The Big Book and the Little Book

This is often called a Torah song, written to celebrate God’s revelation of Himself through the Torah, or Law, or Old Testament revelation.

It has been called “the Psalm of two books”, as it speaks of the big book of creation and the little book of Scripture.

The sweep of the psalm is stunning. It begins with the heavens, and specifically the distant sun. It moves to the written Law of God, and particularly its impact in an individual’s inmost soul. From heaven above to the heart within, the panorama of God’s revelation is breathtakingly broad. Obviously, He wants to be known!

Outline

Exposition

I. General Revelation (19:1-6)

The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no actual speech or words;
their literal voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes forth like a bridegroom from his chamber,
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them;
and there is nothing hid from its heat.

David the shepherd, a professional outdoorsman, likely had a great appreciation for the lofty stars of the sky – certainly more than most of us whose vision of the stars is hindered by the lights of the city.

He speaks of the heavens declaring the glory of God. “Glory” - when used of God - is the brilliant demonstration of His excellencies. It is often associated with light, as the brilliant outshining of His holiness and great virtue. The heavens above declare the beauty of God’s character. They reveal His attributes.

They speak in silence; there are no words. This is a wordless book; a speechless song. Their voice is not heard with the ear.

David says this revelation is three things. First, it is continuous. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge. The phrases “day to day” and “night and night” speak of the incessant nature of the heavens’ testimony.

Second, the witness of the heavens is abundant. The phrase “pours forth” (v. 2) is expressive. It pictures the bubbling up of a spring. The day sky and the night sky bubble forth like a spring, with testimony of the attributes of God. This is no small trickle of witness.

Third, the heavens’ testimony is universal. “Yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (v. 4). There is no point on this earth where the sky and its witness to God are not accessible.

As glory is the brilliant expression of His excellencies, which attributes of God are brilliantly manifest in the heavens? The answer is His power and His wisdom. His power is seen in the immensity of the created order. And His wisdom is seen in the necessary complexity of it.

Consider first the immensity of the created world. The apostle Paul said, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20).

Think about this: In 1968, a telescope could observe objects 4 billion light years away; more than 25 septillion miles. The universe is huge!

The earth is 25,000 miles in circumference. It weighs 6 septillion, 588 sextillion tons and hangs unsupported in space. It spins at 1,000 miles per hour with absolute precision and careens through space around the sun at 1,000 miles per minute in an orbit 580 million miles long. Now what do you think? Is this the result of a divine Creator possessed of infinite power, or chance?

When Theodore Roosevelt was President, he spent several evenings talking in the White House with naturalist William Beebe. According to Beebe, after these evenings, Roosevelt would insist that the two of them go out on the lawn and gaze up at the sky to see who would be the first to detect the faint spot of light-mist beyond the lower left-hand corner of the great square that is the constellation Pegasus. At this point one of them would recite, "That is the spiral galaxy of Andromeda. It is as large as our milky way. It is one of a hundred million galaxies. (We've since discovered a few more.) It is 750,000 light years away. It consists of 100 billion suns, each larger than our own sun."
They would then be silent for a few moments, staring at Andromeda. Finally, the President would grin and say, "Now, I think we are small enough. Let's go to bed."^¹ The heavens speak of our smallness, because their immensity reveals the eternal power of a great and mighty God.

David now moves from general to specific. From the heavens to its most dominant body from our perspective, the sun.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them;
and there is nothing hid from its heat.

The sun speaks the loudest of all the celestial bodies. And it speaks profoundly. It speaks like a bridegroom, who is radiant with joy. This is the happiest day of his life. Decked out in his finest clothes and surrounded by his noble groomsmen, he confidently and purposefully proceeds in a particular direction – toward his bride. There is no hesitation in his steps. There will be no detour. That's the message when the sun rises in lavish red and gold and lavender in the eastern sky. It also speaks “as a strongman,” or champion. It moves like a victorious athlete from the start to the finish line, giving its life-supporting heat to all.

Transition – At verse seven the psalm abruptly changes the subject from God’s general revelation in creation to His special revelation through the Law, or the Old Testament. Scholars have often pointed to this and posited that this was originally two psalms that a later editor combined. But the transition, though abrupt, is not arbitrary. C.S. Lewis detected a link in the last words of the first section – “and there is nothing hidden from its heat.” Lewis observed that as the psalmist, David, moves from the sun to the Law, the latter “hardly seems to him something else because it is so like the all-piercing, all-detecting sunshine…. As he has felt the sun, perhaps in the desert, searching him out in every nook of shade where he attempted to hide from it, so he feels the Law searching out all the hiding places of his soul.”^²

There is another clear feature of the transition. With the change of subject comes a change in the divine name. The One who reveals Himself in nature to all people is God, a translation of the Hebrew El. El is related to a root word meaning might. So the force of it is “Mighty One.” This is the term for God in the first chapter of Genesis. The psalmist says that the created order speaks to the existence and glory of a mighty God. But when he speaks of the personal revelation of God in the Law to the individual person, David uses the personal name of God, the LORD, a translation of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, הוהי, or Yahweh. This is the name of God in Genesis 2, where He is involved with man. It is His covenant name, whereby He relates to man. While the heavens declare the glory of the Mighty God, the Law reveals Him personally in relationship with man.^³

This latter revelation is vastly superior. The heavens reveal the Creator’s deity, power and wisdom. But nothing is learned from the stars about His grace or His loyal love. The stars speak, and they speak loud to their topic. But their message is circumscribed. The heavens sing well, but the lyrics are limited. The Law sings a greater song!

II. Special Revelation (19:7-9)

The parallelism here is clear and stunning. David describes God’s written revelation in six poetic lines each of which contributes to three parallel categories. There are six phrases used to denote the Scripture, six attributes used to define the Scripture, and four phrases used to describe its effect.

Six different phrases are used to denote the Scripture. Each phrase contains the words “of the Lord,” identifying its divine origin.

This term refers to any instruction for life. It is used of parental instruction (Ps. 78:5).

These are instructions or orders to be followed, for the welfare of the recipient.

This involves a popular Hebrew device called a metonymy, or a substitution of one thing for something related to it. In this case, the effect, fear, is substituted for the cause, the Scripture. The Scripture is designed to birth fear, or a healthy reverence for God, in our hearts. “Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth” (Deut. 4:10).

Do you have a healthy fear of the Lord? If not, open your Bible and listen to His words. That is how we come to fear Him, to reverence Him and respect His authority.

These are the case law instructions in the Old Testament. Exodus 21-22 is a good example. They present hypothetical situations, and explain the application of God’s Law to that situation.

Each of these six items is a different facet of God’s Word. In each case the term is accompanied by “of the LORD,” reminding us that the Scripture has its origin and its focus in Him.

This word speaks of the Scripture’s completeness. It lacks nothing. It is comprehensive and sufficient. Peter said it contains “everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). Every truth I need to know to relate to God (“life”; see John 17:3) or to imitate Him (“godliness”) is found in “His precious and magnificent promises,” a beautiful figure of speech for His Word.

Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God … so that the man of God may be adequate (or complete), equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). The Scripture, by virtue of its divine origin, has everything necessary to fully equip you for the spiritual life.

It is trustworthy, marked by the fidelity and loyalty of God. We can depend on the promises of God, on the testimonies of His Word.

The Scripture is not misleading, but steers us on a straight (not crooked), or righteous, path through the challenges of life.

God’s Word is radiant and pure. It gives the light of understanding (“enlightening the eyes”). It displaces the darkness of ignorance with the light of truth.

“The words of the LORD are flawless;
like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.” (Psalms 12:6, NIV)

Because the Scripture is pure and flawless, it is described as “enduring forever.” That which is polluted or corrupted decays. But that which is pure endures.

The Scripture is reliable, stable, and “altogether righteous,” faithfully showing us His will.

The first four of these parallel lines contain a phrase describing the effect of God’s Word.

The Word of God revives and improves the life of the soul. It renews, refreshes, and strengthens the inner man.

“Every day with Jesus is not sweeter than the day before. We know it from experience and we know it from Scripture. For David says [here] “The Law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.” If every day with Jesus were sweeter than the day before, if life were a steady ascent with no dips in our affection for God, we wouldn’t need to be revived.

In another place David extolled the Lord with similar words: "He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul." This means David must have had bad days.

… Normal Christian life is a repeated process of restoration and renewal. Our joy is not static. It fluctuates with real life. It is vulnerable to Satan's attacks.

When Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:24, "Not that we lord it over your faith but we are workers with you for your joy," we should emphasize it this way: "We are workers with you for your joy." The preservation of our joy in God takes work. It is a fight. Our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, and he has an insatiable appetite to destroy one thing: the joy of faith. But the Holy Spirit has given us a sword called the Word of God for the defense of our joy.

Or, to change the image, when Satan huffs and puffs and tries to blow out the flame of your joy, you have an endless supply of kindling in the Word of God. Even on days when every cinder in our soul feels cold, if we crawl to the Word of God and cry out for ears to hear, the cold ashes will be lifted and the tiny spark of life will be fanned. For "the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul."^⁴

The Bible makes us wise, or skillful, in the issues of daily living. People who learn from the Word of God learn how to best deal with the very practical issues of life; issues like maintaining friendships, managing finances, excelling in one’s career, healthy family dynamics, etc.

Our lives are “short-lived and filled with adversity” (Job 14:1), and adversity’s children are disappointment and discouragement. The Word brings joy to the despondent heart. The promises of God birth the joy of hope. The testimonies of Scripture confirm His faithfulness.

The Scripture helps us see better in our pilgrimage through a world marked by the darkness of ignorance and depravity. The Bible helps us to know the difference between righteous and unrighteous activity, and it exposes the dark nature of sinful activity.

III. Personal Response (19:10-14)

Now David personally responds to the truth of God’s Word, declaring its value and praying for its cleansing influence. These two go hand-in-hand. Those that truly appreciate and value the Scripture invariably desire its cleansing effect. The Word exposes our sinful patterns, but it also sanctifies, or makes us holy (John 17:17).

and the drippings of the honeycomb.
       Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;
          In keeping them there is great reward.
       Who can discern his errors?

Acquit me of hidden faults.
       Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins;
          Let them not rule over me;
          Then I will be blameless,
          And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.
       Let the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in Your sight,
O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.”

The Word of God is sweeter than honey and more precious than much fine gold. John Piper observed,

“If you have a choice between the Word of God and GOLD, choose the Word of God. If you have a choice between the Word of God and MUCH gold, choose the Word of God. If you have choice between the Word of God and much FINE gold, choose the Word of God. The point is plain. The benefits of knowing and doing the Word of God are greater than all that money can buy. So if you are tempted to read the stock page before you read the Bible in the morning, remind yourself that this is not shrewd behavior. It's like the child who chooses the penny over the dime because it's bigger. Adults look on and shake their heads and try to teach children how to see what is really more valuable. That is no doubt the way the angels in heaven look down at childish businessmen who study the stock page before they study the Bible. There is a difference however: the benefits of the Word of God over the benefits of gold are far greater than 10 to one.”^⁵

In view of the purposes and perfections of penetrating Scripture, the psalmist now becomes concerned with his own sins, both hidden and presumptuous.

The Scriptures warn us. Against what? Against sin and its harmful effects. Against the lies and errors of this world and its crafty king.

The Bible will show you the way to live under God’s hand of blessing. “But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does” (James 1:25).

This section begins with a rhetorical question, “Who can discern his errors?” It acknowledges that perfect moral discernment is impossible to achieve. Sometimes even well-intentioned people sin.

The psalmist asks forgiveness for “hidden faults.” This doesn’t mean sins that we have successfully hidden from others. The preceding rhetorical question governs that these are sins committed in ignorance. We did something that we didn’t realize was sin. We were blind to the sinfulness of it. “God, forgive me all such sins.”

Consideration of the nature and purpose of Scripture provokes David to pray about his personal holiness. That is the point of Scripture. Jesus prayed “Sanctify them by the truth. Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). “Thy Word I have hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11).

With regard to willful (or “presumptuous”) sins, David prays that God will keep him from them. These willful sins are probably the “great transgression” of the next statement. The greatest transgressions are those that are willfully, knowingly, and presumptuously committed against God.

Finally, knowing that the Scriptures penetrate the heart and soul of a man (vv. 7 & 8), David prays that the Word would have such an influence on him that in both his inner (“the meditations of my heart”) and outer (“words of my mouth”) integrity he would bring a smile to the face of God.

John Bunyan once said, “This Book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this Book.”

[Note: Psalm 19:1-4 speaks of the witness of the heavens and firmament to the glory of God. These testify to His powerful creative and sustaining activity. One interesting example is how the clouds of the heavens form and carry water to croplands to sustain us with food. In a very effective way, John Piper described that activity. His words are included here as an appendix to our study.]

If you said to someone: "My God does great and unsearchable things; He does wonders without number," and they responded, "Really? Like what?" would you say, "Rain"?

When I read these verses recently I felt like I did when I heard the lyrics to a Sonny and Cher song in 1969: "I'd live for you. I'd die for you. I'd even climb the mountain high for you." Even? I would die for you. I would even climb a high mountain for you? The song was good for a joke. Or a good illustration of bad poetry. Not much else.

But Job is not joking. "God does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number." He gives rain on the earth." In Job's mind, rain really is one of the great, unsearchable wonders that God does. So when I read this a few weeks ago, I resolved not to treat it as meaningless pop musical lyrics. I decided to have a conversation with myself (= meditation).

Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder wrought by God? Picture yourself as a farmer in the Near East, far from any lake or stream. A few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water. But if the crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month, water has to come on the fields from another source. From where?

Well, the sky. The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky? Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea, over several hundred miles and then be poured out from the sky onto the fields. Carried? How much does it weigh? Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 27,878,400 cubic feet of water, which is 206,300,160 gallons, which is 1,650,501,280 pounds of water.

That's heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it's so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation. Really? That's a nice word. What's it mean? It means that the water sort of stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. I see. Then how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. What's that? The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide. That's small.

What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is salt water. That would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh. So the sky picks up a billion pounds of water from the sea and takes out the salt and then carries it for three hundred miles and then dumps it on the farm?

Well it doesn't dump it. If it dumped a billion pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the billion pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks.

How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh a billion pounds get heavy enough to fall (if that's the way to ask the question)? Well, it's called coalescence. What's that? It means the specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger. And when they are big enough, they fall. Just like that? Well, not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up, if there were no electric field present. What? Never mind. Take my word for it.

I think, instead, I will just take Job's word for it. I still don't see why drops ever get to the ground, because if they start falling as soon as they are heavier than air, they would be too small not to evaporate on the way down, but if they wait to come down, what holds them up till they are big enough not to evaporate? Yes, I am sure there is a name for that too. But I am satisfied now that, by any name, this is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done. I think I should be thankful - lots more thankful than I am.

1 Zacharias, Ravi, Recapture the Wonder (Brentwood, TN: Integrity, 2003), 16.

2 Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, 64.

3 Note also that God occurs only once in the first part of the psalm, suggestive of the ambiguous revelation of God. But Yahweh, the LORD, occurs seven times in verses 7-14, suggesting the fuller revelation in the written Word.

4 John Piper, Desiring God (Portland: Multnomah, 1986), 117-118.

5 John Piper, unpublished sermon on Psalm 19:7-11.

(Ps. 19) 19