Psalm 19 - Bible Reading and Meditation
Transcript
Well, good morning. Like I said earlier, my name's Chet. I'm excited to be with y'all this morning. We are in the second week of our Psalms series, and what we're trying to do in this series is begin to grow using the Psalms and allowing the Psalms to teach us, begin to grow in what it looks like, to live a life of worship, that for Christians, our goal is to walk with God, walk with Christ all of our days. And there's going to be a lot of sorrow and a lot of joy and a lot of pain and confusion and darkness and celebration in our life, and we're trying to begin to make it a rhythm and a pattern and a discipline for us to learn how to, in the middle of everything, walk with God, and the Psalms teach us that.
They teach us prayer, and they teach us the goodness of the Word, and they kind of teach us in a sideways manner, that we get to come alongside, and we get to look into the Psalms, and we get to make observations, and we get to grow along with them, that the Psalms kind of walk with us as they train us to walk with God. So grab your Bibles, go to Psalm 19. If you have one of the Bibles that's on the row, one of those white Bibles, it'll be on page. We should have this up in just a second. 2.59. There we go.
All right, so Psalm 19 will be on page 2.59. We're going to walk through this entire Psalm today, and what we're looking at today, what the Psalmist is going to teach us, is the goodness of the Word, the goodness of the Scriptures, the goodness of the Bible. And so as we get started this morning, I have just a few questions for you to kind of think about as we turn there. You don't have to raise your hand, although I'm not sure you would have anyway, but anybody in the room just feel weary. You're just tired. Every day is a burden.
It's hard to see how things are good. Emotionally or spiritually exhausted. Is anybody in the room just trying to work through some decisions in life, trying to make good plans, trying to... You've got something going on, and you've got to set the pace for, all right, we've got to decide this, and this is going to set up for us how we're going to walk through life. Anybody just in some confusion and need some help making good decisions? Is there anybody in the room, you just need a win?
You just need something to celebrate, something to laugh about. You just need a little bit of peace in your heart. You just need a moment where you can sit down and feel okay without having your mind racing to everything that's painful and difficult. Anybody just confused? Just need some clarity? Just need to be able to see something correctly and don't think you're looking at it right yet?
Or is there anybody in the room who just needs something solid? Just need something you can bank on, something you can rest on, something you can run to, because everything else feels flimsy and fragile, and all the stuff that maybe you had built everything off of is falling apart right now. If you answered yes to any of those, or yes to multiple of those, and I'll even, even if you just said kind of to maybe one or two, what the psalmist is going to say is that you need the Bible. You need the scriptures that they step in and begin to serve and to train and to help us here. And so as we read Psalm 19, and this is written by David, and he wrote it as a song, but David is going to tell us that we need the scriptures.
We need the Bible, that you need it in your life. My wife, a couple years ago, she was diagnosed with Hashimoto, which is a type of motorcycle. No, it's an autoimmune disease that has to do with your thyroid. And so they kept checking her thyroid, and they kept checking her Numbers, and finally they said, okay, here. And so we were looking while we were waiting for some of those tests to come back, and we're looking at kind of the thyroid symptoms, and she was like, yes, yes, yes, like this is me. And then we went to the doctor, and the doctor said, you need this.
And you need to wake up every morning, and you need to take this. It's a little pill, and it straightens you out. It's something that you're going to need every day forever. At some point, we may have to dial it down, or at some point, we may have to crank it up, but you're going to need this. And that's what David is saying about the scriptures. He says, this is what you need.
If you're checking off some of those boxes of, yes, that would be great. I would love to have more wisdom here. I'd love to have more clarity here. I'm trying to make a decision that would be, or yes, I'm just exhausted right now. David's going to say, here's what you need to do. You need to wake up.
You need to, before you go to bed, you need to, at some point in your day, some point in your week, you're going to need the Bible. That's David's answer to us. So we're going to begin in Psalm 19. We're going to read this whole thing, but we'll pray as we kind of jump in this morning. God, I pray that even in this short amount of time that we have together this morning, that you would help us see the goodness and the value of your written word, but that we wouldn't stop there, that we would ultimately see the goodness and the value of your son as proclaimed to us and displayed to us in your word.
We ask that we would be a Bible people. In Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 19. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. So David starts by saying that when you look out into the heavens, when you look at the sky, when every day rolls by, when every night rolls by, it's proclaiming how big and good and glorious God is, that it's showing his handiwork, that every day pours out speech, and that every night pours out knowledge.
He's saying that all of life is telling you, is proclaiming to you, there is a big, glorious creator. There's a big and glorious God. That's what he's saying. Verse 3. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Okay, so if you read it in the ESV, if you're holding that version of the Bible, which is translated from Hebrew, the way that reads makes it sound like he's saying that we recognize this.
But for other versions, it's going to say there is no speech, there are no words, no voice is heard. And that's going to come across more like he's saying God is speaking, but not in an audible way. Either way, whether it reads a little bit more in the English as we're recognizing this, or it reads a little more in the English as there aren't actual words, but God's still getting his point across. What David is saying is that we can look into creation and we can get it. We can begin to see that there is a creator God. Paul says this in Romans 1, that all of humanity is without excuse because all of us have seen God's creation, that he has written himself into what he created.
And that's what David's saying here. Verse 4. Their voice, so this is the voice of God's creation. This is the voice of night and day. This is the voice that's pouring out knowledge. Their voice goes out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out 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 hidden from its heat. And so David gets a little poetic here. He's talking about the sun and he says it rises like a strong man and it runs its course with joy and nothing is hidden from its heat. And he's just talking about like the glory of God imprinted into creation. And some of you, as you're reading this, there's just like, yeah, because you're one of those people that's like, oh, when I relate to God, I just need to go be near a tree.
I can just get near a tree and I can just stand next to a white oak and I can just look into the top of it and I just know he's big and glorious and good. If I can just see a sunrise over the Atlantic. Some of y'all are fancy. You've seen a sunset over the Pacific. Proud of y'all. Most of us have been rocking up at Myrtle Beach.
Some of y'all are like, I ain't up at a sunrise if I go to the beach. Right, but you saw the moon come out. You turned away from the ocean, listened to it and saw the sun drop down over that hotel. I don't know. But you're saying there's this being outside, something in this, in this moment we're reading this and we're like walking through a field and there's meadows and birds are chirping and there's flowers.
And then verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. And it's like David paints this beautiful picture and then he takes his Bible. You're in a meadow. There's a breeze. The sun's on your face.
And then he goes. And suddenly like the whole scene changes. You're in a dark room. Your eyes are trying to get adjusted because you were just out in the sun. There's dust everywhere because of that giant book he just slammed on the table. There's an old grumpy person who's going to teach you the law of the Lord.
That suddenly we went from this glorious, beautiful God who painted the colors of the wind. And now it's the law of the Lord. It's perfect. And it doesn't seem that way but David did this on purpose. What David is doing here as he makes this transition is he's saying God proclaims through creation his bigness but we need more. God proclaims through creation his handiwork.
He puts his thumbprint everywhere but we need more. And the law of the Lord is perfect. It is exactly what we needed so that we might know God. And when he talks about the law he is as he's writing this as he's a king of Israel he's writing about the law the Old Testament law which would be our he'd be referring to the first five books of our Old Testament. But he also as he goes through this is going to talk about God's precepts.
He's going to talk about God's testimony. He's going to talk about and so what we end up seeing in this Psalm is that what he means by law what he means of precepts what he means of God's rules is he means the entirety of God's written word to us. And as we stand here today or sit here today we're looking at all of scripture. That's what David would have in mind if he got to come look at us now he'd say yeah and all the stuff that we got from all the prophets and all that was kept and when the gospels were proclaimed and written down and put in a codex and passed around like all of it. And what he's saying is we needed that to really know God.
That if you you get to you get a glimpse of him from a tree you get a glimpse of him from the sunrise you get a picture of what he's like staring into the night sky but you needed you needed more than that. So if you took your favorite Spielberg you took your favorite director and you said I'm going to watch all of his movies and I'm going to I'm going to read some of the biographies about him I'm going to read about you know how he came about and maybe how they filmed E.T. or what happened with Jaws I'm going to learn about Spielberg. That's still different. It's still outside. You're looking at his work but you don't really know him and it's different than the person who's been a close friend with him for 20 years and can tell when he's messing with someone.
Can tell when he's telling a joke. Can tell when when he's about to tell a joke. My wife and I have been together long enough now that I don't know I don't know what my face does but she'll go don't. It's not the time. It's like it was going to be a good one though. I guess I get really excited right before I make a joke and she can tell but that's what I'm saying like you don't and that's what we needed.
We needed God to introduce himself to us. We needed God to explain what he was like. C.S. Lewis says that if Shakespeare was ever going to meet Hamlet Hamlet's a character in one of Shakespeare's plays if he was ever going to meet Hamlet it would have to be Shakespeare that did it. Hamlet can't come out the page but Shakespeare can write himself into the story and that's what we have in Scripture is that God has written himself into the world so that we might know him. And as we begin it says the law of the Lord is perfect and we believe that.
Into the story and that's what we have in Scripture is that God has written himself into the world so that we might know him. And as we begin it says the law of the Lord is perfect and we believe that. We, Mill City Church we, most of the Christian faith believe that this was or much of the Christian faith believe that this has been handed down to us handed down to us accurately that we have thousands upon thousands of manuscripts when they go back to translate a version of the Bible they don't go back to the most recent
They didn't translate the ESV from the King James Version they translated it from the original Greek and the original Hebrew and we have those thousands upon thousands of texts that have traveled around and been handwritten we can compare them to each other and we know that they're within 95% certainty that this is the word they wrote in the order they wrote it the other 5% there's some things that have been moved around a little bit and when it comes down to it
We really have about a percentage of 1% that we're not quite sure and most of your Bibles will have a little asterisk you'll be reading it'll say something like and then they took the goat and there'll be a little asterisk or a little number and you look down at the bottom and it's like we don't actually know if that word means goat but for the most part what we have has been perfectly handed down to us and we believe that it was written by the God of the universe authored through human authors and that it is perfect
So we bank on it we stand up and teach it for 45 minutes to an hour on Sunday some of you you're new here and that just scares you we lock those doors from the outside I'm just kidding fire codes but what we also believe is that we get to in the written word of God that the Bible the Bible actually says there's three different types of the word of God that there's the written word of God and then as we get to the New Testament we see that there's the proclaimed word of God that that's the gospel
That the written word of God eventually leads us to the proclaimed word of God this is where first Peter is going to say he's going to quote the Old Testament and say the word of the Lord stands forever and when that was written it was talking about the written word of God it was God's word that he's put into the world it stands forever and then Peter's going to say and this word that that's referring to is the gospel that we've proclaimed to you so there's the spoken proclaimed word that Jesus Christ came the message of Christ the message of the gospel
The good news that Jesus came that he lived perfectly on our behalf that he died in our place for our sin and that those who place faith in him can be rescued can be redeemed can be made right and then the Bible is going to tell us that it's not just the written word and the proclaimed word but also the incarnate word that Jesus is the incarnate the flesh human version of God's word that's what John 1 says that the word became flesh and dwelled among us and so the purpose for us
As Christians as we study the word is that the written word would lead us into the proclaimed word the gospel which would lead us to know the incarnate word Jesus so as we read this morning that we're going to have that in mind but what we're going to start with is what David is going to tell us are the qualities and the benefits and the value of the scriptures so the qualities the benefits and the value of the scriptures and we're going to see what David says about it
So let's pick back up at verse 7 and we're just going to kind of talk as we go through here what David said scripture is like the law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul so all the word is perfect reviving the soul reviving means to bring back to life or to give strength or to give energy to that it's perfect that it is exactly what is needed so for those I'm willing to bet that everybody in this room at some point
Has been physically exhausted you pushed yourself at work you pushed yourself in how long you stayed awake for something either you were studying or you were on a trip or you pushed yourself because you were I don't know in two days in high school football camp you pushed yourself you were physically exhausted but there was something about it in that moment that you weren't spiritually exhausted you weren't emotionally exhausted the exhaustion was only skin deep you just needed some rest
Even for some people it was like I was on a trip or I was on a mission trip or something and I was exhausted but there was still joy there was still life there was still hope when he says it revives the soul what he's talking about is a soul level internal spiritual exhaustion so that even if your joy your enjoyment of life can only go skin deep but that internally your bones feel like they're cold and wet your soul
Feels like it has dry rot in it that there is no life and that even though things around you may be good like you just can't you can't seem to shake that it doesn't go past the skin that it doesn't ever sink into your soul and what he says is the law of the Lord is perfect and it revives the soul that it is exactly what you need for those dealing with emotional spiritual soul level exhaustion
That you need strength and energy just to keep moving that you need to be brought back to life he says the law of the Lord is perfect it's exactly what you need you're running a marathon you're exhausted and there's people standing alongside this is why they hand out little cups of water because that's what that person needs nobody's got a Merlot holding it out for somebody that's not perfect that's not what they need in that moment now later
If you're at a fancy restaurant and you've got a T-bone somebody the waiter brings you over on those little cups of water you can be like Kat what are you doing I need a red I gotta get something going here it's perfect it's exactly what you need at that moment to revive your soul and so I would say to all of you who are weary listen to David and begin to read the word because it's exactly what you need the testimony of the Lord
Is sure making wise the simple so not only does the Bible not only does the scripture revive your soul bring back life but it's certain it's sure and it makes wise the simple I love that promise about the Bible love it because what it's saying is that the Bible will take people who are simple meaning don't think through things well traditionally make
Bad decisions have a hard time thinking through things if they're thinking through one thing they're not thinking about any other thing you ever done that like you had a season in your life where I'm trying to figure this out and so 15 other things just turn stupid because you can't you can only focus on one thing at a time if that's not you I'm proud of you but this promise is for the simple it says it makes wise the simple I will
And it says it's sure it's certain you can bank on it so like let's say we all join the mafia and we learned or we orchestrated the McGregor Mayweather fight we set it up so that one person was going to take a fall it's a sure thing we know it's going to happen so we can go with absolute certainty to Vegas and put all of our chips and not sweat it even if you're watching the fight and it looks like it's going poorly you're like round five
That's what he's saying that the law of the Lord is like that his testimony is like that we can push all of our chips on it and just wait and say no he says this is how it's going to work and it makes us wise because we get to line up with the wisdom of God without having to figure it out ourselves many of us are robbed of the joy
Of this because we feel like we have to be convinced by God that what he says is true rather than being able to rest in the fact that he's wiser than we are he has a greater wisdom so this has been a great source of joy for my life and I'll give you two quick examples do you know how many people have opinions about parenting the answer is all the people you don't have to have
Kids to have opinions about parenting if you do have kids you have opinions about parenting also the internet has opinions about parenting and there's a whole lot of here's how to do this here's what not to do here's how you're going to mess your kids up here's how you're going to make your kids great here's how to like in ad nauseum endlessly I could read as much as I wanted to and so when it comes to let's just take the issue of spanking your children
There are opinions there a lot of them guess what you guys I don't have to read blogs I don't have to think about it because the bible speaks and gives wisdom and it keeps me and my wife from having to figure this one out there are things we're going to have to figure out this one isn't one of them I'm going to read you a couple of Proverbs so the bible just gives us wisdom that we get to line up with him on Proverbs 22 15
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child but the rod of discipline drives it from him Proverbs 23 13 do not withhold discipline from a child if you strike him with a rod he will not die isn't that great I say that to my wife it's not going to kill him go read Proverbs read your bible girl that's what I say whoever spares the rod hates his son but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him I as a parent spank our son
And then I go sleep like this I don't have to worry about it I don't have to think about it if you come argue with me I'm going to say look I'm tapping into some wisdom that I might not would have come to that conclusion my wife and I might not would have come to that conclusion the blogs that we read might not would have come to that conclusion but God says this is how this ought to work and we just get
To line up with him and it's wisdom and wisdom means knowing what to do with the information you have and being able to see beyond things that we can't see that God knows what he's talking about he created this that he set a tent for the sun and makes it like he does all of this and then he says this is how this ought to work and we get to line up
With him another one that is at work in our life I grew up in a Christian home and was taught at a young age that money when it came in should go out to God so I started doing this it's the concept of first fruits that God provides everything for you and that when your money comes in you give some back to him as like a reminder
To yourself that he is the one who provides for everything that he's trustworthy that he's good he also makes all these promises in scriptures about generosity and about how our money will take over our hearts and so one of the ways that we fight that is by giving away generously and by giving back to him and by trusting him to provide for us and so
My wife and I when we got married we never had to think about this we had both just kind of committed to do this a couple years ago we did get convicted that we should give out of gross pay and not net pay because I came to the conclusion one day that Uncle Sam was getting first fruits and not God that's a personal thing the Bible doesn't say any of that stuff but we just
Came to that conclusion and I will tell you that if you were our financial advisor and you were not a Christian you probably wouldn't come up with this plan because you could look at our budget and you could say hey y'all you could use that money for I don't know paying your bills like this money would be useful like I think most financial advisors would say generosity is great but wait until that makes sense
Fiscally and you know what we said nope because we believe that he's given us some wisdom helping us see things that we can't see like how valuable heaven is he says it's like a treasure hidden in a field like we we trust him in this and we believe that he's he's good and we'll honor and so there's there's countless versions of that
I have more if you want to talk more about areas in my life where it's like I just get to rest I get to push all my chips onto a sure thing which is that God says this is how this works and then there's a lot of freedom in that eight verse eight the precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord
Is pure enlightening the eyes so what he's saying is that what God says he's right he's correct and that brings joy to us it rejoices our heart to be a part of something that's the right that's inside of that he wrote the world and he created it all and he's right when he tells us what this looks like
How we ought to live and to work there have been times in my marriage when my wife has gone somewhere and gotten lost and been very frustrated and called me and I've been able to be like alright I've been able to get on Google I've been able to pull up Google Maps I've been able to say tell me the road you're passing I figure out where she is and then I say what's the next one
So I can figure out what direction she's going and then I'll go okay because I'm looking at the map I can see things she can't see and I'll say when you see this take a right and you know what she gets to do she gets to she doesn't always do that but she gets to calm down listen to what I'm saying because I can see stuff she can't see she gets to then begin to trust
She gets to begin and it brings joy in that moment and what he's saying is that when we're reading the Bible and we're talking to God and we're going I'm like if I was saying look I can see the road you need to turn right the building's over there it's going to be on your left and she was going I know you're saying that I'm feeling a left and be like baby I don't this is right you go on two roads and then right
I'm going left like this would be it would be silly and what he's saying is that when we read God's word we don't have to go with this feels right to me we get to just trust that he's right and that brings joy to us it brings rest to us and ultimately it brings us into joy whether we see it or not it will ultimately lead us to joy so there are things that God steps in
And says you can't have this we were at my parents house yesterday my son I think all they feed him is jelly beans when he's there because he'll say because his grandmother man he'll say go man's house eat jelly beans that's what he says when we were there yesterday we let him eat a lot of jelly beans because it's like it's just it's just one day you guys and just
Whatever jelly beans he didn't sleep well last night he shared that with me but if he did that every day it would rob him of joy and and sometimes all we can see is the thing that's right in front of us and God steps in and says I know you really want that but you can't have it because I want to rejoice your heart over here and you won't
Get there through this there's things that we say I just don't understand why God would say that I just don't I don't see what he's talking about and the answer to that often is right but we get to trust that he's right and that it's going to rejoice the heart eventually one of the examples of this
I believe it's worked out in my life with my wife and I we got married I was a Christian I believe that husbands should lead in the home and I kind of stopped there I was like I'm supposed to be a leader and I imported with that like a whole lot of machismo and leadership looks like being the boss you know what I'm talking about
So I brought that in that worked well you guys so we would get in arguments one of the things I would do is I'd get really angry because I'm good at that and then I would leave the room and I would go post up somewhere usually at a table put my arms on I'd sit like this maybe flex a little bit try to get my traps going
Something like that just I would make her come to me because I wanted her to have to like I wanted there was like this position of power like I was a king or something she had to like enter into my domain and then we would dispense with like I would do this my wife's really stubborn sometimes she didn't come but it's like alright we'll see
Who's going to sit longer but what I realized was I had left the bedroom she could go to sleep like what am I going to do but I began to read in Ephesians 5 and the Lord kind of trained me in this Ephesians 5 says that the husband is to love his wife like Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her and as I began to read that and study that
And kind of sink in that soak in that I began to believe that what that meant was I tried to think about how does Christ love the church we got ourselves into a mess by our sin and he took the pain on himself to get us out and so I felt like God was leading me to regardless of how the conversation started regardless of how the argument started regardless of whether she was wrong
Or I was wrong I had to take on the pain to get us out and so one of the ways I began to do that was to try to lead in repenting first I should be the first person to begin to own sin because that's what Christ did for the church he stepped in and owned our sin and that was not fun and very difficult to be so extremely right and have to go in and admit where you were wrong
It's hard and really sometimes you'd have to go in and say I agree with the position I took earlier but I'm going to need to repent for the way I talked about it the way I treated you my attitude because I were sincerely and severely wrong we're going to still have to talk about this but we got to talk about this issue first and it's actually brought joy in our marriage that
We would not have found otherwise and I would not have agreed that that was how leadership worked until I saw Christ doing it and his scripture revealing it to me and for the record I'm still not great at that but Jesus paid for my sin you guys so there's hope still in verse 8 it says the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes
That it's crystal clear it's pure other versions might say radiant that it lights things up it helps you see it's what it enlightens the eyes it makes things clear some of you maybe you grew up and you shared a room with siblings or you went to school you had a roommate or maybe
You have a roommate now or you got married and you've tried to get ready in the dark tried to get dressed in the dark or move around a room in the dark and you slammed into something or put your clothes on inside out anybody just me I'm the only person who did
This like you've run into something in the dark okay what he's saying is scripture lights stuff up for us it shines a light in areas we would not otherwise have light we would not otherwise be able to see we would not have clarity some of you right now in your life
Are jumping up and down swearing and holding a stubbed toe and the word of God would have shown a light in that area some of you you can stub your toe in the daylight you can be reading your bible and still stub your toe
I'm just saying some of you could be avoiding some things that's what he does he lights things up for us nine the fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever the rules of the Lord are
True and righteous all together so they had clean and unclean laws and they would have to whatever was unclean they would have to clean it and what was clean got to stay and what was unclean had to be rid of and so
What he says is fearing God trusting him revering him is clean it it lasts the fear of the Lord is this submission to his bigness and
His goodness and that it lasts it endures forever and that his rules are true and righteous all together ten more more his rules
This is his word more to be desired are they than gold even much fine gold sweeter also than honey and the drippings of
The honey come so we understand that gold is valuable but we don't deal in gold much don't have a lot of gold I
Don't think you have a lot of gold I don't think you keep up with your money in pounds so what they had they
Didn't know anything about high fructose corn syrup and that's why we invented scientists to take something almost as useless as corn and turn
It into something as delicious as mountain dew I don't know for you what he's saying is it's so valuable it's like money that
God's word is so valuable it's like money it's so sweet it's like honey I don't know for you that treat that delicacy that
If you find out like you're on a diet or something but it's like oh well that's here that's excusable it's on my list of
Things I can always eat no matter what I don't know what fits in that so I don't know for you if that's like
Your mama's double layer chocolate cake or pecan pie I don't know if you're like it's like the hot now sign at Krispy Kreme
Like jerks your car off the road like it was a magnet what he's saying is for our family it's a cookie cake like
We make up excuses we're like it's summer let's celebrate with a cookie cake like we we want to have just get them to put
A sign on that thing and we think about it and look forward to it and what he's saying the word of God is
Like that it's it's not only valuable it's sweet it's enjoyable so I think right here he blasts a hole in something kind of
Jerks the rug out from under us whenever we say and we say this often I would read the Bible I'm just too busy
I've got too much going on I would read the Bible I and a little bit it's like David that's such beautiful poetry but
I kind of wish you hadn't put it in here because what he says is that no God's word is more to be desired
Than money so if you called me and said hey what are you doing on Saturday and I was like nothing and I I
Need you to come work with me for 10 hours I said what I had said when I said nothing what I had meant
Was if you said hey man I want you to come work with me for 10 hours because I got this deal I worked
Out with a food truck when we get done I'm going to hand you $2,500 cash I got 10 hours on Saturday I was free
I will call my wife and I say hey baby you are going to watch our son all day long by yourself and then
When I come home I hand you $2,500 cash and she goes to say $2,500 cash and then we go dance because I suddenly
Had time because we'll all make time for what's valuable we'll make time for what's valuable you're making time for that those extra episodes
Or that new season that you're waiting to have drop on Netflix you'll make time for the training that you want to do you'll make
Time for the thing that you find enjoyable restful you'll make time for the articles you want to read about the sports figures you
Want to read about and the stats you need to memorize so you can keep up with who the recruiting class is you'll make
Time for the things that matter and what he says is the word of God is better than gold even a lot of shiny gold
It's better than money it's sweeter than honey and he just when we say we don't have time he walks over and snatches that
Out from under us because he says no you'll make time for what matters so verse 11 moreover by them is your servant warned
In keeping them there is great reward so he says they're better than gold they're more to be desired than gold they're sweeter than honey
And more over I'm warned and I'm rewarded through your word that it should be valuable to us desired by us longed for and
So I would just say this we got to start making time for the Bible gotta start making time to read gotta start making
Time to study and I don't know where you are on this if you've never read the Bible you've never messed with it or
Maybe you want to but you just don't want to start we'd love to talk with you afterwards and try to give you some
Pointers if you're in a community group talk with your leader but just reading a verse a day in your Bible or setting a
Timer or making a rule that I'm not going to brush my teeth until I've read the Bible that's a good one too by
The way for those of you brush your teeth because if you tie it to something that's already a habit it'll help you do
It maybe for you you're like I read some but I'm kind of inconsistent so maybe I'm going to get a partner someone else who's
Going to read along with me someone I'm going to talk through this with but I'm going to figure out a way because this
Is more valuable than gold I'm going to figure out a way to make time for it because I do need wisdom and I
Do need warning and I do want reward and I do need my soul to be revived because I'm exhausted married couples with kids
Little kids one of the things we talk with people about is just kind of block for each other so husband you get home
From work take the kids so you got an hour you got 30 minutes just sit catch your breath you got 30 minutes I
Want to get your Bible out I want you to read or maybe we get up early in the morning earlier than the kids
Do maybe we go to bed at night we trade off who's putting kids to bed so the other person can read with them
I heard recently of a mother who said she has too many children and too little time so she can't read the Bible so
She memorizes it so it can read it you memorize it maybe if you are at home with little kids like I am some
It you are going to turn this verse into a song because right now I could sing so many dag moana songs and maybe
If I could start singing some scripture it would stick with me better teach it to my son I don't know we got to
Figure out a way to not neglect this they originally would have listened to the word most of them were illiterate so it's perfectly
Fine for you to get an app that reads the Bible to you that reads it to you on your way to work that reads
It to you while you while you run if you're one of the people that really has a hard time reading maybe you do
Both maybe listen to it while you read we we made those Psalms books on that table over there they have three maybe for
Some of you it's just you need to get more consistent in it so we've got devotional set up for three times a week
To read the Psalms and then it gives you some ways to think about it and follow up but we need the Bible verse
12 As we finish up this morning who can discern his errors so he kind of he asked this rhetorical question so he just
Said moreover by them your servant is warned and keeping them as a great reward and he says who can discern his errors and
Then he says declare me innocent from hidden faults and so David has just made a turn here because what he was doing a
Second ago was telling us how great the what he what he done let's read this I find it very interesting and helpful verse
12 Who can discern his errors that's a rhetorical question that means nobody nobody can see where they're wrong like they need help you ever been in an argument with somebody and it was so obviously
Clear how wrong they were they just couldn't see it and you had already told them very clearly multiple times you even at one point
Yelled it loudly because maybe they were hard of hearing they had not noticed how wrong they were and in that moment they're thinking
The same thing you just can't see how wrong you are and David just steps in and says yeah who can tell where they're wrong
And the answer is nobody but he says who can discern his errors declare me innocent from hidden faults so he's telling God I
Need you to make me innocent from all the sins I can't see I don't even notice I become blind to keep back your
Servant also from presumptuous sins a lot of versions of the Bible will translate that willful meaning that I'm intentionally stepping out of balance so
He says I need you to forgive me I need you to declare me innocent you catch that when he says declare he just
Saying I need you to make a call on it I have sin it's a hidden sin I just need you to say you're
Innocent I need you to declare me innocent and then I need you to keep me back from all the times I want to
Intentionally sin let them not have dominion over me and that interesting about willful sin so often we intentionally choose that sin and then
Eventually it owns us it has dominion over us it has begun to rule so we willfully chose it of our own free will
Because it was inside of our power and suddenly we realize it's not in our power anymore we're in its power he says let
Them not have dominion over me and then he says then if you do that if you declare me innocent if you keep me
Away from willful intentional sin and if you don't let them destroy me and own me then I'll be blameless and innocent of great
Transgression let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight oh Lord my rock and my
Redeemer this gives me so much hope did y'all catch what David just said as he ended this he said the word of God
Is perfect it's righteous it's true it's good it'll give you wisdom and you almost think that the conclusion to this is so get
The word and you'll be fine read the word and you'll be fixed if you can just memorize the law if you can just
Be moral enough but what he say he says all this about the word and then he says God I need you I need
You to declare me innocent I need you to keep me from sin I need you to keep sin from owning me I need
You to change me inside and out and then I'll be okay and ultimately because the written word leads us to the proclaimed word
And the proclaimed word points us to the incarnate word ultimately this is all fulfilled in Christ that he's souls and through faith gives
Them life he revives the soul that he's pure that he's certain and he he's the ultimate wisdom of God that what was hidden
In frailty and darkness and laid in a tomb was God actually working to bring life that he's he's right and he brings joy
To the heart that he's pure and we only truly see correctly how God designs us to see when we understand fully the gospel and
What Jesus has accomplished for us that he makes us clean so that we might endure forever that he's true and righteous all together
And that he is better than gold and sweeter than honey and more to be pursued and more to be desired than anything and
That ultimately he does exactly what David asks shows us our sin but then he declares us innocent because he gets to be for
All those who run to him a rock and a redeemer get to bank everything on him you get to put all your chips
On him you get to build your life on the rock and then he rescues and redeems that's that's the Christ the Jesus that
We meet in the scriptures where he fulfills for us what the psalmist is telling us today so church family we need this you
Need this life's too hard there's too many decisions to make there's too much going on too much that's difficult and painful too many
Areas where we need wisdom and we need wisdom beyond our ability to argue and hash it out and figure it out and we
Need God to step in and clarify for us and we need ultimately to read the written word so that we can be reminded
Of the proclaimed word of what Jesus has done for us and so that we can spend time with and enjoy and worship the
Incarnate word of Christ to know him to love him and to see what he's accomplished for us to be able to rejoice and
Be revived and rest we got to figure out a way to make time for something that is as valuable as this let's pray God we
Thank you for your grace we thank you for your word we thank you that you did join us in humanity to accomplish for
Us what David asked of you that through faith in Christ we can be declared innocent and we can be set free from sin's
Dominion we pray that we would learn to love you as you are revealed to us through your scriptures that we might grow wise
Through your word that we might have joy and life in Jesus name amen