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Unchangeable Truths
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. (Psalm 19)
In much of Biblical literature, the 'testimony' of God is closely tied to His revelation of Himself either though His word, through His Son Jesus, or through nature itself.
Indeed, the whole point of those first verses of this psalm is about God’s revelation of Himself through nature: "The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known."
God reveals Himself to us because He wants us to know He loves us more deeply than we could ever know love from anyone else. He knows us intimately, as close as our breath is to our life. Before a word is on our tongue, He knows every letter and every syllable. And because God cannot lie, His revelation is 'sure.'
That’s an important word the psalmist used here – the word, ‘sure.’ It comes from the same Hebrew root as the word, “Amen.” In other words, and to paraphrase, “The testimony, the report of God is true and unchangeable.
And, what are God’s unchangeable ‘truths’? He designed them to be simple enough a child can understand them. That’s probably one reason the Lord Jesus said of children, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. (Luke 18:16)
No one needs a doctorate degree in theology to figure out God’s essential truths. I like what the apostle Peter told the crowd of religious PhDs in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Quoting from the prophet Joel, Peter said: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; Even on My bond-slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2)
To the woman milking cows in the barn and the guy throwing hay onto the wagon – the unschooled, unskilled, and unsophisticated – God makes His simple truths knowns to anyone with eyes that want to see and ears that want to hear.
Now please don’t misunderstand me. Although God’s word is simple enough for a child to understand, I also know that His word is sublime and mysterious enough as to require rigorous study to mine the depths of His revelations to us.
So, what are those basic truths so simple a bond-slave can understand? Let me cite only a few:
First: He tells us, “I am the LORD, and there is no other . . . The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these. (Isaiah 45:5-7).
That’s it. He is God. No one else.
Second: Because God is our Creator, He has the absolute right to demand that we obey the rules, the commandments He has set down. Leviticus 22:31 is only one of a thousand similar warnings in Scripture: "So you shall keep My commandments, and do them; I am the Lord."
Third: We have a sin-nature inherited from Adam and Eve. We cannot escape our nature. As Paul writes, "For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. . . . For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh . . .” (Romans 7:14-18).
The fourth simple truth is this: God is in love with us. Even with you and me, sinners as we are. Never forget that. God is deeply in love with us, therefore He longs to spend eternity with us. “God demonstrates His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And again, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation –the satisfactory sacrifice – for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
That’s why – truth number five – Jesus’ sacrificial death on Calvary paid the ransom for our sins -- AND that is why His ransom is the only way – the only way – that our Creator designed for our sins to be wiped clean. It is only Christ’s sacrifice that gains us eternal life. As the Lord Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)
Simple truths. God is God and we are not. And He has the absolute right to make all the rules and the right to demand that we abide by those rules. That’s just the way it is. And woe to the person, regardless of titles, degrees, or pedigrees, who teaches others to rationalize and dilute God’s truths.
The psalmist then tells us God’s testimony makes the simple wise. Do you want wisdom from God? Do you want to be able to discern right from wrong, black from white, deadly or what gives life? “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10) Do you want wisdom about some moral dilemma? Do whatever God says in His Book about the choice you face.
God gives us His commandments for OUR good. He knows our nature. He knows our bent toward sin, self-destruction and the destruction of others. The history of humanity, from the first murder when Cain killed his brother, to the unspeakable bloodshed occurring right now in so many parts of our world.
The book of Judges is a sober example of what happens to a people or a nation when, as it says so often in that book, “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” I urge you to read the book of Judges. It is a gory story, but an illuminating one to those with eyes to see and hearts to hear. Murder. Child sacrifice (we might call it abortion today). Sexual perversions and immoralities of every sort – it’s all there as a flawless prophecy about any culture. Including ours.
And that brings us to our concluding verse for today. Verse 12: Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
I like how the Living Bible translates verse 12: “But how can I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.”
In my previous essay in this series, I compared flossing our teeth and bringing the light of God’s word to our souls. Although our teeth look and feel clean after brushing, it is only when we floss between our teeth that we can remove the hidden flecks of food that will breed bacteria, bad breath, and ultimately holes in our teeth called cavities.
God’s word – His revelation of Himself -- is like dental floss for our soul. It gets into the hidden crevices of our lives and roots out sins before they create a stench and defects in our character. His word is a mirror which shows us our soul is dirty. “How can anyone keep himself or herself pure? By keeping it according to God’s word.” (Psalm 119:9)
As with all of God's word, this psalm has important application to us in the 21st century. We continue our examination of Psalm 19 next time.
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