"We don't speak sky": Why we need the Bible to Help us Know God

 This sermon was for our Noah's Sunday - the end of our week long Vacation Bible School. Because our church remains intentionally inter-generational, we are committed to involving our youth and children as worshiping partners rather than merely younger guests. To this end, each of the passages of Scripture were read by children in our church.

Psalm 19:1-6

¹ The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

² Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.

³ They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.

⁴ 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.

⁵ It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its blazing heat.

        1.      First, we learn that the heavens tell of a powerful God but none of us really speak sky.– vss. 1-6

The heavens speak of God’s glory, the Psalmist tells us; the sky his handiwork. We look up and we can’t help but be awed and amazed. And science has not come close to scratching that itch or explaining it away but simply fuels our amazement – the heavens get bigger and bigger, filled with more stuff, than we ever imagined: giant meteors, billions of stars and galaxies, new, far off planets. So the Psalmist was more right than he could know that they are a constant flow of knowledge for us witnessing to God’s glory, power, and grandeur.

But the question arises – what do the heavens actually tell us? Vs. 3 changes tone abruptly and says “they have no speech, they use no words.” They are a language that we simply don’t know – you may speak whale but you don’t speak sky, in other words. Illus. Marianne speaking Psalm 19 in French – Okay, that was my wife speaking French not sky – you heard her speaking but I imagine many of you couldn’t even make out specific words. Her speaking bears witness to her presence, that she’s here – but it doesn’t tell you anything about her because you don’t understand. She could have been saying some pretty nasty stuff about you. So the heavens bear witness to God but they don’t answer the more important questions like, “Who is this God? Is this God good? What does this God want from us or for us?”

I love the storm paintings by Michelle Manley.

She uses vivid colors to create landscapes filled with dark clouds swirling together into distant and powerful storms. The clouds seem to take on a life of their own. Upon quick glance, you might notice that the lines and shapes subtly take on the form of surreal creatures overpowering the sky. Seeing this kind of heavy storm approaching would cause any of us to run for cover and thunderstorms remind us how small we really are in this world. Storms in the sky are awe inspiring – many call them acts of God  - but they don’t speak to us in a meaningful way, don’t address our lives directly.  We may see the power of God in them but actually may shudder at who such a God appears to be – a surreal, menacing being.

Like Manley’s paintings, David is describing an ancient astronomy filled with awe about God’s power. God created the sun and set a tent for it, explaining night. He set it on its course. God did all of that. It’s beautiful like a groom, magnificent like an athlete. Yet, nothing, he declares, escapes its blazing heat. 

The Psalmist point is simple – the heavens are amazing and awesome, the sun –mindblowing, massive, scary, beautiful and intensely hot. The burning sun testifies to God’s glory – His presence and power, but on its own leaves us asking, “Who is this God?” “What are we to make of this blazing heat?”

19:7-10

⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect,
    refreshing 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 decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.

¹⁰ They are more precious than gold,
    than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.

      2.      Second, we learn that this God loves us sweetly and richly by giving us His Word. – vss. 7-10

So the Psalmist looks no further to the heavens but points us to God’s Word to understand who this God truly is and what he wants for us. It’s interesting that though God made the heavens, and the earth, there is a personal stress in this section on the Scriptures by repeating the phrase – “of the LORD” as if the Psalmist wants us to know that this is the created thing whereby one truly encounters God. And what does God’s word reveal about what he wants for us? The Psalmist gives 6 experiences, 6 results of what the Scriptures should do for us: “refreshing the soul”; “making wise”; “giving joy to the heart”; “giving light to the eyes”; “more precious than gold”; “sweeter than honey.”

These phrases show what God wants for us, what should happen when we read the Bible and what we should be to others. So the measure that we understand the Bible – get what God is after will be measured by how we as a church community reflect these realities. What good is reading a cook book if you can’t or won’t cook? And the measure that we are refreshment for our world, a place of wisdom, a community of joy, will directly relate to our commitment to what God has said in this book.

The sky doesn’t begin to tell you that God loves everyone without first hearing it from Scripture– “The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation.” Psalm 145:9. Jesus understood this reality of Scriptures’ purpose in Matthew 22 which quotes from Deut. and Leviticus making God’s love the centerpiece of Scripture’s intent and power. The sky won't teach you that God is good to everyone, or to love your enemies, His Word does that. And why would God give us treasure and sweets if He didn’t love us in the first place? 

19:11-14

¹¹ By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

¹² But who can discern their own errors? Forgive my hidden faults.

¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins;
    may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

¹⁴ May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

        3.      Third, we learn that reading God’s Word humbly leads us to dust. –vs. 11-14

If this is who God is and what God wants for me, “What should I do?,” the Psalmists asks.  He squarely faces the challenges to the human condition – self-deceit, the need for forgiveness, and the struggle with sin – the forces that rule over our lives. What should Bible reading do? What should happen when we understand that this God desires joy and wisdom for us? It should help me embrace my humanity by leading me to my own dust. In Genesis the Bible speaks theologically of how fragile and precious we are by stating that humans were made of dust from the earth filled with God’s breath. The word for soil or ground in Latin is humus. And it is the root word for humble, humility, and human. God’s Word, in other words, bends us toward the ground showing us our need, showing us who we are. It helps us to pray. It doesn’t inform us so that we can do life by ourselves or judge the faults of others but transforms us first and foremost by showing us that we are not God but that we need help– that we need a Rock and Redeemer. We can’t be blameless, the Psalmist tells us, until God does something – until God helps us “discern” our own errors, “keeps” us from sins, set us free from things that rule our lives. We need God because we can’t!

And the more we become a people of God’s Word will not necessarily make us more a people of success but a people who find it easier to discern our own errors, to confess our own wrong doing and to accept forgiveness because the person who learns the Bible well knows that you spell the word “sinner”- “m – e.” Illus. of the Apostle Paul’s maturity on “sin” – He moves from claims to being the greatest apostle (Galatians), least of the apostles (1 Corinthians), least of all God’s people (Ephesians), to 1 Tim. 1:15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.” The Bible reminds us that we need to pray because to be a human is to be “in need” and therefore something that we will always be in this life. It is to acknowledge with the Psalmist that we cannot “keep” ourselves. What does the Word of God look like in action?

Illus. Story about Abba Moses the Black, 4^th century Egyptian monk reveals to us the humble-making reality of reading God’s Word- When a brother committed a fault, Moses was invited to a meeting to discuss an appropriate penance, but refused to attend. When he was again called to the meeting, Moses took a leaking jug filled with water and carried it on his shoulder. When he arrived, the others asked why he was carrying the jug. He replied, “My sins run out behind me and I do not see them, but today I am coming to judge the errors of another.” On hearing this, the assembled brothers forgave the erring monk.

Let the Word of God direct you today – to forgiveness, to forgiving, and to prayer.