Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. I trust that you had a very blessed and beautiful Sunday yesterday, the Lord's day. "Better is one day in Your house, O Lord, than a thousand elsewhere." It is always a great thrill to be in the house of the Lord to worship Him and honor Him. One of the readings for yesterday was taken from Psalm 19. The Psalm 19 is one of the very familiar psalms. Mark Twain once wrote, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” Looking at verses 1-2, the first thing the Psalmist tells us is that creation declares God’s glory and creativity. Here, it talks specifically about the heavens and the skies. We get a picture of the sun marching across the sky in verses 5-6, an image of majesty. However, this is only a symbol indicating the broader sweep of creation. Everything in creation declares God’s glory and presence. Paul, in Romans 1:20, makes the point, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power, his divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made...” It is important to note that the psalmist says, “the heavens are telling the glory of God”. He clearly did not say, “the heavens are God”. This Psalm maintains a firm distinction between creation and the Creator. This is one of the distinguishing tenets of Christianity. Creation is not God. If you look around you today, you will see a lot of people who want to embrace spirituality. Many, in fact, have forsaken the Living God and worship the creation, "Mother Earth". We see these people trying to revive paganism.
The first part of Psalm 19 talks about God revealing himself through creation, which theologians call “general revelation”. The second part of the Psalm talks about God revealing himself in a special way through Scripture. Verses 7-11 focus on this special form of revelation. This section gives us more detail about how God reveals himself through his Scriptures. Through creation God reveals glory. Through the Scriptures God reveals his will in His law, statues, precepts, commands, and ordinances. The Scripture is said to be perfect, trustworthy, radiant, and more precious than gold. Scripture reveals details about God’s character and his expectations of his creatures. Psalm 19 shows that God’s revelation in creation is enough to show that He exists and that He is glorious. It also shows that God’s revelation in Scripture is trustworthy and is our guide for life.
Francis Schaeffer, one of the great thinkers of the Twentieth Century, explained the relationship between revelation in creation and revelation in Scripture this way:
"Finite man in the external universe, being finite, has no sufficient reference point if he begins absolutely and autonomously from himself and thus needs certain knowledge. God gives us this in the Scriptures. With this in mind the scientist can understand, in their ultimate relationships, the truths that he is looking at. "
In other words, because we are finite creatures we cannot grasp the foundational truths of the universe without God’s direct help.
Ultimately it is God’s Word that gives us certain knowledge about His character and desires. When we come to worship, seeking an encounter with this living God, it only makes sense that we hear his Word proclaimed. By hearing the Word of God proclaimed in worship, we come to a deeper understanding of who God is and prepare our hearts for a deeper relationship with Him. As we listen to God’s Word, we cannot help but be affected. In Isaiah 55:11 God speaks to his people, “... my word that goes forth from my mouth, it will not return to me empty, but I accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” God will accomplish his ends through his word. Hebrews 4:12 tells us, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow, it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The Word gets inside of you and it will affect you. It will either soften you towards God or harden you against God. Therefore, the more exposure you have to the Word, the more it gets inside you, the more it shapes you into the creature God intended you to be.
Just as God reveals his glory through creation, He reveals his character through Scripture. God uses this knowledge to shape his worshipers. In Psalm 19:12-14 we have a prayer for forgiveness of sin. Here also we have a prayer that our words and thoughts might be pleasing to God. David is praying that the Scriptures would have their effect on him. In response to God’s revelation, He has repentance for his sin and a desire for doing what is right. Now he asks for God to forgive him and to empower him for Christian living.
We all know the story of Helen Keller, the little girl who was blind, deaf, and unable to speak. We know about how Anne Sullivan persisted in teaching her how to communicate, first by writing letters on her hand, then by reading Braille. Anne even taught her how to speak by the time Helen was 10. Shortly thereafter, Helen Keller was introduced to Phillips Brooks, the famous Episcopal preacher from Boston. They sat knee to knee, and Brooks began to tell Helen, while writing the letters on her hand, the story of Jesus. Suddenly, Helen jumped up and croaked out, “I knew him. I knew him. I just didn’t know his name!” Somehow she knew him. She knew he was there, but only in the shadows. It took Phillips Brooks proclaiming the story from Scripture to for it to click. The shadows that she knew in that dark and quiet world became clearer through the light of Scripture proclaimed to her. If it was so for her, will it not also be so for us?
In Christ,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAerTz_c8nc
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