Days 18 & 19, Sat. 3 & Sun. 4 March, Psalm 19

Psalm 19 is wonderful reading! According to Peter Walker, commentating in With Love to the World, no less a critic than the great CS Lewis called this psalm the greatest in the psalter, containing some of the finest of lyrics in all history. It includes God's three forms of revelation to Israel. In the WLTTW Commentary these are spread out over two days. Saturday's reading, verses 1-6, rejoice in "natural revelation". In particular it describes God's revelation in and through the heavens in different ways - the night sky and the sun following its course during the day. Sunday's reading includes verses 7-10 and 11-14.

Verses 7-10 address God's particular revelation through the law to the people of Israel. The law in Israel meant more than our law means to us. In western societies the Law is "a system of rules that are created and enforced through social or governmental institutions to regulate behaviour." but the Jewish Law, 613 negative and positive instructions contained in the Torah, the first 5 books of the Hebrew Scriptures, is "God’s Divine Instructions in Righteousness without which humankind would have NO blueprint for moral, holy living." In verses 7-9 the effects of the Law are beautifully described in a kind of descriptive crescendo:

"The law of the Lord is perfect,
    reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
    making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
    enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
    enduring for ever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
    and righteous altogether."

This whole, beautiful passage draws to a climax in verse 10:

"More to be desired are they than gold,
    even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
    and drippings of the honeycomb."

The final four verses are a description of how the Law keeps the follower of God from sin and a prayer that this will be so in the psalmist's life. Like many preachers I, for many years, have prayed verse 14 at the beginning of my sermons.








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