Psalm 19 Continued…
Psalms 19:10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
At this point, David disclosed his personal reaction to God’s perfect Law. He found the statutes desirable and enjoyable. In extolling their value to him, he compared them to gold and honey—“they are more precious than gold,” the most valuable commodity in the ancient Near East, and “sweeter than honey,” the sweetest substance known in the ancient Near East. The Law was not a burden to believers who were trying to please God with their lives.
God’s Word has a cleansing effect upon us and it has a consecrating effect upon us. The man who once craves for gold now craves for God.
Psalms 19:11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
The Word of God has an uncanny way of confronting us with our sin. The Holy Spirit uses it like a surgeon’s knife to slice away all surface things and reveal the cancers of the soul. As someone has said: “This book (Bible) will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.” For David, keeping God’s statutes, which “warned” him of the dangers of folly and sin, brought “reward.”
Psalms 19:12 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
The Psalmist asks the question, “Who can discern his errors?”, that is, “Who can understand their sins? I can give God excuses, but God won’t accept them. God says you cannot understand your sins. Just take His Word for it that you are a sinner.
It is when we come by grace to reflect on what the second half of this psalm deals with that we make the one discovery necessary to help us understand the Word of God. Till now, David has not noticed that, as a sinner, he has erected a barrier between himself and the Word, so that he does not even possess the ears necessary to hear. It is the Word of Redemption, therefore, which alone can help him to faith. He, himself cannot discern his own errors, because his faults are hidden even from his own eyes.
Two classifications of sins are mentioned here that come from the Law of Moses; one in verse 12 and the other in verse 13. Hidden faults are those sins of forgetfulness or mistakes, which in David’s day could be dealt with by the sacrificial system outlined in Leviticus.
“Forgive my hidden faults.” Hidden faults are a problem with a great many people today—they are secret from themselves—they think they are not sinners.
If a person watches pornography it will pollute his mind; if he reads anti-Semitic literature he will soon come to hate the Jews. This is the principle behind all propaganda. If a person reads the Bible it will cleanse him.
There are two kinds of cleansing. There is a radical cleansing from sin that depends on the blood of Christ. There is also a recurrent cleansing from sin that depends on the Word of God. The recurrent cleansing was centered in Old Testament times in the laver, first in the tabernacle and then in the temple. The laver was made of the mirrors of the women and filled with water. Thus it both revealed defilement and it removed defilement. It symbolized the cleansing function of the Word of God. We need to spend time daily reading God’s Word so that its convicting and cleansing action might act upon our souls.
Psalms 19:13 Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
“Willful sins” or as they are often called ‘presumptuous sins’ are the second classification of sin which David mentions; in Hebrew they are “sins with a high hand.” You can see the aggressor with his knife in the air ready to strike. And you can see the lustful degenerate pursuing his prey in order to rape her or to uncover her nakedness (as Leviticus puts it). Murder and Adultery were the two particular sins that excluded a person from obtaining forgiveness through sacrifice—the very two sins that David committed, as Nathan his court Chaplain had to point out to him. But here both kinds of sins are covered by the mercy and grace of God!
“Keep your servant also from willful sins” . . . and I will be “innocent of great transgression.” Do you know what the “great transgression is?” It is the rejection of Jesus Christ, the one who is set before us in this psalm.
David’s concerns reflect the attitude of a maturing disciple who, by God’s grace and provisions, deals with his sins and does not deny them. He prayed that he would be forgiven for hidden faults (v.12) and prevented from sinning willfully. For sins committed in ignorance the Law provided atonement, but for willful sins, sins committed in a pompous manner, there was no ceremonial prescription, though forgiveness was still available if the person repented and confessed (See Psalm 51). Therefore, he needed the perfect Law and God’s enabling to restrain him from such sins.
Psalms 19:14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
The words of verse 14 are often made part of our church service today, for they are the response of each individual, me and my heart, to the profound revelation in this double psalm. For surely, all speculation about the nature and revelation of God’s love ends here. C. S. Lewis, the great critic of English poetry and style, once wrote: “This is the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.”
“Pleasing in your sight” is an expression often associated with God’s acceptance of properly offered, literal sacrifices.
God’s Word has the power to correct us. It will keep us in fellowship: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.” Who was David’s strength? Christ! Who was his Redeemer? Christ! He is also my strength and my Redeemer, and I pray that He’s yours too. He becomes that through the grace of God. What a wonderful prayer to pray every day! Such a prayer must bring joy to the heart of God.
PRAY
Father: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.