Psalm 19 (Summer of Psalms #4)

This past week I stumbled onto an article about a woman whose videos have started going viral.

I do not have that particular app on my phone — I figure I am already an expert at wasting time on my phone and do not need help getting better at it. But I know what those videos are. Some go viral because of a dance craze people are replicating. Some go viral because they are funny. Some go viral because they capture a cultural moment.

Hers went viral for a very different reason.

She describes herself as a fat woman, and she is married to a very muscular, very fit man. And the people watching her videos are stunned. They cannot work out how she got him. In their minds, the gap between them in physical attractiveness is so wide that it makes no sense.

In one of her videos — the one that prompted the article — she was reading through some of the comments she has received. One said her husband must be a paid actor. Others insisted she must have been thin when they met. Others said things considerably worse.

And apparently at least one woman sent a direct message to her husband, essentially saying: you belong with someone like me, not with her. A photo was attached, and by our culture’s standards, that woman would rate very highly. Though who knows what you would rate her now.

In the video, she defends their relationship. She explains that on her husband’s list of what he was looking for in a woman, physical attractiveness was way down. What he wanted was friendship. Matching personalities. Similar interests. Humor. The underlying things. So even though the culture insists there is an enormous gap between them physically, she says that gap has been covered by the friendship they share.

In Psalm 19 we are going to hear about a gap.

We are going to see just how glorious God is. And then David is going to show us just how unglorious we are — a gap far wider than any gap our culture imagines between that woman and her husband. And then we are going to hear David tell us that God has bridged it. And we are going to see what he bridged it with.

The Structure of the Song

Psalm 19 opens with a note to the choirmaster, and like some songs, David built this one in movements. There are three.

The first movement is entirely about the glory of God. Then we are going to skip the middle movement and jump to the third, where David picks up the microphone and sings about his own sinfulness. And then we will come back to the second, middle movement, where we discover what God has done to cover the gap between himself and mankind.

Movement One: The Glory of God

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.”

This past week I came across a line from an early church father who lived in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. His point was simple: when you look at a mighty, magnificent building, you find yourself admiring the builder. When you see a skillfully and beautifully designed ship, you think of the shipwright. At the sight of a painting, the painter comes to mind. How much more, then, should the sight of creation lead the viewer to the Creator?

I think he is exactly right.

When you hear a great song on the radio, you want to know who the band is. When you watch a phenomenal movie, you are immediately looking up what else the director has made. Because when you encounter great art, you cannot help but be in awe of the giftedness of the artist.

That is precisely what David is saying. When you look at creation, it should leave you in awe of God.

And notice: David does not go on about mountains and lakes and lions and every part of creation. He stops at the sky. Verse 1 says the heavens declare God’s glory and the sky above proclaims his handiwork — and everything else in the movement is about how the skies proclaim his glory. How the sun travels across it. How the day shows God’s glory and the night shows God’s glory. All of it displays how great and glorious and majestic and perfect God is.

Yes, God uses the Scriptures to reveal himself and his glory. Yes, God sometimes uses people to reveal himself. God even occasionally uses miracles. But we cannot forget the sky.

Do you ever find yourself doubting God’s existence? Doubting his goodness? Doubting his power?

Look up. The sky is continually singing about how great God is.

Movement Three: David Sings About Himself

Then, after singing about God’s glory, David picks up the mic and sings about himself. Skip to verse 12:

“Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

The hidden forty percent

A couple of weeks ago I went to a conference where one of the presenters said the average human can only see about sixty percent of their own body.

Think about it. You have never seen your own back. Sure, maybe you have seen a photograph — but that is not your back. Maybe you have seen a reflection — still not your back. You have never seen your own face. The only reason you know what you look like is mirrors and photos. You have never physically seen it.

You can see about sixty percent. Others see the other forty. They know what you look like. They know about the bald spot forming back there. They see all of it.

Then the presenter made the turn: internally, most of us feel like we have a decent sense of who we are. We see our sixty percent. But we all have blind spots, weaknesses, a hidden forty percent that others see and we do not.

So they gave us a gift — a link to send to fifteen or twenty people who interact with us regularly, asking them for feedback on us.

They did not show us the questions ahead of time. Because if we had seen the questions, we probably would not have sent it.

So I emailed it to about twenty-two people, essentially asking, tell me where I’m ugly. One of them replied to let me know he had filled it out, and then added: For the record, I would not want to be the subject of this survey. Tough questions.

Why would he say that? Because none of us enjoy having that hidden forty percent exposed. We do not like being shown where we fail, where we are weak, where we let people down. I am probably going to get torn apart in about two weeks when my session comes. It is no fun.

David seems to have enough self-awareness to say: I may not know everything about myself, but I know enough to know I am nothing like God.

So many of us, to feel better about ourselves, compare ourselves to other people. When we see someone who does something better than we do, we conveniently ignore them. Instead we hunt for the people we can beat. I do that better. I am a little faster. A little smarter. A little better looking. I am certainly better looking than her. And we find those people, compare ourselves to them, conclude we are not too bad — and minimize the forty percent.

David does not do that.

And if anyone had grounds to, David did. He became the most famous king in all of Israel. God promised to put someone on David’s throne who would reign forever. He is the prototype for the Messiah. God calls him a man after his own heart.

If anyone could ignore his hidden forty percent — or claim it was only ten or twenty — it was David.

But he does not. He does not waste his time singing about how great he is. He compares himself to God. He sees how the sky declares how glorious God is, he takes an honest look inward, and he says: but I am not.

And so David shows us there is a gap. And that gap is created by two kinds of sin.

Intentional sin

Verse 13: “Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me!”

Other translations render presumptuous as willful sins, or deliberate sins. One even uses flagrant. These are the sins you know about. The ones you are fully aware of. These live in your sixty percent.

And notice what David says about them: let them not have dominion over me. You would think that if a sin is exposed and known, you could simply do something about it. And yet he is essentially admitting: and yet I keep falling for it, over and over and over.

He sounds like an addict. He sounds a lot like Paul in Romans 7:15 — “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”

God, I know I should probably do that — and I am going to sit on the couch and keep watching anyway. God, I do not want to give in to that — and I am going to tell that lie to make myself look better anyway.

We know the things we should do, and we do not do them. And the things we know we should not give in to, we give in to.

David is confessing this. And if you know his story, what would you say was his biggest weakness? What kept tripping him up?

I would argue lust. David had multiple wives. Nowhere in Scripture does God permit a man to take more than one wife — and nowhere does he permit a wife to have more than one husband. And yet David did. It was what the other kings did.

And we know that one night, instead of being out with his army, David was idling at the palace when he saw a woman bathing and decided he wanted her. Even though she was married to another man. Even though he was already married. He brought her in and slept with her.

David knew he should not do it. He knew it was not right. And he did it anyway — and then kept trying to cover it up, over and over.

He is deeply aware of his intentional sin. And that intentional sin creates a gap.

Unintentional sin

But David is also honest enough to acknowledge a second category. Verse 12: “Who can discern his errors?”

In other words: which of us is so self-aware that we have no hidden forty percent? The answer is none of us. None of us fully understands the depths of our own depravity.

Which is why he continues: “Declare me innocent from hidden faults.”

It is one thing to come before God and confess: God, I was mean to my spouse. I was unkind to my kid. I lost my temper at work. I cheated at school.

It is another thing entirely to say: God, I am probably so comfortable with my sin that I am not even aware I am doing it. I do not even know how I am hurting the people around me. Would you forgive me for it? Would you remove it from me? Would you expose it so I can deal with it and confess it?

That is raw, honest confession. David recognizes that even his unintentional sin is part of the gap between the glory and perfection of God and his own sinfulness.

But this is not who he wants to be

At the end of verse 13 David says he wants to be blameless, innocent of great transgression. He does not want to commit such sins. And verse 14: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.”

He is realizing: God, there are things I do and things I say that do not reflect you and your goodness. I am not sounding like the sky singing about your glory. I am singing about me. I am hurting those around me. I want the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart to be pleasing to you. But I need help. I need to be changed. I need you to cover the gap.

Movement Two: The Perfect Law

And that is what he sings about in the middle movement. Back to verse 7:

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts 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 rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

It should not surprise us that after singing about how the sky declares the glory of God — how perfect and powerful he is — David moves into singing about God’s law and calls it perfect. Because a perfect God will create a perfect law.

In my opinion he could have stopped right there. But David does not stop. He is a poet, an artist, a creator, and he is so in awe of God and his law that he keeps going. The testimony of the Lord is sure. The precepts are right. The commandment is pure. The fear of the Lord is clean. The rules are true and righteous altogether. On and on and on.

The law is so amazing because the law can cover the gap.

Which is why he says we should desire it more than gold, and that it is sweeter than honey. If you knew how much honey I put in my tea, you would know that verse means a lot to me.

This law is perfect. Right. True. Clean. Pure. All of these things. So we should want it — because when you live by it, verse 7 says it will revive the soul. The Scriptures teach that we are spiritually dead. David is saying that if we will live by this perfect, clean, pure law God has given us, it will revive the soul.

And verse 11 says that in keeping the law there is great reward.

Gold is one of the most precious metals on the planet, and yet its value goes up and down constantly. A gold medal is what an Olympian chases — and a gold medal can be stolen. Nobody can steal the law. Its value does not change, because it is perfect, faithful, right, and constant.

So Here Is Your Application Point

If you want an application point from Psalm 19, here it is: apply the law. Live out the law of God perfectly, and you will see God cover the gap.

But I have bad news. You cannot do it.

Over and over the Scriptures tell us we cannot keep the law. We can try. We can manage it for a while. We can do the majority of it. But the gap is only fully covered by perfectly applying the law.

The law is perfect. It covers the gap. We just cannot cover the law.

And I think David knows this. If he thought otherwise, he would have structured his song differently. Movement one would still be the glory of God. But instead of going next to the law, I think he would have moved the third movement up — singing about himself and his sin — then arrived at the law, and finished with therefore I will simply apply myself to the law and live perfectly, and the gap is covered, and tied it off with a nice ending chord.

That is not what he does. He sings about God’s glory. He talks about how this perfect God created this perfect law, and how this law is able to cover the gap and revive the soul. And then he says: but I am a sinner. I fall short. As much as I try, I still commit these intentional sins, and I have hidden sins I am not even aware of. I cannot do it. I want to be blameless. I want to be innocent. I want the meditations of my heart and the thoughts of my mind to be pleasing to God. And I cannot do it.

And Christianity teaches that neither can you.

Aren’t You Glad You Came to Church Today?

If I were sitting where you are, I would be thinking: I had a rough week and I wanted a little encouragement — or — this was a great week, we are celebrating our campaign, there are balloons, and now I am being told I am a sinner.

It is uncomfortable. And I will be honest with you: if there is one thing I do not like about Christianity, it is this doctrine that mankind is sinful. Because saying it out loud sounds judgmental. It does not sound caring. It does not sound loving or honoring. It sounds cruel.

I have even heard people outside the faith complain that pastors like me hold this doctrine simply so we can shame people, manipulate them, and hold on to power.

I am a little too much of a people-pleaser. I do not want anyone walking out thinking I hate them. I would much rather tell you how great you are. But the Bible says that actually you are not. God is great. You are sinful.

But just because I do not like something does not make it untrue.

I do not like that my baseball team is currently one of the worst in the league — twenty games under .500, last in their division, one of the worst records in the sport. They lost yesterday to a team that has somehow managed to be worse. This season has been no fun.

So what do I do? Pretend it is not happening? Announce that I simply feel they are the best team, and go hunting for whatever statistic supports my truth? The reality is that you look at the record and you see they are at the bottom. Not liking it does not make it false.

So just because I do not like this doctrine does not make it untrue.

But thankfully it is not the end of the story.

God Provided Another Way

It is not: God created mankind, mankind sinned, too bad. God created this perfect, beautiful, pure, clean, true, righteous law, and if we would just live by it perfectly the gap would be covered — but God knew we could not. He knew every one of us would be like David.

So he created another path. Another way, apart from the law. He covered the gap through something else.

We hear about it in Romans 3.

Paul is writing to the church in Rome. In chapter 1, after his introduction and after describing how great God is, he starts talking about deeply sinful people. And I think Paul knew his audience would be reading that and nodding along: yes, those people are terrible.

So in chapter 2 he turns to the moral, respectable readers and says, in effect: actually, you do many of these same things. Even though you claim to be better, if I expose your hidden forty percent, you are just like them.

And then Paul knows his Jewish readers will be thinking: yes, those Gentiles are bad — but we have the law. So in chapter 3 he turns to them, too: you are no better.

He dismantles everyone — the obviously sinful, the moral, and the religious — and sums it up by piling together the Old Testament’s whole doctrine on human depravity. No one is good. Not one.

And then, in verse 21, he pivots:

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

Notice: it is not that the law was bad. The law is good. It is perfect. A perfect God creates a perfect law. But because God knows we cannot keep it, and because he loves us so much, he made another way. And the Law and the Prophets — the Mosaic law and the Old Testament prophets — were pointing to it all along.

What they were pointing to is the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.

God has covered the gap between his perfection and your imperfection through Jesus. When you put your faith in the story of the death and resurrection of Christ, it revives your soul. When you put everything that you are into him, you come spiritually alive. The gap is covered.

And “there is no distinction” means this gospel is not only for the religious, or the moral, or the wealthy, or one race, or one class, or whatever category you want to draw. It is for everyone. Why? “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

There it is — that deeply uncomfortable doctrine, the one that sounds judgmental, the one that seems to push people out. But it does not push anyone out. It lumps every one of us together. There is no distinction.

And then: those who put their faith in Jesus are “justified by his grace as a gift.” One way to remember that word is just as if I’d never sinned. When you put your faith in Jesus and accept this gift of grace, God looks at you and says: just as if you had never sinned. You are justified. The gap is covered.

“Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” God created Adam and Eve and placed his image in them — and when they sinned, sin stole them away. God purchased us back. He redeemed us through Christ’s death and resurrection.

“Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.” Propitiation means to appease wrath.

Now, wait a second — the wrath of God? Yes. But God’s wrath was not against you. His wrath is against sin. Sin stole you away. God put his image in you, and sin came in and marred it. It is still there, but it was ruined. So the wrath of God came against sin — and that wrath was appeased, God’s justice satisfied and fulfilled, by Christ’s blood. The penalty of sin was death. Jesus paid that penalty. As his blood was shed, your sins were forgiven, God’s wrath against the sin in you was appeased, and he welcomes you into his family.

And all of it is received by faith.

The Gospel Is the Remix of Movement Two

So the law is good. The law is perfect. It is everything David said it was. You simply cannot do it.

By all means, if you want to reject Jesus and go live a moral life, good luck. Go for it. You will probably be a nicer person. You are just not going to be able to pull it off. You probably will not even make it through the week — probably not even through the day — because there is that forty percent you are unaware of, keeping the gap right where it is.

That is why God provided another way apart from the law. He provided Jesus. He provided himself.

And when you put your faith in Jesus, look at what happens to movement two:

When you realize this gospel message is perfect, it revives your soul. When you realize the testimony of the Lord’s death and resurrection is sure, it makes you wise. When you realize the precepts — the truths of this gospel — are right, it causes rejoicing in your heart. When you realize the commandment to follow God and believe the gospel is pure, it enlightens your eyes.

Do you see how Jesus is the fulfillment of the second movement? The gospel gives us the remix, so we do not get confused and think we simply need to go be more moral. God says: no. You cannot. I know you cannot. That is why I provided another way.

Believe in Jesus and your life will be changed.

So treasure Jesus more than gold. Want him more than honey. Let him be your great reward. He will revive your soul. And when you let Jesus cover the gap, when you let him be your everything, then you become what David longed to be: blameless and innocent. And when you put your faith in Jesus, God’s Holy Spirit comes to live within you and empowers you to let the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart be acceptable in his sight.

An Invitation

If you are here today and you are not a follower of Jesus, I want today to become your spiritual birthday. I want you to experience the revival of your soul.

The world will tell you through every screen and feed to find your joy and satisfaction somewhere else. All of those things can be taken away. Come to Jesus — the one who has existed eternally and will exist for eternity. Put your faith in him. He loves you. He wants you. Give it all to him. Let him revive your soul. May he be your great reward. May he change your life and help you become more like him, so you will love like Jesus loved and live like Jesus lived.

Let Us Pray

Heavenly Father, help us to do exactly that.

For anyone who has never put their faith in you: let them confess their sin right now. They may have intentional sins — things they are keenly aware of, things they are embarrassed by, things they assume you could never forgive. But God, it is not that you cannot forgive them. It is that they cannot earn your forgiveness. So help them cast all their faith, all of themselves, all their belief upon Christ. Let them see that Jesus covers the gap between you and us. And as they put their faith in you, begin changing them from the inside out — a new heart, a new mind, a new way of living, a new way of valuing. Lead them by your Spirit to confess, to place their faith fully in you, and to be willing to believe that this whole story is true.

And I pray for the person here who has put their faith in you but is not letting it be their foundation — hampered by intentional sin, aware there is hidden sin, embarrassed, running from you and hiding.

And for the rest of us who have simply gone apathetic and lazy, who have let our accumulated knowledge convince us we know more than we do, inflating our sixty percent and not realizing how much more you want to do in us and through us.

Thank you that your mercies are new every day. You are not sitting there angry, looking to throw us out of your presence. Because of the work of Jesus, you want us to come.

So we come. We come in humility. We come in confession. We come because you are a glorious God whom the skies sing about every single day and every single night — and if you could create all of that and keep it running its course so faithfully, then we can trust you. We can rely on you. We can come to you. Because you are good, you are great, you are perfect, and you are glorious.

In Jesus’ name we pray together, amen.