Christ Pantocrator of Saint Catherine’s Monastery (6th century)
Pentecost +9 – Faithfulness of God
Dr. Christopher Graham
Psalm 19
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
If you have been in church for any length of time, you will recognize the words that conclude our Psalm today. In fact, you may have heard them so many times you have memorized them. They are a wonderful way to start a lesson or homily or sermon as a way to dedicate the speaker and what the speaker will say. It is possible that the psalmist ends his song this morning as a dedication of what he has said. There is, however, another possibility given by clues in the psalm itself, which is that these words are actually the climax of the song itself. And that is how I am going to approach it this morning. That is, these words receive their oomph! as the climactic result of three movements.
Movement 1 is found at the beginning in vv 1–6
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.
Clearly the Psalmist directs our attention to nature in the first movement. This is a common device of the psalmists. There are different reasons for this call. At times, it is to direct our attention to the heavens as in Psalm 148 which Francis of Assisi set to music that has come down to us: “Thou burning sun with golden beam, Thou silver moon with softer gleam, O praise him, O praise him, Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.” At other times as Fr. Doug showed us from Psalm 145 it is to pay heed to the fact that we live in a world radiating with God’s glory. Again our song “This is my Father’s world: The birds their carols raise, The morning light, the lily white, Declare their Maker’s praise.”
In our song today, the psalmist also has a reason for drawing our attention to nature. It is hinted at in verse 2-4
2 One day speaks to another,
and one night gives knowledge to another. 3 There is neither speech nor language, and their voices are not heard;
4 But their sound has gone out into all lands,
and their words (*utterances) to the ends of the world.
But then really comes into focus in verses 5–6:
5 In them he has set a tent for the sun; which comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run his course.
6 It goes forth from the uttermost part of the heavens, and runs about to the end of it again; and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
By drawing attention to the cycles of day and night, the steady movement of the sun each day running its course, the psalmist draws attention to God’s faithfulness. This is not the view of a Creator who created, spun up things to run on their own, and then took his hands away. It is a Creator who created the rhythms and then, by his Word continues or sustains those rhythms.
And this gives rise to praise. On one hand, Scripture teaches that we are beneficiaries of God’s faithful governance of nature in a very direct way. Jesus says, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” Matthew 6: 25–32 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as
to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather crops into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not much more important than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single day to his life’s span? And why are you worried about clothing? Notice how the lilies of the field grow; they do not labor nor do they spin thread for cloth, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.”
But the psalmist seems to be getting at something even more basic and a bit more subtle for us, which is that the very action of the heavenly bodies is a result of God’s actions. It is what we sang about this morning, “Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun moon and stars in their courses above join with all nature in manifold to his great faithfulness, mercy and love.”
But while these bodies and cycles witness, they do so without words. We, on the other hand, are created by the Word of God in the image of God to use words. And so our prayer “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer,” is a reminder of our responsibility as God’s creation to whom He has given words to proclaim “All I have needed thy hand hath provideth.”
Which leads to the second movement found in verses 7–11
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure, and gives wisdom to the simple. 8 The statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, and gives light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is clean, and endures for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; * sweeter also than honey, than the drippings from the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant taught, *
and in keeping them there is great reward.
Clearly, there is a shift from nature to law, statutes, commandments, and judgments. For the sake of ease this morning, I am going to refer to all of these simply as “law.” What is the relationship between the first movement and second movement? We could draw out a contrast here between these movements. This Psalm is helpful, for example, in contrasting the limited knowledge that God provides through his natural or general revelation and the specific knowledge that God gives through his special revelation. But this morning, we want to see that the psalmist pushes these two movements up against each other without contrasting language: on one hand/on the other, this but that. There seems to be continuity. And what is the common melody that runs through both movements? The faithfulness of the Lord himself.
To understand this, though, we need to take a brief look at the nature of the law from the psalmist’s perspective, which is different than our dominant view. In fact, I would dare say that without realizing this difference, we impose how we think of law on the words here; rather, we mute the significance of these words.
Our dominant view of law is very impersonal. We tend to think of Law as an independent thing separated from the one (or ones) who have issued the Law. If a cop stops me and says I have broken the law, rarely will I ask “whose law.” And if I did, we may get a civic lesson on how the legislature makes the law, the executive enforces the law, and the judiciary judges whether I have broken the law. Rarely would we take it to the next step to indicate that by electing the legislative branch, the law is one we ourselves have endorsed. Law, then, is something separated from any persons. Not so for the ancient mind.
The dominant understanding of pre-modern and ancient times is that the Law is an extension of the one giving the law. We do, by the way, sometimes acknowledge though it is less common. So if I walked in my house and said to my kids, “Someone needs to feed the dog” or even more directly, “Feed the dog,” the power of my law is wrapped up in the fact that I am the father whose word is law. We even have a response that indicates this. Should one of my kids have had the temerity to ask “Why?” The response was always at hand: “Because I said so.”
With this in mind, then, God’s law is an expression/manifestation of God’s will provided by God’s Word, which is God himself. There is very little difference, then, between the Law with respect to nature and the Law with respect to us. The cycles of night and day and the movement of the sun and heavenly bodies are a response to God’s will that is to his law. In fact, ancient writers were happy to point out that nature’s obedience to the will of God is exemplary for us. The quote from Clement of Rome in your prefatory reading is set within an admonition that Clement gives to the church at Corinth to say, “See how the elements of creation play together nicely? If they can do it so well, then certainly you can. It is a matter of obeying his will.”
Of course, God communicates his will with creation in a way that is designed for creation, whereas he communicates with us through words as befits our nature. But this does not change the underlying melody.
God is faithful in giving order to his creation through the expression of his will. We do not go to bed wondering, “huh. I wonder what will be in the sky tomorrow when I wake up? Maybe the sun will decide to sleep in.” In the same way, we do not have to wonder, “If I run the course God has set for me in obedience to his will, what will happen? Something bad?”
Verse 11: Moreover, by them is your servant taught, and in keeping them there is great reward.” Heeding God’s will is not like buying a lotto ticket or rolling dice. Notice the pattern in verses 7-9. God’s word IS blank, DOING this thing for us:
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure, and gives wisdom to the simple. 8The statutes of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, and gives light to the eyes.
By giving ourselves to the Lord’s Word for his work in all areas of our being: soul, mind heart, eyes. He even throws in our bodies:
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, than the drippings from the honeycomb. NOTE ABOUT EATING HONEYCOMB
It is because of God’s faithfulness that his will expressed to us through his Word is to our benefit, that we can say with confidence “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
We will pray in our prayers later this morning: “And to all your people give your heavenly grace, especially to this Congregation, that with reverent and obedient hearts we may hear and receive your holy Word, and serve you in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives.” But notice that that we are praying for is grace that we may hear and receive. Which leads to our third movement and final movement.
For the third movement we have to move outside the psalm itself. Because it was a movement that happened after David’s time. As we saw in movements 1 and 2 it is Good News is that the same Word by which He brought all things into creation and sustains them and gives expresses his words of Law to us. That Good News takes on a different key in the third movement, though, because in the third movement, that very same creating, sustaining, law-giving Word became flesh in the person of Christ. And that Jesus, as the enfleshed Word, fulfilled the Law. As we hear Fr. Doug say every week: “In obedience to your will, he stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself once for all, that by his suffering and death we might be saved.”
And as if that is not enough, that Word did something more than fulfilling the law. By his resurrection, ascension and sending of the Spirit, God’s Word did something else. Again, from the Prayer of Consecration: “Jesus Christ our Lord, who on the first
day of the week overcame death and the grave, and by his glorious resurrection opened to us the
way of everlasting life. In him we see our God made visible and so are caught up in the love of the God we cannot see.
God now, in our communion with him made possible through the work of Jesus and the Spirit, inscribes within that which had before been on the outside. We are reminded in the words of our prayer of preparation this morning. “Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name.”
And as if that is not enough, that same Word still is active against that which threatens to undo us. You heard the words of Paul this morning from Romans 8: 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
All of this gives rise to the prayer:
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
God’s faithfulness seen in nature.
God’s faithfulness seen in his law for us.
God’s faithfulness in the Word made flesh who fulfilled the law, who inscribes his law in us, and who intercedes for us.
