Sermon series: A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS
BEHOLD HIS MAJESTY!

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is true, making wise the simple; the statutes 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 forever; the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, 0 Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Message: The book of nature has three leaves, heaven, earth and sea, of which heaven is the first and the most glorious, and by its aid we are able to see the beauties of the other two.
THE HEAVENS! Of the hundreds of occurrences of the word HEAVEN in an English Bible, almost all of them are translations of the Hebrew word SHAMAYIM and the Greek word OURANOS. The Hebrew word means literally "the heights," while the Greek word has. a related but slightly different meaning, "that which is raised up." Considering all the various shades of meaning which may be said to attach to the original words, and to the English word, it is undeniable that the primary meaning of the actual word HEAVEN is THAT WHICH IS ABOVE.
The word HEAVEN in the Bible may refer to one of three major realms: (1) the atmospheric heavens which are immediately above us, in which we live and move; (2) the stellar heavens, which ultimately must include the entire universe; and (3) the heaven of heavens, the abode of God.
The first of the three heavens depicted for us in the Holy Scriptures is the atmospheric heavens,

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Two)

specifically the atmosphere which surrounds our globe. The blanket of air that surrounds the earth, that which we breathe, is contained within the space known as the troposphere, which does not extend more than twenty miles above the earth. All normal clouds are within a distance of seven miles above the earth. From twenty to thirty miles beyond, the space is known as the stratosphere, while the space from thirty to fifty miles high is known as the mesosphere. The ionosphere ranges from fifty, up to three hundred miles. The exosphere, beginning at two hundred or three hundred miles, can be argued as extending anywhere from eight hundred to twenty thousand miles.
THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD!
Among all the ancient peoples, only the Hebrews got their cosmology right. While the rest of the world believed in a magical, eternal universe that give birth to the gods, only they believed in an eternal, transcendent God who gave the universe its beginning! Like every cause, the Cause of the universe must be independent of its effect. Thus, the first Cause must be separate from the universe, not a part of it. From ancient times, the Bible has clearly presented God as non-physical, a Spirit who cannot be contained, even by the heavens. Unlike other ancient religious writings, the Bible prohibited the making of images of God, making it a point to teach that He is not a physical being.
The consensus of modern science is that the universe—and time itself-had a beginning. Nothing that is confined to time could have created the cosmos. God must not only be separate from His creation, but He must exist outside of time.
Again, from ancient days, the Bible specifically defined God as the I AM, operating outside of time and existing before the universe He created!
Perhaps the ultimate superstition is to believe that this physical universe is imbued with mystical powers that enable it to bring itself into existence and then to fine-tune itself. Evolution is the devil's lie! In the matter of deciding who's running the universe, we all have just three choices: the universe itself, humankind, or God. Because a cause must precede its effect, the first two options violate logic, especially now that we know the universe did not exist in eternity past.
Probably the most frequently quoted volume on cosmology is the one by Dr. E. A. Milne, the late Rouse Hall Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, who concludes his work with this simple statement: "I do most fervently believe that this universe was created by Almighty God." The second chapter of Genesis opens with a statement regarding this initial creative activity that contains a word not found in the earlier pronouncement: "And the heavens and the earth were finished and all the HOST of them."

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Three)

Spurgeon writes in his great commentary: "The heavens declare, or are declaring, for the continuance of their testimony is intended by the participles employed; every moment God's existence, power, wisdom and goodness, are being sounded abroad by the heavenly heralds which shine upon us from above. He who would guess at divine sublimity should gaze upward into the starry vault; he who would imagine infinity must peer into the boundless expanse; he who desires to see divine wisdom should consider the balancing of the orbs; he who would attain some conception of divine power, greatness, and majesty, must estimate the forces of attraction, the magnitude of the fixed stars, and the brightness of the whole celestial train!"
Robert Jastrow, internationally respected astronomer and self-confessed agnostic writes: "For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."
THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD AND HIS FIRMAMENT SHOWS HIS HANDIWORK. The N.I.V. translation says: "the skies proclaim the work of His hands."
He who looks up to the firmament and then writes himself down an atheist, brands himself at the same moment as an idiot or a liar.
"Day unto day uttereth speech is better phrased..."Pours forth the story." The Hebrew habit of personifying the impersonal adds vividness to poetry such as this. Each day had a life of its own, and is pictured as coming forth from its dwelling to play its part at the appointed time, with a primary duty of declaring to its successor that God is glorious! Each new day brings a brand new sunrise, different, glorious, and full of new hope. Each sunset is different, gorgeous with radiant color or dulled by the mist or fog...but it tells its own story at the end of the day.
Spurgeon writes: "The lesson of day and night is one which it were well if all men learned. It should be among our day-thoughts and night-thoughts to remember the flight of time, the changeful character of earthly things, the brevity both of joy and sorrow, the preciousness of life, our utter powerlessness to recall the hours once flown, and the irresistible approach of eternity."
To our Psalmist, each day and each night is a continuous sermon being preached of the greatness and wonder of God.
During the French Revolution someone said to a peasant, "I will have all your steeples pulled down, that you may no longer have any object by which you may be reminded of your superstitions." "But," replied the peasant, "you cannot help leaving us the sun and the stars."

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Four)

Our Psalmist has pondered the wonder and majesty of God's creation as a volume of the glorious revelation of God.
Few commentators on the Psalms can resist quoting Kant's famous dictum: "The starry sky above me and the moral law in me, are two things which fill the soul with ever increasing admiration and reverence."
But there is a difference between the two books of God. Creation reveals God as the Mighty One, the God of power. But His Word reveals Him as the One who enters into covenant relationship with His people. God's WORKS reveal His knowledge and power, but His WORD reveals His love and grace.
Scientific truth may stimulate our intellect but spiritual truth convicts our heart and conscience.
THE LAW OF THE LORD IS PERFECT! David means not merely the law of Moses, but the doctrine of God, the whole run and rule of Sacred Writ. How more than perfect is the Book which contains the clearest possible display of divine love, and gives us an open vision of redeeming grace. The gospel is a complete scheme or law of gracious salvation, presenting to the needy sinner everything that his terrible necessities can possibly demand. There are no redundancies and no omissions in the Word of God, and in the plan of grace; why then do men try to paint this lily and gild this refined gold?
THE GOSPEL IS PERFECT IN ALL ITS PARTS, AND PERFECT AS A WHOLE; it is a crime to add to it, treason to alter it, and felony to take from it.
In the closing words of the Bible, we have this warning: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book; If anyone adds to these things. God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy. God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book." (Revelations 22:18-19)
THE LAW OF THE LORD IS ALL THAT GOD HAS REVEALED TO US IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES! And he says...they are perfect, complete, final!
"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not whither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper." (Psalm 1:1-3)
"Your word, 0 Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens." (Psalm 119:89)
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." (Matt. 24:35)
"All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Five)

and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." (1 Peter 1:24,25)

CONCERNING THE HOLY SCRIPTURES...The claim set up by all evangelical Christians, of whatever phase of faith, is, that the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament either directly or indirectly contain the teachings of Christ, and that, in substance, they are of divine authority and are to be received as such; in other words, the Bible is a divinely inspired book, and that Christ was a divinely sent teacher, and that the substance of what is found in the Bible is a revelation from God, and as such is to be accepted as final authority on all matters of which it makes deliverances.
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16)
"And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shinning in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." (2 Pet. 19)
THE LAW OF THE LORD IS PERFECT, CONVERTING THE SOUL.
The great function of God’s Word in conversion is to enlighten a mind darkened by the world’s philosophies and religions...it brings men and women back to the point of departure from divine truth.
The practical effect of the Word of God is to turn people to themselves, to their God, and to holiness; and the turn of conversion is not outward alone--the soul is moved and renewed. The great means of the conversion of sinners is the Word of God.
JUST SOME WORDS OF CLARIFICATION:
LAW is the comprehensive term for God’s revealed will. TESTIMONY is its aspect as truth attested by God Himself, it is also a term for His covenant-declaration. PRECEPTS and COMMANDMENT indicate the precision and authority with which God addresses us, while fear, or reverence, emphasizes the human response fostered by His Word. ORDINANCES, or JUDGMENTS are the judicial decisions He has recorded about various human situations.
I added these comments because throughout David’s writings, he will refer to these various aspects of the Word of God.
THE STATUTES OF THE LORD ARE RIGHT, REJOICING THE HEART: THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LORD IS PURE, ENLIGHTENING THE EYES. The Word of God takes away all uncertainty. It provides us guidance for today and promises glory for tomorrow.
Look at what the Word of God does:
(1) It restores the soul, it calls it back from its wanderings by reminding it of its ingratitude, by setting before it its high destiny, by bringing it to its true Shepherd and Guardian.

***PAGE BREAK***
(Page Six)

(2) It makes wise the simple. It gives to each one who studies it with open, unprejudiced, candid mind, that divine wisdom whereby he attains to salvation. "...the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." (2 Tim. 3:15)
(3) It rejoices the soul. It fills the heart with joy in God, by manifesting Him as the portion of the soul, and so lifting it above the joy as well as the sorrows of earth.
In our Psalm we have these words in verse 11:
"Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward." The Bible is not like any other book. J. B. Phillips confesses in the introduction to his LETTERS TO YOUNG CHURCHES that when he first began to translate the New Testament he did not believe in the plenary verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. But in the process of translating it he received so many shocks from the New Testament that he changed his mind! The material he was handling had power. He said that translating it was like trying to rewire a house without pulling the main switch. God’s Word is powerful! "By them is Thy servant warned." As one translator renders that, "even thine own servants find warning in them. 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 will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book."
"For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]: it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the mortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart." (Heb. 4:12)
David closes this Psalm with this prayer:
"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, 0 Lord, my strength, and my redeemer."
This beautiful closing verse is a permanent possession of Christian worship, both private and public. In nonliturgical churches it is often used as a prayer before or after the sermon. If our public words and our meditation are acceptable in the Lord’s sight, we have succeeded as heralds, witnesses, and teachers; if in private they are acceptable, we have by God’s grace succeeded in life. For then we are either speaking or meditating "as if Christ were at our elbow," or at least as if we should not be perturbed to look around and find Him there! After all, that is the test.