Psalm 19 - God Has Spoken

That's obviously a humorous look at people's ignorance of the Word of God. I actually thought my wife knew more than that. But it's also a very sad portrayal of what is true in many people's lives. And that is basically about that level of ignorance of the fact that God has communicated to us. God has spoken to us in His Word. Now I wonder how you would respond today if God were to appear to you. If God were to actually appear, person to person to you, I wonder how you would respond if God showed up and appeared to you and spoke to you. His hair as white as snow, his eyes piercing like a flame of fire, his face shining like the sun, his feet as bright as bronze in a furnace, his voice as powerful as Niagara Falls. And he told you what he wanted you to do. How would you respond? Well I can tell you how one man responded to that very scene. John the Apostle who was the closest apostle to Jesus Christ walked with him on planet Earth throughout his ministry when he saw that very vision of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation, he fell at his feet unable to move as though he were dead. I suspect that if God were to show up and appear to us like that, if Jesus Christ were to show up, we would respond with fear, reverence with awe. And we would fall at his feet and whatever he said to do in that powerful voice, we would immediately jump into it and do it. Well God has spoken, God has revealed Himself to us. He has revealed who he is and what he expects of us. And he has revealed Himself in at least three ways through creation, through his Word, and through his Son, Jesus Christ. Today we're going to look at Psalm 19 in this series on favorite Psalms, Psalm 19 in your Bibles, please, please locate that chapter of the book of Psalms. We're going to find that the Psalmist deals with two of those forms of Revelation. Since he lived a thousand years before the time of Christ, he deals with the two that he was familiar with, creation and the Word of God. And so he deals with the witness of the skies and the words of the Scriptures, but he also talks about the response of believers, the worship of the saints, as we respond to God's revelation of Himself. God's revealing Himself to us. I want us to begin this morning in verse 1 by looking at the witness of the skies. God has revealed Himself to us in His creation. And the witness of the skies is a powerful and eloquent demonstration of who God is. Let's see what David says about that in Psalm 1. Or Psalm 19. Verse 1, The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands. The word heavens and skies both refer to our atmosphere and the starry universe beyond that. They both refer to the same thing which demonstrates for us, which reveals to us two things. The Bible says here, the glory of God and the work of His hands. Now what verse 1 is telling us is that God's witness of Himself through the skies through creation is limited. Notice that God reveals something about His glory and something about how powerful He is, the work of His hands. That's a very limited revelation. It's very important, but it's very limited. God does not reveal His love, His mercy, His grace, His plan of salvation, His sending of His Son, Jesus Christ. You can't see any of that in the skies or in the heavens. So it's a limited revelation, although it is still very important. Some people say, I don't need the church, I don't need the Bible, I can just go out and worship God in nature. It's funny to me how many of those same people carry a rifle or a fishing rod with them when they go out to worship God in nature. But you're going to need more than what you see in nature to get to heaven. Because God's revelation and creation is limited. It does not, its purpose is not to present to you God's love and mercy and forgiveness in Christ. It just doesn't show us those specific things. It does, however, tell us a lot about the glory of God, the power, the majesty, the wonder, the greatness of God, and what He can do with His hands. In fact, Romans chapter 1 tells us it's a very important part of God's revelation to us along those lines. Romans 1 says, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, these two things, as eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, and here's the kicker, so that men are without excuse. The real thrust of that passage is men are without excuse because of what they can see in nature. Because of God's creation, because of God's revelation of Himself through the witness of the skies, man is held accountable to God. Man is responsible to God to respond to what he sees and knows about God through creation. Again, you won't learn how to get saved, how to get to heaven through creation, but you will learn that there is a God, there is someone above us who is a God of great power, and majesty look at what He has done. So that revelation, that witness of the skies is limited. Secondly, verse 2, that witness is continual. Verse 2 says, day after day, they pour forth knowledge or speech. Night after night, they display knowledge. So in the daytime and in the nighttime, continually we can see God's revelation of His power in the work of His hands in creation, and it's day after day, night after night, it's continual revelation. Now I'm thankful the Psalmist included both day and night. You know, we can learn a lot about God's power by what we see during the day. When you look out and you see the beautiful mountains at this time of year, and they're just starting to, leaves are just starting to change, and you see the beauty of God's creation. You look out and you see the sun and the moon, and all of those things we can see in the daytime. But I'm glad He also included the night, because we're at not for the night, we would be limited in our scope of what God has created. It would only be what we see right above us and right around us. But when the night time comes and there's a clear sky, and the millions of stars are shining, and if you get a telescope, or you read about these kinds of things, and you understand that there's much more out there than what we can actually see with the naked eye, then you begin to understand how big God is. Let me see if I can just paint this kind of picture for you for just a moment. Distances in the universe are measured in light years. It's really foolish to try to measure them in miles. Once you get so far, miles don't mean a whole lot. And so scientists measure distances in the universe by light years. Now what they mean by that is the distance that light will travel in a year's time. So one light years, this is light will travel in a year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, which means light can go around the world seven and a half times in one second. That's how fast it travels. Now do you know how long it takes light to get from one end of our solar system to the other? Solar system of our sun and nine planets, maybe ten, depending on whether or not they recognize that last discovery as a planet. From one end to the other, it would take 12 hours for light to get from one end to the other in our solar system. Remember, it goes around the earth seven and a half times, in one second it would take 12 hours to get from the sun to the outermost planet. But our solar system is a part of a greater galaxy. You know how long it would take light to get across our galaxy? 100,000 years. 100,000 years for light to travel at 186,000 miles per second to get from one end of our galaxy to another. And because of the discoveries made possible by the Hubble Telescope, scientists now tell us that our galaxy is one of 50 billion galaxies in the universe. Now God is a big God. He's big, he's great. And if you can look at nature, you can see the complexity and the greatness and the majesty of our God. There is a continual revelation of him in the witness of the skies. It's limited, but it's continual. Thirdly, it is a silent witness. Verse 3 says, there is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. You may have a note in your Bible, a little footnote that says, there's another way this can be translated. Mine has it translated this way. They have no speech. There are no words. No sound is heard from them. If you have a King James version, you'll find that there are some words in italics in verse 3. Those words were not in the original Hebrew. They were added to make more sense. Actually, they kind of mess up the real meaning of the verse. The real meaning of the verse is that there are no words, no voice. There's no sound from creation. It is a silent witness. In other words, God is so great that he can do a lot without even uttering a word. He can tell us a lot about himself just with the silent drama of creation. He doesn't have to say a thing. Now, we need his word, as we'll see later, to tell us more specific information about him, but God starts with the beautiful drama of creation. And it is as though every day, this silent testimony to God's wonder and greatness and power is out there for us to see. It doesn't, God is not limited to words. I mean, even the hardest of heart is impressed and awed by a glorious sunset. Even the hardest of hearts somehow responds with some kind of respect at the beauty of this time of year in our mountains in West Virginia. So you see, God can say a lot without saying word. It's a silent witness, but fourthly, it is a universal witness. Universal witness in verse four. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In other words, there is no place in God's world where this testimony cannot be seen. Every place in God's world, no matter where they are, no matter where they live, no matter how far back they may live from civilization, they can see the handy work of God in creation. Every place on earth has this testimony, has this witness, and so people are held accountable by the interaction they have with God's creation, God's witness in the skies, if you will. Don Richardson, who is a missionary statesman, wrote a book called Eternity in their Hearts. And in that book, he describes how many backward tribes in primitive and unknown places were discovered by missionaries ready and waiting to receive the gospel message that those missionaries brought. He documents numerous tribes that have been found who were already recognizing that there must be a God out there and were just waiting for someone to come tell them who he was. Why? Because they had seen God's witness in creation and had responded to it on that level. And now their hearts were open and ready for the gospel of Christ. A lot of that kind of thing is happening in Papua New Guinea where tribes, where missionaries have gotten back into the bush and the jungle and have realized that there are people who are ready to receive the message. Their hearts are prepared because they have already seen that there must be a God, a greater power, a greater being than them in creation. Just one example of it that the Psalmist gives at the end of verse four going on through verse six, there's an example that he uses of the sun. Among all the objects of God's creation that he could have chosen, he chooses one and he says, let's just take one and I'll show you how it demonstrates the glory of God shows the work of his hands. The sun, verse four, he says at the end of it, in the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun. In other words, he has determined the dwelling of the sun. This will be its tent. This will be its place of a boat in the heavens. Look at verse five, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is hidden from its heat. Now I must say that the Bible is not intending to be a specific science textbook. Now we know that the sun does not rise and set. This is due to the earth's revolution around the sun and that kind of thing. The earth turning on its axis and all that. But the Bible just presents things as we observe them. You know, it's not trying to give a detailed scientific explanation. Just presents what we observe. Sun rises, makes its journey across the sky and it sets in the evening. And there's a wonderful description of how that takes place. He says it's like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, referring to that time in the Jewish wedding ceremony when a bride groom steps out from his house and is ready to make the journey to his bride's home to take her home with him and the actual marriage feast will be held and the ceremony is held. And when that bridegroom would leave his house to go get his bride, sometimes the whole town would fall in behind him. And there'd be just this great joyful procession. And the idea is that the sun makes its way across the sky is doing so joyfully, exuberantly with that kind of eagerness in its face, if you will, to obey its maker, God. And it's also the psalmist says like a champion rejoicing to run his course. Two things that could mean some commentators feel that it means an actual athlete who's ready to run a race. Now you know what athletes are like at the beginning of a race. They are pumped, they are ready to go. They are in the track ready to go and all excited about running and ready to go. There's an exuberance and excitement about getting started, ready to run the race. It could mean that. Or some believe it means a champion warrior, a warrior who is ready to go out with no fear to meet the enemy, ready to take all risks to do what needs to be done, has that firmness and that resolve. Regardless of which is true, the idea is the same. And that is the sun obeys its commander, its trainer, if you will, God the Father, who created the sun. And so God has formed the tent for the sun. It's place where it will dwell in the heavens. He has formed the track for the sun that it will run each day. And magnificently, exuberantly, joyfully, but obediently, the sun does the bidding of its maker every day. Just one example in creation of the greatness of our God. And you know what? The psalmist could have picked any number of things from nature. He could have picked a bee or a bird or a flower or a mountain or a tree. He could have picked any number of things and done the same thing. Because each individual part of creation displays the glory of its maker, creator God. And he's revealed himself to us in the witness of the skies. But together, all of creation shows a powerful witness to how great God is. It's as though every day God paints us a new painting on his beautiful landscape. And at the end of the day, he signs it, God. Every day starts a new one and signs it, God. Every day, there's another one where God demonstrates his glory. And as the sun makes its way across the sky, God is demonstrating his glory and the work of his hands through the witness of the skies. But as majestic as that revelation of God is, the psalmist reserves his greatest praise for the words of the scriptures. God's ultimate revelation. Now, of course, God revealed himself in human flesh through Jesus Christ. But Jesus Christ is not now living on earth in his human flesh. He's in heaven representing us before the Father. And so we cannot look directly at the life of Christ and see one to one demonstration of God's glory. The ultimate, the greatest, the final revelation of God is in his Word because we have it with us right now. And so this is the greatest revelation of God. The greatest display of God's glory and power is in his Word. And what we have next in this psalm in verses 7 through 11 is the words of the scriptures being extolled and praised by the psalmist. Now, he does it in a very poetic way, which becomes very powerful because it builds one on the other, the one on the one before. It just kind of builds all the way through this passage. What he does is he has six different parallel statements about the words of scripture. They all have three parts. If you look at him verses 7 through 9, each one begins with a noun. And then you have a predicate adjective, if you will. It's a descriptive term. And then you have a verb. Okay, the law, verse 7, the law of the Lord, it's the noun. The law is perfect. That's the predicate adjective. And then reviving the soul, a verb. So you got this noun adjective verb. And he does that six times in these three verses. And it just kind of feeds on itself. It builds poetically to demonstrate that the wonder and the majesty of the Bible. So let's just take it apart for a few minutes, okay? And see the wonder of the words of scripture in God's revelation to us through His Word. Let's look first of all at the nouns that He uses, which describe the nature of the Word. The nature of the Word is described in verse 7 as law. The word is law. Remember what we saw last week that in the poetic books, in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, Job through Song of Solomon, the word law always refers, most often refers, unless the context dictates otherwise, most often refers to the totality of God's Word, not just the first five books, not just the mosaic law. But it refers to the entirety of the Bible. But as law, what the word is indicating is this is teaching. This is instruction for us. This is what God expects of us. These are His regulations for life. So the scriptures are number one law. Secondly, they are statutes there in verse 7. The statutes of the Lord. As a statute, or another word might be testimony, the Bible is witness as to who God is. It is a legal declaration as to who God is and what He expects of us. So the Bible is law. The Bible is statutes. Thirdly, the Bible is precepts in verse 8. The precepts of the Lord. Now, when He uses the word precepts, He's talking about responsibilities that God places on us or direction that God gives us. It's like a roadmap. The Bible gives us the proper direction for like precepts that will enable us to order our lives a right. Those are precepts. The fourth noun used for the nature of the Word of God is command there in verse 8, the commands of the Lord. Now, not only is it a roadmap, not only is it precepts, these are authoritative precepts. They're commands. It's not suggestions. It's not God saying, you might want to try this sometime. No, it's God saying, this is what I expect of you. This is what I command of you. This is what I want you to do. This is how I want you to live. This is what is truth. This is what is error. The word of God is composed of commands. And then the fifth word in verse 9 is the fear of the Lord. That leads us more to the response that we should have for the Bible. A response of respect, of all, of reverence for the fact that these are God's words. So this is the fear of the Lord. And then the sixth noun that's used to describe the nature of the Word of God is ordinances. They're in verse 9, the ordinances of the Lord or judgments of the Lord. These are judicial decisions of God that are always just and right. God never makes a mistake. All his decisions, all his judgments are correct. They're right. So that's the nature of the Word, described in those six terms that are used for the Word of God. Together they tell us we can trust this book. This is what God has given us to order our lives by. I've never flown an airplane, have no ambition to do so. But from what I read in the military, when they teach pilots to fly planes, they rigorously drill into them, trust your instruments, particularly with F-14s and other jets which take off from aircraft carriers. From what I understand, when you take off from an aircraft carrier, you can easily become disoriented because where the water ends and the horizon or sky begins is often difficult to tell the difference between those two. And so pilots have drilled into them, do not trust your feelings about where this aircraft is. You trust your instruments because your instruments will not fail you. They will let you know exactly where you're to be. You know, some people believe that John F. Kennedy was killed in his aircraft because of that very thing. He lost contact with where the horizon was as opposed to the ocean. And so that can happen. And so what the Bible is saying is this is the authoritative Word of God. You can trust it. These are your instruments. They are true. They're right. They're their commands of God. They're the thing we can trust. So the nature of the Word is described for us here. But not only the nature of the Word, the characteristics of the Word are described. Look at the adjectives that are used. The characteristics of the Word. The law of the Lord is first of all perfect. Without any flaw, out any error, it is perfect. God did not make one mistake as he gave this book to the man who depended. Word for word. Perfect. Exactly as God wanted it given. If you look in your newspaper, you'll find almost every day a little corrections column. Corrections. We made a mistake yesterday. We got the wrong name, wrong person in the wrong picture. We got to correct that. The New York Times was the first newspaper in our country to do that in 1972. They started publishing a corrections page and they published at least six or eight corrections a day. That they've, you know, mistakes they've made on newspaper. One of the writers said something like this, you know, what do you expect? In the average New York Times, we have 10,000 words every day covering everything from the latest ball score to what the mayor said. Nobody can get all that right. Which shows you this is God's Word. God got it right. You've got 31,000 words in the Bible. Pandover, period of 1500 years by 40 different authors in three different languages on three different continents and there is no error. It's perfect. That shows this is God's Word. The description of His Word, the characteristic of His Word is perfect. Notice the next word in verse seven. It's trustworthy. That means it's firm. It's reliable. You can follow it completely. Third word, verse eight. The precepts of the Lord are right. In other words, just what God says will never lead you wrong. It will always lead you to the right conclusion, the right way of life. It will never lead you down the wrong path. His precepts are right. Notice the fourth word, verse eight. The commandments of the Lord or commands of the Lord are radiant. I love that word. It means a pure, clear light that really dispels darkness that shows us who we really are, opens up our hearts and displays the wickedness and our need to ourselves and to God. And before God, His light searches out who we are. It's a radiant. It's radiant, a clear light, clean light. And then notice the next word, verse nine, the fear of the Lord is pure. There is no sin or stain or corruption in the Word of God. It is pure. Even when sins are discussed or the sins of people in the Bible are talked about, their lives are seen sometimes as being sinful. It is never glorified. It is never scintillating. It is always clearly wrong and devastating. So the Bible portrays evil as evil. The Bible portrays sin as sin. It is a pure book. And then the sixth word is the word sure in verse nine. The ordinances of the Lord are sure. It means again, you can put your confidence in Him. You can put your hope in the Word of God. It is never false. It is always faithful. A tour guide was leading a group of tourists through one of the major museums, art museums in our country. And they were viewing a particular collection of the works of Michelangelo. Now Michelangelo's place in the art world is clearly established. It is one of the greatest men who ever did that kind of thing that ever lived. But there was one guy who kept making comments about some of the paintings. And as one of them would be described, he would say, that's kind of a weird painting. I don't like that one at all. I don't think it represents reality. Then they would come to the next one and he would say, I just think that's terrible. That's no good at all. And finally the tour guide had put up with this for about 10 minutes and he looked at the guy and he said, Michelangelo's work is not on trial here. The patrons are on trial. We're not here to critique his work. His work critiques whether or not we have the real appreciation for art that we should add. And that's exactly what God's saying about his Bible. The characteristics of the Bible tell us it is not the Bible that is to be critiqued. It is not the Bible that is to be to pass judgment on. The Bible passes judgment on us. We are the ones who stand in judgment as we come before the Bible. That's what the characteristics of the Bible are telling us. So we find its nature, its characteristics, but we also find its power described in the verbs that are used by David here. Notice there are five of them. Verse 7, reviving the soul. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. This book gives you spiritual refreshment. It will make you strong spiritually. When you find yourself weak and unable to meet the challenges of life, maybe it's because your diet is not including the right elements. You're not feeding enough on the Word of God to gain the strength that you need to get through life and all of its challenges. It nourishes the soul. It feeds the soul. It refreshes. Revives the soul. The second verb that's used of the power of the Word. Verse 7, it makes wise the simple. Now the word simple there is the spiritually innocent or spiritually naive. It's the person who's just not mature enough yet to really understand a whole lot about spiritual things. You say, well how do I get to know more? How do I become more spiritually mature? Right here it is friends, this book, the Bible. As you read, study, learn, apply the Word of God to your life. You will learn wisdom. It makes wise the simple. The naive, the innocent or ignorant about spiritual things. The third verb that's used, there in verse 8, the Word of God gives joy to the heart. You see, when you live according to the Bible, it will always lead you down a path that will result in joy. Not necessarily happiness and everything's okay, but joy, a deep seated sense of being right with God and that things are right in your life. You disobey this book and go down a path that does not go along with the Word of God then you will find devastation and destruction in your life. So the Word of God gives joy, gives joy. Notice the next one, in verse 8, the commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes, opening up our spiritual understanding, help us to learn more about who God is and what he expects of us and what his world is all about, how it works and how we're to live in this world. It gives light to our eyes. It opens up our spiritual understanding and then look at the last one, in verse 9, the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. God's Word lasts forever. You look at the best seller lists and you'll find a book that really rises to the top of the charts and it may stay there a few weeks, maybe a few months, maybe a couple of years but eventually it's going to fade off the scene. Not so with God's Word, it's forever. It is forever. I'm not just talking about best seller, I'm talking about the quality and the impact of God's Word is forever. The Bible tells us this over and over and over again, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24 and verse 35, heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away. Isaiah said it in Isaiah 40 and verse 8, the grass withers and the flowers fail but the Word of our God stands forever. The Psalmist said it in Psalm 119 verse 89, your word, O Lord, is eternal. It stands firm in the heavens. So God's Word is always there. It always will be. God has settled it forever. It will never, ever pass away. The French agnostic philosopher Voltaire back in the 1700s, who was part of the French Enlightenment, once declared, I will live to see the Bible stamped out in my day. I will live to see it eradicated from the earth. After Voltaire died, the place where he lived became a Bible publishing business. And that was God saying, you're going to do it with my word? Yeah. God's Word is forever settled. It is forever settled. It will never pass away. It endures forever. Now the only break in this continuity of these six nice little tri-part things of describing the Word is the very last one where there's no verb at the end of verse 9. But you can almost see it that way. It says the ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. The word righteous in its verb form means to be vindicated, to be justified. And the idea here may be that the Word of God does justify itself, vindicates itself. This book does not need us to prove anything about it. It'll take care of itself. It'll stand as a lion and defend itself. It is a living book. It is not just a dead historical treatise that we need to evaluate. It is a living book that vindicates itself. This is God's Word. The words of the Scriptures are his greatest revelation to us. And by now we ought to realize that we have a tremendous, tremendous, the greatest possession we could ever have in this book. But just in case we missed it, the Psalmist tells us in verses 10 and 11 the value of the Word of God, the value of the Word, verse 10. He says, first of all, it is our greatest possession. He says, they are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. The greatest possession you can have is your Bible. Do you know that? You can lose everything else. If you have your Bible, you've got the greatest possession you can ever have. You believe that? It's true. This book is more special. It's greater, it's more valuable than he says gold. The most precious metal available. And then he kind of builds on that. It's greater not just than gold. It's greater than much gold. It's not greater than just much gold. It's greater than much pure gold. Gold has been tried and the impurities skimmed off. So no matter how you say it, this is the greatest possession you can ever have. Secondly, it is the greatest pleasure that you can ever have. Verse 10, they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. The biggest treat in Bible days and the Old Testament was to get some honey, fresh out of the honey comb. And what he's saying is this is a lasting treat that you will always be able to taste. It will be at your disposal anytime. It is the greatest pleasure. Thirdly, it is the greatest protection, verse 11. By them is your servant warned. This book warns us against sin and the way sin will lead us and the devastation it will do to our lives. The greatest way to protect your life against wrong paths is to follow the teaching of the Word of God. So it is the greatest protection we can have. And lastly, it's the greatest profit we can have. Look at verse 12, it says, or verse 11, in keeping them, there is great reward. If you keep the commands, precepts, all the things we saw about this book and all it is, if you keep this book live by it, there is great reward for your life. I think there's tremendous reward right here in this life for living according to the Word of God. I mean, there's peace, there's joy, there's the knowledge that you're living a life that's pleasing to God, there is growth, there is discernment, there's wisdom to be had. I mean, all those blessings come right here and now, but then what about reward in heaven? Think of that. When we get to heaven, we're going to be judged. According to our works, our lives will be evaluated by Jesus Christ, the judge, and they will be evaluated by how we stacked up against His Word. You live as best you can by God's grace, according to God's Word, and you'll receive reward in heaven. You see, it's the greatest profit we could ever have. Greatest reward for us will be to live by God's Word. I may have told you this before, but it bears repeating. In 2002, the internet travel agency Expedia.com did a survey of British travelers. And what they were trying to find out was this was done on behalf of hotel chains. They were trying to find out what's the most valuable thing in a hotel room or a motel room and what's the least valuable thing. You know what the survey showed? British travelers believe is the least valuable item in a motel room, the Gideon Bible. That was ranked at the very bottom. You know what was right next to it? Which is a little more valuable in their eyes? Shower cap. Shower cap. You know what was the third from the bottom? Chocolate's on the pillow. You know, it is a sad day when people see God's Word as less valuable than a shower cap. If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you've fallen in love with this book, you know it is the greatest possession with the greatest protection and the greatest pleasure offering the greatest profit you could ever have. The value of God's Word is beyond description. David does his best to put it in terms that we can grasp and revel in the value of this book. These are the words of the Scriptures. But let me quickly summarize verses 12 through 14 where we find the worship of the saints. This is the only legitimate response to God's revelation of himself and the witness of the skies and the words of the Scriptures is the worship of the saints. And I use the word worship very deliberately because worship is not just ceremonies and rituals we go through in a public place in a church building. Worship should be the life response to the Word of God and to who God is. Every day of our lives, we ought to be submitting ourselves to the authority of God and the greatness of God in our lives, worshipping Him by laying our lives at His disposal every day. So the response we have to the greatness of our God as revealed in creation and in the Word is one of worship. How does that take place? Well, David talks about three things. Let me just give them to you quickly. First of all, the recognition of sinfulness in verse 12. Who can discern His errors? That's a fascinating question. What David is saying is it's really impossible for me to really determine how sinful I am. You know why? Because our hearts are really so sinful that our minds and hearts have become corrupted to the point that we don't even realize how sinful we are. Jeremiah said it this way, Jeremiah 17. Verse 9, he said, the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? My friend, you do not really know your own heart. I don't really know my own heart. It is so deceptive and so wicked. Who can really understand it? And that's why Jeremiah goes on to say, I the Lord search the heart. The Lord searches the heart. And that's in essence what David is praying back in Psalm 19. Who can discern His errors? But what he's saying is that is my way of recognizing my sinfulness. I know I'm a sinner. I don't even know the depths to which I'm capable of sinning. So God please reveal to me through your word. Show me through your word what I need. What I need to know about myself in order to live right before you. Part of worship of the saints is a recognition of sinfulness. Secondly, it is a longing for purity. Verse 12, he says, forgive my hidden thoughts. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression? In his prayer here, his response to the word of God, what he's saying is Lord, Lord, I recognize my heart as capable of all kinds of wickedness. I don't even know the extent to which it's capable, but I know it's capable of great wickedness. So I'm asking you, Lord, please, please forgive my hidden thoughts, sins which may be unknown to us because we're not spiritually discerning enough yet to know that that's wrong. Or sins that we may have committed for so long that we no longer recognize them as sin. Whichever way it goes, a hidden fault is something that we need to be asking God continually to forgive us of, to make us aware of. Because if we don't deal with sin on that level, it goes to level two, David talks about willful sins in verse 13. That's a different kind of sin. A willful sin is when you know something is wrong and you just do it anyway. That's a willful spirit of rebellion against God. And that's a very serious place to be, a very dangerous place to be. Willful sin. And David is praying, oh God, keep me from willful sins that they may not rule over me because willful sins will rule you. They will become dominating to you. You will become a servant to their mastery. And if you don't deal with that, it goes to the third level. What David calls great transgression in verse 13, which is the kind of sin that is done with impunity, with no recognition anymore that it's sin, no recognition of the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Your heart is so hard, your neck is so stiff, you will not turn, you will not listen to God's word, and you are guilty of great transgression of God's commands. And that, my friend, is the place where God begins judging. So David is saying, God, please, I want to live a pure life, a longing for a pure life for purity. Is David saying, Lord, keep me from even sins of ignorance that I don't know about yet, Lord. I want to be sensitive to those so that I don't get caught up in willful rebellious, deliberate sin so that I don't end up in great transgression with a hardened heart. Oh God, keep me from that. Do you long for that kind of purity? Or do you kind of play with sin, toy with sin, go head long knowingly into sin? The worship of the saints, the response to God and who he is should always say, Lord, I long for purity, I want holiness and righteousness to be the hallmark of my life. And then thirdly, there is a desire to please God, verse 14, May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer. It starts with the words of our mouths, moves to the meditation of our hearts. Lord, I want everything I say today to be pleasing to you. That's part of the worship of the saints. And the word pleasing is literally an Old Testament sacrificial word. It's a word for offering. It's a word for putting something on the altar and offering it in worship to God. So every day we ought to have the attitude, Lord, here's my speech, here's my tongue. I lay it on the altar. I want it to be pleasing to you today, rather than being critical, I want to be edifying to people. Rather than engaging in gossip, I want to be a blessing to people. Rather than giving angry words, I want to give calm and patient words. Rather than giving lying words, shading the truth to make myself look better, I want to give honest words. Lord, I lay my tongue on the altar. Here it is. I want it to be pleasing to you. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, what goes on in the deepest recesses of our heart and mind. Do you want it to be pleasing to God? By the way, what's down there? What's in there? Is it greed, envy, anger, lust, bitterness, self-pity? What's down in the recesses of your heart? We all need to come to God with our heart and say, Lord, here it is. I want it to be pleasing to you today. You're my rock, you're my redeem, you're my only stability, you're my savior. I need you today to help me please you. Listen, friends, God has given us a witness of Himself in creation. We can look at the skies and see a lot about God. He's reserved His greatest revelation for us in His Word. He tells us who He is, who we are, how we can get into His family through faith in Christ. The plan of salvation is all right here. The question is, how will we respond? Have you ever responded to God's revelation of Himself? The fact that God has spoken? Have you ever responded to that by saying, Lord, here I am? First of all, Lord, I need you as my savior. I can't get to heaven without Christ as my savior. And so I submit myself to you, I give up my pride, my own efforts to try to get to heaven myself. And, Lord, I realize what your Word says. I am a sinner and I need Jesus as my savior. Have you ever done that? Have you ever done that? Made that decision? If you haven't, there's no better time to do it than right now today. If you have done that, maybe as a Christian, you've found yourself kind of in one of those categories like Wilphalcent or even Great Transgression, and you realize your heart's been prick today, and you need to have the same kind of attitude David did. Oh, God, I plead with you to keep me from sin, to have a holy life and a pure life, and may I be pleasing to you each day. You need to get back to that kind of spiritual sensitivity that you've lost a long time ago? Maybe you need to make a public or even where you are private re-dedication of your life of submission to Christ. The response is what's important. God has spoken. Let's listen and obey. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we are grateful for your Word, for what we can see of you in creation, but even more what we know of you through your Word. Thank you for giving us so much, but Lord, that we realize that makes us responsible as well. And I pray that everyone here today would recognize that we need to respond with submission to your Word. I pray that someone may get saved today, and I pray, Father, that Christians, we would open up our hearts, those of us who are saved, to be the kind of spiritually sensitive children of yours that we should be. Pleasing in your sight, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.