Psalm 19, and we'll commence at the start of this psalm, the verse one. And the title says to the chief musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a wreath. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. 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. And 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 thy servant warned, and in keeping off them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Amen. May the Lord bless the reading of his precious word this evening. And so we come to another Psalm of David. A psalm penned by the man who is called the sweet psalmist of Israel. And the subject matter of this psalm can be easily divided into two main sections. Matthew Henry outlines that there are two excellent books which the great God has published for the instruction and edification of the children of men. This psalm treats of them both and recommends them both to our diligent study. Two excellent books God has published for us and you may be thinking there's just one. Two if you count the Old and New Testament, but normally we look at that as one book, the Bible. So what is this other book? Has Matthew Henry lost the plot? Has the pastor been influenced by something that is wrong? No. Matthew Henry says two excellent books, and we have the book of nature, the book of creation as we see around us, and then we have the word of God, that special type of revelation God has given to us. Henry Law said that Two witnesses proclaim God's glory. His works and his word are in harmony together. John Calvin again says that. David, with a view of encouraging the faithful to contemplate the glory of God, sets before them in the first place a mirror of it in the fabric of the heavens, and then the exquisite order of their workmanship, which we behold. And in the second place, he recalls our thoughts to the law in which God made himself more known to his chosen people. And so Calvin says, the heavens, as we look around us, and nature, heavens, the world that God has made, it is a mirror of the glory of God. It shows us his glory. And that is what the Psalm says, the heavens declare the glory of God. And when we look up into the stormy night, what do we see? I think the last few nights we've seen fog, but if the fog were to be moved away and we looked up, well, we probably would see clouds then, but if the clouds were gone, we would see the stars. We would see those stars that God has placed in the heavens. created by God himself. I remember some years ago, I'd been in Australia, and there was a family in the church, and they took me camping, and well, we didn't have tents, and we went to one of the national parks in the peninsula where I lived, and we went in four-wheel-drive vehicles off-road to this beach, and we camped on the beach, And we camped really in heavy duty sleeping bags. And we zipped the sleeping bag over our head, it was like a mosquito net, where the sleeping bag, I suppose where normally you would put your head out, but there was this net that went over it to protect you from mosquitoes and, I don't know, maybe snakes and different things like that. And you lay on the sand. And I remember gazing up into the heavens. And I think it's one of the very few places I've ever been in the world where there was no artificial light. Not an artificial light to be seen. And you saw the beauty of the stores. You were miles and miles and miles from anywhere. And across the bay, we had the sea. And then we had, again, War National Park. And it was just empty of human interference in regard to artificial light. And it was beautiful. You saw what the psalmist was speaking about here. The heavens declare the glory of God. And what is David emphasizing here? He's emphasizing the revelation which God has given to man. And we must know that in our natural state as finite beings, we would know absolutely nothing about God. When did you first hear about God? Someone had to tell you. And how did they tell you? Well, they told you from the word of God, because God reveals himself in his word. But God also reveals himself in nature. We'll come to that shortly. But when we think of revelation, the principle of God revealing himself to man answers this question. Why do we do theology? Why do we study God? Well, we study God because he reveals himself to us. We study because God has spoken to us. And that's the foundation of all of Christianity. And that's a truth that we need to understand as God's people, that God has spoken through his revelation, and therefore we have a duty, not as Christians, set that aside for a moment, we have a duty as human beings, as God's creation, to listen to the revelation that he has given and even more so being Christians and being his people. And that is the truth we need to stand upon. God has spoken through his revelation and we must discern what that revelation is. Many charismatic churches add to this revelation, even reformed churches add to this revelation. because they add their own ideas and doctrines and practices to scripture. We see that all throughout the church and we need to know God and we do so through his revelation and we need to know his revelation and know what he's teaching. Know what he's teaching. The session, the elders of our church could make perhaps all sorts of rules for us to follow. We could make A rule that, well, we have to wear white. Everyone wears white coming into church. That sounds silly and absurd, but we'll use it as an example. And we come into church only wearing white clothes. Where's that found in the Bible? It's not. And so we can very easily, in more not so crazy ideas, bring things into worship, bring practices into the church, bring practices into our own lives that have absolutely nothing to do with God and no basis in His word. And therefore, for us, it is important to understand what He's saying to us. And we see this in nature, firstly, we see this in His word, and there's a duty upon us to abide by that. When we think of the world, And we think of worldly ideas coming into the church. The greatest critique of the world is the Word of God. And it is the Word of God that we must hold to in our doctrines and practices as the Church of Christ. we can turn to the Scriptures. And in past days, in the membership class, we've done that as well. We do that every Sunday. We turn to the Word of God to see what the Word of God teaches us. Why do we believe what we believe? Well, we see that in the Word of God. And the greatest critique of the world and worldly actions and practices in our lives and in the church and in society is the Word of God that we must hold fast to because that is God's revelation to us. And so God has revealed himself in two ways, natural or general revelation through the works of creation and providence, the heavens, for example, and then special revelation. He reveals himself through dreams and angels and miracles, primarily centered on and revealed to us in the word of God as well. And scripture being part of that revelation, we see the dreams and angels and miracles in the word of God. Those were special ways that God revealed himself, We believe now the word of God is complete, that that does not happen. But when we think of the miracles, Christ's miracles, healing the lame man, making the blind to see, these things point to the gospel and what Christ would do for us spiritually in the gospel. They reveal something of Christ. Christ makes the blind sinner to see. And that is something we see through him making the blind man to physically see. It points to a spiritual truth that reveals something off the truth of Christ. And so tonight we have before us God's glorious revelation to man. God's glorious revelation to man. And there are three simple things we see in this Psalm. We see David's proclamation regarding natural revelation. And we as the people of God, must love natural revelation, we must proclaim it, we must stand firm upon it. Henry Law said, debased and senseless is the mind which creation's wonders feel to touch. Back on the beach if I had gazed at the night sky and it meant nothing and I looked at the stars and there was a cold heart and I didn't rejoice in the wonder of God. I didn't rejoice in the beauty around me. I didn't take in that moment and be absolutely thankful I could be there and experience this, not merely a human experience, but looking at the heavens that God created in such a unique way. Well, I would be absolutely senseless, debased as Henry Law said, because the wonder of creation was not touching us. When I first saw the Rocky Mountains, I was driving to Banff several years ago, driving myself, and I saw the mountains in the distance. They became closer and closer and closer. And what's your reaction? Certainly first time. And even now, when I drive through the mountains, you see the wonder of creation. You see the power of God. You can't help but look in amazement. The unseen person can't help but look at the natural beauty and wonder. And of course, the unconverted appreciate that as well. Banff is not a Christian settlement. It's a settlement for everyone. And everyone appreciates this, but the Christian looks at it and sees the glory of God. And so he proclaims about natural revelation. We have the heavens in view specifically, the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars. And this psalm sits alongside Genesis 1 in showing forth the glory of God in the creation of this world and therefore as believers we should have a strong affection for this psalm because this psalm teaches not only that God created the world but that the world itself and the heavens declare his glory and creation declares the glory of God and in a day when men will force their sinful theories, their wicked ideas upon the mind of others and upon the mind especially of children. We need to remember the truths in Genesis 1 and here in Psalm 19 because these passages form the foundation of scripture and the foundation of God's revelation to us and as a result of that our faith. If God did not create this world, if the heavens do not declare his glory because he is the creator, then the Bible contains fundamental errors from its very first chapter. We might as well close the meeting and go home because we're here in vain. The creation of this world by God is the absolute foundation of our faith. If God did not create this world, we are wrong. We're wrong in everything. We're wrong in accepting God's inerrant word. We're wrong in salvation. We are wrong in seeing sin as what it is. And we might as well pack our bags and go home and never come across the door for church again. But thank God it is true. His word is true. And that is why it is so important to defend the creation of the world. It's an important part of Christian apologetics. And here in Psalm 19, it is an important part of what David is saying. This world, the heavens declare the glory of God. There's fundamental truths here that we cannot deny. And of course, we can bring in creationism, the six-day creation, the importance of standing upon that, and the importance of rejecting this world's idea of how the world came to be. It is vital. It is vital. I find it hard to understand Christians who will reject a six-day creation, but yet many will. Some churches have an open view on the six-day creation. or on creation itself. So in other words, we have an open view, for example, on baptism, on eschatology, end times, to a certain extent. But imagine having an open view on creation. You can believe, as a member of that church, in the literal six-day creation. You can believe that it was the result of God used the process of evolution. You can believe in an old earth and all sorts of other ideas. The gap theory, where the world was created and destroyed, and then God rebuilt it. And we can have all sorts of ideas of man's imagination trying to bring the record that man says is there regarding fossils and millions and billions of years, and bring it in line with God's word. And it's man's ideas, instead of simply believing what the word of God says and realising man is wrong. And so we must believe as Christians what we have being taught here in this psalm regarding this natural revelation. It's an important doctrine of Christianity. We rejoice in justification. We rejoice in the resurrection of Christ. We should rejoice that God created this world. And all scriptural doctrine traces its roots back to the events of Genesis 1 and to what David is explaining here for us, the glory of God in heaven. It shows forth, all creation shows forth the handiwork of God. So like evidence in a court case, creation exposes or it makes known the handiwork of God. It shows this did not happen by chance. In verse two, it emphasizes the perpetual unchanging nature of this testimony. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. If there was a particular event that took place, and you were the witness of that event, and people were denying that that event actually happened, well, basically, This verse would be you constantly saying it happened, constantly saying, this is what I saw. This is what happened. And I saw it with my own eyes constantly. constantly repeating it, constantly going on and on and on and on about what happened. Those who object certainly get mad about it. And that's what we see here in this verse regarding creation. Creation stands day unto day, night unto night, every year, every century, constantly showing forth the glory of God. In verse 3 to verse 6, we see the creation does not speak with an audible voice, but yet its message is seen and heard by all. We could refer to Romans 1 as well, that this revelation is enough that they are left without excuse. However, when we think of this revelation, Spurgeon emphasizes it does not touch the sense by which faith comes. Faith cometh by hearing. And there's a problem with natural revelation. Our Westminster standards say that although the light of nature and the works of creation and providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men unexcusable, Romans 1, yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of his will which is necessary unto salvation. In other words, you can't look at the Rocky Mountains and see the way of salvation. You can't look at the ocean or go to Stanley Park and walk around and through the trees and the water and the flowers and the birds, see the way of salvation. It is not sufficient because of man's sin, because of man's sin. And therefore, there needs to be another revelation. It's a revelation that still glorifies God, that still shows his glory and still shows his power, but because of the sin of man, We need something else, but yet man is still inexcusable. And so the confession of faith goes on to speak about this other revelation. We can refer to that as the word of God. And we see secondly then, David's magnification of special revelation. In verse seven to verse 11, he focuses on upon the special revelation of God, namely the law. We can look at it as being the word of God, that which God has given to us. and the entire word of God that is revealed. Matthew Henry said that the Holy Scripture, as it is a rule both of our duty and of our expectation from him, is of much greater use and benefit to us than day or night, than the air we breathe in or the light of the sun. And so there's a number of things said about the law of God. Firstly, we see that in verse seven, it is perfect. The scriptures are free from corruption because they are inspired by God. It is a perfect word. The doctrine and instruction revealed by God is therefore perfect. Perfect. And it converts the soul. The practical effect of the scriptures is conversion. And dear believer, we're to believe the law of God is perfect. If we don't believe it's perfect, then where is it wrong? Is it wrong everywhere? Therefore, Did God actually create this world because scripture says it? Did Christ actually die for us? How do we discern what is right and what is wrong? The word is perfect. Perfect in all that it says and all that it teaches. And we must believe that and trust in that because the testimony of the Lord is sure. We see that again in verse seven. Those things revealed in his word are sure and certain. We can think of sin, depravity, the atonement of Christ, the truths that are steadfast and immovable. And that is a sure testimony that gives wisdom and understanding to the simple. And we can rest upon it. Is your heart not encouraged when you look at the word of God and you believe what God says? You believe what God says. You believe the truths and the comfort and the help that comes. We see the statutes of the Lord are right as well. Moving in to verse number eight. And these things rejoice the heart. There is joy found in righteousness. And if you desire righteousness and read about righteousness and desire to practice it in your life to the glory of God, it's something to rejoice in. Something to rejoice in. If there was a member of our congregation who engaged in great sin and immorality, and that came to the notice of the church, what would be our reaction? We would mourn, we would be grieved, we would be saddened. But if we saw those within the church who turned from sin, and live for Christ, and we see believers who are part of our congregation growing in their faith, living more and more unto Christ, living more and more to righteousness, would we be saddened? We'd be rejoicing. And that is what the psalmist is saying here. The statutes of the Lord are right. These things we're to walk in. They're right things, they're good things, and we rejoice in these things. We rejoice in these things. Sometimes we look at other Christians and Maybe, truth be told, they're more spiritual than we are. They're closer to God than we are. We're not to be jealous. We're to desire that same strong relationship. But we're to rejoice. We're to rejoice in how close they are with God. That'd be an example to us as well. But we're to rejoice in that. We're to rejoice in that. We're not to be jealous that some are closer to the Lord than others. we're to rejoice, we're to rejoice. The commandment of the Lord is pure, we see that verse eight as well. It enlightens the eyes, it enlightens us, it teaches us regarding righteousness and regarding our need of Christ. The stain of sin is not found upon the law of God. And therefore, as we read the law, it's a good thing, it's a pure thing. It's something we should follow. We should have a fear then, verse nine. The fear of the Lord, this reverence and respect to the Lord is something that is clean. There's a spiritual effect here. That's cleanness, inward piety, or the fear of the Lord. is a good thing, and that is lacking today. And how do we get that? Through meditating upon the law, the revelation of God. To have that reverence and that respect for God, we must read his word. We must meditate upon his law. We find as well, his judgments are true. God's judgments are true and righteous altogether. And so in verse 10 and 11, moving forward, More to be desired are they than gold. We see David treasured the word. We ought to treasure the word more than the wealth of this world. More than the wealth of this world. What is our attitude to the scriptures? To that revelation that God has given? Is David here speaking in such a way that you're thinking in your mind? He's took my thoughts and he's written them down himself. He's took what I think about the word of God and he's, as it were, stolen my ideas and stolen my thoughts and wrote them down himself because I think like this. I believe the word of God is like this. Oh dear believer, that should be the case. We should love the revelation that God has given. That revelation we see in heavens and especially that revelation that he has given through his law. And what is David's resolution then, thirdly, based on God's revelation? Verse 12, who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. It's a prayer for cleansing. Our faults and errors are viewed in light of the scriptures. Examine ourselves. The word of God contains what ought to be our definition of sin and ungodliness, and therefore all our actions should be contemplated in the light of the teaching of scripture. And the result would be a sorrow for sin and a prayer for forgiveness. And David's resolution here is to be cleansed, not from merely public sin, but from secret sin, the sins that nobody else sees but Him and God. He's concerned about those sins. We should be concerned about those sins, the sins that nobody sees but us and God. He wanted to cleanse of all sin outward, but also inward, those sins that were hidden from society, those sins that were hidden from those close to Him. He did not want to have a good outward appearance and be rotten inwardly. He wanted to be clean and cleansed from secret faults. Is that what we want? The revelation of God is so powerful within our lives. The law of God is working within us. Those secret sins we want rid of by the grace of God, by the grace of God. Verse 13, again he prays, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. He's praying again. Spurgeon said, this earnest and humble prayer teaches us that saints may fall into the worst of sins unless restrained by grace and that therefore they must watch and pray lest they enter into temptation. There's a natural proneness to sin in the best of men, and they must be held back as a horse is held back by the bit, or they will run into it. Oh, may the Lord keep us from those sins. May we not run into those sins, but through his word and through his spirit, keep us from falling into the worst of sins. Verse 14. David wanted a pure heart. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. He's resolving here. He's desiring the law of God applied to our souls, that he would be acceptable to the Lord in his heart. That he would have a pure heart. Oh, that we would have a pure heart. So we gaze upon the revelation of God and see his glory in creation. Let me see his glory in his word. May we see his glory in our hearts because he has worked within them, he has cleansed them, he has circumcised our hearts by his spirit. Matthew Henry says in closing, in singing this we should get our hearts much affected with the excellency of the word of God and delivered into it We should be much affected with the evil of sin, the danger we are in of it, and the danger we are in by it, and we should fetch help from heaven against it. This is what David's doing. This is his resolution. Because of God's revelation, he desired the Lord would work within his heart, keep him from these sins, that not only would God's glory be seen in the heavens and in his word, but in his own heart as well. by the grace and power of Christ. May we know that and may we experience that for his name's sake. Amen. Amen.