THE IMAGES OF GOD Psalm 19
Today I will be giving you food for reflection from Psalm 19 in three parts. Listen to these beautiful words from the first 6 verses as I read from the Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase, The Message: (READ PSALM 19:1-6)
God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.
Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, But their silence fills the earth;
Unspoken truth is spoken everywhere.
God makes a huge dome for the sun—a super dome!
The morning sun is a new husband leaping from his honeymoon bed, the daybreaking sun
An athlete racing to the tape.
That’s how God’s Word vaults across the skies from sunrise to sunset, Melting ice, scorching deserts, warming hearts to faith.
When I was a romantic teenager, I wrote a lot of poetry and like David here in this Psalm, I often used the beauty of God’s handiwork as inspiration. There’s just nothing like it, is there? To see the blue sky expanding as far as the eye can see, a cloud in the shape of something familiar, the sun sparkling off the earth, the stars little pinpoints of light on a black background, nothing can compare to God’s creation.
God reveals himself to us through nature, showing us his power through hurricanes and other storms and showing us his love by providing us with views that take our breath away. When we pay attention to the design, the intricate details and orderliness of the world, it is ridiculous to think this universe happened by a big bang, or by chance.
The Apostle Paul said, “Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made…” (Romans 1:20) Paul is saying that God reveals himself plainly to all people, demonstrating what he is like in his creation of the world and everything in it.
And when God realized that people still weren’t seeing who He is, He sent His Son, a part of Him, so we could see God through Jesus but on our level—as a human being. Through nature God reveals to us his power and creativity and order; through Jesus, God reveals to us his love and grace and mercy.
What is your awe? What stops you in your tracks with its power, or perhaps its glory or beauty? Too often we scurry around in our little worlds, busy, tired and weary and we downplay and dilute God’s grandeur with our selfish earthly agendas and preoccupation. God’s glory is on tour in the skies, People, and God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning, Professor Night lectures each evening.
Those words remind me of classes you can now take over the internet on any subject imaginable and on your own time, day or night. But like those classes, are we saying, “Oh, it’ll still be there for me tomorrow…or next month…or next year?” I want you to look around you this week. I want you to take in the beauty in an icicle hanging from your eaves instead of complaining about the cold. I want you to catch the next snowflake on your tongue and feel its cold turn instantly into warmth instead of complaining about shoveling all that white stuff. I want you to look at the clouds and enjoy their shape and color instead of trying to decide what they can tell us about the kind of weather that’s coming.
I want you to see God as David did, as Eugene Peterson did when he translated those Psalms into words and phrases of our day. Listen to these beautiful lyrics from Psalm 8:
God, brilliant Lord…nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs
That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.
I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.
Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?
God is indeed all around us. When we look at the work of God's fingers on this earth, full of stars and spiders and infants and sky-jewelry, how can we say anything but: "O Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1).
Psalm 19:7-10
The middle verses of David’s meditation in Psalm 19, beginning with verse 7:
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the decrees of the Lord are sure,
Making wise the simple;
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the Lord is clear, enlightening the eyes;
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever;
The ordinances 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.
David is talking about God’s LAWS here! Laws aren’t supposed to “revive the soul,” as David puts it, are they? Laws aren’t supposed to rejoice our hearts are they? And certainly laws aren’t as valuable as gold or even sweet…are they?
Sometimes when we think of the law, we often think of things that keep us from having fun. But here we see laws that revive us, make us wise, enlighten us, warn us and reward us. How can that be?
God’s laws are guidelines and signposts along our journey in life, not chains on our hands and feet. If we follow His laws, they will point out the right roads we should take. He created us, remember? So of course he would know the way we can find joy.
When we discover God’s laws by reading His Word, we see He reveals even more of Himself to us. His Word doesn’t just list a bunch of laws, He also warns us well in advance what happens if we get off the right path. Reading the Bible opens us up to knowing the dangers we face when we are walking alone and not with God.
Now I want to clarify something here. The laws I am referring to are the moral laws, not the ritualistic laws of God in the Old Testament that the priests followed and enforced. Listen to some of these laws: “There are only certain animals you may eat. You can eat any animals that has divided hoofs and chews the cud but you can’t eat the camel or a rabbit because even though they chew the cud, they don’t have divided hoofs…you can’t eat a pig because even though it has divided hoofs, it doesn’t chew the cud…You can eat everything in the waters that have fins and scales (let’s see, that would leave out shrimp, lobster and scallops)…”
And then there are the laws about women giving birth: “For 33 days after she gives birth to a boy, she cannot touch any holy thing or come into the sanctuary, if she has a girl, the time is doubled to 66 days…”
There are a whole bunch of “Commands for Daily Life,” such as this one for farmers, “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest…you shall leave then for the poor and the immigrants.” And how about this one, “You shall not lie to one another or keep the wages you owe a worker until the following day…no more mules, because you cannot let your animals breed with a different kind. And you can’t plant two different seeds in the same field and you can’t wear a garment made from two different materials…”
There is of course, the law I’m sure you’ve heard quoted in defense of someone’s position on a specific topic, such as the homosexual issue that is such a hot potato in our culture: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination.”
But just a few verses away from that one is this one: “You shall rise before an older person and defer to someone older than yourself.” And this one, “When an alien—or an immigrant—lives with us in our land, he or she shall be to you just as any other citizen among you and you shall love the immigrant as yourself for you were once aliens, too.”
It would make sense to me that if we are going to quote one or more of these laws as “LAW,” then we must make a commitment to follow them all. All of these laws cited in Leviticus are ritualistic laws. There are even 10 Bible pages of various offerings such as guilt offerings, sin offerings, and offerings of well-being.
But looking at God through his Son, Jesus, we see a better way. The writer of Hebrews calls it a “better covenant,” in chapter 7, verse 22: “…Jesus has also become the guarantee of a better covenant.” In chapter 8, verses 6-8 tell us why: “Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree he is the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted through better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.”
God said “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts…” (Hebrews 8:10)
This reveals yet another image of God—the Holy Spirit. Under God’s New Covenant put into place through Christ’s death on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins, God’s law is now inside us in the person of the Holy Spirit. The law is no longer an external set of rules like those listed in Leviticus.
The Holy Spirit reminds us of Christ’s words, quickens our consciences, influences our motives and desires and makes us want to obey. Through the Holy Spirit, doing God’s will is something we desire with all our hearts and minds.
John wrote: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” God is spirit. That Spirit lives within you.
Psalm 19:11-14
We discover that the law expresses the qualities of God—perfect, loyal, luminous, pure, sweet, just, and even sacrificial in sending his son to save us from ourselves once and for all. The last four verses of Psalm 19 not only gives us a warning but tells us what happens when we keep God’s guidelines. (READ PSALM 19:11-14)
Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults,
Keep back your servant also from (proud thoughts);
Do not let them have dominion over me.
Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Life is full of warnings. That train coming through town always blows its whistle to make sure the tracks are clear. An ambulance speeding down the street to get a sick patient to the hospital has its lights and sirens on to warn us to move out of its way.
One time my car’s brakes started squealing when I would hit the brake petal so I brought the car in it to the mechanic to check. And he told me that when the brake pads get to a certain wear it will produce that sound to warn me to that they need changing. I thought to myself, even my car gives me warning signals.
Even in sports there are warnings. In football, there is a two minute warning before the half and near the end of the game. In boxing, the referee may announce to a fighter a warning before he will take points away for fighting improperly.
Life is full of warnings. So, it should be natural to understand that God has a warning system in place. Unfortunately, many Christians don’t know God’s warning system. And if you don’t know what the warning system is telling you then you probably won’t heed its advice, and you must deal with the consequences. For example, if you don’t know that the fire siren sounding twelve times means a tornado has been spotted in the area, you won’t take cover and you might lose your life.
Verse 11 tells us that God’s warning system is not like any other in the world. It not only warns you of danger but if you heed its advice you are rewarded. You are rewarded for heeding the warning!
We’ve looked at God’s design in creation and how it demonstrates His awesome power. So why can’t we trust Him with our lives? How many of us choose to hold onto our problems rather than give them to God? The alcoholic would rather hold on to his life than turn it over to God. The housewife would rather hold on to her worries than turn them over to God. The husband would rather hold on to the financial concerns than place them in God’s hands.
God’s instructions are quite clear, so we will not get lost or swallowed up in this world. We’ve all had times when our lives just seem to be totally out of control, times when we’re confused no matter which way we turn. Those are the times we are not following God’s footsteps and his advice.
The Holy Spirit speaks to us, helping us to make the right choices. “Who can detect their errors?...Don’t let them rule over me,” says David. “Keep me from being too proud,” which usually means we think we are strong enough or smart enough to handle it ourselves. The warning here is that if we continually refuse to listen to the Spirit, it becomes harder and harder to hear what our conscience is trying to tell us.
You may wonder, how do I know it is God warning me and guiding me? You know it is His intervention when He is constantly on your mind. And that prompts us to consciously watch what comes out of our mouths and what lives within our hearts. Verse 14 is one of the most beautiful short prayers of the Bible: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
It we’re thinking about our Lord and Savior only occasionally, we will most certainly miss God’s warning system.
Let me ask you this: Would you change the way you live, or talk, or give, if you knew that every word and thought and action would be examined by God first? How could your life be better if, every morning you consciously began each day determined that, just for today, you will let God’s love guide what you say and do and how you think?
It's time to discover our true relationship with God as creatures made by a loving Creator.
Next time you have a problem or worry that is getting to you, go outside and stare up at heaven and say to yourself, “If God can create this, He can take care of my worry or my problem.” Then give it over to Him, right there.
PLEASE PRAY WITH ME: Father, your Word tells us that you answer us in the day of our troubles. Your name alone is powerful enough to protect us. Lord, help us to trust in you as we seek to become more like your Son, Jesus Christ. It is in his name we pray, Amen.
BENEDICTION: Even when we fail to recognize God’s desires for us, God continues to offer us possibilities for divine joy. Friends, hear the good news! In Jesus Christ, we receive the gifts of forgiveness, wholeness and of great rewards, so that our joy may be made complete.
Amen.
Children’s Story
By Deb Peterson
Do people say you look like your mom or your dad? (Or, who do people say you look like?). Do you recognize any of the people in these pictures? (There will be a variety of pictures of Jesus sitting around the front of the church.) After someone gives the correct answer, say do you think Jesus probably looked like his mother or his father? Who is Jesus’ father? (God).
What does God look like? We don’t know what God looks like. For many years, people have wondered about that. We won’t know exactly what he looks like until we get to heaven and see him face to face.
But the Bible tells us a lot about God, things besides what he looks like because that isn’t really important. Do you some things about God? (He can hear, because he hears our prayers. He loves us, He does good things for us. He can do miracles, which means making things happen that people can’t make happen. He made the whole earth, the trees, the flowers, the animals and us, because he likes things that are fun to look at and play with. He is every where at the same time, which means he is always with us, in the good times and the bad.)
God’s son is Jesus and when we know Jesus, we know God. It’s important for us to get to know Jesus. How can we do that? (Through reading the Bible or having it read to us, by coming to Sunday school and learning about Jesus, asking mom and grandma and others to tell us what they know about Jesus…)
You might end by saying that each of us sees Jesus differently so all of these pictures represent Jesus to different people. Then ask which of the pictures look most like Jesus to them. Each child can pick one.
Close in prayer: God, thank you for making the whole earth with things so beautiful for us to look at. Thank you for sending your son Jesus to live here so we have a good idea what you look like. Amen.
