Aug 13. 2006 Windows into God: Psalm 19
Psalm 19 Windows into God August 13, 2006
Big Idea: Creation reveals God’s power, the Word his person. KSS
This past summer Sakiko and I were driving on winding country roads in Burgundy, France passing vineyards and occasionally a field of sunflowers.
It’s was cool to see the sun flowers all facing the direction of the sun…
and when it was cloudy, the sunflowers would all droop their faces…
As a sunflower was made to open to the sun, so you and I were made to open to God…
In Psalm 19, David, the warrior-poet of Israel, gives us two windows into the reality of the one for whom we were made.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Psalm 19 (near the middle of your Bible).
The Psalms were the ancient hymn book or prayer book for the people of Israel…. and serve as an ideal guide for our prayers.
I sometimes find that I don’t know what to pray or that I’m distracted in my prayers and the Psalms help to focus my prayers… (and they can for you as well).
Psalm 19: C.S. Lewis considers this to be the greatest poem in the Psalms…
Psalm 19
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
[a] 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
5 which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
In the first section of this Psalm, David speaks of how the heavens declare the glory of God and how the skies (or expanse above) proclaims the work of God’s hands…
Day after day they pour forth speech and night after night they display knowledge…
Like many of you, I live here in the city. There’s a street light in front of our house, one on the side of our house (we live on a corner), and street lights in our back alley. So, it’s never completely dark.
But when I’m out in some place in the interior, on a clear night, I love to stare up at the star spangled sky…
Sometimes I think of the words of Abraham Lincoln, “I can see how it might be possible for a man (or woman) to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how you could look up into the heavens and say, “There is no God.”
Sometimes I think of the words of Rick Bragg, a journalist who grew up in the Deep South, which he describes as the kind of place where grandmothers sit on their front porch, rocking their babies to sleep and pointing up at the stars and saying, those are holes in the floor of heaven…
David, perhaps under star spangled night in rural Israel or maybe under an indigo blue sky in the afternoon, says the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of God’s hands…
Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge, they have no speech, they use no words, no sound is heard from them…Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
David goes onto say…
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun…
5 which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
David here isn’t attempting to make a scientific explanation of the movement of the sun but as a poet, he describes the movement of the arc of the summer sun as he sees it—like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber…
David was from the small village…. He may be envisioning a scene where the groom, dressed in his finery, leaves his home accompanied with his friends and walks through the streets to his bride’s family to deliver the bride price and receive the father’s permission to marry. The whole village would be on the streets to witness the joy of the groom making his way to the home of his bride.
David says, the summer sun is like the bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion, in peak stride, running his or her course….
The arc of the sun, the moon, the movement of the stars all reveals something of the glory of God…
Is there a place, part of creation (where you’ve been or maybe just seen in a photograph of) that takes your breath away?
Think about that place for a moment…
Look in your minds eye…
Now think of what it tells you of its maker….
Part of way we come to know the character of God is through creation…
Philip Toynbee, as he was coming to faith in God, wrote in his journal:
The basic command of religion is not “do” or “do not do that”
But simply “look.”
“Absolute attention is prayer,” said Simone Weil.
By looking at what God has made we get a glimpse into the character of God.
This past summer, my wife and I had an opportunity to visit an art gallery in Paris called the Musee du L’Orangarie closed for 6 years and recently re-opened.
We were told it was worth seeing, but didn’t know what was inside… and we walked into a large, elegant, white, oval shaped room. As we looked, almost 360 degrees around us on the walls were original murals painting by Monet of the water lilies in his garden… (the paintings were about the length of movie screen and about 1/3 the height). We walked into another large oval shaped room… Again paintings of Monet’s gardens, for nearly 360 degrees. Walked into another oval room: more of Monet’s garden painting all around us, and another room and more of his garden paintings.
I found out later that Claude Monet had in his final will and testament requested that these masterpieces painted at the end of his life would be placed in a setting that would create “a haven of peaceful meditation,” for modern men and women and for their “overworked nerves.”
I know many of us probably think of Monet’s work as a cliché because his work is reproduced in so many places, but there’s something about walking into the oval rooms at Musee de L’Orangerie and seeing his original work in 360 degrees that will elevate your opinion of his gift.
When we step into the gallery of creation, particularly a part that has not been spoiled by we humans that space can speak to us of the power, creativity, and artistry of our maker…
Paul in Romans 1:20 says that since the creation of the world God’s eternal power and divine nature have been seen through what he has made…
The world can offer us a window in the reality of God…
And so does His word…
Walking in the oval rooms at the Musee de L’Orangerie—I could infer that Monet was an artistic genius, you don’t have to be an art critic to understand that… but beyond that I still don’t know much about him personally… If I could read stories about how he interacted with people, if I could get a copy of journals and see what he was thinking and feeling, I could come to know much more about him…
And in the same way, when we walk into the gallery of nature we can infer something of the creativity and power and artistry of God, but there’s a lot we still don’t know…
And that’s why we also need the Word that tells stories about God and “journals” that give us windows into God’s mind and heart.
Nature is a window into God that gives us a general picture, but if we want to know God personally and fully we also need the book that contains the “stories, the journals.”
David acknowledges creation reveals God, but the Word reveals God’s person.
It’s interesting in the Hebrew that when David speaks of God being revealed in creation he uses, the term Elohim, the general word for God, the divine… but when he talks about God being revealed in the WORD, he use God’s personal name, Yahweh, translated “LORD” in caps in our English versions…
Creation reveals God’s power, the Word God’s person.
Notice vs. 7
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul (or innermost being)
I think some people think the law of God… as being constrictive and deadening…
Earlier in the summer, I was giving a series of chapel talks at a private Academy in the Philippines, where many of the students are from backgrounds that are not Christian.
I was doing a Q and A in a grade 11 class and a student Diana stood up and she asks… she said at the chapel this morning you said that living for God is the greatest life in world, but God has rules… so how can that be?
I said, as a fish was made for water so you were made to live in a way that is consistent with God’s principles. A fish is restricted to water, but in that limitation the fish is free. So it is with us, when we live in way that is consistent with the way God made us our soul is revived, our relationships and work flourishes.
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals his person and will.
David says…
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
We tend to think of the simple person as naïve… Particularly in an urban context, noone wants to be considered naïve… In Hebrew the range of the word “simple” can mean simple in the sense of not having grown up and matured, but it can also refer to those who don’t know ways of God.
A professor of political philosophy at the University of Chicago was saying how every one of his cousins had doctors either Ph.Ds, or D.Eds, or M.D.s
His tone was respectful, but he said my cousins are bright and well educated, but the not wise…
He said, I have these great, grandparents… they didn’t have much formal education at all… they lived very simply, honor certain traditions, about the only book they really knew was the Bible, they read it everyday… They were not very sophisticated in worldly sense, but they were wise…
Education is a gift, but even if you don’t have much or formal education, this book can make you wise, in the most ways: as you get to know about your maker and your design and purposes and what makes a person truly wealthy…
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals his person, his mind
David says…
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The image of light to the eyes simply means that the Word enables us to see. As Jesus said, in Matthew 6 if your eyes are healthy your whole body will be full of light, meaning if your eyes are healthy they let light in and you can see… If your eye is unhealthy they will not let in light you can’t see…
God’s word causes our eyes to receive light so we can see…
C.S. Lewis Oxford scholar, and author of Lion, the Witch and Wardbrobe and many other books said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals his person, his persective.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
As a teenager, I used to walk around our house with a football tucked under my arm, it was very important to me… occasionally, when no one was looking, I’d throw the ball into a section of the couch, the football was precious…
Sometimes, in the house now, I’ll grab my Bible hold Bible like my old football, as a sign it is precious to me…
I know of some people who never put the Bible on the floor as sign of respect…
I know of some people who occasionally will kneel as they read certain parts of Scripture, perhaps as they pray a Psalm.
I don’t encourage you to be superstitious about the Bible, but is there any sign in your life the Bible is precious to you?
Reading 5x times a week would be a sign.
When I meet who has voluntarily memorized sections of Shakespeare… I think (if they are not in acting or in love) that they love Shakespeare…
One way to show respect for the word is to memorize parts of it…
David says the word is precious…
In vs. 10 David says:
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
The word is sweeter than honey… vs. 8 gives joy…
Some of us grew up thinking, if it’s good for you, you can’t enjoy it…
I remember as a kid seeing this commercial about LIFE cereal.
Mikey, this finicky young boy who’s about 4 years old, and his older brothers 8 or 9 years old are sitting at a table for breakfast. The only thing they can find is Life cereal. One brother says, "It’s supposed to be good for you". "I'm not going to try it… me neither." The brothers say. The boys cast their eyes towards little Mikey strapped down in his highchair. They exclaim, "Let’s get Mikey. He won't eat it. He hates everything!" Mikey's brothers pour a bowl and add milk and wait. Mikey is chomping it down like it’s the last meal he’s going to eat all week.
The brothers say, “He likes it, Hey Mikey.”
The word is good for you, but it also brings joy…
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Thomas Cahill in his book The Gifts of the Jews, says obedience is its own reward…
There’s a kick to sin, but long term it breaks a person… as Dorothy Sayers says you never break the law of God you just break yourself over it…
Keeping the word has its reward… I have a very talented, accomplished friend. In a recent conversation, I encouraged to pursue what he’d be great at. He said, “I have no great ambitions in life, just one really… I want to be whole…” The Word can make us whole…
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals God’s person and plan for us…
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
When I was living in California, I became acquainted with a person named Tom Philips, then president of a group ministry called ISI, International Students Incorporated.
Tom has written about spiritual revival and has prayed that God would bring revival to his own life. Tom said, I confessed to God all of my known sin. And as far as I was aware, I wasn’t committing any known sins, but I would find myself driving or cutting the grass and weeping. Tom said, I think God was cleansing me of my hidden sins, the sins that I wasn’t even aware of.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
One of the images used in Scripture for sin has come from word harmartia, image of an archer missing the mark… We’re trying, but we don’t hit the target…
Another image of sin, comes from the word paraptoma, which can mean choosing to cross a boundary… The sign says, no fishing off the balcony of this beach front hotel, and we say, “what the hell, where’s my rod.”
We are morally responsible for both missing the mark and for intentional transgression, but according to the Bible, to willfully transgress, to cross a line, is much more serious sin, much more damaging to the soul.
I’ve committed both kinds of sins… I know there’s a much greater sense of alienation from God and myself when I have willfully transgressed….
The Psalmist says…
Keep me from willful sins
Then I will be blameless…
innocent of great transgression…
Blameless doesn’t mean absolute perfection; it does mean that we walk with integrity of heart… This is the way I want to live…
David senses, God’s power, creativity and artistry in creation, and God’s wisdom and will in his word. He longs to open to God, in way that a sunflower yearns to open to the sun.
So he prays may I keep from willful sin, he prays may there be no cloud between me and thee… And so David closes with these words
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight…
Benediction:
May God open your eyes, that you may see God in everything… in the gallery of creation and in pages of his Word…
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Big Idea: Creation reveals God’s power, the Word his person. KSS
This past summer Sakiko and I were driving on winding country roads in Burgundy, France passing vineyards and occasionally a field of sunflowers.
It’s was cool to see the sun flowers all facing the direction of the sun…
and when it was cloudy, the sunflowers would all droop their faces…
As a sunflower was made to open to the sun, so you and I were made to open to God…
In Psalm 19, David, the warrior-poet of Israel, gives us two windows into the reality of the one for whom we were made.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Psalm 19 (near the middle of your Bible).
The Psalms were the ancient hymn book or prayer book for the people of Israel…. and serve as an ideal guide for our prayers.
I sometimes find that I don’t know what to pray or that I’m distracted in my prayers and the Psalms help to focus my prayers… (and they can for you as well).
Psalm 19: C.S. Lewis considers this to be the greatest poem in the Psalms…
Psalm 19
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
[a] 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
5 which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure,
and all of them are righteous.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
innocent of great transgression.
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
In the first section of this Psalm, David speaks of how the heavens declare the glory of God and how the skies (or expanse above) proclaims the work of God’s hands…
Day after day they pour forth speech and night after night they display knowledge…
Like many of you, I live here in the city. There’s a street light in front of our house, one on the side of our house (we live on a corner), and street lights in our back alley. So, it’s never completely dark.
But when I’m out in some place in the interior, on a clear night, I love to stare up at the star spangled sky…
Sometimes I think of the words of Abraham Lincoln, “I can see how it might be possible for a man (or woman) to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how you could look up into the heavens and say, “There is no God.”
Sometimes I think of the words of Rick Bragg, a journalist who grew up in the Deep South, which he describes as the kind of place where grandmothers sit on their front porch, rocking their babies to sleep and pointing up at the stars and saying, those are holes in the floor of heaven…
David, perhaps under star spangled night in rural Israel or maybe under an indigo blue sky in the afternoon, says the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the work of God’s hands…
Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display knowledge, they have no speech, they use no words, no sound is heard from them…Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
David goes onto say…
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun…
5 which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
and makes its circuit to the other;
nothing is deprived of its warmth.
David here isn’t attempting to make a scientific explanation of the movement of the sun but as a poet, he describes the movement of the arc of the summer sun as he sees it—like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber…
David was from the small village…. He may be envisioning a scene where the groom, dressed in his finery, leaves his home accompanied with his friends and walks through the streets to his bride’s family to deliver the bride price and receive the father’s permission to marry. The whole village would be on the streets to witness the joy of the groom making his way to the home of his bride.
David says, the summer sun is like the bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion, in peak stride, running his or her course….
The arc of the sun, the moon, the movement of the stars all reveals something of the glory of God…
Is there a place, part of creation (where you’ve been or maybe just seen in a photograph of) that takes your breath away?
Think about that place for a moment…
Look in your minds eye…
Now think of what it tells you of its maker….
Part of way we come to know the character of God is through creation…
Philip Toynbee, as he was coming to faith in God, wrote in his journal:
The basic command of religion is not “do” or “do not do that”
But simply “look.”
“Absolute attention is prayer,” said Simone Weil.
By looking at what God has made we get a glimpse into the character of God.
This past summer, my wife and I had an opportunity to visit an art gallery in Paris called the Musee du L’Orangarie closed for 6 years and recently re-opened.
We were told it was worth seeing, but didn’t know what was inside… and we walked into a large, elegant, white, oval shaped room. As we looked, almost 360 degrees around us on the walls were original murals painting by Monet of the water lilies in his garden… (the paintings were about the length of movie screen and about 1/3 the height). We walked into another large oval shaped room… Again paintings of Monet’s gardens, for nearly 360 degrees. Walked into another oval room: more of Monet’s garden painting all around us, and another room and more of his garden paintings.
I found out later that Claude Monet had in his final will and testament requested that these masterpieces painted at the end of his life would be placed in a setting that would create “a haven of peaceful meditation,” for modern men and women and for their “overworked nerves.”
I know many of us probably think of Monet’s work as a cliché because his work is reproduced in so many places, but there’s something about walking into the oval rooms at Musee de L’Orangerie and seeing his original work in 360 degrees that will elevate your opinion of his gift.
When we step into the gallery of creation, particularly a part that has not been spoiled by we humans that space can speak to us of the power, creativity, and artistry of our maker…
Paul in Romans 1:20 says that since the creation of the world God’s eternal power and divine nature have been seen through what he has made…
The world can offer us a window in the reality of God…
And so does His word…
Walking in the oval rooms at the Musee de L’Orangerie—I could infer that Monet was an artistic genius, you don’t have to be an art critic to understand that… but beyond that I still don’t know much about him personally… If I could read stories about how he interacted with people, if I could get a copy of journals and see what he was thinking and feeling, I could come to know much more about him…
And in the same way, when we walk into the gallery of nature we can infer something of the creativity and power and artistry of God, but there’s a lot we still don’t know…
And that’s why we also need the Word that tells stories about God and “journals” that give us windows into God’s mind and heart.
Nature is a window into God that gives us a general picture, but if we want to know God personally and fully we also need the book that contains the “stories, the journals.”
David acknowledges creation reveals God, but the Word reveals God’s person.
It’s interesting in the Hebrew that when David speaks of God being revealed in creation he uses, the term Elohim, the general word for God, the divine… but when he talks about God being revealed in the WORD, he use God’s personal name, Yahweh, translated “LORD” in caps in our English versions…
Creation reveals God’s power, the Word God’s person.
Notice vs. 7
7 The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul (or innermost being)
I think some people think the law of God… as being constrictive and deadening…
Earlier in the summer, I was giving a series of chapel talks at a private Academy in the Philippines, where many of the students are from backgrounds that are not Christian.
I was doing a Q and A in a grade 11 class and a student Diana stood up and she asks… she said at the chapel this morning you said that living for God is the greatest life in world, but God has rules… so how can that be?
I said, as a fish was made for water so you were made to live in a way that is consistent with God’s principles. A fish is restricted to water, but in that limitation the fish is free. So it is with us, when we live in way that is consistent with the way God made us our soul is revived, our relationships and work flourishes.
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals his person and will.
David says…
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
We tend to think of the simple person as naïve… Particularly in an urban context, noone wants to be considered naïve… In Hebrew the range of the word “simple” can mean simple in the sense of not having grown up and matured, but it can also refer to those who don’t know ways of God.
A professor of political philosophy at the University of Chicago was saying how every one of his cousins had doctors either Ph.Ds, or D.Eds, or M.D.s
His tone was respectful, but he said my cousins are bright and well educated, but the not wise…
He said, I have these great, grandparents… they didn’t have much formal education at all… they lived very simply, honor certain traditions, about the only book they really knew was the Bible, they read it everyday… They were not very sophisticated in worldly sense, but they were wise…
Education is a gift, but even if you don’t have much or formal education, this book can make you wise, in the most ways: as you get to know about your maker and your design and purposes and what makes a person truly wealthy…
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals his person, his mind
David says…
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The image of light to the eyes simply means that the Word enables us to see. As Jesus said, in Matthew 6 if your eyes are healthy your whole body will be full of light, meaning if your eyes are healthy they let light in and you can see… If your eye is unhealthy they will not let in light you can’t see…
God’s word causes our eyes to receive light so we can see…
C.S. Lewis Oxford scholar, and author of Lion, the Witch and Wardbrobe and many other books said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals his person, his persective.
10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
As a teenager, I used to walk around our house with a football tucked under my arm, it was very important to me… occasionally, when no one was looking, I’d throw the ball into a section of the couch, the football was precious…
Sometimes, in the house now, I’ll grab my Bible hold Bible like my old football, as a sign it is precious to me…
I know of some people who never put the Bible on the floor as sign of respect…
I know of some people who occasionally will kneel as they read certain parts of Scripture, perhaps as they pray a Psalm.
I don’t encourage you to be superstitious about the Bible, but is there any sign in your life the Bible is precious to you?
Reading 5x times a week would be a sign.
When I meet who has voluntarily memorized sections of Shakespeare… I think (if they are not in acting or in love) that they love Shakespeare…
One way to show respect for the word is to memorize parts of it…
David says the word is precious…
In vs. 10 David says:
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
The word is sweeter than honey… vs. 8 gives joy…
Some of us grew up thinking, if it’s good for you, you can’t enjoy it…
I remember as a kid seeing this commercial about LIFE cereal.
Mikey, this finicky young boy who’s about 4 years old, and his older brothers 8 or 9 years old are sitting at a table for breakfast. The only thing they can find is Life cereal. One brother says, "It’s supposed to be good for you". "I'm not going to try it… me neither." The brothers say. The boys cast their eyes towards little Mikey strapped down in his highchair. They exclaim, "Let’s get Mikey. He won't eat it. He hates everything!" Mikey's brothers pour a bowl and add milk and wait. Mikey is chomping it down like it’s the last meal he’s going to eat all week.
The brothers say, “He likes it, Hey Mikey.”
The word is good for you, but it also brings joy…
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Thomas Cahill in his book The Gifts of the Jews, says obedience is its own reward…
There’s a kick to sin, but long term it breaks a person… as Dorothy Sayers says you never break the law of God you just break yourself over it…
Keeping the word has its reward… I have a very talented, accomplished friend. In a recent conversation, I encouraged to pursue what he’d be great at. He said, “I have no great ambitions in life, just one really… I want to be whole…” The Word can make us whole…
Creation reveals God’s power, God’s Word reveals God’s person and plan for us…
12 But who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults.
When I was living in California, I became acquainted with a person named Tom Philips, then president of a group ministry called ISI, International Students Incorporated.
Tom has written about spiritual revival and has prayed that God would bring revival to his own life. Tom said, I confessed to God all of my known sin. And as far as I was aware, I wasn’t committing any known sins, but I would find myself driving or cutting the grass and weeping. Tom said, I think God was cleansing me of my hidden sins, the sins that I wasn’t even aware of.
13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;
may they not rule over me.
One of the images used in Scripture for sin has come from word harmartia, image of an archer missing the mark… We’re trying, but we don’t hit the target…
Another image of sin, comes from the word paraptoma, which can mean choosing to cross a boundary… The sign says, no fishing off the balcony of this beach front hotel, and we say, “what the hell, where’s my rod.”
We are morally responsible for both missing the mark and for intentional transgression, but according to the Bible, to willfully transgress, to cross a line, is much more serious sin, much more damaging to the soul.
I’ve committed both kinds of sins… I know there’s a much greater sense of alienation from God and myself when I have willfully transgressed….
The Psalmist says…
Keep me from willful sins
Then I will be blameless…
innocent of great transgression…
Blameless doesn’t mean absolute perfection; it does mean that we walk with integrity of heart… This is the way I want to live…
David senses, God’s power, creativity and artistry in creation, and God’s wisdom and will in his word. He longs to open to God, in way that a sunflower yearns to open to the sun.
So he prays may I keep from willful sin, he prays may there be no cloud between me and thee… And so David closes with these words
14 May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight…
Benediction:
May God open your eyes, that you may see God in everything… in the gallery of creation and in pages of his Word…
(The sermon can be heard online at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
posted by Shigematsu at 5:22 PM
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