Read Me (Psalm 19)

Psa 19:1  To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Psa 19:2  Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.
Psa 19:3  There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.
Psa 19:4  Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,
Psa 19:5  Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
Psa 19:6  Its rising is from one end of heaven, And its circuit to the other end; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Psa 19:7  The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
Psa 19:8  The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
Psa 19:9  The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
Psa 19:10  More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Psa 19:11  Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.
Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Psa 19:13  Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

Psalm nineteen breaks-up into three distinct but connected sections:

First, in verses one through six, the psalm described God reaching-out to folks He has scattered all over the globe. He does it through Creation, in conjunction with having put eternity in the heart of every human being.

Eternity in your heart is like a receptor, sensitive to God’s continual broadcast of His glory through Creation.

Creation is His universal language, stirring the heart of every man. Those who see Him in it, and seek Him, will by His providence receive greater revelation.

The next set of verses – seven through nine – described the Law as the greater revelation; and by that David meant the first five books of the Bible. We would rightfully say it is the entire, completed Word of God, from Genesis through the Revelation.

David hinted at the power of the Word not only to save, but to sanctify – and by that we mean to empower the saved man or woman on to a life of godliness.

These closing verses focus on the walk of the person God has gone to great lengths to save. Conversion is just the beginning of what God has planned for you.

Psa 19:10  More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Gold is what is most valued in the material world. We have an expression, “the gold standard.” We use it to describe something that is the mark of excellence. We might say, for example, that Rolls Royce is the gold standard for automobiles.

“More to be desired than gold” immediately elevates you to heavenly places. It reminds you that the greatest business of life is spiritual, not material. Wealth here on the earth is corruptible; it is stealable. While we must live in the material world, our journey through it should always be along a spiritual high-road.

I find it interesting that in the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the streets are made of transparent gold. Our path in Heaven is going to be paved with gold, so we ought to walk on it now, so to speak, by seeing ourselves in the heavenlies with the Lord.

“Honey” is a natural sweetener. The Bible is a supernatural sweetener. Add it’s principles and promises to the cup you’re called upon to drink, and there is the sweetness of God’s presence.

Cups in the Bible are typical of what we indulge in, or what we are going through:

The apostle Paul says, “We cannot drink of the Lord’s cup and of the cup of demons” (First Corinthians 10:21).
Jesus spoke of His suffering of the Cross as a cup He wished could be avoided.

If yours is a cup of suffering, God’s Word will be its honey. You’ll need to find the honeycomb in your time of suffering, then add the Word that God gives you, to make the cup palatable.

Psa 19:11  Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward.

Warnings are an important part of life. “Bridge Out” is pretty important if the bridge you want to drive across is out.

But this word means more than that. The word translated “warned” means, to be bright, to shine; then, to cause to shine, to make light; and then, to admonish, to instruct, to warn. The essential idea here is, to shed light on a subject, so as to show it clearly; that is, to make the duty plain, and the consequences plain.

The Bible sheds light on you path, so you can see the direction of it, and the consequences for straying from it.

Stay on God’s designated path, and “there is great reward.” Obviously we’re talking about spiritual rewards.

This is important. We have a notion that if we obey the Lord, and do everything just right, that we will be rewarded now, as well as later.

Well, you can be rewarded with a sense of God’s presence and strength; but this side of Heaven, lots of terrible suffering is going to occur, no matter your obedience.

Job is the biblical example. He was targeted by Satan on account of his obedience. It was because he was so upright that he was poured a heaping cup of suffering.

Commentators like to point out how much Job was rewarded at the end of the trial. It’s true, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

But some of what “he had before” was irreplaceable. He lived with the loss of his original sons and daughters. It wasn’t something that his new earthly prosperity could compensate for.

Do you know the nickname commentators give to the prophet Jeremiah? He is called “the weeping prophet.”

Jesus is described as “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” The apostle Paul records his own discouragement at least once; and his anxiety, too.

The psalmists alternate between joy and despair.

What am I saying? I’m saying we walk by faith, not by sight, and can reckon God’s presence and His promises to be true. We can walk in victory over our circumstances.

But we need to get through to victory, and that can either take time, or hit obstacles. The human heart, and its hurts, is deep; trust God to deal with it.

In the city of Corinth, Paul grew fearful. So much so that Jesus appeared to him, to tell him to “Fear not.” That tells me I might have to endure until the Lord comes to me.

Enduring is victory while we wait for Him.

Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.

“Errors” is how David described those times he ignored God’s warnings. The incident with Bathsheba comes to mind.

When he inquired about her, his servants warned David she is a married gal: “And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

BTW – We commonly accuse Bathsheba of bathing on the roof. David was on the roof, and from that vantage point he did a peeping-Tom. From a roof, he could look down and into an otherwise enclosed courtyard.

It’s certainly possible that Bathsheba was trying to be seen; but that’s our speculation. And there are other clues in the story that reveal her as the victim.

David didn’t just interrupt a normal bath; he spied on Bathsheba as she was conducting a ritual of purification.  This strengthens the conclusion that Bathsheba was not trying to entice David.

Finally, Nathan’s parable in Second Samuel twelve puts the blame squarely on David. 

Looking back, on your errors, they seem so stupid. They aren’t worth the detour.

Adam Clark says of “secret faults,”

From those which I have committed, and have forgotten; from those for which I have not repented; from those which have been committed in my heart, but have not been brought to act in my life; from those which I have committed without knowing that they were sins, sins of ignorance; and from those which I have committed in private, for which I should blush and be confounded were they to be made public.

Psa 19:13  Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.

“Presumption” comes from pride and self-confidence. It was the devil’s downfall. It led to his great transgression – rebellion against God.

We are prone to pride. It is wise to acknowledge it.

Approach life with humility and you will stave-off pride. Someone defined humility by saying, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.”

Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.

This is a parting prayer. In light of everything David had said, he desired his thoughts and his actions to be “acceptable” to God, strengthened by Him Who is the Redeemer.

We started by seeing how God was talking to hearts through Creation; and how He brings greater revelation to those who respond, seeking Him. His Word is the ultimate communication.

There is a third testimony described in these last verses.

As we walk in the Word, in God’s strength, nonbelievers can see something they cannot see in Creation, and before they ever read God’s Word.

They can read you as God’s living epistle. They can see what it means to be loved by God… Saved… Forgiven… Filled with the Spirit… Hopeful of eternity.