Psalm 19

 
Things God will do or has done: (actions)

• Made a perfect law, converts souls, truthful (v. 7)
• Perfect law (again), pure, opens our eyes to see the right way (v. 8)
• Perfect in judgment, righteous (v. 9)
• Able to cleanse me from even my secret sins (v.12)
• Keeps me away from sin and helps me to overcome it and not allow sin to overcome me (v. 13)

Commands to me:

• Fear the Lord (respect and awe) (v. 9)
• Desire his judgment (v. 10)
• Keep his law and judgments (v. 11)
• Keep upright and innocent from sin by leaning on him (v. 13)
• Let the words of my mouth and all the things of my heart be acceptable to God (v. 14)

Characteristics of God:
Full of glory, has beautiful handywork, perfect lawmaker, just, my strength, my redeemer

Things to take away from this:
Even nature declares the majesty of God. The heavens tell all about his glory, and the earth shows all his creation. These creations could not have created themselves. They could not be produced by a huge explosion of atoms. They must have a Creator. Because the creation is so gorgeous and perfectly woven together, the Creator must be just like that. Every new day is a reason to declare his glory. Verse 3 is beautiful - "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard." There isn't a single spot on earth where there isn't some natural beauty... natural beauty which speaks loudly of an awesome Creator. Nature overcomes all languages and all boundaries of people.

The law of God is perfect. It is meant to be a gift to us and a guide. The law, when used correctly, converts our souls; brings us back to God because it shows how far away we have gone and how to come back to a relationship with him. God's laws are perfect. His commandments are perfect. Sometimes we complain about them because we don't want to change certain things in our lives. But the fact is, God can open our eyes (enlighten our eyes, v. 8) and show us that the best thing we can do is realize that these judgments and laws of his are pure, righteous, and that we should desire to be within those boundaries. If we keep these commandments there are great rewards from it - mainly eternal. So we should pray that God cleanses us even from our "secret faults". These are sins that we may not even see in ourselves. We should certainly have that desire to come to the knowledge of these so we can turn from them. We also need to pray against "presumptuous sins". How often we think we are too good to fall into temptation, or we're better than others, or we have knowledge of someone else's sin and we say, "Well, at least I'm not that bad." We have definitely got to pray that we don't lean toward these sins of pride and arrogance. The fact is we aren't any better than anyone else. We have to continually pray that we will walk "upright" (v. 13).

The other night at church we were talking about REAL New Years resolutions, like some sincere spiritual ones, not "I want to hit the gym every day" or "I want to get a high score on my new video game". Here is the resolution you should make this year. See verse 14 - "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord." If that is something we resolve, 2013 will most likely fall into place. :)

I would love to know if you have any thoughts to add to this beautiful scripture! Something I missed? Something I misinterpreted? Something I should take note of?

On another note: I am reading a great book right now, which was loaned to me from a friend at church. It's called "First Hand Faith" by Bruce Wilkinson. It's a real page-turner. He speaks in the book about Three Chairs. Here is the basic principle. There are three chairs. The First Chair is a saved person who has experienced the works of God. The Second Chair is a saved person who has heard about the works of God. The Third Chair is an unsaved person who doesn't know about the works of God.

Probably just from that description you know where you stand. But what about your church? The chapter I read today had something very interesting to say.

"Second Chair churches have their Bibles, and the people usually bring them to church. They honor the Word, and can usually find the passage being read during the sermon because the majority have been raised at the feet of committed parents. Second Chair churches have deeds, activity and orthodoxy. But there isn't any fire to it. They believe that they are rich and in need of nothing. They have the truth, but they assume that simply having the truth is enough. Rather than a vibrant relationship with Christ, they've got a ho-hum acquaintance with Him. The Bible is rarely opened between Sundays, and they don't give any authority to its principles to impact their lives.

First Chair churches honor the Bible. More than that, the people are hungry for it. The congregation experiences the conviction of the Holy Spirit frequently. Repentance is common among its members. The Bible is seen as the authority of life - it is fully embraced as the final and full answer to the heart-wrenching problems of marriage, family, personal character, values, parenting, business success, and societal dilemmas. The pastor doesn't value his own ideas; rather, he views himself as a servant of the Word of God. First Chair believers are able to reflect the Bible in their daily lives.

Third Chair churches see the Bible as a relic of bygone days. Second Chair churches see the Bible as a helpful guide. First Chair churches see the Bible as living, vital revelation from God, given directly to them for whatever their needs are that very day. Third Chair church families have large family Bibles in cases. Second Chair church families carry their Bibles to church but use it rarely between Sundays. First Chair families feast upon the Bible and use it regularly."

I just wanted to share that because I thought it is probably very relevant to a lot of people.