Directions Included!
Bible Study
A Psalm for Every Sigh
Finding Your Song in God's Word
Object:
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
-- Psalm 19:7a
I recently sat and talked with a woman who had a hoop with cloth stretched over it. She was embroidering. As the conversation turned to spiritual matters, she surprised me with her honesty, confessing, "I realize what's wrong with me. My life is not framed. It's loose, sloppy, without a border. I have no concept who or where I am. What I need is a frame."
Certainly, this woman's lament is no solitary cry in the dark, but part of a vast chorus of humanity crying out for meaning in life. Psalm 19 can give us that frame. It's so beautifully written. I'm reluctant to teach on it for fear of spoiling it.
Verse 14 is a famous collect. "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
The whole notion of our lives being pleasing to God is foreign to us. "He should be pleasing to me! Not me to him!" Ah, but God is our creator, and we are his creatures. If I please him, then perhaps my life will become pleasing. Therefore, I can be happily fulfilled.
But how? How can one live to please the Lord? What direction do we take? Psalm 19 explains we're not on our own to find a pleasing life. God is here to help us along the path.
God Gives Information
Psalm 19 begins by declaring that God is not silent. He speaks and he shares truth -- information about himself, ourselves, life, and the direction. Imagine David, a lonely shepherd boy out under the stars on a hillside. The vast Milky Way is spreading above him and he writes, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge." Hear those key words -- declare, proclaim, speech, knowledge -- all this is "poured" out upon us night and day?
When my son was eight, he bought a GI Joe aircraft carrier with over 2,000 parts. The box said, "Some assembly required." We opened it in his room and spread the parts out on the floor. The directions were written in Chinese and translated into a baffling English mish mash. We quickly became frustrated trying to make sense of it all.
How like life! So many parts! Such complexity! So much confusion! Where do I get information? Directions? What is first? Second?
Most of us learn by trial and error. I do mean trial and I do mean error. You've seen insects that have long antennae. These bugs feel their way along. Many people also feel their way along in life. Wanting to be happy, we decide it's in feelings -- money, sex, ice cream, resorts, or drugs. We wear out each experience and by a long process of elimination find out more about what happiness is not than what it is. By then we are old and cynical.
Happy living, however, comes not from feelings, but from facts. Right living starts with truth; right thinking leads to right behavior followed by good feelings.
Psalm 19 explains how God gives us truth. First, he speaks through nature.
* Creation
The heavens declare the glory of God.
Nature, creation, speaks of order -- the sun, moon, and stars have the precision of a Swiss watch.
* Reliability
Day to day
Night to night
Without fail
* Beauty
Sunsets
The heavens
Some of God's best sermons are out-of-doors
Spoken in nature
In stars above
* Immensity
His voice goes out to the entire world
An African missionary told me to go see Victoria Falls before I die. "After seeing such, one is never the same again." Ah, yes, the grandeur of nature!
George W. Carver, the agriculturist and peanut scientist, wrote, "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune Him in."
A second way God gives us truth is through the conscience. Sir Isaac Newton built a mechanical model of the solar system. One wound it up to make it move the planets in orbit around the sun. An atheist friend of Newton's saw it and explained, "My, Newton, what an exquisite thing! Who made it?" "Nobody," Newton said. But his friend would have none of it. Such design requires a designer.
And so it is that the human conscience stoutly proclaims: if there is a creation there must be a creator. This orderly, reliable, beautiful, immense universe speaks of such a God!
The third way God gives us information is through Jesus. Christ said, "If you have seen me you have seen the Father" (John 14). Verses 7-11 speak of Christ as God's law, his word, his revelation of himself.
The sweet poet of Israel tells us God's word is
* Authoritative
The law of the Lord
Statutes
Precepts
Ordinances
* Attractive
It is like gold, honey, and brings reward (vv. 10-11)
* Abrasive
Warned (v. 11)
Faults (v. 12)
Errors (v. 12)
Scripture is very bold in correcting us
* Active
Jesus requires a response
Reviving the soul (v. 7)
Makes one wise (v. 7)
Enlightening the eyes (v. 8)
Sir Walter Scott summed this up well in his "Tribute to the Bible."
Within this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race,
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray
To lift the latch, to force the way;
But better had they ne'er been born
Who read to doubt or read to scorn.1
God Gives Motivation
God gives us information and the Lord also gives inspiration. He gives motivation.
In Psalm 19, the poet theologue uses the sun as an illustration of God's motivating light. The sun "comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his tent" (v. 5). He "runs his course with joy." "Nothing is hid from his heat."
Today we can even add to this! The sun is 93 million miles away. It is so large, a million earths could abide in its girth and its light travels at 186 million miles per second -- so what?
The power from sunlight has been rated at hundreds of horsepower per square foot -- so what?
The hot sun can motivate you to put on your swimsuit and go for a dip to cool off. It can burn you, inspiring one to wearing tanning lotion. It can even move you to seek shade.
Psalm 19 says God's word impacts us by creation, conscience, and Christ -- so what? God's word is like the sun. Nothing is hidden from its heat. It runs its course around the globe. And Christ is like a bridegroom seeking a people to be his bride -- so what?
Information alone is not enough. The twenty-first-century western church is awash in information -- books, tapes, radio, television, small groups. and counseling. We know the facts -- so what?
* Swimming is the best exercise.
* Chocolate is fattening.
* I shouldn't watch movies like this.
* Tithing brings blessing.
* Going to class is important.
We know it. What we lack is motivation.
My eight-year-old son liked to start his weekends on Friday mornings. He'd feign an illness and beg to sleep in. So I motivated him. "Son, stay in bed. The doctor will come. He'll give you a shot. And his needle is this big!" He was up, dressed, and out the door in no time!
We, too, need motivation to be inspired, to be needled! The text gives us clues in our longing to know God, to live a happy meaningful life....
Verse 9 tells us, "the fear of the Lord" motivates us. That is "awe," the "reverence" we have for God.
Verse 11 explains, "In keeping them is great reward." A blessing, happiness, comes in obedience.
Verse 14 mentions what is "pleasing in thy sight." I want to please God. I love him. I don't want God on my case!
Verse 8 speaks of God's precepts, "rejoicing the heart." Joy and happiness are by-products of a life conducted in God's will. It speaks of a clear commandment "enlightening the eyes." I seek to be wise and intelligent.
God Gives Integration
God, in the complexity of life, gives us information and motivation. He also gives integration. In verse 14, the poet asks in prayer that "The words of my mouth and the mediations of my heart be acceptable." He is praying he can receive God's information, apply it in thought and deed so that God will be his "rock and redeemer, his foundation and Savior."
You see faith is a thorough matter. It must all fit together. As the hot sun impacts us and causes us to change out of our woolens and into a bathing suit, so God's information gets into our thinking, motivates our behavior, and leads us to live a life pleasing to him.
God is our rock, on him we build our way of marriage, our finances, our labor, our speech, and our mercy. It's all integrated in him, a rich fabric of truth.
C.S. Lewis was an early author and mentor of mine. While a student in England, in 1971, I visited Oxford University where he once taught. At Magdalen College, I asked a janitor if he knew Dr. Lewis. "Why, yes," he said with pleasure. "Dr. Lewis was the most thoroughly converted Christian I ever knew."
You see, ours is not a shallow life. Information does not come in one ear and go out the other. God informs us. He motivates us. We integrate our lives in him.
Conclusion
A teenager recently told me, "I belong to the blank generation. I have no beliefs. I belong to no community, no tradition, or anything like that. I'm lost in this vast world. I belong nowhere I have absolutely no identity." Back to the lady embroidering cloth on an oval frame. Our life requires such a frame, as well. Here it is in Jesus Christ! Stretch your life around him!
Suggested Prayer
O Lord, take me to yourself! In Christ. Amen.
____________
1. Sir Walter Scott, "Tribute To The Bible," The Monastery, Vol. 1, Chapter XII, 1820. In the public domain.
-- Psalm 19:7a
I recently sat and talked with a woman who had a hoop with cloth stretched over it. She was embroidering. As the conversation turned to spiritual matters, she surprised me with her honesty, confessing, "I realize what's wrong with me. My life is not framed. It's loose, sloppy, without a border. I have no concept who or where I am. What I need is a frame."
Certainly, this woman's lament is no solitary cry in the dark, but part of a vast chorus of humanity crying out for meaning in life. Psalm 19 can give us that frame. It's so beautifully written. I'm reluctant to teach on it for fear of spoiling it.
Verse 14 is a famous collect. "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."
The whole notion of our lives being pleasing to God is foreign to us. "He should be pleasing to me! Not me to him!" Ah, but God is our creator, and we are his creatures. If I please him, then perhaps my life will become pleasing. Therefore, I can be happily fulfilled.
But how? How can one live to please the Lord? What direction do we take? Psalm 19 explains we're not on our own to find a pleasing life. God is here to help us along the path.
God Gives Information
Psalm 19 begins by declaring that God is not silent. He speaks and he shares truth -- information about himself, ourselves, life, and the direction. Imagine David, a lonely shepherd boy out under the stars on a hillside. The vast Milky Way is spreading above him and he writes, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge." Hear those key words -- declare, proclaim, speech, knowledge -- all this is "poured" out upon us night and day?
When my son was eight, he bought a GI Joe aircraft carrier with over 2,000 parts. The box said, "Some assembly required." We opened it in his room and spread the parts out on the floor. The directions were written in Chinese and translated into a baffling English mish mash. We quickly became frustrated trying to make sense of it all.
How like life! So many parts! Such complexity! So much confusion! Where do I get information? Directions? What is first? Second?
Most of us learn by trial and error. I do mean trial and I do mean error. You've seen insects that have long antennae. These bugs feel their way along. Many people also feel their way along in life. Wanting to be happy, we decide it's in feelings -- money, sex, ice cream, resorts, or drugs. We wear out each experience and by a long process of elimination find out more about what happiness is not than what it is. By then we are old and cynical.
Happy living, however, comes not from feelings, but from facts. Right living starts with truth; right thinking leads to right behavior followed by good feelings.
Psalm 19 explains how God gives us truth. First, he speaks through nature.
* Creation
The heavens declare the glory of God.
Nature, creation, speaks of order -- the sun, moon, and stars have the precision of a Swiss watch.
* Reliability
Day to day
Night to night
Without fail
* Beauty
Sunsets
The heavens
Some of God's best sermons are out-of-doors
Spoken in nature
In stars above
* Immensity
His voice goes out to the entire world
An African missionary told me to go see Victoria Falls before I die. "After seeing such, one is never the same again." Ah, yes, the grandeur of nature!
George W. Carver, the agriculturist and peanut scientist, wrote, "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting system through which God speaks to us every hour if we will only tune Him in."
A second way God gives us truth is through the conscience. Sir Isaac Newton built a mechanical model of the solar system. One wound it up to make it move the planets in orbit around the sun. An atheist friend of Newton's saw it and explained, "My, Newton, what an exquisite thing! Who made it?" "Nobody," Newton said. But his friend would have none of it. Such design requires a designer.
And so it is that the human conscience stoutly proclaims: if there is a creation there must be a creator. This orderly, reliable, beautiful, immense universe speaks of such a God!
The third way God gives us information is through Jesus. Christ said, "If you have seen me you have seen the Father" (John 14). Verses 7-11 speak of Christ as God's law, his word, his revelation of himself.
The sweet poet of Israel tells us God's word is
* Authoritative
The law of the Lord
Statutes
Precepts
Ordinances
* Attractive
It is like gold, honey, and brings reward (vv. 10-11)
* Abrasive
Warned (v. 11)
Faults (v. 12)
Errors (v. 12)
Scripture is very bold in correcting us
* Active
Jesus requires a response
Reviving the soul (v. 7)
Makes one wise (v. 7)
Enlightening the eyes (v. 8)
Sir Walter Scott summed this up well in his "Tribute to the Bible."
Within this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race,
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray
To lift the latch, to force the way;
But better had they ne'er been born
Who read to doubt or read to scorn.1
God Gives Motivation
God gives us information and the Lord also gives inspiration. He gives motivation.
In Psalm 19, the poet theologue uses the sun as an illustration of God's motivating light. The sun "comes forth like a bridegroom leaving his tent" (v. 5). He "runs his course with joy." "Nothing is hid from his heat."
Today we can even add to this! The sun is 93 million miles away. It is so large, a million earths could abide in its girth and its light travels at 186 million miles per second -- so what?
The power from sunlight has been rated at hundreds of horsepower per square foot -- so what?
The hot sun can motivate you to put on your swimsuit and go for a dip to cool off. It can burn you, inspiring one to wearing tanning lotion. It can even move you to seek shade.
Psalm 19 says God's word impacts us by creation, conscience, and Christ -- so what? God's word is like the sun. Nothing is hidden from its heat. It runs its course around the globe. And Christ is like a bridegroom seeking a people to be his bride -- so what?
Information alone is not enough. The twenty-first-century western church is awash in information -- books, tapes, radio, television, small groups. and counseling. We know the facts -- so what?
* Swimming is the best exercise.
* Chocolate is fattening.
* I shouldn't watch movies like this.
* Tithing brings blessing.
* Going to class is important.
We know it. What we lack is motivation.
My eight-year-old son liked to start his weekends on Friday mornings. He'd feign an illness and beg to sleep in. So I motivated him. "Son, stay in bed. The doctor will come. He'll give you a shot. And his needle is this big!" He was up, dressed, and out the door in no time!
We, too, need motivation to be inspired, to be needled! The text gives us clues in our longing to know God, to live a happy meaningful life....
Verse 9 tells us, "the fear of the Lord" motivates us. That is "awe," the "reverence" we have for God.
Verse 11 explains, "In keeping them is great reward." A blessing, happiness, comes in obedience.
Verse 14 mentions what is "pleasing in thy sight." I want to please God. I love him. I don't want God on my case!
Verse 8 speaks of God's precepts, "rejoicing the heart." Joy and happiness are by-products of a life conducted in God's will. It speaks of a clear commandment "enlightening the eyes." I seek to be wise and intelligent.
God Gives Integration
God, in the complexity of life, gives us information and motivation. He also gives integration. In verse 14, the poet asks in prayer that "The words of my mouth and the mediations of my heart be acceptable." He is praying he can receive God's information, apply it in thought and deed so that God will be his "rock and redeemer, his foundation and Savior."
You see faith is a thorough matter. It must all fit together. As the hot sun impacts us and causes us to change out of our woolens and into a bathing suit, so God's information gets into our thinking, motivates our behavior, and leads us to live a life pleasing to him.
God is our rock, on him we build our way of marriage, our finances, our labor, our speech, and our mercy. It's all integrated in him, a rich fabric of truth.
C.S. Lewis was an early author and mentor of mine. While a student in England, in 1971, I visited Oxford University where he once taught. At Magdalen College, I asked a janitor if he knew Dr. Lewis. "Why, yes," he said with pleasure. "Dr. Lewis was the most thoroughly converted Christian I ever knew."
You see, ours is not a shallow life. Information does not come in one ear and go out the other. God informs us. He motivates us. We integrate our lives in him.
Conclusion
A teenager recently told me, "I belong to the blank generation. I have no beliefs. I belong to no community, no tradition, or anything like that. I'm lost in this vast world. I belong nowhere I have absolutely no identity." Back to the lady embroidering cloth on an oval frame. Our life requires such a frame, as well. Here it is in Jesus Christ! Stretch your life around him!
Suggested Prayer
O Lord, take me to yourself! In Christ. Amen.
____________
1. Sir Walter Scott, "Tribute To The Bible," The Monastery, Vol. 1, Chapter XII, 1820. In the public domain.
