Our Sunday School lesson this morning was on Psalm 19. I encourage you to read it. It’s only fourteen verses long.In the first six verses, David, the writer of the Psalm, speaks of the wonder and grandier and power of God’s creations almost in human terms. In terms of English grammar, it’s called, “personification”, taking something inanimate in itself and describing it in human terms. It’s not just the words themselves, but what the words mean that give it that element of personification. David is speaking about God’s creation, the heavens, the skies, and the heavenly bodies almost as if they have hands and feet, arms and legs, and have voices themselves. He writes, “the heavens declare, the skies proclaim, they pour forth speech, they reveal knowledge”. And even though they have no speech, no words, or no sounds, at the same time “their voices right out!” And he speaks of the sun as living in a tent, and each day, like a bridegroom who rejoices because he just got married, or like a champion runner who runs a race, the sun comes out of its tent and runs across the skies from east to west, running its course, and no one can hide from its heat. God has revealed Himself through what He has created. This is called “general revelation”.
Years ago my father and I took two different summers to visit different parts of our country. One year we went west to the four state area and the next we traveled north to South Dakota and back. I remember when we went to Arizona and to the Grand Canyon. Folks, if you have never been there, you need to go to see the power of the Colorado River as it took thousands of years to dig out a path through layers of sediments to reveal the wonders of God. Forget trying to throw a rock across an expanse that is miles from one end to the other. People who ride donkeys or walk down the paths to the bottom soon seem like little ants on a journey. And to take a single engine plane ride down into that canyon, my, it looks about the size of a little toy you can hold in your hand. I remember the words of my dad when he said, “What a hole, what a hole, what a hole!” He was so overwhelmed by the expanse and depth of it all that those words were the only expression that he could say. To say that God doesn’t speak through that which has no “voice” of its own, is to say that you must be blind as to have no eyes or imagination to see. It is breathtaking.
But the best way that God speaks is through His written word, the Bible. In the next five verses of that Psalm, versus seven through eleven, the words of God tell us what they do, and how they bring us into a relationship with Him. He speaks about the laws of God that revive our soul, and the statutes of God that are trustworthy and make us wise unto understanding. He talks about the precepts of God that lay out a pathway for us to follow and the commands of God that reveal His truth. He speaks about the fear of God that causes us to reverence Him in humility and truth, and the ordinances, the standards of God that direct our daily living. And the whole of God’s words are much more precious than fine gold and sweeter to the taste of our inner being than honey that drips from the honeycomb. And in keeping of them we are warned of the traps of sin, and in the keeping of them there is great reward.
