SPEAKER_01: So, our guest preacher this morning, he's been here once before, but many of you have not heard him.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, great preacher, uh, Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Aaron O'Kelly, my older brother.
SPEAKER_01: Always like having him here because I want to put great preachers in front of you guys, but I also am very intentional about putting great preachers in front of you that already have a job uh that uh you you you can't get him.
SPEAKER_01: He's taken.
SPEAKER_01: You're stuck with me.
SPEAKER_01: You see, in scripture we have James the Lesser.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you've got O'Kelly the Lesser.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: So uh if you if you like his preaching, you're welcome to move to Jackson, Tennessee, uh, where Aaron is on the pastoral staff at a church there, Cornerstone Community Church.
SPEAKER_01: Aaron got his Masters of Divinity and his PhD in systematic theology, both from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and now, along with being on pastoral staff at Cornerstone at that church, he is over their pastoral internship program, uh, where they have uh uh pastoral interns come in and do two years, two years of training.
SPEAKER_01: And then from that program, they send those guys out and they go and they do church planting and church revitalization uh all across the country.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and also Aaron teaches Old Testament at Union uh uh College, University there in Jackson.
SPEAKER_01: And he's also, we're not done, he's also the director of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Extension Center in Jackson.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and he also teaches uh systematic theology for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I know that he's going to bless us this morning as he comes and preaches the word.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so let's uh listen well.
SPEAKER_00: Uh may the Holy Spirit be with us as we listen to him preach this morning.
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a joy to be with you uh again this morning, and I'm gonna invite you to turn in your Bibles if you have one to Psalm 19 that we'll be looking at today.
SPEAKER_02: While you're turning there, uh just uh say a brief word here.
SPEAKER_02: Um so thankful, like I said, to be here.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm thankful for your support of what is called the Cornerstone Network.
SPEAKER_02: Um at our church in Jackson, Tennessee, Cornerstone Community Church, as Andrew mentioned, we've been training pastors or aspiring pastors now for 16 years, and uh having sent out a number of them to pastor in various places, uh, upstate New York, Brooklyn, New York, um, rural Kentucky planting a church down the road from us in West Tennessee.
SPEAKER_02: We've planted a church out in Utah, uh missionary we have down in Peru.
SPEAKER_02: So we we've got people, we've got guys spread across the globe doing gospel work.
SPEAKER_02: Uh and so these brothers who've gone out to other churches, we've now joined forces together to continue to fund and perpetuate this work.
SPEAKER_02: And you all are a part of that as well.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm so thankful.
SPEAKER_02: And uh if you'd like to learn more about what the Cornerstone Network is doing and get excited to hear some of these stories of what God is doing around the world, you can go to the Cornerstoneetwork.org and you can see uh past videos from the conferences that we've done.
SPEAKER_02: And uh any one of you who is welcome to come to our conference.
SPEAKER_02: We we have an annual conference now.
SPEAKER_02: It used to be in September, now it's in February, first weekend of February.
SPEAKER_02: So we already had our 2026, but um in 2027, if you want to come up to Jackson, we would love to have you uh to come and be part of that conference live and to hear from these guys who we've sent out.
SPEAKER_02: So that'll be the first weekend in February, and of course, Jackson's a lovely place to visit.
SPEAKER_02: So we'd love to have any of you come who want to come.
SPEAKER_02: And so as you watch that website, the cornerstoneetwork.org, as we get into fall, you'll see more information about what's coming up.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, so we're gonna look here at Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_02: Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_02: And um I cannot remember the last time I was here if it's customary here to stand as you read the scripture, and I forgot to ask, but uh okay, well, I'll win in roam, right?
SPEAKER_02: So um Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_02: Uh we're gonna read this psalm and uh then see what it has to say to us this morning.
SPEAKER_02: So it's entitled To the Choirmaster, a Psalm of David.
SPEAKER_02: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
SPEAKER_02: Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.
SPEAKER_02: Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
SPEAKER_02: In them he has set a tent for the sun which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
SPEAKER_02: 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.
SPEAKER_02: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
SPEAKER_02: The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
SPEAKER_02: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
SPEAKER_02: The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever, the rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
SPEAKER_02: More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
SPEAKER_02: Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and keeping them there is great reward.
SPEAKER_02: Who can discern his errors?
SPEAKER_02: Declare me innocent from hidden faults, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me.
SPEAKER_02: Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
SPEAKER_02: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
SPEAKER_02: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_02: Our Father, for your holy word we give thanks, and we ask now for the ministry of your Holy Spirit to seal the truth of what you have spoken upon our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: May it be to the glory of your Son, in whose name we pray.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever known two people who were not on speaking terms with one another?
SPEAKER_02: Or perhaps you've even been in that situation yourself.
SPEAKER_02: Why is it that when a relationship breaks down, that is what tends to happen.
SPEAKER_02: People go to not long no longer being on speaking terms.
SPEAKER_02: It's because speaking, communicating to one another requires a little bit of giving yourself to the other person.
SPEAKER_02: And that requires then a context of at least trust, minimal trust.
SPEAKER_02: And when that trust is gone, communication often cuts off.
SPEAKER_02: And that symbolizes the death, at least for the time being, of that relationship.
SPEAKER_02: When there's no giving of oneself to the other through communication, there can be no relationship.
SPEAKER_02: The great 20th-century apologist for the Christian faith, Francis Schaeffer, once wrote a book entitled He Is There and He Is Not Silent.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, he is referring to God.
SPEAKER_02: And Schaefer, in writing this book, was communicating a message of two deeply profound truths to a generation of hippies who were lost in drug culture and the sexual revolution.
SPEAKER_02: And that message was God is there.
SPEAKER_02: But more than that, not only is he there, he is not silent.
SPEAKER_02: God has spoken and he has given himself to us through what he has spoken.
SPEAKER_02: God desires a relationship with us.
SPEAKER_02: And that is why he speaks.
SPEAKER_02: David celebrates here in Psalm 19 the God who speaks to us.
SPEAKER_02: And moreover, David tells us two ways that God speaks to us.
SPEAKER_02: He speaks to us through the book of creation itself, and he speaks to us through the book of his written word, Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: And he means for us to read both of those books together, as we see here in Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_02: Back in the late Middle Ages, when the Reformation first began, there was a lot of debate as Lutheran churches were springing up in Germany and other places, and reformed churches and places such as Switzerland that we just prayed for and elsewhere.
SPEAKER_02: There was a lot of debate over what makes a true church.
SPEAKER_02: As you can imagine, that was a very pressing question.
SPEAKER_02: How do you know that you're part of a true church?
SPEAKER_02: And the Catholic answer to that went one direction.
SPEAKER_02: The Protestant answer went another direction.
SPEAKER_02: So in the Catholic understanding, what really matters when you go to church is that you get your spiritual medicine through the sacraments.
SPEAKER_02: The church is the dispenser of grace.
SPEAKER_02: And that grace comes through the sacraments.
SPEAKER_02: And in order to be a true dispenser of grace, you've got to be under a Catholic bishop.
SPEAKER_02: That's what makes you a true church.
SPEAKER_02: If a Catholic bishop is over you in authority, then you are a true church dispensing God's grace.
SPEAKER_02: But as far as the people were concerned, they didn't even have to have a clue what was going on when they came to church.
SPEAKER_02: And that's how it was in the Middle Ages.
SPEAKER_02: They would come and the Mass was celebrated in Latin, and people didn't understand Latin, and they'd watch the priests go through these ceremonies, and they'd go and they'd get their communion wafer, and they called it a day.
SPEAKER_02: The Protestant churches, on the other hand, are on the other hand, argued that what makes a true church is not the man who's in authority over it.
SPEAKER_02: It is the message it proclaims.
SPEAKER_02: A true church is marked by the right preaching of the word of God and the right administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_02: And so to be a true church, then requires that you be a listening church, that you be a church that gathers to listen to God speak.
SPEAKER_02: And so, in contrast to the Latin Mass, where the people didn't have any clue what was being said, in the Protestant world, the faithful would gather and they would hear the word of God preached to them in their own languages so that they could be understood.
SPEAKER_02: They could hear God actually communicate to them in his revelation.
SPEAKER_02: And that is what we see David celebrating here, not only in the revelation of God that comes through creation, but especially in what comes through Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: And he shows us here that we are to be a listening church.
SPEAKER_02: Listening is not just passivity, it is active, engaged reception.
SPEAKER_02: When we listen rightly, we are taking in what God has spoken and joyfully submitting to it.
SPEAKER_02: It is receiving the love of God that He communicates to us through His Word.
SPEAKER_02: Thank God that He is on speaking terms with us because He loves us.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to raise the question this morning.
SPEAKER_02: How has God spoken and then how should we respond?
SPEAKER_02: And that's what the Psalm is going to show us this morning.
SPEAKER_02: How has God spoken and how should we respond?
SPEAKER_02: Well, David shows us God has spoken to us in two ways.
SPEAKER_02: And so first we see in verses one to six, God has spoken in creation.
SPEAKER_02: Verses one to six, God has spoken in creation.
SPEAKER_02: Now, in particular, David mentions the beauty and the wonder of the sky as the arena of God's speech.
SPEAKER_02: Speaking of the visible heavens above us.
SPEAKER_02: My wife and I recently took a trip for our 25th anniversary, and that involved getting on an airplane several times.
SPEAKER_02: And um we were able to uh to sit sometimes where we could see out a window, but there were a couple of the flights where we were not at a window seat, and the person sitting at the window beside us had the window closed the whole time.
SPEAKER_02: And uh that just annoyed me.
SPEAKER_02: It annoyed me.
SPEAKER_02: Now I understand if you've got a phobia or something, but but it annoys me.
SPEAKER_02: How can you be on an airplane and not want to see out the window?
SPEAKER_02: To see a perspective on reality that you just can't get every day, to see the wonder of clouds below you, uh, and a wonder of an up-close view of the heavenly glory that God has made.
SPEAKER_02: Well, um, whenever I'm on a plane, I always want to see that.
SPEAKER_02: And so I always try to leave my window open.
SPEAKER_02: But what David tells us here, David, who never wrote on an airplane, tells us is that there's plenty of wonder we can behold right here on the ground.
SPEAKER_02: Plenty of wonder all around us to see what God has spoken.
SPEAKER_02: So he tells us that creation reveals God's glory in these first six verses.
SPEAKER_02: And he tells us uh in verses one to three in particular that creation reveals God's glory all the time.
SPEAKER_02: At all times, creation reveals God's glory.
SPEAKER_02: Notice in verse one, he says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
SPEAKER_02: It is the handiwork of the artist that puts his glory on display.
SPEAKER_02: So just as the Sistine Chapel declares the glory of Michelangelo's skill as an artist, so do the heavens above us declare the glory of God who designed and created them.
SPEAKER_02: But when does this happen?
SPEAKER_02: Well, according to David in verse 2, day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge.
SPEAKER_02: Every single day and every single night, the heavens constantly declare the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02: There's one glory of the sun.
SPEAKER_02: You can't even look straight at the sun, it is so radiant.
SPEAKER_02: It'll destroy your eyes to do so.
SPEAKER_02: There's another glory of the moon and the stars, a softer glory, but glory nevertheless, where God is showing us something of himself, and it all points us to him.
SPEAKER_02: But how do the day and the night speak to us?
SPEAKER_02: Verse three can be a little tricky.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, it says here, there is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.
SPEAKER_02: That word whose in the Hebrew could be translated, their voice is not heard.
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's a preferable way to say it.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, what David is telling us is that the day and the night speak constantly, but their voice is not heard audibly.
SPEAKER_02: They don't speak to us verbally in words, but they speak to us simply by being.
SPEAKER_02: They speak to us by the radiant glory that is present at all times through the glories of the skies.
SPEAKER_02: It's like we sing in the hymn, This is my father's world.
SPEAKER_02: He shines in all that's fair.
SPEAKER_02: In the rustling grass I hear him pass.
SPEAKER_02: He speaks to me everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: And so God's glory is made known at all times in creation.
SPEAKER_02: But David goes on to tell us in the next three verses that God's a creation reveals God's glory everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: In verse 4, he says, their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
SPEAKER_02: The glory of God in creation is inescapable.
SPEAKER_02: There's nowhere you can go in creation and not behold the wonder of God revealed in it.
SPEAKER_02: David declares this truth in another Psalm, Psalm 139, verses 7 to 10, where he says, Where shall I go from your spirit?
SPEAKER_02: Or where shall I flee from your presence?
SPEAKER_02: If I ascend to heaven, if I go up as high as I possibly can, you are there.
SPEAKER_02: If I make my bed in Sheol, the realm of the dead, if I go as low as I possibly can, you are there.
SPEAKER_02: If I take the wings of the morning, the rays of the sun that break over the horizon in the east when it rises, if I go as far east as I possibly can, if I dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, that's from David's perspective, that'd be the Mediterranean to his west.
SPEAKER_02: If I go as far as I can to the western horizon, even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand shall hold me.
SPEAKER_02: So God is made known in every part of creation.
SPEAKER_02: And one way in particular that David makes this point is by celebrating the glory of the sun in the rest of verses four to six.
SPEAKER_02: He says, In them, verse four b, in them the skies, he has set a tent for the sun.
SPEAKER_02: Now notice there that God is Lord over the sun.
SPEAKER_02: In David's context, a lot of the pagan nations around him would have viewed the sun itself as a God, worthy of worship unto itself.
SPEAKER_02: But David says, no, no, the sun is God's son.
SPEAKER_02: God has made it, God has pitched a tent for it, God has provided for the sun.
SPEAKER_02: And so we look to the sun and worship the God who made it.
SPEAKER_02: And then he notes in verse 5: the sun comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
SPEAKER_02: The sun has a radiant glory unto itself, like a groom on his wedding day, or like a mighty warrior running his course.
SPEAKER_02: And then verse six, 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.
SPEAKER_02: The extent of the reach of the sun is everywhere, and thus it is a blazing reflection of God everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what's the point of verses one to six?
SPEAKER_02: The point is that creation itself is a book that God has written to show us something of who He is.
SPEAKER_02: His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, Paul says in Romans chapter one.
SPEAKER_02: So you cannot behold any element of creation and not see the glory of God reflected in it.
SPEAKER_02: G.K.
SPEAKER_02: Chesterton writes about a man who has lost his mind, the madman he calls him, an insane person.
SPEAKER_02: And he uh he shows us what is actually going on in the heart of an insane person.
SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes we tend to think, well, if he's a madman, that means he's lost his ability to reason.
SPEAKER_02: But Chesterton says, no, it's actually the opposite.
SPEAKER_02: He's lost everything but his ability to reason.
SPEAKER_02: Because you'll notice if you talk to a crazy person, think of the, think of your craziest conspiracy theorist uncle.
SPEAKER_02: Granted, there are some conspiracy theories that are true.
SPEAKER_02: We know that.
SPEAKER_02: But think about the person who lives his entire life in a world of conspiracies.
SPEAKER_02: Everything is a conspiracy against him.
SPEAKER_02: That person has narrowed his world to himself.
SPEAKER_02: That person's world has shrunk down to everything's about me because everybody's against me.
SPEAKER_02: And every little glance, every little shifting of the feet, every whisper I hear, somehow that's people conspiring against me.
SPEAKER_02: And he's got a logical explanation for every little bit of it, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_02: He can explain everything.
SPEAKER_02: His reason is still working on some level, but he's lost everything else.
SPEAKER_02: That's Chesterton's view of the madman.
SPEAKER_02: And what that shows us is that what drives us insane actually is when we shrink our world to our own inner selves and we lose perspective on the glory of what's all around us.
SPEAKER_02: So I think David is telling us here in verses 1 to 6 lose yourself in the wonder of creation.
SPEAKER_02: Don't ever get over the fact that all the world God has made is a world of beauty, wonder, and majesty.
SPEAKER_02: Let it be a frequent occurrence that you stand out under the sky and feel small.
SPEAKER_02: Because that will do wonders for your soul.
SPEAKER_02: God has spoken to us in creation.
SPEAKER_02: David makes clear in verses 1 to 6, and he celebrates that.
SPEAKER_02: But God actually designed us for more.
SPEAKER_02: If he'd only spoken in creation, we could worship him.
SPEAKER_02: But God desires that we actually be his covenant partners, that we know him in a deeper way than we could know through creation.
SPEAKER_02: And so even from the beginning, when he made Adam, Adam, he not only designed a beautiful world for Adam, but he spoke directly to Adam.
SPEAKER_02: And he gave Adam covenantal revelation.
SPEAKER_02: And so in 1 to 6, theologians call God's revelation of himself in creation general revelation.
SPEAKER_02: It's given to all at all times and places in a very general way, but God has also spoken in what is called special revelation, where he communicates to his covenant people directly in words.
SPEAKER_02: And that's what David celebrates in verses 7 through 11, where he tells us God has spoken in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: God has spoken in Scripture, verses 7 to 11.
SPEAKER_02: It's interesting that David begins using in verse 7 the name of God that is translated for us, Lord with all caps, in verse 7.
SPEAKER_02: Do you see it there in your English Bible?
SPEAKER_02: Lord, whenever you see Lord in all caps, that means that the Hebrew name Yahweh is there in the Hebrew text.
SPEAKER_02: And that is the covenantal name of God he revealed to Moses for his covenant people Israel.
SPEAKER_02: And so David shifts, even the way he speaks of God, to covenantal terms here, starting in verse seven, as he begins to speak now of God's covenantal revelation.
SPEAKER_02: David praises the law of God in these verses, what we call the instruction of God, and he uses a range of different nouns to refer to it.
SPEAKER_02: He speaks of it as the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the rules of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: In all these ways, he is showing us that God's written word is authoritative instruction from God.
SPEAKER_02: It is authoritative, it is absolutely authoritative over us.
SPEAKER_02: And he uses different adjectives in these verses to refer to God's word.
SPEAKER_02: He says it is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous.
SPEAKER_02: In other words, everything God says is trustworthy in an absolute sense.
SPEAKER_02: God's word is the inerrant word of God, meaning it is without error of any kind.
SPEAKER_02: I grew up in a church that proclaimed the inerrancy of Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so thankful for that heritage.
SPEAKER_02: I'm so thankful I was grounded in that understanding of the Bible growing up.
SPEAKER_02: So that when I went to even what is, at least at the time, it was a relatively conservative Baptist college, a number of my professors did not confess the inerrancy of Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm thankful that I had that as a heritage growing up because I was able in college and beyond to resist that pull toward a denial of that precious truth, that the Bible is the inerrant word of God.
SPEAKER_02: David is speaking here of the Bible as perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, and righteous.
SPEAKER_02: Inerrant is just one more word that means the same thing.
SPEAKER_02: Those who deny inerrancy will often say, well, if you say the Bible's inerrant, you're imposing a standard on it that it never claims for itself.
SPEAKER_02: And I would simply beg to differ.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible claims for itself inerrancy all over the place, including Psalm 19 right here.
SPEAKER_02: And so that is an implication of what David says.
SPEAKER_02: And then David mentions several different verbs or participles of what the Word of God accomplishes in us.
SPEAKER_02: It revives the soul, it makes wise the simple, it rejoices the heart, it enlightens the eyes, it endures forever.
SPEAKER_02: This is David's way of saying the Word of God, the instruction of God written, gives us wisdom to pursue a life of blessing.
SPEAKER_02: As he says also in Psalm 1, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the way of sinners, nor I'm getting the verbs confused there.
SPEAKER_02: Does not stand in the way of sinners nor walk.
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02: When you get in your 40s, you start to forget.
SPEAKER_02: I could just turn there and read it.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe I should.
SPEAKER_02: Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seed of scoffers.
SPEAKER_02: That's what I was thinking.
SPEAKER_02: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
SPEAKER_02: He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in season, and its leaf does not wither.
SPEAKER_02: Everything he does prospers.
SPEAKER_02: The life of blessing is a life lived, meditating on, delighting in, and obeying the word of God.
SPEAKER_02: And David makes that point here in Psalm 19 as well.
SPEAKER_02: I had a professor in seminary who said in a class as we were beginning a new semester: what matters more than how I interpret the Bible is how it interprets me.
SPEAKER_02: And the longer I live, the more I realize that's absolutely true.
SPEAKER_02: What matters more than how I interpret the Bible is how it interprets me.
SPEAKER_02: The Bible tells me who I am.
SPEAKER_02: It tells me that I am a creature made in God's image, that I'm destined to be a priest, king, and God's holy temple, and yet something has gone terribly wrong in the problem of sin, and that only Jesus Christ alone can rectify that.
SPEAKER_02: And so, as I allow the Bible to interpret me, it sets me on the path of knowing what I was made for.
SPEAKER_02: And it is only in knowing what you are made for that you can orient your life properly.
SPEAKER_02: And so it gives tremendous blessing to us.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why David says scripture is valuable.
SPEAKER_02: Note in verse 10, speaking of the commandments of God, the precepts of the Lord, he says, more to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold.
SPEAKER_02: Sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
SPEAKER_02: The law of the Lord is more valuable than gold, than the entirety of Fort Knox, sweeter than fresh honey right off of the honeycomb.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine that a billionaire walked into church this morning and he made an announcement.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, I am prepared one year from now to come back to this church and I will write a check for a million dollars to everyone who is able to stand up and recite from memory the entire book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a billionaire, I'm not offering that, but imagine if that were to happen.
SPEAKER_02: Could you do it?
SPEAKER_02: As I said, I'm getting in my four mid-40s now.
SPEAKER_02: It's harder to memorize.
SPEAKER_02: But for a million dollars, I could do it.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've already got a lot of Ephesians anyway.
SPEAKER_02: So a million dollars, yes, I could do it.
SPEAKER_02: I would make sure it happened.
SPEAKER_02: Because, hey, there's a million dollars at the end of this process, right?
SPEAKER_02: We could all do it, probably.
SPEAKER_02: But if what David says is true here, we already have greater incentive.
SPEAKER_02: Because the words of God are more to be desired than gold, even the much fine gold.
SPEAKER_02: Getting the word of God into your heart is more valuable than that.
SPEAKER_02: So the incentive is already there if we will just devote ourselves to it.
SPEAKER_02: Knowing the scripture is valuable.
SPEAKER_02: You probably know the story of Helen Keller, who as an infant contracted an illness that left her both deaf and blind.
SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine being Helen Keller's mother or father?
SPEAKER_02: Having this child grow up unable to see or hear.
SPEAKER_02: How do you communicate with a child who can't see or hear?
SPEAKER_02: And so for much of her early life, Helen Keller lived more or less like an animal.
SPEAKER_02: She simply reached for food and grabbed it off other people's plates, and she just did her own thing.
SPEAKER_02: Her parents did not know how to tell her the right way to behave and to socialize her and to connect her with the world around her until they hired a teacher, Ann Sullivan, to come.
SPEAKER_02: And Ann Sullivan's method was to do sign language into Helen's hand.
SPEAKER_02: And for the longest time, Helen thought it was just a game.
SPEAKER_02: She didn't understand what was really happening.
SPEAKER_02: But she tells the story in her autobiography of the day when uh when Miss Sullivan took her out to the water pump that was behind their house and turned on the water and it was running, that cool water was running over Helen's hand.
SPEAKER_02: And then Miss Sullivan spelled W-A-T-E-R into her palm, and all of a sudden it clicked.
SPEAKER_02: She realized that cool substance running over my hand has a name.
SPEAKER_02: And my teacher just named it.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a connection between these words and the world.
SPEAKER_02: And from then on, Helen Keller became what we might call a functional human being.
SPEAKER_02: Language put her in touch with the world so that she became a great success in her education and so forth.
SPEAKER_02: Language, we take it for granted, but it is essential to our humanity, our ability to be in touch with the world around us and to know God.
SPEAKER_02: So as we reflect on David's words of praise for the law of the Lord in verses 7 through 11, let us thank God that he has revealed himself, not just in the beauty of the skies around us, but in words, sentences, propositions, chapters, and books that tell us who he is and that tell us of his plan of redemption for us.
SPEAKER_02: God has spoken in Scripture.
SPEAKER_02: And then, third and finally, how should we respond?
SPEAKER_02: We come now to the last three verses, 12 to 14.
SPEAKER_02: God's word shows us our need for grace.
SPEAKER_02: David has just praised the law of the Lord, but he acknowledges here in the last part of the Psalm that he can't keep the law.
SPEAKER_02: Notice he prays for God's grace to forgive, to protect, and to sanctify him.
SPEAKER_02: The grace to forgive, we see in verse 12, he says, Who can discern his errors?
SPEAKER_02: And that means who can see into his own heart and see the sin that is really there?
SPEAKER_02: The implied answer is no one.
SPEAKER_02: We are not capable of seeing the errors in our own hearts.
SPEAKER_02: At least not to the full extent.
SPEAKER_02: We are like fish in water when it comes to sin.
SPEAKER_02: Do fish know that they're in water?
SPEAKER_02: I doubt it.
SPEAKER_02: They live and move and have their being.
SPEAKER_02: They probably know when they're out of the water, but when they're in the water, they have no idea that their whole life is lived in water.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the same way it is for us with sin.
SPEAKER_02: We in some ways live, move, and have our being in a sinful condition that we cannot even be fully aware of.
SPEAKER_02: So who can discern his errors?
SPEAKER_02: No one.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why David prays at the end of verse 12: declare me innocent or forgive me, another way to say that, forgive me from hidden faults.
SPEAKER_02: Forgive me, Lord, for the sins I don't even know are in my heart.
SPEAKER_02: Because I know that I'm a sinner.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that I can't even discern the fullness of my own errors.
SPEAKER_02: So David knows he needs, next to the law of God, he needs grace to forgive his failure to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_02: And then he needs grace to protect him from going into worse sin in verse 13.
SPEAKER_02: Keep your back your servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me, then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
SPEAKER_02: It seems there's a progression in verses 12 and 13.
SPEAKER_02: Who can discern his error?
SPEAKER_02: So there's the hidden sins of the heart that then turn into sins of presumption, uh, or perhaps you might even translate it, presumptuous men who influence us towards sin, and then great transgression at the end.
SPEAKER_02: And so David is saying, Lord, protect me from letting my sin come to full fruition of great transgression.
SPEAKER_02: So he he needs forgiving grace, he needs protecting grace.
SPEAKER_02: And then in verse 14, he confesses that he needs sanctifying grace.
SPEAKER_02: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.
SPEAKER_02: That is, let what I say outwardly and the thoughts, the intentions, the motives, the affections of my heart, let them both be consecrated unto you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Let me not merely be one who talks a good game, but inwardly is such a person who is one of integrity.
SPEAKER_02: It reminds me of what Paul writes in Romans 10, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
SPEAKER_02: Confession and inner belief are both required there.
SPEAKER_02: And David is saying something similar here.
SPEAKER_02: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing unto you.
SPEAKER_02: His whole being, he wants, consecrated to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And so I get the impression after I read verses 12 to 14 that David is praying in a way similar to what Augustine would pray in his famous book, The Confessions, when he said to the Lord, Command what you will and give what you command.
SPEAKER_02: Did you hear that prayer?
SPEAKER_02: Oh God, command what you will, tell me what is pleasing to you, but also give me the ability to do it.
SPEAKER_02: Because apart from grace, Augustine would confess, I have no hope.
SPEAKER_02: I have no power to obey you.
SPEAKER_02: So command what you will and give what you command.
SPEAKER_02: Now, if that's truly what David is saying, and I think it is, David is acknowledging that the law that he praised in verses 7 to 11 cannot save him on its own.
SPEAKER_02: Simply having God's standards communicated to us will not save us.
SPEAKER_02: It will only condemn us.
SPEAKER_02: The law of God puts to death and condemns.
SPEAKER_02: And so it is only seeing the law of God in its proper context that we are then led to the source of our life.
SPEAKER_02: Well, David concludes his prayer by saying, Oh Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
SPEAKER_02: And these images both communicate David's need.
SPEAKER_02: A rock is a firm foundation on which to stand.
SPEAKER_02: And David confesses he needs that from the Lord and praises the Lord that he is that for him.
SPEAKER_02: A redeemer implies that David needs redemption.
SPEAKER_02: He needs to be rescued and delivered from his own sin, and the Lord has become his redeemer.
SPEAKER_02: But notice David also uses a very important pronoun to refer to both my rock and my redeemer.
SPEAKER_02: But he must be mine.
SPEAKER_02: He must be a rock for me, a redeemer for me.
SPEAKER_02: He must be one upon whom I place my personal trust, knowing that Christ has given himself, not just for sinners, but for me.
SPEAKER_02: So let each one of us take hold of the God who has given himself to us personally in his son.
SPEAKER_02: He is there, and he is not silent.
SPEAKER_02: He has spoken to us in the book of creation, which declares his glory at all times, everywhere to all people.
SPEAKER_02: He has spoken to us in the book of Scripture, which is his verbal revelation to his covenant people, a revelation that exposes our sin and our need of grace.
SPEAKER_02: Most of all, Scripture speaks to us of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: In John 5, 39 to 40, Jesus says to his Jewish opponents, 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.
SPEAKER_02: So when I read John 5, 39 and 40, my conclusion is there must be a right way to search the scriptures and a wrong way to search the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: The wrong way would be to search the scriptures without seeing them lead you to Christ.
SPEAKER_02: If you read the Bible and it doesn't point you to your need and God's provision for your need in Christ, then the Bible becomes pure moralism.
SPEAKER_02: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_02: It's a standard you will never keep.
SPEAKER_02: Moral instruction that will never save you.
SPEAKER_02: But if you read it rightly, if you follow all the streams to where they lead, and that is to Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, then you search the scriptures in a way that brings to you the blessing of eternal life.
SPEAKER_02: God is on speaking terms with us.
SPEAKER_02: He has spoken to us above all.
SPEAKER_02: In his very word made flesh for our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Our Father, we thank you that you are a God who speaks.
SPEAKER_02: That creation reveals the wonders of who you are all around.
SPEAKER_02: But that you have seen fit not to stop there, but to speak directly to us in words, words that point us to the greatest word of all, the word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: May our faith in him be strengthened, and may we truly be those who listen.
SPEAKER_02: We pray in his name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.