What are you looking at? Word of God (Psalm 19)

One of my favorite expressions that we find in the portion that we just heard read from us by my brother Baker is the little expression, amen, amen. So oftentimes, when I go around a little bit, depending on how comfortable I feel somewhere, I try to teach people that it's a very simple word to say when somebody is done praying. It's just four letters, and it's not difficult to pronounce.

Some people like to say amen. Some people like to say amen. But as most of you know, I lived in Mexico for a very long time, and there's a good response when somebody prays.

So I just encourage you, because sometimes the man who is praying begins to wonder whether the rest of you are all asleep when he's done his prayer, number one. Or number two, maybe you don't agree, and therefore you're not saying amen. So that's just a little word of encouragement.

I'm not sure whether my brother Baker was going to go back to that or not, but I've taken care of that for him. So let's look at Psalm 19, please, Psalm 19. Now last night when he spoke, most of you were not here, I know, but I was here, and I had this feeling that he was going to go somewhere towards where I am heading this morning, but I make no apology for that whatsoever.

It's good to see each one here today, and trust that what we have to say will be an encouragement to our hearts. Psalm 19, reading from the title, 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 is 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 race. 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.

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 of 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." And we know that God will bless the reading of his word.

Now, many of you know, because I wander through this part of the world from time to time, many of you know that I love the book of the Psalms. Maybe all of us love the book of the Psalms. But I do love the book of the Psalms because there are many different reasons.

But one of the reasons is this, in a difficult and a challenging world in which we live, a changing world, we find a sense of equilibrium, a sense of balance, something that helps us maintain some semblance of sanity in what would sometimes appear to be a slightly insane world. I think that maybe it helps me maintain something of an even keel. Some might argue that I don't have an even keel, but something of an even keel in a world full of stormy seas.

So when I come to Psalm 19, I'm thinking especially of those who are younger today. Now, that doesn't give permission to anybody that's older than I am to go to sleep or anything like that for the next half hour. But I am thinking especially of those who are younger.

And I want to give you a little word of challenge. And if I were to put a title over my message, it would be this. Now, there's different ways that you can use these same words, and I don't want it to come across as offensive.

But you can use these same five words and say them in a different way and maybe give a different idea. So the simple question is this, what are you looking at? So what I see when I come to the book of the Psalms are four different looks. And that's what we want to see today from Psalm 19.

I was in B-town for the very first time on Tuesday when I walked out of the hall on Tuesday night at 9.20 p.m. I looked up in the sky and I saw a very large moon. I was hoping to see it on Wednesday night because apparently it was going to be even better yet. It's called the strawberry moon.

And I recalled in my vague memory that sometimes functions that a long time ago, I believe it was 2016, I was in the state of Iowa on this very same weekend and I was driving through Strawberry Point and there was a strawberry festival. I knew nothing then of the strawberry moon, but I have had lots of good strawberries here in this part of the world since I arrived. So you say, why are you talking about the strawberry moon? Well, David wants us to take a look upward.

Now, it doesn't work so much if we're inside an auditorium, no matter how nice it is. You can go to lots of different places in the world and look upward and see lots of art on the ceilings. That's not the case here.

But David says, go outside and take a look upward. Take a look upward. Because in our lives, we have the tendency, now, I don't know whether you have seen this or not, but sometimes I like to walk a fair bit and sometimes I'm walking down the street there in the city of Halifax or in other places as well.

And oftentimes, people almost bump into me. Now, it's not because they cannot see. It's because they're concentrating on something that probably they don't need to concentrate on.

So I would suggest to you that if you're outside from time to time, just take a little look upward. What David is teaching us is this. He wants us to wonder at the greatness of God in creation.

So that's why I was speaking about the strawberry moon. He wants us to slow down and think about how great God is and what he has done and what he has revealed of himself, even in creation. Now, you and I well know that that's not the fullness of his revelation, but it certainly is part of it.

Now, I'm not going to go into all the astronomical details that we find here in these first verses of Psalm 19. I will mention a few things. But before that, I just want to ask the question again, what are you looking at? What keeps your attention? Now, we've heard already from the book of Nehemiah that the people of God were attentive to the word of God, and that's a wonderful thing.

So we want to take a look upward. We want to take a look as well downward. Now, I have to be careful with that because when some people look downward, they're looking at their phone.

So I'm not suggesting that. But I say downward into the word of God. If I can change that, and I'm not sure whether this is a word or not, I looked it up in the dictionary, it didn't appear, but I think it's a word anyway.

I want us to take number two, a look truthward, towards the truth of the word of God. And then the third thing, we need to take a look inward. And then finally, we'll see at the end of the Psalm, a look forward, because he's going to talk about the meditation of his heart, the words of his mouth, and he says that I want them to be acceptable in thy sight.

So I want us to take a little look forward at the end of this particular Psalm. Now, in each of these sections, I think that we'll find that there is an inherent danger. The danger that we find in the first section is that there is, in the world in which we live, a design to distract us.

Now, I don't want to come across as if I am anti-technology. So I want this to be a word of challenge, I want it to be practical, but I need to be realistic as well. So I am not anti-technology.

I have up here an iPad, I have up here an iPhone, I have a computer back at the house, I'm not anti-technology. But what I am saying is this, there is a design to distract us from the things that are important in our lives. Now, you and I well know that we are constantly being bombarded by lots of information.

Sometimes it is information, sometimes it is misinformation, sometimes it is disinformation. And you can ponder the difference in all of those things. But what we need really is proper, good, right information.

And oftentimes what we hear, what is bombarding us is precisely not that. Now, don't take me wrong, none of us that are speaking this weekend are Americans, as you well know. I'm the only one who has an accent that's somewhat similar to yours here in the Midwest.

Although you'll say that I have a strange out east accent, but that's fine. At least it's not quite as strong as my dear brothers over here, both with the name Stephen. But having said all that, just remember this, that it's easy to find information about Americans when you go online.

It's a bit more difficult with Canadians because we're not near as many, okay? We're far fewer. But they tell me, and I think this is right, that the average American, now I don't know whether you consider yourself average or above average. Should I do a show of hands? You probably think you're above average.

But the average American spends five hours and 16 minutes every day on his phone or her phone. Five hours and 16 minutes. So now you wanna say, well, actually, I'm below average.

Well, maybe you are, you probably aren't. Because we're pretty good at deceiving ourselves. Because again, there is this tremendous design to distract.

Now, those of you who have a phone, and that would probably be most of you, you probably know that there is a way to see exactly how much time you do spend on your phone. But most of us don't want to know. And so we never check that, do we? You can turn off that notification so that every Sunday morning it tells you you spent more or less than the week before.

Just turn it off, that's what I do, I just turn it off. I'd rather not know. So five hours and 16 minutes.

That obviously comes in starts and spurts throughout the day, it's not altogether. And what happens is that our moments of concentration, whether I'm thinking about our need to look upward and consider the greatness of God in creation, or whether I'm thinking about looking downward into the word of God to see what he reveals to me in truth and in real information, whether it's upward or downward, the challenge is this, that there are so many things that interrupt my train of thought. Or if you prefer, that interrupt my ability to concentrate.

So I wonder about our focus. Where is our focus, how good is our focus? And I think that to be honest, if we want to be honest with each other, it is becoming increasingly difficult to be focused on the word of God. And this doesn't just affect the young people.

I have a good friend who is significantly older than I am. And he's not in the next decade, nor the next decade, but the decade after that. So he's significantly older than I am.

And he says that he finds it difficult even to concentrate when he's reading a book. I used to be able to pick up a book and just read chapter after chapter. It's difficult to do that because there is a design to distract us and an addictive algorithm.

Now, you can investigate all of that, but technology really is designed to distract us and it does a very good job. Some of us perhaps have been on social media from time to time. Some of us, a few of us, most of us, I'm not sure.

Some of us may remember that there didn't used to be a bottomless feed. You had to actually refresh. Now, it's just bottomless.

You never come to the end of it. So I'm not attacking social media and I'm not saying sell your phone, okay? And I'm not saying throw your computer in the Mississippi River. I'm not saying any of that whatsoever.

I realize that we need these things, but what I am trying to do is to show us that in the word of God, we find something far more important. And if we don't sometimes take the reins of our life, the reins of our mind, this distraction takes us farther and farther away from what God wants to tell us. So I'm not going to give you a list of things you need to avoid.

I'm not going to give you any recommendations today at all. All I want to do is challenge your own thinking and ask you this question. What is it that is consuming your time? And you can ask me the same question.

What is it that's consuming my time? Do I like to spend, and I said I wasn't going to give you a list, but it comes to mind, so I'm going to have to say it now because I have a hard time putting the brakes on when something starts, it keeps on coming. What about Amazon? Do we like Amazon? Now, I know whether you liked it or don't like it. People still like it, right? What about Amazon? All those things that we don't need that we didn't know we don't need and now we need them.

And what about games or gaming? Now, when I say games, I'm thinking of the fact that today when I went on to CBC, that's Canadian Broadcast Corporation for those who don't know, and I was checking the news, the first thing that struck me was this. In the whole first section, there's not a word about Israel and Iran. Not a word.

Not a word. You have to scroll all the way down to find anything about a big war that's happening. Amazing, amazing.

But what I did find is that the Oilers are playing the Panthers. Now, I don't like hockey. Okay, this had about this much interest for me.

But I saw that the Oilers are playing the Panthers tonight. I think it might happen in Florida, I don't know. The games don't interest me whatsoever.

But what I do know is this, what I do know is this, that these things and so many more things can become a tremendous distraction to us. So David is telling me this. Take a good look up.

Now, I need to move on a bit faster than this, but my challenge to you is this. Make some difficult decisions about technology because what you do as a parent, and I'm thinking of parents just for a moment, what you do as a parent, setting the example for your children will affect them. In more ways than what you want to think.

I just read a book this past month called Scrolling Ourselves to Death. I don't know if you read it. It's not a very big book.

Scrolling Ourselves to Death from a Christian standpoint. And I fear that it affects us more than what we want to realize. So here we have David.

And his contemplation of creation tells me a few things. It tells me that creation really is meant to declare the glory of God. And this is something that is incessant.

It never ever stops. And then he's going to say that it is intense because it's uttering speeches. It's constantly bubbling up as it were.

And then he's going to say it's inarticulate. It's not verbal. We don't actually hear the voice.

We don't actually hear creation speaking to us. Now, I know that the governments of some countries have spent millions and millions of dollars to see if there's any noise out there, anybody speaking to us. Well, let me tell you, if creation itself doesn't speak, the creator does speak, but that's what people don't want to hear.

But it is inarticulate in itself. It's inescapable. There's no hiding from it.

We look up and there it is. But it is not enough. It's only the initial revelation, shall we say.

There's some difficulties when we think about creation. We get these in Romans chapter one. There are people who are willfully ignorant of the creator who is behind the creation.

And there are people who worship the creature instead of the creator. And so what we have is a warning in the book of Romans. But here in Psalm 19, he's telling us they declare, creation declares the glory of God.

And he finds great delight in this. God's wisdom in its formation, God's power in upholding it, God's glory in all of it, no matter which way you look, he says, you can see God's glory. Now, I'm going to leave that and move forward into verses seven to 11 just for a short time.

And he wants us to take a look downward. Now, I know that you can have a computer screen and have the Bible up there, whatever program you prefer to have or internet site you open. And so you don't necessarily have to look downward.

And I well know that you can look downward at your telephone and there you see the Bible as well. But I'm thinking especially of looking down and seeing the word of God from day to day. Now, we've heard something of the importance and the beauty of the word of God expressed to us already by my brother, Stephen.

And I won't spend a whole lot of time here, but I do want to emphasize the fact that God has in his kindness and in his grace, given us not just the revelation of creation, but he teaches us so much in his word. And I would suggest to you that this shows us not so much or not only the glory of God, as we see in creation, but his grace in speaking to us. There are so many, shall we call them pagan people as the Bible would call them, that are longing for a word from their God, small g-o-d.

They're longing for a word from their God, but there is no word. But our God, the true God, the only God, he in his grace has given us, as we have heard, not just five books. We're living in a time of tremendous privilege.

We have 66 books that he wants to use to speak to your heart and to my heart. So the word of God is, number one, it's accurate. It's inspired by God, which is a wonderful truth we find from the pen of Peter and from the pen of Paul as well.

It's authoritative because it comes from God. Again, we can listen to all kinds of voices out there that really are not authoritative, but this word is authoritative. It's God himself who speaks to us.

And the other thing is this, it's adequate to meet our needs, our spiritual needs, our emotional needs can be met in the word of God. They feed us, they satisfy us, they guide us. They make us holy believers, H-O-L-Y.

They make us whole as well, perhaps, but they make us holy. So here in verses seven to nine, we'll notice that there are six nouns that he uses to describe the word of God. And then he's going to give us six adjectives.

And then he's going to give us six verbs. Now, this is not a lesson in English grammar at all, but we have nouns and we have adjectives and we have verbs. That's verses seven to nine.

He's going to speak to us about how we can identify the word of God or how he identifies it. And he's going to speak about certain qualities of the word of God. And he's going to tell us as well about its activity in your heart and in my heart.

We'll just go through these very, very quickly. Look at verse number seven. Is there water in this cooler or is this cooler here for... There it is.

I wasn't sure whether it was here for decoration or... First thing is the law. Now, obviously, when we go back to the Old Testament, we think especially of the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, but I think that when we look at it today, this would include the whole revealed will of God. So we have the law of the Lord.

And then he's going to say, it's also called in verse seven, the testimony. That's truth that God has attested to himself. And again, in a world of lies, we have the testimony of the Lord.

And then he's going to say it is the statutes, these moral injunctions, these precepts. And then he's going to call it the commandment, regulation. Somebody has said they're regulations for the righteous.

It speaks to us of the authority behind what is given to us. And then the Bible is called the fear of the Lord. This is the teaching that God gives us to produce a proper reverence towards him.

And then he's going to call it as well, the judgments of the Lord. Ordinances, judicial statements, perhaps that have to do with certain situations, certain decisions that had to be taken. So those are six nouns that describe to us the word of God.

But then he's going to say what adjective is used. And the first one is the law of the Lord is perfect. That means it's complete.

It's consistent. It's coherent. The testimony of the Lord is sure.

That means it's firm or confirmed if you prefer. It's trustworthy. And then he's going to say that the statutes are right.

They're upright or just if you prefer. The commandment is pure. That means radiant, not dark.

There's sincerity in it. The fear of the Lord is clean. That means without mixture, without impurity.

There's no change in it. And then he's going to say the judgments of the Lord are true, which means they're truthful, they're steady. So we have six nouns and we have six adjectives.

And then he's going to say, what does this actually do in our lives? Well, the first one is the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. And you may have a marginal reading that says restoring the soul. It gives life and vitality.

Now, I'm going to take a pause here just for a second before I carry on. And again, this is no show of hands. My brother's already asked us today, did you read the Bible this morning? Now, I know.

Here's what I know. I know a couple of things. Number one, I know we're human.

Number two, I know we're honest. Those are two words that start with H. Number three, I know that you're hardworking people and you're busy and you're tired. Number four, I know that some of you came from a distance this morning, so you woke up at the crack of dawn whenever that happened to be.

Do you actually know when the dawn cracks? Well, some of you woke up before the crack of dawn so you could be here in time. Wonderful. And so you say, well, today I didn't have time.

So let's leave today to one side for a second. What about yesterday? Or what about Thursday? What about any regularity in your reading of the word of God? I occasionally, as frequently as I can, will invite younger men, and you can put your own age on that, but younger men than I am to go out for a cup of coffee. I love a good cup of coffee.

Just ask John. And when we go out for a cup of coffee, my question always is, how is your reading? What are you reading? Or if you like, what are you looking at? Because obviously, I could speak about what you're looking at on your phone, and we could go into that conversation, which sometimes we do. But what are you actually reading in the word of God? Do you have any reading plan? Do you spend any amount of time reading? Or are you happy enough to read a chapter a day? Now, I'm not trying to be critical, and I'm certainly not trying to give you any law, but reading a chapter a day is probably telling me you need to up the ante just a little bit, or maybe quite a bit.

You need to find a good plan that will take you through the Bible. At least, I would suggest to you, a humble suggestion, at least once a year. You need to read a bit more than maybe what you have been reading.

And you say, I mean, I've heard all these things before. My eyes get so tired. Really? I remember a sister telling me this.

Not when I went out for coffee with her. It was in a visit in a home, and she said, my eyes get so tired when I'm reading the Bible. Really? But you can spend all day looking at a lot of other things, and your eyes don't seem to get too tired.

We have to be honest with each other and honest with ourselves. So find a good plan, a challenging plan, and stick with it. Maybe you need to have somebody to come along and say, how are you doing with your plan? But find a good plan, because it's easy enough.

Now, I have no idea what your likes and dislikes are. It's easy enough for people to go online or be on their phone and watch a movie for two or three hours, and the time just flies. And you pick up the word of God, this testimony of the Lord, and you get through a chapter and say, well, that was wonderful, and you put it down.

Well, it's a kind word of challenge, but we need to up the ante just a little bit. You may remember that assembly believers used to be known as the chapter and verse people. My challenge, my own thought now is this, that we have it pretty easy.

If I can't find a verse in my mind, I can certainly find it within 2.2 seconds on my phone, can't I, right? So we tend to get a little bit lazy. So let's get back into reading the word of God, whether you want to read it on a digital device or in pen and paper, whatever the case might be, and ink, that's all great, but read your Bible. So where were we? The law of the Lord is perfect converting.

It's giving life and vitality, because I don't know about you, but every day I feel the need for life and vitality, especially as I get a little bit older, I need that infusion of life and vitality. And then he says the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Now the simple doesn't mean the same as it means in Proverbs, I suggest to you, where there we have people who really don't want to know because they prefer to live the way they're living.

When we have the simple in the book of the Psalms, it's actually people who want to learn. So I'm not sure about you, but I still want to learn. I'm always impressed when I see men who are older than I am, much older than I am, and they're delving deeply into the Bible still.

And one would say, well, they know the Bible so well, and there they are studying the word of God, delving into it deeply. Well, it's an encouragement. It's a challenge to my own heart.

It makes wise the simple. And then he says the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. Rejoicing the heart.

Do you have any need for rejoicing? Maybe you're always joyful, but the Bible helps us in rejoicing our own heart. Then he says the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Now, enlightening the eyes, and I spoke about this somewhere recently, but enlightening the eyes perhaps has the idea of giving us strength, and you get that when you come to Jonathan, for example, back in 1 Samuel chapter 14, but it also has to do with the fact that we need direction in life.

So it enlightens the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. No variation.

It's always constant. It's always there. No alteration in it.

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. They always render a just verdict. They always tell us what is right.

Maybe that's why sometimes we don't want to read it because we know what we're doing is wrong, and instead of being challenged, we say, well, I'll just avoid that certain section because I know it's going to convict me. Well, this is part of the purpose of the word of God. So again, we live in a very privileged period.

Bibles, sorry, that phrase came in Spanish, not in English, so I'll have to leave that one. We have Bibles everywhere. We heard it already from my brother, Baker.

If somebody asked me, how many Bibles do you own, Marcus? I say, well, I have Bibles in English, I have Bibles in Spanish, and I have a Bible or two in French as well. Can I read it very well? No, but I have it anyway. We have Bibles everywhere, Bibles in our digital devices, but sometimes we don't read our Bibles.

So let's carry on. If in the first section we see David mentioning the fact that we need to take a look up, here he is telling us we need to take a look down at the word of God, and then he's going to tell us here in this very same section that the word of God for him was invaluable and incomparable. He's going to compare it to his, shall I say, to his pocketbook, and he says this, it's actually more to be desired than gold than much fine gold.

So it's more important than his bank account. And then he says it's actually more important as well than honey, than what I'm going to eat. Now, what about us? Would we actually be honestly able to say that the word of God is more important to me than anything else? It's invaluable, it's incomparable, it's what I'm always after, it's what delights my heart, it's what fills my soul, it's what guides my life.

This is what David is saying. And then verse number 11 is a transition verse, and that moves us into 12 and 13. But the transition verse is this.

He says we need to be willing to take the warning from this word, and then he's going to take us to a reward that we'll get to just in a moment or two. Look at verses 12 and 13 very briefly with me. This is a look inward.

And he's talking about the fact that he's looking to be purified and preserved. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Now, you'll see in your Bible most likely that there are some words in italics, and I'm not going to get into the details because of time of these things.

But when he says presumptuous sins, the word sins is in italics. Every time you find this word presumptuous, I think you'll find it 13 times, 12 times it's plural, one time it's not, but it always has to do with indolent or insolent men. So I think that what he's saying is this, preserve me from the influence that others might have on my life.

Now, that might lead me to sin. Obviously, we see that as we keep on reading because he's going to talk about the fact that he wants to be blameless or innocent from the great transgression, which is taking himself or allowing himself to be taken away from God. But he says what I need to have in my life is this purity.

Cleanse thou me from secret faults. And he says I need to be preserved from the influence that this world is constantly trying to put into my heart. So let's move on to verse number 14 as we try to finish on time.

I'll look forward. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord. He's already mentioned back there in verse number 11, the great reward.

Now, you might say that this is a bit of an application, which is fine. If you say that, I would agree. David didn't know a whole lot about the bema, did he? Probably not.

But he didn't know this, that when I obey the word of God, there is a reward. So when we come to the very last verse, and he says, I want to live in the sight of God, this is what we can call proper piety, or if you prefer the word godliness, living in the sight of God. So he says this, I want to say what is right, and I want the meditation of my heart to be right, because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

So he says, preserve me, use me, allow me to think properly, to meditate properly, and then to offer this unto God. Now, as you read through this particular Psalm, you'll see that he starts speaking about God in the first section, and then he's going to speak about the Lord in the next section, and now he's coming even closer yet, and he says he is my strength, or my rock, and my redeemer. It's a very intimate relationship, because what we've heard from my brother Baker already is this, the purpose of the word of God, and there are other purposes too, obviously, but one of the main purposes of the word of God is to bring me into a more intimate relationship with him.

So he says, I want to have the meditation of my heart acceptable in his sight. Meditation, as you may know, requires a great deal of work. And I'll go back to where we started, talking about distractions.

When your mind is constantly being alerted by something like this, now, I love having a phone. I travel a fair bit. My grandkids are right here.

I love having a phone. You know, I can have a video chat. It's all great, all great.

But at the same time, I know that there are times when airplane mode might actually be a positive thing to use, or actually maybe just put your phone somewhere else entirely, and turn off your notifications, right? Because it's difficult to meditate when my watch is buzzing constantly. That's the honest truth, right? So we need to take some steps in order to look up and appreciate God's creation and wonder. We need to take some time, some steps, so that we can look downwards and appreciate even more the word of God.

We need to be honest with ourselves and look inward and say, I need to be preserved from sins and from the influence of other people. And we need to take a look forward and say, in that coming day, I will look for that reward in the day of the bima, of the judgment seat of Christ. And in the meantime, let the words of my heart and the meditation, sorry, the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord.

May God bless his word.