The Revealing God of Psalm 19

I love reading through the Psalms. They are honest, real, and heartfelt. There is no sugar coating what the writer is feeling, either about the world around him, his emotions toward other people, or even how he feels about God at that moment. Music is often like that. It is a place to let our real selves burst out amid the rhythmic beats and consoling tempos. Music can be a place to relax, recharge, refocus, or just let go.

               And since the Psalms were originally songs, many set to music, I feel them.

               CS Lewis said that Psalm 19 is “the greatest poem in the Psalter, and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.” Let’s check out this song and see why one of the literary greats would give it such accolades. Go ahead and grab your Bible to read Psalm 19, I’ll wait right here…….

               Pretty awesome song, right?

               Here’s kind of how I see this song, it’s about some ways that God reveals Himself to us, some ways that He speaks to us. At Telford United Methodist Church where I serve as pastor, this has been our focus for all of 2014: that God does speak to us and we are attuning ourselves to listen to His voice.

               Read verses 1-6 again. This is God revealing Himself to us in His creation. To say the universe happened by chance is, well, in my opinion, absurd. As I look into the sky and see the sunsets, the rainbows, the stars in the clear sky at night, planets and clouds I see an artistic God who creates “good” things (Genesis 1).

               The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:20, says that throughout history people have been able to see God through His creation. As you look at trees and oceans, sunsets and rainbows, children and the aged, you can see a glimpse into the love of God. If you’re looking and listening.

               Psalm 19 also show how God reveals Himself to us through Scripture (Verses 7-11).

               Rules are usually something that we don’t like. We often think that rules and regulations are holding us down, diminishing our creativity, or at least keeping us from doing what we want, something fun. But I guess the best thought no this I have heard came a few years ago while coaching rec league soccer in Jonesborough. I think it was an 8-9 year old team, and before every game we would take turns allowing players that wanted to pray to lead the team in a prayer before the game. We had one girl on the team who was just thankful for about everything. One day as she prayed she had thanked God for her parents, grandparents, siblings, school, house, car, soccer team, uniforms, soccer ball and cleats, shin guards (I knew the refs were getting anxious to start the game, but how do you stop an 8-year-old when she’s on a roll like this?), sunshine, grass to play soccer in, dirt to play other games in, and lines on the soccer field. Yep, lines on the soccer field. The end of her prayer, as best as I can remember, went something like this:

              
               “And Jesus, thank you for the white lines on our soccer field so we know where to play. If we didn’t have lines we might kick the ball in the road and get run over by a truck and get hurt. So thank you for lines to keep us safe”.

               Wow, that has always stuck with me. Perhaps if we viewed parts of Scripture as “lines to keep us safe” we would really appreciate the love behind them.

               The last three verses (12-14) show how God reveals Himself to us through forgiveness. Those things that we do that we fell we shouldn’t do (aka- sin), those things we do that we don’t even realize at the time are wrong or hurtful (aka-sin)—these are what the writer of Psalm asks God to forgive him of. It’s through asking for forgiveness of sins where we can begin again (or for the first time) to experience the love and grace and presence of God in our lives continually.

               The Lord is revealing Himself to us daily, speaking to us through creation, Scripture, and forgiveness as Psalm 19 shows, and through a myriad of other ways if we are just open and listening. So today just listen for God (warning-you might have to turn off the TV or log off from your social media preference), and you may be surprised in the ways He chooses to speak to you. Because God is good…all the time!

Overflowing

"Help, it's overflowing!"

If you have ever rented, bought, or lived in a house or apartment you have probably heard or said these words. And it's usually not a good thing. Everything from toilets to washing machines, from sinks to chocolate fondue makers, when something overflows, it's messy. And where there is a mess there is something that has to be cleaned up.

When one of my daughters was just old enough to get the refrigerator door open she made herself a bowl of cereal one morning. The bowl was definitely overflowing with cereal, and also overflowing with milk. But she kept on pouring, and the milk kept on overflowing, overflowing out of the bowl, overflowing onto the table, overflowing onto the floor.

When I asked her what she was doing, she simply replied “I’m making a big bowl of cereal”, and she kept pouring. What I thought she was making was a really big mess. That wasn’t a good overflow.

But maybe not everything that overflows is bad, maybe there can be some goodness in messy overflowing. The 23rd Psalm is one of the most beloved and often quoted Psalms in Scripture. And while it is many times quoted at a funeral, the themes in this Psalm are really for our day to day living right now.

"You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows" (Verse 5).

Think about this image of an overflowing cup for a moment, and imagine your life to be the cup. Sometimes it seems your life might be overflowing with all sorts of messy, nasty stuff. And sometimes that may be the case. Life is not always clean and neat.

But I think that the overflowing mentioned here is something else, something that is always there in abundance, and maybe something that we occasionally take for granted. I think this is referring to God’s provisions. Read Psalm 23 and see the divine provisions of God with us (verse 4), God caring for us (verse 1) God leading and guiding us (verse 3), God restoring and refreshing us (verse 3), God comforting us (verse 4), God feeding us (verse 5), God anointing us as His children with His Spirit (verse 5) God providing for us (verse 2-5), God’s love pursuing us (verse 6), and God’s promise of everlasting life for us (verse 6). Wow, to be transformed by Psalm 23 would be to understand and rely on God as our main source and security. To be transformed by Psalm 23 would be living this life knowing that first and forever we belong to God’s family (God’s household).

That’s a lot to fill your cup with!

Thinking about the goodness and the mercy of God creates an overflowing of these attributes in your life. That's why the Apostle Paul said to think about these beautiful and wonderful things in his letter to the Philippian church:

“Whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

 All of our cups are overflowing with something. Live your life in the overflow of God’s love today. So, what is your cup overflowing with?