Ever wonder why Psalm 19 begins by talking about the heavens and God’s glory, and ends with a discussion of His law? And why the sun is described as a bridegroom? Learn how these these pieces fit together seamlessly!

<p>Ever wonder why Psalm 19 begins by talking about the heavens and God’s glory, and ends with a discussion of His law? And why the sun is described as a bridegroom? Learn how these these pieces fit together seamlessly!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Ouachita Hills College

Scott Burgess

The Heavens Declare His Glory


Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to morning worship here. Before we begin, let us open with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for the chance to explore your word together. May the words expressed this morning draw us all close to Jesus.

And may you please use us to draw others to you, we ask for your sake. Amen. All right, everyone. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm 19, beginning in verse 1. Psalm 19.

This is a passage that should be familiar to us. We have a scripture song that deals with this. Let us consider verse 1. It says, what the heavens declare the what of God? The glory of God, that's right.

And the firmament showeth his handiwork. Now in Genesis chapter 1 the firmament is said to be simply another word for the heavens. So in other words here in verse 1 it's saying the same thing 2 different ways the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament which is the heavens declaring the glory of God is the same as showing his handiwork all right now a little detail here It doesn't actually say handiwork if you're going to be very literal to the Hebrew. It says the work of his hands. Now the idea is the same, yes, but it does say the work of his hands.

Now why is this important here? Can we go back a few pages to Psalm 8, verse 1, and I think we'll see something here that should make us say, oh, okay. Psalm 8, please. Psalm 8, verse 1. Notice it says, O LORD our Lord, literally, O Yahweh our Adon our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy, what?

Thy glory above the heavens. Ah, there it is. He has set thy glory above the heavens. That sounds very much like Psalm 19 verse 1. Now, if you would drop down here into verse 3, Psalm 8 verse 3, notice what David goes on to say.

He says, when I consider thy heavens, the work of thy... It doesn't say hands this time, it says the work of thy fingers. So the heavens, Psalm 19 says it's the work of his hands. It's a little more specific. It tells us what part of his hands.

It says it's the work of his fingers. In Psalm 8 verse 1. Well that's fascinating. Let's pause about it. Let's just think what maybe he's trying to tell us there.

When you think about God and his finger or fingers, do any passages of Scripture come to mind? What do you normally think of? There's a few places. Ah, Jesus, when he was with the woman caught in adultery. He used his finger to write on the ground.

He wrote down the various sins of the people, their transgressions of the law. What else? Daniel 5, that's right. We have the handwriting on the wall. The hand appeared and the fingers of a man's hand were writing the pronouncement against Belshazzar, again, because he had been unfaithful to God and his law.

Now, of course, 1 of the most famous passages of all is what? Of course, the 10 Commandments, yes, which were written with the finger of God. You might also realize in the book of Exodus there are 2 things. There's the 10 Commandments that were written with the finger of God, but also you may remember that early on during the 10 plagues, the magicians of pharaoh, they had recognized that God was at work and they said this can be nothing other than the finger of God, his judgments against us, based on again their violation of the 10 commandments, which in chapter 20 he explicitly gives and they are said to be written with the finger of his hand. Okay.

Now, what does all this got to do with each other? Let's hop back to Psalm 19. Psalm 19, it said again, the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament, the same thing as the heavens, showeth the work of his hand. Psalm 8 clarified it's the works more specifically of his fingers. Could it be that when we consider the heavens, when we look up at the sky, are we supposed to see in at some object lesson that tells us about his law, about say the 10 Commandments?

Could it be? Well, I'd like to suggest that just maybe that's the case. After all, when you consider the sky, when you look up at the sky on a normal day, not a rainy day, not nighttime, just you know in the middle of a normal wonderful day, what do you see? Well some say clouds. Yes what else?

You see a blue sky right? It's blue. It's the color of God's law right? Remember? He got that the Sapphire stone Exodus 24 verses 10 and 12 tell us that the stone that was provided for the tablets for the 10 Commandments was the sapphire stone under God's feet, the base of his throne.

What else? If you were in outer space, if you were on the space shuttle, or if you could imagine yourself flying along on 1 of these satellites out there and you were to look down at the earth you would see largely a blue planet because of all the oceans about 70% of the surface of earth. Earth's surface is is water. So the planet is meant to be blue. When the angels are looking down toward this earth, watching all that's going on, God always meant for this place to be a place where his law would reign.

Things have gotten out of control since sin entered the world, but it was always meant to be that way. If you consider, the Bible says in Isaiah 66 verse 1 that the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Okay, well what's so significant about a footstool? Well the footstool is the base of his throne, which is where his law is. But if you would like to see something even more clear, notice there is another text that equates the idea of a footstool with not the earth, but with the Ark of the Covenant.

First Chronicles 28, verse 2, it says here, David is giving his reasons. He'd wanted to build a nicer temple for God, something better than just the ragged remains of Moses' temple after so many centuries. And he says, as for me, I had in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of Yahweh for the footstool of our God. Ah, so the footstool is the ark. Remember, God's presence would rest there in the sanctuary, atop the Ark.

And inside the Ark were the 10 Commandments. So the Ark is indeed the footstool of His throne, as it were, in which are the 10 Commandments. In the Psalms, it tells us that the habitation of His throne, it says here that justice and judgment are the habitation or more literally the foundation of Thy throne. Well justice and judgment are all part and parcel of the 10 Commandments. The 10 Commandments are literally the foundation of God's throne.

Fascinating, huh? Psalm 97, 2 says, righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne. Again, the 10 Commandments. So, back in Psalm 19, now we're prepared to understand the psalm better. The firmament, the heavens, show the work of His hands, the work of His fingers.

It's supposed to be a revelation of the 10 Commandments. The angels, when they look at the earth, they are to see the footstool. They are to see a revelation of the 10 Commandments. That's what they're longing to see. Right now we're a far cry from it, but that's what we're supposed to do.

But you see, when you read the first several verses of Psalm 19, you say, oh that's beautiful, yes the heavens declare His glory. But then later, beginning of verse 7, I always thought it just seemed to be sort of a second half the Psalm that seemed much very unrelated to the first half. It says, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Verse 8, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Verse 9, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together. But see now we're prepared to understand it. He was saying that as we look about us in nature, we're to see object lessons that point us to God's law.

And then later in the psalm, he actually starts talking about God's law. See it all fits together it's not 2 arbitrary beautiful units that really don't have anything to do with each other that are joined together. No they have everything to do with each other. It says 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, in keeping of them there is great reward.

Who can understand his errors, verse 12, cleanse thou me from secret faults. Verse 13, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins, let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright. I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Doesn't that make more sense now? But if you want to cap it all off, right in between those 2 sections, where it begins with the heavens declaring God's glory, the firmament showing his handiwork, and the latter part talking explicitly about his law. In between, please notice the second half of verse 4 and then verse 5, please. In them, that is, in the heavens, hath he set a tabernacle for the what? For the son, S-U-N, which is as a what?

Bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. Oh this is beautiful. Notice there, he has set a tabernacle. That's the same word that we use for, say, Moses' tabernacle. It's a tent.

A tent for the sun. The sun has a tent. The heavens are a tent, a sanctuary for the sun, really? But notice, When Jesus says he is going to return, he says he's going to shine his lightning from the east unto the west. As we see the motion of the sun each day, we're to see a picture of Jesus, of his coming.

But then it says the sun also is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. Really? Well, when Jesus comes, you read in Revelation the 19th chapter, you read exactly that. Please turn with me to Revelation 19 and let's see what it says. Revelation chapter 19 and in verse 7 there's a rejoicing in heaven and it says, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb, which is Jesus, is come and his wife has made herself ready.

And then just a very few verses later, beginning in verse 11, John says, I saw heaven opened. Ah, the tabernacle is being opened. And behold a white horse and he that sat upon him, well of course that's Jesus. And he's coming for his bride with the angels of heaven in attendance. And then notice a few verses later it says, verse 17, I saw an angel standing in the sun.

We won't go into any detail here, but suffice it to say that this is a 1 of many instances in Revelation where the angel represents Jesus. I saw an angel, namely Jesus, standing in the sun. Ah, it pictures him as the bridegroom. The bridegroom. He is coming for his bride there.

Psalm 19, in them the heavens hath he set a tabernacle for the Son, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, his bridal chamber. He's ready to receive his bride. Do you see how Psalm 19 is structured now? The heavens declare God's glory. It shows the work of his hands.

It's an object lesson of his law. The last part of Psalm 19 is all about the law and how beautiful it is. And smack in between is the 1 who can write that law in our hearts, the 1 who longs for us to be his fully submitted bride. And he will soon come for us. I hope this has given you new light on this passage.

May this go with us today. Let us close in prayer, shall we? Father in heaven, we thank you for the beauties of the Psalms. We thank you today for Psalm 19 and a little assistance from Psalm 8 there. We thank you that you have given us in nature, not the law itself, but reminders of the law.

When we look up we see a blue sky we're reminded of your law. When we see the clouds in the skies we're reminded of the angels that minister for us who shall be heirs of salvation. When we see the sun rising and setting we're reminded of the coming of Jesus who will come from the from the east and even on to the west. We thank you for your law which is perfect it converts the soul it doesn't save us but it is your instrument used to convert us it points out our sin and our need of a Savior that drives us to You, the Bridegroom who is soon coming, longing to write Your law in our hearts. May we allow You to do that today.

We thank You, we praise You, may we be an honor to you in this sin-darkened world. May we lead others to Jesus for your sake, we pray. Amen. Audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse or if you would like to listen to more sermons, please visit www.audioverse.org

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The Heavens Declare His Glory

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