Pastor Fredo Ramos: We continue in praying through the Psalms, we come to Psalm 19. David says, the heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day, they pour forth speech. Night after night, they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech. They use no words. That is a way to say it's it's nonverbal communication. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens, God has pitched a tent for the sun.
It's like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens, and it makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm and righteous altogether. They are more precious than gold than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey than honey from the honeycomb.
And by them, your servant is war is warned. In keeping them, there is great reward, but who can discern their own errors? So forgive my hidden faults, and keep your servant also from willful sins that they may not rule over me, and then I will be blameless. I love David's ending words in the in verse 14. May these words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
By way of reflection, it's clear that this prayer of David is all on the word of God. First, the unspoken word of God, that is to say that God communicates his glory and his character through creation. The heavens declare the glory of God. The sky above declares the works of his hands. Even the movement of the sun is, is communicating something about God's power, God's warmth, and God's light, but it's all nonverbal.
And then he transitions into this beautiful description of what the word of God is. It's perfect. It refreshes the soul. It makes the foolish people, the simple people like you and I, it makes us wise. It straightens our paths.
It's firm to stand on. It gives light to our eyes. And then he says this, it's more valuable than gold. And so as we think about our day today, as we go about the things that we have to do, we all will kind of attach value to things. And so what are you what kind of value would you say you attach to the word of God?
Because David says, man, it's rich for your mind. It's good for your soul. It's even sweeter than honey. Man, what a gift to know, to to wake up and to consider, man, god, I wanna dive into your word today because it is sweet and it's refreshing to the soul. And it even helps me discern errors that I can't see.
He says, god, forgive me for my hidden faults. Right? There's a role that god's word plays today that it searches our hearts in a ways that we can't even search out ourselves. And then he ends with this this this benediction of a prayer, God may may the words of my mouth and meditation of my heart be pleasing to you. In other words, the word is meant not just to kind of get in but also to transform.
And so what what we're invited to consider today is not so much am I getting good at reading the Bible, but really is the Bible getting better at reading us? Are we allowing God's word to read us, to search us, to refresh us, to nourish us and do we see it as valuable today? Jesus, by by prayer now, we we consider that you are the perfect word, you are the word made flesh and so would you revive our hearts, open our eyes and give us new taste buds so that we might see your words as like honey, as like the best dessert that we can possibly imagine, and would your words transform us in the same way that seeing the sunrise wakes us up in the morning. Would your word wake up our soul? We pray these things in Jesus name.
Amen. Grace and peace. Stay tuned for Psalm 20.