Transcript

During today’s time in the Word, we’ll be looking at the description of God’s Word found in Psalm 19:7-11. Thank you for joining us.

In his biography of General Douglas MacArthur, Rendezvous with History, Major Courtney Whitney recounts an incident that occurred during the Korean War on the night preceding the Inchon landing. General MacArthur planned to encircle the North Korean forces that had driven south to Seoul and cut off their supply lines from the north.

If successful, the strategy might not only accelerate a drive toward victory, but more important, save the lives of some 100,000 U.N. troops. It was a daring scheme.

While encircling an enemy force was not a new strategy, it had never before been accomplished by way of the sea. Furthermore, the peculiar tides and unfavorable terrain at Inchon militated against an amphibious landing of troops.

Yet, that also contributed to MacArthur’s decision to proceed, because of these impediments, the North Koreans would be caught unprepared for such a maneuver.

On the night before the landing, Courtney Whitney, who was aboard the flagship Mount McKinley with General MacArthur, retired early in anticipation of the action at dawn. He’d been asleep only a short time when he was summoned to MacArthur’s cabin.

He found the General in bathrobe, pajamas, and slippers, pacing the floor. Whitney was told to be seated. MacArthur in a kind of self-debate talked as he walked the cabin, reviewing one by one the argument against the proposed landing in the morning.

MacArthur then countered with the reasons for the surprise assault. Finally at about 2:30am, he concluded that his decision was a sound one. “Thanks, Court,” the General said to Whitney. “Thanks for listening to me. Now let’s get some sleep.”

Then Courtney Whitney added these words: [General MacArthur] threw off his robe, climbed into his bed and reached to the table alongside to pick up his Bible.

Why the Bible? Why not Virgil or Shakespeare or Bunyan or Tennyson or Hemingway? Can anyone live day-by-day, year after year, by Virgil? Is there life and power and comfort of temporal or eternal value in The Divine Comedy.

What poetry or novel, however great, will hold its freshness when read again and again or committed to memory? The Bible, on the other hand, possesses the power of life. It gives us teaching for conviction, restoration, and education in righteousness.

It reveals God in His fullness thru Jesus Christ. It strengthens, encourages, comforts, challenges. It’s a lamp to the feet, a light for our pathway. Not only day-by-day, but year by year, decade after decade, it can be read over and over again until its words become a part of life itself. Yet it never grows old or out of date.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Psalm 19 is intended to convey to us the significance of God’s revelation. First of all, in verses 1 through 6, we read of God’s general revelation in nature. God has revealed Himself in the heavens, verse 1 says, which declare His glory and show His handiwork.

So we learn that God is revealed in His creation. But there is even a more specific way God is revealed: the revelation in His Word, and to that David turns in verses 7-11.

Psalm 19:7-9 says, “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 for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Notice the structure of these three verses. There are six lines of thought. And each of those six lines has three elements. It has a title for the Word of God, a characteristic of the Word of God and a benefit of the Word of God.

The titles given for the Word are: law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear, and judgments. All of those are titles are descriptive of the Word.

Its characteristics are, it is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean and true. Its six benefits are, it converts the soul, it makes wise the simple, it rejoices the heart, it enlightens the eyes, it endures forever, and it is altogether righteous.

Six times in these three verses we read “of the Lord.” The law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the judgments of the Lord.

And so we are shown where the revelation of the Bible proceeds from: the Lord. It is His revealed mind, heart, and will.

The first title for Scripture is “the law.” The word for “law” is torah. Torah means “instruction, direction, teaching.” It comes from a word that means “to shoot an arrow.”

The law had specific aims and commands for Israel to hit, but they “sinned” a word which speaks of missing the mark. And we all miss the mark of God’s righteous standard.

Now David lived under the law. The Scriptures they had at that time was the law. They were not under grace, but under law. That’s why He speaks of God’s Word by the law.

The law gave God’s instruction for Israel’s whole way of life under the law. They had to live by the law, keep the law, bring the proper sacrifices when they broke the law.

The keeping of the law was required of them for the “converting” of their soul.

This program for Israel under the law continued down through the Old Testament, right into and through the gospels, and into early Acts.

Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.”

The earthly ministry of Christ was carried out under the law. He was born under the law, He kept the law perfectly, He instructed others to keep the law. This continued after His death, burial, and resurrection and ascension.

It wasn’t until the Apostle Paul, through the revelation given to him by the Lord that we learn as Romans 6:14 says, “For ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

As the law gave God’s instruction for Israel’s whole way of life under the law, so God’s revelation of grace for the Body of Christ gives our whole way of life under grace.

And it is by Paul’s revelation that we learn that it is now, not by the law, but by grace thru faith in Christ, not of works, that converts our soul now, not keeping the law. Under grace, it’s just believing the gospel: Christ died for your sins and rose again. But not then.

The law did convert their soul back then when David wrote this. So you have to rightly divide the Word. Someone could come along, and with the authority of God’s Word behind them, point here and say, “You have to keep the law to be saved.” “You have to keep the 10 commandments.” What would be your answer?

2 Timothy 2:15 is the answer. We must rightly divide the Word of truth. This verse was true to those living under the law. But we are not under the law, we are under grace, and it is by grace thru faith in Christ’s finished work that we are saved today.

Because the law is Scripture, you learn things about what Scripture is here though. It means the Law of Moses, but it’s characteristic and benefit speaks to the whole body of Scripture. The law is perfect. And the whole Word of God is perfect.

The law was dispensed from God to man. And so that’s true of the whole Word.

The law converts the soul, and that’s what God’s Word does. The Word is where we learn of God’s salvation. The law and the whole Word of God is “perfect” because it has come from God, who is perfect.

These characteristics which describe the Word of God, are each descriptive of God as well. As the Word is, so God is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true.

God’s Word is perfect, flawless and complete. Speaking of God’s Word, Psalm 119:96 says, “I have seen an end of all perfection: but Thy commandment is exceeding broad.”

There the Psalmist writes that in this world he’d “seen an end of all perfection,” that as far as man is concerned, in their moral character, and in any and all things in this world, he found imperfection, fault. There is a limit to all other perfection he had seen.

But as far as God’s Word is concerned, it is “exceeding broad,” boundless, unlimited, measureless in its perfection. He declares that God’s Word is absolute perfection. If you’re looking for something perfect in this world, look to the Word of God.

The Word is described as a “testimony.” All Scripture is God’s testimony. It is His witness to us of who He is, what He has said and done, & what He wants us to be & to do.

As you look at the testimony of God of Himself in the Word of God, you find that “His testimony” is “sure.” The Word is reliable, established, firm, unwavering, settled.

In contrast to the unsure, insecure, wavering, changing, shifting notions, reasonings, and opinions of men about God, life, morality, eternity, the Word of the living God is sure. It cannot be shaken. It gives security. It never changes.

The Word provides a solid, settled foundation on which to build your life.

Watch a half hour of news, or read online, and you see that nothing is settled. The world is gripped by chaos. Moral, social, political, economic problems abound, but solutions are scarce. Promises of solutions don’t deliver. The world is drifting rudderless w/ no direction.

Life is all questions and no answers. Because the world has pushed away God’s Word there is no concrete guideline or standard by which to judge good/bad, right/wrong. But if you want to find something “sure” and concrete in life, it’s found in the Word of God.

The benefit is “making wise the simple.” The root of the Hebrew word for “simple” is the idea of an open door. A simple person is a person who’s undiscerning.

They don’t know when to shut the door. They don’t know what to close out. They allow everything to come in, and accept it all. They’re not discerning. They’re naive.

They’re open to persuasion, open to being easily seduced and led away from the truth. You hear people say, “I have an open mind.” But that’s not a positive. That’s a negative. There are things to keep in and there are things to keep out. We need to shut the door!

And there needs to be discernment, to discern between error and truth. The simple can be made “wise” by the Word of God. God is all-wise and by the teaching and learning of God’s testimony, it brings true wisdom to our lives and thinking.

Wisdom speaks of taking the truth and not just knowing it, but living it out, it’s being wise in the art of godly living by the right application of God’s wisdom in His Word.

God wants us to know the Word to be wise and to know Him more, so we are not led astray, so we follow His wise path for our life.

The next title in v. 8 here for Scripture is “statutes.” It carries the idea of divine precepts, divine guidelines, rules given to guide and here given by God.

Statutes are God’s detailed guidelines concerning the practical matters of everyday life. The Scripture is full of statutes for living from God.

And as it says in verse 8, they “are right.” They show the true path. They give you right guidance. They guide you in the proper way to true understanding and right living.

We don’t chart our own course. And we are not to follow our heart, because Jeremiah 17:9 says “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”

And God doesn’t leave the believer without a chart or a compass. We’re not left to wander around in a fog of human opinion. We have Something and Someone to follow. We follow Christ by the Word of God. The path of God’s Word is “right.”

God’s Word is always right. It will never mislead us. It keeps us on the right path, with right guidance through this life.

The benefit of a walk on the path of righteousness by God’s Word is: “rejoicing the heart.” The Word of God testifies of itself that it is the source of joy. Jer. 15:16 says, “…Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.”

And when we walk in obedience to the will and Word of God and we move on that right path, it rejoices the heart.

Those who turn from the Word of God to psychiatrists or to drugs or alcohol, or to the sources for supposed joy that the world offers, the entertainment or temporal, material things in the world, run away from joy, not toward joy. (Brewer fan).

And they find less joy than they thought and find themselves further from the source of joy than before they left. The source of the believer’s joy is found in the Word.

“Commandment” is another way to look at Scripture. Here we find the emphasis on authority, on the non-optional character of Scripture. Scripture is authoritative because it is God’s Word. We have an obligation to obey God who is over and greater than all.

The Bible is not full of a lot of suggestions. There are commandments within it by God for our good. God does command and require in His Word, but for those who respond always find that God’s knows best and that there is blessing in following God’s ways.

We often only equate commandments to the law, but there are many commandments under grace. (Robert Brock book: over 300). Under grace, God both begs and commands. Because the Lord loves us, He commands us what to do and warns us what not to do.

And the Word of God which comes to us as a commandment from God, he says, “is pure.” God’s Word is just like its Author. He is pure so His Word is pure (Psa. 119:140).

God’s commands are pure and they lead to a pure life (vv. 12-14). In this world you can’t find perfection, it’s hard to find stability and security, what is wise, what is right, what is truth, where joy is found, and anything pure. But you can find all this in the Word of God!

And it enlightens our eyes. It gives clear direction for life. It open our eyes to see life and this world as God sees it and to see the way we are to go. It enlightens us in the darkness.

By it we see truth in this dark world which struggles to know what truth is. By it we see clearly standards of what is right and wrong, evil and good. By it we see Christ, who is “The Light of the World” and the salvation He has provided for us by the Cross.

The Holy Spirit teaches us, enlightens our eyes and gives spiritual light and understanding. He gives light on and thru His Word.

You and I have an eternal, objective, irrevocable, perfect standard we can depend on for all matters of life. We can see clearly by it for how we should live.

We’re taught how to be good employees and good citizens, how to love our spouses, to raise our families, to love our neighbors. We can see meaning and purpose in life by it.

We don’t turn to science to explain origin. We don’t turn to philosophy to explain life. We don’t turn to psychology to explain sin. All the light of life is in the Word of God. It is sufficient for clear understanding of all these things.

Tony Evans: There was a commercial not too long ago for Prego spaghetti sauce. A mother is cooking the spaghetti and the pot is full of what looks like a vibrant, red spaghetti sauce. The aroma appears to be filling the house. The son comes up and looks at his mother cooking the sauce and asks, “Mom, where are the mushrooms?”

She says, “It’s in there.” “But what about the sausage?” “Why, it’s in there.” “What about the ripe tomatoes?” “It’s in there.” Prego’s spaghetti sauce had kick and flavor, because of what was inside. Every time the boy looked for something to explain what he smelled, his mother would reply, “It’s in there.”

If you are looking for wisdom, it’s in the Bible. If you’re looking for transformation, it’s already in there. If you’re looking for power, it’s in there.

If you’re looking for peace, it’s in there. If you’re looking for a brand new you, it’s already there. The Lord has given you everything you need and you can learn about what’s available to you by reading and studying the Word of God.

“Fear” is used as a title for the Word. Scripture conveys the awesomeness and glory of God that it might bring about a good fear, a reverential awe of God in our lives.

The Bible teaches the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” God’s revelation teaches this reverence of God, it effects it, and maintains it.

The Word explains God as He is & we as we are. We are shown the set apart, high, infinite, massive, perfect, all-wise God, and tiny us. It reminds us how far we fall short of Him.

The Word then produces a proper reverence for God and teaches humility, that we might realize our need of Him, our need to respect Him and His Word, and to realize that His ways are higher and better, that we might be teachable and follow His Word.

The Word of God is clean. Our Manual for life is free from defilement. It is free from error. Free from corruption, impurity. It’s without flaw and therefore it needs no updating, no editing, no altering, no refining. It is clean.

You can go to it and know that what it says, it says without mistakes. The truth it conveys has no taint of corruption in it. There is no ulterior motives behind its teachings, but only God’s glory and your good.

You can always trust it as it endures forever. It’s trustworthy all the time. It is the living Word and the eternal Word. It is relevant always. It is dependable always. It will never change. It is always dependable, always relevant, always applicable.

It is not temporary. It stands forever. It is not destined to pass away. It stands firm now. It will stand firm forever.

Scripture is the “Judgments of the Lord.” Judgments refers to the decisions of the Judge, or divine verdicts, that are irreversible. God is not going to change His mind later.

The Bible is God’s judicial determination about the life of mankind and His provision for eternal life from the supreme Judge. And His judgments are “true” and “righteous altogether.” The Bible, like its Author, is true and righteous.

It is hard for people in the world to find truth. It is a battle to discover truth. The Word doesn’t argue that it is truth, it just says it is. Love that! It is because God says it is, and God cannot lie. So it is truth and it is always true. To find truth, we look to the Word.

And it is totally true and right, “true and righteous altogether.” “Altogether” speaks to it being comprehensively and completely righteous, right and the source of truth. From Genesis to Revelation and everything in between, it is true and it is right.

Psalm 19:10-11 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: and in keeping of them there is great reward.”

In realizing the gift that we hold in our hands with God’s Word, the perfect expression of His eternal will, David sees the value in it. It is unequalled in value. And he says the Word is to be desired more than gold. There is nothing more valuable.

The Word of God is the believer’s greatest possession in this world. To have the Word of God is more valuable than the most precious metal in this world. Man in his desire for gold have gone to the ends of the earth for it and have sacrificed everything for it.

But we have the very Word of God, and our desire for it should be so much stronger than for gold, because it’s more valuable than all the gold in all the world.

It is our greatest possession and it is our greatest pleasure, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Nothing is as sweet, nothing is as pleasurable, nothing is as enriching, nothing is as personally meaningful.

It is our greatest protection, and by it “is Thy servant warned.” It’s our source of spiritual protection. We are warned about the dangers of sin, temptation, worldliness, ignorance, selfishness, the company of fools, being unequally yoked, pride.

We need the Word. We need its strength. We need its wisdom for life. It warns us. We rightly heed its warnings. It is our greatest protection.

And it is our greatest profit. In keeping its truths there is great reward. It brings a rewarding life. It brings the great reward of knowing God, of knowing His salvation, of knowing our Savior, of knowing our sure hope in Him.