“7 The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. ”
Why do we spend such a high percentage of our time in this sanctuary studying God’s word? There are the answers that no one says out loud. We spend so much time on this because pastors go to seminary and good-hearted congregations feel like that they should honor that education by listening. We spend so much time on this because the pastor has to do something all week to justify working only one day a week. We spend so much time on this because this is the way it has always been done. Now, I hope by this point in our relationship it comes as no surprise that I don’t think those are sufficient reasons to open God’s word. I don’t think those are worthy reasons to open God’s word.
It doesn’t matter much what I think, however. God doesn’t think the reasons I listed are sufficient reasons to open His word. God doesn’t think those are worthy reasons to open His word. God thinks there are remarkable reasons to open His word. He thinks that time spent in His word is time well spent. We prioritize our time around God’s word because of what God’s word is and what God’s word can do. God’s word is astonishing in what it is and in what it can do. That’s the claim of this sermon: God’s word is astonishing in what it is and in what it does.
We will study this in two points. First: what the word of God is. Second: what the word of God does. First, we will study adjectives that describe the word of God in these verses. Second we will study verbs that describe what the word of God does in these verses.
First: what the word of God is. This is our second study dealing with Psalm 19. In our first study we thought about what theologians call “general revelation.” We thought about what we can know based on creation and reason. Today we turn our attention to what theologians call “special revelation.” This is what we can know based on God’s word. We can know quite a bit of truth by way of creation and our own reason, but there is much that we can’t know without Scripture. That’s why pioneer missionaries have never encountered an unreached people group that sees God or themselves in any way similar to what we find in Scripture. They think horrible thoughts about God and about themselves. We clearly need our thinking corrected; we need the word of the Lord.
These three verses are all about the word of the Lord. David used the words “law”, “statutes”, “precepts”, “commands”, “fear”, and “ordinances”, but all of these are simply poetic ways of referring repeatedly to the first five books of the Bible, which were the only Scripture that David knew. This was the word of the Lord. This was the description of who God is and who we were made to be. This was the story of grace. This was the explanation of how obedience flows out of grace This was—in the words of David—perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, enduring forever, sure, and altogether righteous.
Find me someone one doesn’t want what is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, enduring forever, sure, and altogether righteous. This is what we humans crave. David wrote these words to help we who have God’s word recognize its excellence. Calvin was right to say that, “The end, therefore, which David here has in view is to excite the Jews… to yield obedience to [God] with a more prompt and cheerful affection.” If, at the end of this sermon, you want God’s word of God with a new fervency then the word of God has had its way with you.
So what’s so great about the word of God? Well, it’s perfect; verse 7, “The law of the Lord is perfect.” This is the gold standard for truth. Everything the Scriptures tell you about God is completely true. Everything they tell you about yourself is completely true. Everything they tell you about life is completely true. If there is any point on which you and the word of God disagree, it isn’t the word of God that must change; it is you who must change your mind.
You will never see as clearly as Scripture and this means you can always rely on Scripture to help you see better. You would be happiest if you went to it for regular correction, which is what we are doing right now and what you do when you open God’s word at home.
It is perfect; it is also trustworthy; “the statutes of the Lord are trustworthy.” Think about the person whose wisdom you rely upon the most. You know that you can’t entirely give yourself over to that person’s wisdom because that person isn’t right about everything. She often makes unhelpful assumptions. He only sees part of the picture. That’s not the case when it comes to God and God’s word. It is totally trustworthy.
It is also right; “the precepts of the Lord are right.” I take you to be a sensible person. I believe that you want to make decisions that will lead to what is best. I assume that you don’t want to ruin your life. I’ve got a book on my shelf entitled How To Ruin Your Life By 40. The author simply lays out what life will look like if you ignore what God says. You can see people ruining their lives all over the place in our culture. Calvin saw it in his time and place. He wrote that, “a man’s life cannot be ordered aright unless it is framed according to the law of God, and that without this he can only wander in labyrinths and crooked bypaths.” That’s what people are doing. They are wandering in labyrinths and crooked bypaths. They need to hear that, “the precepts of the Lord are right.” Maybe you need to hear that tonight.
The word of the Lord is right; it is also radiant; “the commands of the Lord are radiant.” The word of God gives light. It tells you the purpose of life. It tells you the plan of God. You can’t get what this book offers anywhere else. There are reasons that this has been the best seller of all time.
The word of God is radiant; it is also pure; “The fear of the Lord is pure.” God has no mixed motivations in expecting you to keep His word. It is all for your good. Every one of His warnings against sin were given entirely for your good. Every one of His commands were given entirely for your good. Even parents who make good rules for their children don’t have a track record like that.
The word of the Lord is pure; it also endures forever; “the fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.” The word of God is just as true and relevant today as the day it was written down. What we studied in 1 Corinthians 13—“love is patient, love is kind”—is just as true now as it was when we studied it and it was just as true when Paul wrote those words to the Corinthians. It will also be just as true in the new creation. Everything else is a fad in comparison with the word of God. It endures forever.
It is also sure; “the ordinances of the Lord are sure.” God’s word is sure because God has always known everything. You and I continue to learn. I have a Maya Angelou quote on my weekly planner: “Do the best you can until you know better... when you know better, do better.” God doesn’t have any such quote on His weekly planner. He doesn’t need one. He has never needed to do a course correction and therefore He has never needed to offer any revisions on anything He said in His word. It is sure.
It is also altogether righteous; that is the final description in these verses; “the ordinances of the Lord are… altogether righteous.” You are spot on in some of what you say and think. You, like me, are also out to lunch in some of what you say and think. The problem is that we don’t usually know which is which. We are mixed bags. God isn’t like that and therefore God’s word isn’t like that; it is altogether righteous. The gospel of John is just as true as the book of Genesis. The letter to the Romans is just as beneficial as the book of Deuteronomy; it is altogether righteous. That’s why we study it all.
Now meditating on and following this word that is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, enduring forever, sure, and altogether righteous will produce a certain kind of person just as meditating on and following ways of thinking that are imperfect, untrustworthy, wrong, darkened, faddish, manipulative, uncertain, and very hit and miss will produce a certain kind of person. You need to ask yourself what kind of person you are becoming.
You need to ask yourself if you are becoming more like Jesus. He is the word made flesh. He is the word put into action. It shouldn’t surprise us that he too is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, enduring forever, sure, and altogether righteous. That is what the word of God is. Now we turn our attention to what the word of God does. That’s our second point. God tells us that His word does something. It isn’t a passive object that we act upon. It is a subject that acts upon us. As Hebrews puts it, “the word of God is living an active.” As Luther put it, “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.”
So what exactly does the word of God do? David tells us that it revives the soul; verse 7, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” The assumption here is that the soul needs reviving. The assumption here is that souls are without life and needed to be brought to life. David says that God uses the word to do this miraculous work. God spoke promises to Abraham and brought him to spiritual life. The apostle Paul explained this saying, “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” The word of God is the midwife that delivers the conversion.
If you are alive to God, ask yourself how did that happen? Did it happen by you trying to be good? Did it happen to you because you somehow realized your way into salvation? No, it happened by hearing God and believing God. You heard Him in His word.
The word of God revives the soul; it keeps the soul alive. Physical life requires sustenance. You eat food. You drink water. You take in what is necessary for your physical life. A regular intake of God’s word is necessary for the sustenance of your soul. If you don’t take it in regularly, you will die; that’s the message of the book of Hebrews; “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.”
You only stay alive because you continue to have your course corrected by the word of God. You only stay alive because your soul continues to take in what is perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, enduring forever, sure, and altogether righteous.
If you are a Christian, you need God’s word. That is not how we tend to think about it. We tend to think that only unbelievers truly need to hear the word of God; we tend to think that hearing the word of God somehow becomes some sort extra credit for the believer. That’s not how it goes. People who are dead in sin need the word so they can be brought to life. People who are alive to grace need the word to stay alive; “you must pay the most careful attention to what God says so that you don’t drift away.”
The word revives the soul meaning that it brings the soul to life and keeps it alive. It also gives light to the eyes. That’s how verse 8 puts it; verse 7 speaks to the same reality saying that it makes, “wise the simple.” God’s word opens your eyes to what you must see. God’s word opens your eyes to truths that once you see, you can’t unsee. Once you see your sin for what it is, you don’t know how you ever missed it. Once you see grace for what it is, you don’t know how you ever missed it. It is obvious to you once you see it, but you never would have seen it if the word of God didn’t give light to your eyes.
If you grew up hearing God’s word, you have no idea how much of your wisdom was graced to you through this word. You didn’t teach yourself these categories of sin, repentance, obedience, love, trust, hope, and faith. You, like all of us, were born simple. You were made wise by the word of God. Keep that in mind when you compare yourself to those who haven’t been so privileged as to regularly study the word of God.
There is nothing more crucial to your way of thinking, and in many ways you are what you think, than the time that you spend or do not spend being made wise and having light given to your eyes by way of the word of God; that’s Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
You are constantly taking in interpretations of yourself, of life, and of God. Every song that you listen to you is presenting you with an interpretation of those three. Every news story that you read is presenting you with such interpretations; the message might be that God is utterly uninvolved with what’s going on in the news; that is still a message and it is quite a different message from what you read in the word of God. It’s worth asking yourself how you are being formed because you are certainly being formed. You are either being transformed by the renewing of your mind, and that by way of Scripture, or you are being conformed to the pattern of this world.
The only alternative to being conformed to the world—and remember you can fall into worldliness on the right side and the left side—the only alternative to being conformed to the world is assuming that you are simple and being made wise by the word of God and assuming that your reasoning is dark and having light given to your eyes by the word of God. You must continue to do this or you will become foolish and your mind will be darkened. This is why people with ears to hear must keep on hearing and why people who have ears to hear have them because they have kept on hearing.
The word gives life to the soul; it gives light to the eyes; it also gives joy to the heart; verse 8, “The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.” You have to ask yourself whether or not you think God is into happiness. He says that He is. He says that unless you serve Him with happiness, you’ve missed the boat. Nobody is more into blessedness, which is happiness, than God. It shouldn’t surprise us that God uses His word to give joy to the heart. As CS Lewis explains, “it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there.”
The devil is very good at convincing people that obedience is the way to unhappiness. “Look at all those pathetic Christians missing out on all the fun,” he says. Now, it is true that we Christians can be sour but that has everything to do with our own hang-ups and nothing to do with God. God’s word tells us how to be happy. You need the word to give you the outline of joy. That’s Psalm 1, “Happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.” The happy way and unhappy way seem obvious.
I hope that the word of God gives you joy. I am deeply concerned for people who find no joy in hearing or meditating on or studying God’s word. I am deeply concerned for people who are fine seizing as little joy as is allowable; “the precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.”
I want you to close by asking you three questions and these questions are about Jesus. First, does Jesus give joy to your heart? Second, does Jesus give light to your eyes? Third, does Jesus revive your soul? If so, please recognize that he is the word made flesh. He is the word of God put into action.
If you love Jesus, you will love the word of God. It is impossible to want to know Jesus without wanting to know the word of God. After all it is perfect; it is trustworthy; it is right, radiant, pure, sure; it endures forever, and it is altogether righteous. It gives life to the soul, light to the eyes, and joy to the heart. That’s why we spend time in it. That’s why we do what we do. Amen.