humanity can see or feel the warmth of the sun in some way, and thus learn, generally, that there is a God, and dimly understand what He is like.
But God is not satisfied with humanity having merely a cloudy understanding of who He is through the World of Glory. And that leads us to our second point.
The Word of Glory (v7-11)
In what may seem to be a rather abrupt break in thought upon initial reading, David moves quickly from natural revelation in creation to special revelation in Scripture. I was initially puzzled by this, and commentators have debated the reasons, but as I read it and meditated on it over and over, the theme of this Psalm smacked me in the face. This whole Psalm is about speech, words. First, the heavens DECLARE & PROCLAIM, pouring out speech. Then, God Himself speaks, testifies in Scripture, which consisted primarily of the Law during David’s day.
Even the last section ends with David praying about his own words. Charles Spurgeon put the connection between the first & second stanzas like this, “He is wisest who reads both the world-book, and the Word-book as two volumes of the same work, and feels concerning them, "My Father wrote them both.”
I want us to ask 2 questions of the poem in this section. How are God’s Words described?
What is their effect?
Let’s look first at the descriptions of God’s Word in verses 7-11. We’ll stack them all up together. The Law of the Lord is perfect, sure, right - it’s reliable & stable. Scripture is pure, clean - no faults or errors, no fake news. It’s enduring - lasting forever, never changing. It’s true & righteous altogether - holy, unlike us. Just try to apply all of these descriptors to any human words. Your favorite book, perhaps - is it perfect? Right in every respect? Pure? Enduring forever? Totally righteous?
Part of the reason Scripture is described this way, is that through His Word, God is communicating Himself to us. Just as the world declares the glory of God, the Word more precisely speaks His glory. It’s how God shows us what He is like. And the greatest way God has communicated Himself is through THE Word of God, Jesus Christ.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him
known” (John 1:17-18).
Jesus is the ultimate communication by a loving God to a dying world, as God’s Word put on bones and skin and walked among us as a living, breathing human. When you open your Bible this week, remember that God orchestrated all of history in this way so that He could communicate to YOU. And look for Jesus in the Scriptures - don’t miss him! Jesus said to the Jews who knew their Bibles, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” (John 5:39-40).
So what is the effect of God’s Word? Look at the indented lines of verses 7-8. The Word of God revives the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, and enlightens the eyes. It makes us alive when we were dead. It gives us understanding, when we have none. It makes us deeply happy, when we were not. And it allows us to see, when we could not. Think about those effects in a practical way - and think about how much you would pay for those benefits.
Our world would even agree that a product invented that promises LIFE, KNOWLEDGE, HAPPINESS, and VISION would be worth all the money in the world. Essentially, we are talking about the whole health & fitness industry, the education industry, and the counseling industry rolled into one. Trillions of dollars are spent every year around the globe on these things, pursuing those benefits. And don’t get me wrong, the gym, school, books, etc - these are good things and gifts from God. But they are not God. If we seek life & happiness in created things first and primarily, and not in the Creator, we will miss out on what we were made for.
That’s why it’s not surprising the way David ends this section, extolling the value of God’s Word. It’s better than gold, much fine gold, all the money in the world. It’s sweeter than honey, better than food, more satisfying than the best dinner at your favorite restaurant. Do we believe that? Do we live like we believe that? Do we spend our time & money like we believe God, in His Word and through His Spirit, can give us the life & joy that we are seeking? Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). Lewis paraphrased like this, “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.” Now we see in verse 11 that God’s Word offers both reward & warning. We’ll look more at why we need a warning in our final point...
The Way of Glory (v12-14)
After poetically describing God’s vast, majestic glory in creation, and then his specific, laser-like, transformative glory revealed by Scripture (and eventually the Word of God in the flesh), now he turns to himself. From the World, to God’s Words... what about me? What’s fascinating here is how the word choices change so significantly. Let’s contrast the words he uses in verses 12-13 against his descriptions of Creation & the Creator. Verse 12, right away, David asks, “Who can discern his [own] errors?”
In light of the Law of the Lord being “perfect,” and the heavens, which consistently proclaim & praise God every day and every night without fail... David’s own errors, and our own errors, are magnified. He goes on to talk about hidden faults & presumptuous sins, pleading with the Lord to keep him away from these, that they would not have dominion over him.
What is going on here? When our lives, our actions, our words are placed up against the perfection, clarity, beauty, goodness of who God is and his glory revealed in the world... it is so obvious that we fall way, way short. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” One of the things that God’s Law provides for us is a mirror to our thoughts, intentions, behaviors, and the reflection is not good. So David asks God to forgive him (declare me innocent) from even hidden faults. What a humble prayer. We all have blind spots. And we have hidden sins. But we don’t just have hidden sins. There are also things that we think, feel, or do that are most definitely and clearly wrong - sins of presumption. David is asking God, “Keep me away from these! I need your help!” And then, only then, if you forgive me of hidden sins I know are there, and keep me back from clear sins, will I be blameless and innocent.
But the problem is, how can any of us be truly blameless and innocent? David himself failed in this. He was not blameless and innocent of presumptuous sins - he committed the WHOLE second half of the Table of Commandments in a single week with by taking Bathsheba — coveting, theft, adultery, lying, and murder. So what is our hope??
Our hope is verse 14. This is the way of glory. This beautiful Psalm finishes in a fitting manner - with who God is, “my rock and my redeemer.” David asks that God would make his words and his thoughts acceptable in God’s sight. But for our innocence and acceptance to be real and enduring, God must be our redeemer. Redeem simply means to “buy back,” to regain possession of something (or someone) in exchange for payment. So how is God our redeemer?
God came to earth as a man, a human like us. He lived out Psalm 19 and the rest of the Law perfectly - Jesus called himself the Light of the World, a term normally reserved for the sun. He is the bridegroom bounding out of his chamber looking for his bride, and He is the champion, the strongman who finished our race. He is the perfect Word of God, and He alone can revive a soul and give the rewards of eternal life. And that’s the message of Psalm 19, one of the most beautiful lyrics ever written. To God be the glory, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.