The Totality of God
In Psalm 19, David begins by reflecting on the magnificence of God’s creation and the way that it reveals the Creator. He says that not only is God’s handiwork evident in every piece of His magnificent creation, but His creation itself praises Him and gladly does His bidding.
It is only after a full consideration and a complete adoration of the Creator that David turns to God’s other perfect creation - His law.
If His creation causes us to be amazed, then His words should cause us to be inspired to do His will.
In verses 7 through 11 of Psalm 19, we have some of the most perfect poetry in all of the psalms. This was a song of David, sung in worship, and you may be familiar with the song we sing now from these same verses.
Although God’s creation reveals His mind to us in many ways, His laws are of greater importance and benefit to us. Creation does not and cannot declare the will of the Father, and creation offers no means of salvation. Knowing God’s will and knowing how to live a life that can bring us back into the proper relationship with Him is revealed through His message.
This is another way that God reveals His glory. David uses six different terms for different aspects of God’s will and gives six results of keeping the law in these six ways. These words indicate a totality of God’s message that is necessary for our salvation. We need not only His law, but we need His thoughts, His counsel, His exhortations, His promises, His threats…it is the entirety of what God has revealed that will cause our hearts to be contrite and broken.
First, David says that the law of the Lord is perfect.
In His law, man can completely discover not only the nature and will of God, but also the whole duty of man, what we are to believe and practice, and all that is necessary to our present and eternal happiness.
And that will convert our souls.
The impact of His law is that it creates truth from error, it leads us from sin to righteousness, and it gives us life in our hopeless state. It converts our souls - it turns them in a completely new direction. It convinces us of sin - identifies it and then offers a rule of conduct and through Christ a means of grace. If we only allow it to do so, it will convert our souls.
The testimony of the Lord is sure.
A testimony is a witness; the law is a witness between God and man. It testifies of what God requires of us, and it expresses what He will do for us IF we meet the conditions. His testimony is sure. It will not mislead; we can count on it. He will not pull the rug out from under us or fail to keep His promise. And it will, He tells us, bring us to happiness, and more than that, it will make us wise.
It makes wise the simple.
In II Timothy 3:15, Paul tells Timothy to remember what he’s learned. He says, “from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
The scriptures which fully and logically lay out God’s laws for us will make us wise to the point of being saved which is, after all, the only wisdom that matters! Those who are humble and teachable - those who are insignificant in their own eyes, even the simple who may be easily persuaded - even these - can be made wise by listening to God’s instructions. The counter of this same argument is made by Paul in Romans 1 when he says that those who lean on their own understanding - who say they are wise, will, by neglecting the words of God, become fools.
The statutes of the Lord are right.
God’s laws and testimonies, his dealings with man are right - both in themselves and in their effect.
They cause the heart to rejoice.
God’s love for sinners and His offer of mercy and kindness should fill us with such gratitude that we can not help but rejoice! How can we fail to see the marvelous love that He has for us when we consider the pain that He suffered to redeem us? His statutes bring us joy.
The commandment of the Lord is pure.
The commandment of the Lord — the total of his laws and statutes all that He commands of us - is pure; there is no error, no contradiction, no flaw.
And it enlightens us.
It tells us not only of the nature of God but of man’s duty in the face of God’s will. The works of nature certainly declare God, but the natural world cannot enlighten us nor can the writings of men and their discoveries. It may be that discoveries of man help us understand the way God’s universe works, but man’s discoveries will always be dark and imperfect in comparison with God’s commandments. Like Job said, we see only the product of the glory of God, the merest whisper of His true might (Job 26:14). God’s commandments enlighten us. They shine light in the dark places, both in our world and in our hearts.
The fear of the Lord is clean.
The fear of the Lord in this verse is the same thought that Solomon will have later at the end of Ecclesiastes; when God’s laws are written on our hearts and practiced in our lifestyles, it is at least partly because of the reverence we have for God. He doesn’t leave us shaking with fright - although He could! It is “a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31), but this is talking about the respectful reverence with which we approach God. It becomes the sum of our devotion to him, and there is no vanity or deception or pride associated with it. This fear preserves the holiness of our hearts.
And it endures forever.
God’s law is not bound by cultures or time periods. It is constant and unchanging. Since God set time into motion by speaking light into existence, God’s grace and mercy have been evidenced, and with His creation of man, he added to the laws of nature the law by which Adam and Eve were to live, and when they failed to keep His law, God once again provided for sinful men a means to escape condemnation. His constancy was again shown when He fulfilled His promises sending Christ to redeem us all.
You know, men’s laws change over time, depending on the culture and the situation. God’s laws endure forever.
Finally, David declares the judgments of the Lord are true.
God's laws are judgments because they identify sin, they are declarations of His righteous will, and they are the measurement by which we will be judged. He expects us to use His laws to govern ourselves, and He will use them to judge us in the final judgment. And His judgments are true — in fact, they are grounded in the most sacred and unquestionable truths.
And they are righteous altogether.
Altogether means completely. Without the smallest exception, God’s laws are righteous. The laws of men are often wrong and unrighteous or unfair, but God’s laws are perfectly and constantly equitable, just, and holy.
In verse 10, David concludes his praise of God’s law: “More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold.”
Over and over in the scriptures, we are reminded of the immeasurable worth of God’s wisdom, laws, and admonitions.
Jesus said the same thing on numerous occasions -
“Lay up your treasure in heaven…” - Matthew 6:20
“Go sell all that you have and give it to the poor and follow me” - Mark 10:24
“Who does not renounce all and follow me cannot be my disciple” - Luke 14:33
David says God’s words and thoughts are more valuable than even the most refined gold. The things of highest quality on this Earth are incomparable to the things of God.
If we want to even begin to know Him, then we have to get our heads out of this world. We have to try to think in spiritual terms. We have to see the real things - those things that are unseen, and we have to allow God to reveal not only Himself but His will to us so that we might see Him and know Him more.
I don’t think we can understand God or know Him with any true intimacy…yet…but I look forward to knowing more when I leave this physical body behind to be with Him…I want that. But for now, I’ll have to understand Him only as far as I am allowed - by contemplating the glory expressed in His creation and the beauty and wisdom that He gives in His word.