"The Grandeur of God and His Word"

"The Grandeur of God and His Word"

(Psalm 19)

By Keith Kobelia

Dr. Keith Kobelia with us. He's of course, a professor at faith.

We're glad that he's back again to share the word of God with us. So I'm going to have you come up and preach to us this morning. Okay, good.

It's good to be here with you again. And I think most of you have been here when I've been here a couple other times, and I appreciate the opportunity to come back again. I am a professor at Faith Baptist Bible College.

I'm actually in my 10th year, so I'm not quite well, a little over halfway through my 10th year, so ten years is getting close. It's been a good time there. Appreciate your support of the college.

I know you do have some connections there, students and former students and things like that. This morning I'd like to continue working through some psalms. The past couple of times I was here, I spoke through some psalms.

And part of that's because last year I did have the opportunity to teach a Bible elective on the book of psalms. And so the book of psalms is on my mind, and what I did is I kind of looked through my files and there were a couple of psalms I wanted to restudy to redevelop some material that I had before. And I'd like to look at a familiar psalm here today.

Psalm 19. Psalm 19. And this is a psalm that you're probably familiar with, but I think it has a very interesting development.

I think it has a very practical bearing on our relationship with the Lord. So let's go ahead and read psalm 19, and then we will look into it in our morning time here together. The title says to the chief musician, a psalm of David.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day and today utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out throughout all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them. He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

Its rising is from one end of the heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant worn, and in keeping of them there is great reward who can understand its errors. Cleanse me from secret faults.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and shall be innocent of the great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, o Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Let's go ahead and pause for a moment of prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your revelation to us, and we pray that you will help us to be attentive to it.

Pray you'll help us to listen to your word, not just in the corporate time here this morning, but that your word might penetrate our lives and really influence our relationship with you. And we pray that as we look into the psalm, it might be encouragement. Help us draw closer to you, and we thank you for your many blessings upon us.

In Jesus name, amen. When we speak, we like people to listen to us. Sometimes you might send an email to someone and you might be waiting for a response.

And waiting and waiting and waiting. Yes, I have some coworkers that I've sent emails to and I've never gotten a response. We like to get that response right, especially when we have something we're trying to organize or something like that.

As a parent, sometimes we give our children's instruction and we expect that they will hear those instructions and follow them. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. Sometimes it's heard, but not really listened to.

Right. If we're honest that we've all been in that situation, we've heard something from a parent. And I'm thinking back to the time when I was growing up and sometimes we didn't heed it the way that we should have.

As a professor, I like students to listen and for them to pay attention in class is a good thing. I have a class on the Old Testament prophets and I say that the Old Testament prophets were often ignored and completely. The audience was completely unresponsive.

And I somewhat jokingly say there's not a lot of difference between an Old Testament prophet and a college professor sometimes, right? Because they're speaking and it's like, is anyone listening out there? Hello? Yes, as a preacher, I guess we like to be listened to as well. Now I'm setting an expectation I want to listen. Right, okay, well, that's natural.

Right. And the point is that if we, as people, like other people to listen when we speak, how much more should we listen to God when God speaks? Right? If God speaks, we should listen. And God has revealed himself to us.

He has spoken to us, and we should respond to his revelation. We should listen to what he has for us today. I'd like to look into psalm 19, and it does help us reflect upon how God has revealed himself to us, first of all in creation, and then also through his word, and then actually gives us some of the practical ramifications, some of the practical impact of God's revelation to us.

So as we looked at in the title, there it is, a psalm of David. And of course, David was a shepherd. And I can just imagine him reflecting on those nights with his sheep when he could look up into the starry heaven and see the glory of God.

One of the things that our kids bemoan a little bit is we live in Ankney, and you have a lot of light, so they can't see the stars very well. So every once in a while they try to go out, look at the constellations and stuff like that and match things up, but they can't do that very well. But you can just imagine in the ancient world, he's out watching the sheep, and he can see the glory of the stellar heavens.

And that's where the psalm here starts. He also was someone who was very close to Lord and desired God's word, the law that had been given to him. So we can learn a lot from David's words here.

The title also says that it is for the chief musician. This is for the music director. So it's intended for worship, and it's intended to be used in the public worship of the ancient Israelites.

Now, as far as the form of the psalm, it is often classified as a wisdom psalm because it gives us some principles for how we live. There are different types of psalm. Some are praise psalms, and of course, those would praise the Lord for his greatness and his goodness.

There are laments that basically express sorrow over the situation that the psalmist is in. And there are other types of psalms. This one is a wisdom psalm and really gives us some principles that can help us in our life.

Okay, it's giving us information, but that information actually does have practical bearing on our relationship with the Lord, as we'll look at in the last part of the psalm. Now, as the psalm develops its structure, you probably saw that there are some fairly radical transition points. The first six verses basically talk about natural revelation, God's work in creation, and how that declares his glory.

Verses seven through eleven talk about the word of God. And then we have what's known as special revelation. Okay, God's communication to us in written form, and then it has a personal reflection in the closing of it where it calls for cleansing.

We'll look into each of those sections here this morning. So our basic point is that God has communicated to us and we should live in light of our knowledge of him, that God has communicated and we should live in light of our knowledge of him. Again, David, the author here was a man after God's own heart, and we can follow his example in responding properly to God's revelation.

So first of all, we want to see that we should stand in awe of God's glory in creation. We should stand in awe of God's glory in creation. So you do have a handout.

I have limited blanks today, but creation is the first blank. Normally I have more blanks, but I made it too easy for you today and I filled in a lot of the blanks so you don't have to do a lot of work. We'll take it easy on you.

But as a professor, I normally have more blanks to try to keep people engaged. Anyhow, you have most of the outline there. But God wants us to stand in awe of his glory in creation.

And really, that's where the first stance of the first six verses direct us. And again, God wants us to know about him. He's communicated to us, and this is purposeful.

God could have just left the world to go its own way and stayed in heaven by himself without any regard. But God has communicated to us. He wants to have a relationship with us, and he has declared himself in a couple of very important ways.

Now, just to give a little bit of categories, a few categories as we begin here. We mentioned it already, but there's a difference between what's known as natural revelation and special revelation. And this is our theology class today.

So natural revelation would be God's communication of himself through ordinary means, primarily through creation, but also through conscience and things like that. And God has communicated in ways to all people that point us to his presence and his glory. Again, creation would be the primary one, and that's the one that the psalmist focuses in on.

But there's also special revelation where God has broken into human history and communicated in other ways, like dreams and visions and even miracles, things like that. The incarnation of Jesus and the form of special revelation that the psalmist focuses on. Here is the written word of God, the law of God.

Okay, so there's two categories, and we'll look at both of those in time as we think about creation. Creation shows the glory of God. And I remember the first time I was really to the Ocean.

I've been to the Gulf of Mexico, but the first time I was really at the ocean is one of the times I went to Brazil. I taught a class there for a missionary friend of mine, and they were close enough that they brought me to the ocean. And the ocean is really, really big.

You look out in the horizon, you see these huge ocean tankers. Now those are the freight ships and things like that. And there's just this little speck on the horizon.

It's going and it's looking, it's inching along. It kind of gives you a perspective of how big the ocean is. Perhaps you've been on a plane trip.

If you've flown internationally, you've gone over the ocean. And there is a lot of ocean. The ocean is really, really big, and it's huge, it's powerful, it's vast, and God is control of all that, and it points us to the majesty of the creator.

Unfortunately, many people resist, they ignore, they try to explain away the evidence for God in creation. But I think it is there and it is obvious. So that's our first point in verse one.

The glory of God in creation is obvious. It's obvious. The first verse says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork, the heavens.

Here are the starry heavens. The term heavens can be used in different ways, but he's using here of the visible heavens. So we read in Genesis one, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and probably the heavens there includes even the angelic realm and things like that.

But here we're focusing on the place where there's the stars and the planets, the sun and all that. And as you look into the starry heavens, you can see the glory of God. They declare or rehearse how God is great and how he is declared in these things.

It's like the heavens are personified and they are speaking out God's glory. The term glory there is the term for honor or splendor, and it shows the importance of God in parallel structure. Here we then are turned to the firmament, which is the expanse of the sky, again a synonym there.

And everything that we see in the heavens points us to God and shows God's majesty. They show his handiwork, and this is basically his deeds. Okay, so the creation very obviously points to a creator God.

Unfortunately, many reject that revelation of God. However, the evidence is clear and loudly speaks of a creator and of one who put these things into place in just the right way, that everything is perfectly balanced and that it holds together in God's intended way. So again, here we have natural revelation where God is speaking to himself through creation.

And really it transcends languages and locales. And we'll look at that here as he focuses in on the sun here in just a moment. But the majesty of creation is evident, and it is obvious to those who look into the created order.

Not only is it obvious, but it's also universal. It's universal. And we see that picking up in verse two, the day and today utter speech and night, and tonight reveals now there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out throughout all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. The glory of God in creation is universal. Wherever one goes, the testimony of creation is there, and it is clear that it is the work of God.

This natural revelation is inescapable. You can't go anywhere and not see the glory of God. It begins by talking about the day, day and night.

And basically the idea is that any part of the day, whenever you can get up in the middle of the night and still see the glory of God in the stars, you can be awake and see God's glory through the sun and other means of other aspects of creation. Excuse me. So he is basically saying that these items utter speech.

Now, the irony here is that they aren't speaking, but they speak. One commentary calls the irony of speech, or the paradox of a wordless speech, that even though they can't speak words, they are communicating a message. Again, that's what natural revelation is.

It's pointing toward the creator God. And wherever one goes, it is obvious that the day and the night, they reveal that there is a creator God. Verse three is a little bit more difficult, and you may have a version that reads a little bit differently.

Like the ESV says, there is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. But again, it's pointing to the idea that even though they aren't words, they're heard. And in whatever version you have, it's clear that that's what the idea is, is that even though creation doesn't speak to us in sentences and paragraphs, it speaks a message to us.

It's God's communication to us, and it is universal. And wherever you go, you can see the evidence of God's creative work. He talks about their line going out through all the earth.

And basically, the line here, or the voice, is the testimony that goes forth, and it is seen throughout all creation. We see this also in Romans, chapter one, that there is a testimony of God in all the earth. And the things that are seen give testimony to the things that are unseen.

And the things that we see in the created order are really a universal testimony to God's greatness. God's glory is also inescapable. It's universal.

And that kind of correlates then with the idea that it's inescapable, that we can't get away from it. So verses four, the end of verse four. On through six, he actually uses a specific illustration, the sun.

Okay? So he says the end of verse four. In them, he has set a tabernacle that's in the heavens. He set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

It's rising us from one end of heaven, and it circuits to the other end, and there's nothing hidden from its heat. Okay, so he is talking about the sun being set in the heavens. And the idea is that it has a tenant kind of goes in and out in its cycle.

So it's kind of making a word picture here where we can vision the sun and its daily cycle. It's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber on the day of one's wedding. One should be excited.

That's kind of the idea here. It's eager and the sun doesn't tire. It's always up, we'll say, at the crack of dawn.

Well, I guess by definition, it has to be up at the crack of dawn, right? Okay. But it never tires. And it's like that bridegroom rejoicing in the day of his wedding.

He gives another illustration here of a strong man running its race. I like to jog a little bit. I'm not always excited about it.

Once I get going, I like it. But sometimes it's not very excited. But it's the idea of an athlete who is just chomping at the bit to get to his competition.

And again, the sun doesn't tire, and it is strong and effective in its work. It's rising. It's talking about the sun in verse six.

It's from one end of heaven. It circuits to the other end, and it runs the circuit on a daily basis. And that's kind of the idea here.

And at the end of it says that there is nothing hidden from its heat. So you could ask, well, what about the person who's blind and can't see creation? Well, they still have the testimony of creation because they can feel the warmth, they feel the effects of the sun. And even if you are limited in your senses, you still have the testimony of the sun to give honor to God and points us to God's glory in creation.

So God has revealed himself to us in the created order. And we see that that is obvious. We see that it is universal and that it is inescapable.

Creation should point us to the God of creation, and we have to recognize his greatness and praise him for his mighty works. His works are evident, yet there are those who ignore this testimony. As we look into creation, we should continually be pointed toward God and be impacted about by his greatness and to have that influence us.

The psalmist continues on in verse seven, there's a rather abrupt transition. He's talking about creation. We're kind of tracking along, and then all of a sudden he moves into a completely new idea.

The law of the Lord is perfect. Now, I suggest that it's not just he lost track of his thought. I think there is a correlation here, and I think that it's a different way that God has revealed himself.

So God has shown us his glory in creation, but God has also revealed himself in his written word. And we should understand the value of God's written word. So we should stand in awe of God's creation, and we should take time to look into creation and just reflect upon God's greatness.

But we should also understand the value of God's written word. And I think the next set of blanks is written word. Natural revelation is good, but special revelation is better.

Special revelation gives us God's communication in written form and gives us more details about God's nature, about his relationship with mankind, and gives us details that natural revelation are unable to communicate. So special revelation provides more detail and more testimony about who God is and then points us to the relationship that we can have with him. So special revelation is important.

And as we think about God's written word, we have in verses seven through nine a series of statements where there really is a parallel form here, where there is six descriptions in parallel structure. There is a name for the word of God, a description, and then its effect. And you are probably familiar with this passage of scripture.

But in these verses, the Lord is describing the word of God, the law that David would have had, that would have been the content of God's written revelation to him. And he gives six different titles for the word of God, describes it and shows its effect for individuals. And we'll go through these just quickly.

We don't need to get too bogged down. The overall perspective here is that the word of God is really good. And hopefully you agree.

Hopefully that's why you're here today, to sit under the ministry of the word and to realize that God's word is good. So all these descriptions show that God's word is good and profitable to mankind. He begins, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

Again, the law of the Lord, that's a familiar term for the first five books of the Bible. And I think that's primarily what David would have had in mind. Here is the law of Lord, and it's perfect, it's whole, it's complete, it's without lack, it's flawless.

As the idea and the perfection of the word of God revives the soul, has the idea of converted. It can transform us. And I think it does point us to the idea that God's word can help us grow and helps us to grow and develop in our relationship with the Lord.

So again, it has a very practical benefit continues on at the end of verse seven. The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise of the simple. The testimony has the idea of something that gives testimony, gives witness to, and the primary reference here might be the ten Commandments.

Some scholars suggest. Either way, it's talking about that written revelation that gives witness to the Lord. It's sure, or the idea is faithful.

God's word is faithful and it endures forever. It's reliable and trustworthy, and it is a sure foundation for life. In it, we have the value then of making wise the simple.

And with this, we think about the book of proverbs and how the proverbs helps give instruction for the simple person to grow and to learn and develop. And we have instruction that can help us grow in our christian life. Says the statutes of the Lord are right.

Rejoicing the heart at the beginning of verse eight, and statutes again is another synonym for the word of God and has sometimes translated as precepts. It's another synonym. And incidentally, a lot of these same synonyms are found in psalm 119, where there's a number of names for the word of God.

As the word of God is exalted in psalm 119, here the term precepts is used, and they're right. And this is probably in the moral sense. They're morally correct and gives us direction for our lives in a moral and ethical sense.

And they cause joy for us. They bring satisfaction, and they're something that is good for us. Then verse eight says, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

The commandment stresses the idea of the authority behind the instruction, that it's telling us what to do in a particular situation. And God does have the right to set commands and give those to us. And they are pure.

The idea is that they're clean, that they are without pollution. And of course, that reflects God's perfectly holy character with that. The benefit then is that they enlighten the eyes.

They give light, not in the physical sense, but they give us moral understanding, spiritual understanding that guides us into making right choices. A couple more descriptions here in verse nine. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

The fear of the Lord is kind of focuses on the human response. And again in wisdom literature, like the book of proverbs, it focuses in on the fear of the Lord. And that is the proper response to the word of God.

And I think it is used here with reference to the word of God. And they're clean. It's clean, it's pure.

Again, it's without contamination or pollution and endures forever. It doesn't change, but it is constant and it continues. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

He says the judgments is a legal term and has the idea of judging properly between options. And the word of God does give the basis for proper judgments. They're true.

The idea here again is reliable, faithful, again a synonym with some of the other terms that we've seen, and righteous altogether. As we put all these things together, we get the idea that God's word is beneficial and it is pure. It's good for us.

And there's things that God has communicated there for our benefit. Okay, so I think we can see that through the list here that God's word is very beneficial in our lives or that it is good for us. And again, good in the moral, spiritual sense.

It has benefits for us. Not only that, not only good, but it is desirable. It's good for us, and we ought to be in God's word because it does help us to grow and gives us guidelines for living and things like that.

But it's also desirable. Verse ten highlights that more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. And here he gives basically two illustrations about how desirable the word of God is.

That which is valuable and that which is sweet. So gold. Gold is not.

We don't use a lot of gold. But if I were to say, who wants more money, right? Most people would like more money, right? Because it helps us to purchase things that we need and things like that. And the lack of money causes stress in our lives and things like that.

And we've probably all been there at one time or another where we haven't had enough money to cover an expense. And then we're wondering what we're going to. So gold is valuable.

So it's something we desire. It's why we go to our job, typically, right? Because we need to have money to buy food to eat and things like that. So it's important.

And some people are overly consumed with wealth, and that's a problem. But gold is something that is desirable. It's something that we strive for because we do have certain needs.

Okay. He parallels this with the much fine gold. The idea is gold that is purified.

It's extra purified gold. And of course, there are different gradations of purity, of gold. And the pure gold is more valuable.

He switches on to honey. Honey would have been, of course, the sweetest substance in the ancient world. They didn't have the refined sugars that we have.

But if you can think about your favorite dessert. Who wants ice cream? That's a favorite at our place, right? Everyone in our family likes ice cream. And it's something we desire and something that we crave.

So the idea is the most valuable substance of the ancient world, gold. And the sweetest substance, honey. And the word of God is more desirable than those things.

Now, those things are good. The wealth and the sweetness are things that we crave, but we should even more crave the word of God than those other substances. And it's something that is desirable.

And we kind of catch a little bit of David's heart here as he expresses his desire to have God's word in his life. And the value of the Lord's judgments are far beyond those physical substances of gold and of sweetness, and they point to his character. So God's special revelation is better than gold or honey, and it's better because it's life transforming in the life of the godly individual.

So we should delight in God's word, like the psalmist did. The revelation of God, the special revelation that he's given to us, is also beneficial in verse. Eleven.

He continues on and says, moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. So he points toward the practical benefit, which actually then prepares us for the last stanza of the psalm, that God's special revelation is beneficial. It gives us warning, gives us admonitions, and there are times when the word of God gives us instruction that will help us to avoid the pitfalls of sin and will keep us on the right way.

It gives us warning, also says that in keeping of them there is great reward. And again, this isn't necessarily like a monetary reward, but there are good results when we keep God's word and the wise individual will learn the word of God and avoid the dangers of this life. So the word of God here gives us foundational admonitions and instruction that will lead us to a rewarding life.

So the psalmist here has been looking at the word of God, and it is good, it is desirable and it is beneficial. It's good for us, it's morally correct, it is desirable, it's something we should crave, and it's beneficial, something that helps us as individuals and keeps us on the proper path. So I trust that we have that same love for the word of God that David had.

And the word of God should be our joy, our delight and our desire. So then the question is, how do we respond to these things? Okay, if God has revealed himself in creation and God has revealed himself into his word, how should we respond? And that to me is kind of the interesting thing about the psalm is how it develops, because we seem to have a rather radical shift here again in verse twelve where it says, who can understand his heir? It's like, wow, where'd that come from? Okay. But I think there is a reasonable flow to the psalm as he's been talking about God's revelation himself in creation, then in the word of God.

And now we have what that response of the listener should be when we are confronted with God's revelation. And I would suggest that we should be transformed through our knowledge of God. We should be transformed through our knowledge of God.

So we've learned a lot about God and his word. And the psalm doesn't stop there. It actually gives us the practical implications of the revelation that God has given to us.

So again, in my classes I try to point out that our knowledge of God or what we know about God should impact our relationship with God. That is that our theology should then be practical, it should affect our relationship with God. What we know about God should then affect our relationship with him.

Does our knowledge of God transform us? I think it did transform David, and that is what we have here at the end of the psalm. He then begins by pointing out here that knowledge of God will cleanse us from sin. A knowledge of God will cleanse us from sin.

Again, if we have looked into the glories of creation, we've looked into his natural revelation, then his special revelation through his word, we can't be unchanged. We should be transformed. And it should first of all cleanse us from sin.

He says, who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Of course, these are rhetorical questions. He's not asking for testimony time here, right? But if we look at our own lives, we realize that we have deficiencies, we have sin, we have shortcomings, and how can we know these things? We can actually know them by looking into God's word.

And then he then has the prayer, cleanse me from these secret faults. I think that reveals some of the heart of David here is that he desired cleansing, he desired forgiveness or to be clean, to not be held guilty for his wrongdoings. He wants God to expose those wrong things and to transform his practice.

So again, I think we see how his knowledge of God then causes him to call to God, to pray to God for cleansing. And I would suggest that as we study God's word, as we get to know him better, we should desire to be cleansed and we should desire to be forgiven on our sins, even on a daily basis. He says in verse 13, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

So knowledge of God not only causes us to desire cleansing, but also will protect us from blatant sins. And the idea here of a presumptuous sin probably goes back to provisions in the law of what's known as a high handed or a presumptuous sin, where David didn't want to do something, that he defiantly disobeyed God. And as we have a knowledge of God's word, we'll be kept from that type of attitude, that type of behavior, where we sin in a way that we totally disregard what God has said and have a rebellious attitude.

And I think that that's what the psalmist here is talking about. The presumptuous sins, again, are willful or deliberate violations of God's commands. And we have illustrations of this back in the book of numbers, chapter 15.

We don't need to turn there, but there's actually an individual who commits a blatant sin. He actually is gathering stones on the sabbath. And basically he completely disregarded what God had said.

And David wanted his knowledge of God and God's word then to keep him from having such a heart of rebellion, and then he would be innocent of this type of sin. Finally, a knowledge of God will help us to please him. And this is on the positive side.

God's word not only transforms us, keeps us from sin, but on the positive side. In verse 14, he wants the word of God and his knowledge of God, then to build into him words and thoughts that are pleasing in God's eyes. Verse 14 says, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

And a knowledge of God should help us to please him. And he talks specifically about the words. This is his speech, the things that he says.

And he also couples that with the meditation of his heart, even our thoughts. And I trust that as we're in God's word, that it'll help transform us and help both our speech and even our thoughts to be pure in God's eyes. Okay? There's lots of things that we can think about that are negative and bad, and eventually that comes out in our speech.

But David here is saying that may his whole thought process and then the things that he say be guided by God's word and to be pleasing in his sight. He says he wants it to be acceptable. And the idea is that there's an evaluation and it's something that is right and proper or can have the idea of pleasing.

And then he calls to him as his strength and his redeemer, realizing that God is the one who provides the foundation for godly living. So to kind of wrap up our thoughts here again, we've seen God's revelation of himself in creation, his revelation of himself then through the word. And I think this does apply to all of God's word, even though in David's context he would have primarily had the law of Moses in his mind.

But then the practical application then that we should have a right relationship with God because of our knowledge of him. So as we kind of close things, we have a couple of implications I would like to share with you as we think about the application or implications of psalm 119 in our own lives. God's word should be transformational and our knowledge of him should change who we are.

And sometimes there is a false dichotomy between knowledge and practice. But I think that as Bible believing Christians, our knowledge of God really should affect our practice. Okay.

As we think about this. First of all, the first implication is that we should reflect on the grander of God and his word. And again, sometimes we need to just appreciate what God has done and the revelation that he has given to us, both in creation and in his word.

And I think we should be stand amazed that even though God is great and almighty, he has chosen to communicate to us, and he has chosen to have that line of communication so that we might know him. Again, God is not distant or unknowable, but he has reached out to us and communicated to us, and we should listen to that. I should mention here that the fact that God has communicated to us means that we should listen to that, but that means we should have a relationship with him as well.

And that's one of the reasons why God has communicated to us, is so that we can have a right relationship with him. And we know from the New Testament that that relationship begins with faith in Jesus Christ. And we need to start that relationship and to have that communication, to accept that communication of God through Jesus Christ in our lives, accept Jesus as our savior.

So we should reflect upon the grander of God and his word. We should cultivate a love for God's word. And I think that that is seen particularly in the middle part of our psalm.

Here we catch the psalmist's passion for the word of God, that it's not something that was uninteresting or boring to him, but something that he desired, something that he longed for. And I trust that we likewise will have that love for God's word as God has communicated to us. I trust that we love being in God's word.

We then also need to obey God's word, and that's a natural response. And then does kind of lead into that last stanza that it's more than just knowing God's word, it's more than just knowing the facts of the Bible, stories and things like that. But we also need to obey what God says, and that is an important ramification of knowing God's words, that we then ought to do it.

Knowledge of God and of his word should lead us to obedience. And again, sometimes this involves self evaluation as we evaluate our practice, our own thoughts in light of God's word, but then we ought to be willing to obey it and to be changed in light of it. This is an ongoing process.

The process of sanctification as God's word helps transform our lives. And that leads us to our final implication here is that we should be transformed by our knowledge of God. And again, as we see, God has communicated himself to us.

We ought to be transformed by our knowledge of God, and I trust we do catch the heart of the psalmist in this passage here, that he had seen God's glory in creation. He knew God's written revelation, and as a result he calls out for purification and that he might be transformed by God's word and be pleasing in every aspect of his life. And I trust that we likewise will look into God's word.

We'll look into what he says there to reflect upon the relationship that we have with him, be sensitive to sin and desire to be pleasing to him. And I trust that we'll follow David's example in this desire to know God and to be transformed by that knowledge of him. Our father, we do thank you for your communication to us.

We thank you that you have revealed yourself in different ways, and they point us to your greatness and to your moral goodness. And we trust that as we look into your revelation of yourself, you'll help us to be transformed. Help us to live lives that are righteous and holy and pleasing in your sight.

Help us to be encouraged this morning that you have revealed yourself to us and that we can have not only a right relationship with you through Jesus Christ, which we all need, but then we have the resources we need to live a sanctified life for you. Pray to continue work in our lives. Help us to honor you in all things.

In Jesus name, amen.