After a long stretch of cloudy days, days when all you see in the sky is a blanket of gray clouds completely covering east to west, it is a joy to finally see the sun again. Opening the curtains and letting the sunshine in is welcomed. Lately I have been enjoying many very lovely sunsets, with brilliant colors splashed all across the sky. I’ve always enjoyed looking up into the sky, looking at clouds, and at night looking at the moon, the stars and constellations. King David also enjoyed looking at the heavens, probably from his earliest days guarding the sheep at night. In our psalm today we read how the heavens clearly point to our Creator God.
It is difficult to imagine people looking up into the heavens and not believing in a Creator God, yet many do. The universe gives evidence of God’s existence, His power, His love, and His care. The design of the universe, its intricacy and orderliness point to a Divine Creator. Even as a young girl, before I had actually accepted Jesus as my Savior, I still believed in God, and knew without any doubt that He created all that I could see. Not only the sun, moon, and stars, but also the many beautiful flowers, birds, animals, and all I could see. I didn’t need a theological degree to know that. As David stated in our psalm, nature itself proclaims this truth (vs. 1-4).
The voice of creation loudly proclaims its Creator. Throughout the day, everything we see, plants, animals, and the wonders of nature, speak this truth, and at night the stars, planets, and the whole universe tell the same. The heavens are God’s preachers in the sky, who proclaim 24 hours a day the truth that He exists. As David said, there isn’t a person on earth that can’t know this, as its language is universal. As the Apostle Paul later writes, all mankind is without any excuse in not believing in God, as His creation clearly points to Him (Romans 1:19-23). Everyone can see some part of nature, whether the mountains, the ocean, jungle, prairie, flowers, insects, stars at night. Whatever we observe, it all points to God as its Creator. All people, all nations are without any excuse for not believing in God. The testimony of the universe about God comes forth consistently and clearly, but sinful mankind persistently denies Him.
Some people might think that because nature proclaims the existence of God, we don’t need to tell others. However, it’s not enough to just say that nature will lead people to God, or that we don’t need to get involved or speak up. Nature will show His existence, but God’s Word must still be shared, telling about salvation found only through His Son, Jesus Christ.
As the psalm continues, David switches from highlighting nature and its proclamation of God, to highlighting God’s Word, and how it naturally points to Jesus and His truth (vs. 7-11). Do you want to be wise, to be enlightened? Do you want to rejoice? Most people do! How about knowing enduring truth? Not just something that is temporary, but truth that endures forever. Would you like something that is delectably tasty, like honey? I don’t know anyone who would turn down gold! Our psalm tells us that the Word of God is all of the above.
God’s Word is perfect and will both enlighten us with the truth and give us wisdom. It’s truth is pure and endures forever. We can rejoice as we read and study the Word of God, just as one would if they had fine gold, and as those of us with a sweet tooth would when eating honey. God’s Word, the Bible, is not some chain to weigh us down, but rather gives us guidance and light for our path through life.
David switches gears one last time when he closes this psalm, as he wishes to be clean and forgiven from all of his sins before God (vs. 12-13). As we know from reading Scripture, David was not perfect. Like all of us, he committed sins. However, just as we all should, he dealt with his sins, and did not deny them. David confessed his sins, both the known ones, and even sins he may have inadvertently and unknowingly committed.
As our Scripture closes, God’s Word in our psalm tells us we need to make sure that the words out of our mouth are pleasing to the Lord (vs. 14). We need to be speaking positive and good words, both to others and to ourselves. Words that bring life, not negative words that bring death.
In closing, Psalm 19 shows us that God reveals Himself through nature, where we learn about His power and our finiteness. We also see how God reveals Himself through Scripture in the Bible, where we learn about His holiness, our sinfulness, and about Jesus Christ, His Son, who paid the price for our sins.
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