Psalm 19 – A Psalm for Epiphany
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” – Psalm 19
What a perfect psalm to read on this day that the church celebrates the Epiphany of our Lord. Epiphany is a fancy Greek word that literally means “a sudden shining of light” or a “sudden revealing of something because light has shined upon it.” Think of a dark auditorium, filled with people, all of them waiting in the darkness for the performance to begin. There is a drum roll and a hush falls over the crowd. Suddenly, a spotlight turns on and illuminates a beautiful singer standing on stage. That’s an epiphany.
Epiphany is the final feastday of Christmas (the day after the twelfth day of Christmas) and the day we remember the coming of the Wise Men and how —just as Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork–God used a star to lead these pagan men to Bethlehem and revealed to them, in part, His plans and purposes through Jesus Christ.
Can the sky above us really reveal truth about God? … and…
Are we too preoccupied to realize this?
Yes, Psalm 19 makes it clear that the heavens can reveal amazing truths to us about God’s purposes, if only we took time to look up. But we seldom do. Life can be so chaotic. We’re always rushing from one urgent thing to the next. We try to get a good night’s sleep before the busyness of the next day… but it seems like we always end up tired, anyway, wishing for a nap.
We’ve got our routines: Get up each morning, go to work or school; come home, make supper, clean the house, do homework, spend a little time with the family, watch TV, go to bed. Each day plays-out pretty much the same. But for some strange reason, still time flies no matter how much we try to manage it. We can’t stop it or slow it down. If you do the math, the average human lifespan consists of about 30,000 days. This may seem like a lot, but as the weeks and months flow together to form another year, we always say the same thing, don’t we? “Where did the time go?”
Today, we are already one week deep into January, but the year will rush by like every year does. Lent will begin in just 5 weeks. Easter is only three months away. School lets out in about five and a half months, but the next school year starts again in eight months. And, though you’d probably rather not think about it, Christmas will be here again in 352 days. However, with everything on the calendar, we can get so focused on tomorrow and the next day and what comes after that, we don’t always take time to contemplate the day at hand and prayerfully consider God purposes and desires for us today.
I think this is the heart and soul of understanding Psalm 19. It’s a psalm that begins by simply inviting us to slow down—and look up. The psalmist cries out: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” Because, when we actually do look up, we can’t help but be reminded that above us lies an infinitesimal amount of space. It takes your breath away to contemplate the night sky and the sheer, vast endlessness of it. It’s enough to knock your own self-centeredness down a peg or two—hopefully. At a bare minimum, the heavens and all their beauty remind us we are not the center of the universe, no matter how many plans we have on the calendar for the year ahead.
So what do the heavens declare?
The psalm says of the heavens “day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge” (Verse 2). “Their voice [the voice of the heavenly bodies] goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the earth” (Verse 4). The psalmist is saying that the heavens have important truths to teach us, but interestingly, in verse 3 it also says of the heavens, “[They have] no speech, nor any words” and their “voice is not heard.”
So, let’s think about that for a moment… The Psalmist is saying that even though the heavens can’t literally talk, the stars and the sun and moon, nevertheless, have much to say about God’s existence and God’s glory. So, they can’t talk but they have much to say… Hmmm?
I suppose the lesson here is this: If we were to stand under the night sky tonight and consider all these things, how could we avoid the obvious conclusion that you and I actually do have means of communication—we have mouths that can speak words of truth and tongues that sing God’s praise. Thus, if the mute heavenly bodies can communicate to the world about the glory of God, how much of a better job could we do?
That’s the first lesson. And the second…
Next, the psalm takes a different turn and in verse five it switches from nighttime to daytime. The focus is specifically on the sun. We are told that the sun eagerly looks forwards to each day like a bridegroom ready to meet his beautiful bride. This is such a beautiful way of thinking about the morning and the rising sun. Compare this to what Science tells us—that the sun is nothing more than an immense ball of burning gas fueled by nuclear fusion, and it’s merely an accidental coincidence that our sun happens to have eight or nine planets and that earth just so happens to be close enough—but not too close, mind you—to be warmed by the sun and benefit from its light and be neither an ice-cube nor burnt to a crisp. But Psalm 19 tells us something even more meaningful about the sun—something that Science can’t tell us. Psalm 19 tells us why the sun moves across the sky.
Of course, the psalm is not talking about the mechanical processes of how the earth orbits the sun. That would tells us only the how and not the why. Science is good at explaining how things work but what Science can’t explain is why things work.
The answer to why: Psalm 19 informs us that the sun obeys God. That’s why!
Each day the sun comes up and shines brilliantly, never wavering or complaining, never focused too much upon itself or its own needs. It’s always ready to shine. It’s just a burning ball of gas—yes, indeed—but this burning ball of gas faithfully and dutifully obeys the purpose for which it was created: It shines its light and gives warmth and provides life for all the world. There is a seriously important lesson for us in this simple truth.
Sometimes, I wonder if David wrote this psalm on a particularly rough morning. (Remember last week, when we looked at Psalm 29, I detailed how David’s life wasn’t always roses. He had to spend years on the run, fearing for his life, hiding in caves, hoping that King Saul wouldn’t find him and kill him.) David, no doubt, had some rough mornings. We all have rough mornings… times when we just want to stay in bed and not have to deal with anything or anybody. But on that particular morning, David was up early, sitting in the quite of the morning, thinking of his place in creation. David may have looked up to the rising sun in the purple morning sky, and that beautiful ball bursting with light reminded him that no matter what was happening in his life—no matter how dark or hopeless or pointless things seemed—he had a course to run and a purpose given him by God. He had people to take care of, a kingdom to claim, and light to shine.
Like a true poet, David takes something so simple—the sun rising and shining—and invites us to see each day in a whole new light. Each day you and I get to see the sun acting in harmony with its Creator, doing its work willingly and joyfully, happy to do what God fashioned it to do and desires it to do. Each day the sun runs it course across the sky, the course established for it by God, Himself. And if the sun can do this, so can we. What a way to wake up in the morning! If the sun can patiently rise each morning and shine its light upon all the world from dawn to dusk, then why can’t we run the course that God has set for each day of our lives? If the sun can shine on all people without holding back, why can’t we be more patient and attentive with our spouse and children, parents or siblings, coworkers or neighbors?
Like the sun’s established course through the sky, the Word of God establishes our path through life.
But David isn’t done. The psalm goes on to describe something even more inspiring than the sun in the sky. We have something so much more wonderful to tell us about God’s purposes for us. We have the Word of God, itself. We have the Bible!
This brings us to the seventh verse.
Many scholars have often pointed out how disjointed this psalm is because here the psalm goes from talking about the sun and the stars to talking about the Law of the Lord. Scholars think that this might be two psalms that were stuck together. But I disagree. The change in subject might seem abrupt, but it’s not disjointed.
The Hebrew word for “Law of the Lord” is Torah. Torah means more than just “Law”, it’s all God’s will and desires for His people. You see, I think David is saying that the Law of the Lord is like the sun, like the all-revealing, ever-shining light of the sun. Just like seeing the sun after many cloudy, dreary days, the Word of God, too, is something that refreshes us and gives us light to see the path God has set for us for each day, if only we opened its pages more often and let its light shine into our lives.
And that is lesson number two!
What a great way to approach the beginning of a New Year.
This psalm urges us to make New Year’s resolutions concerning bible study, worship and devotions. Just like the sun marks days and years and seasons, we need God’s word in our lives regularly to keep us on track. David describes God’s Word with phrases like “revives the soul… makes wise the simple… rejoices the heart… endures forever… is sweeter than honey and drippings of the honeycomb… more valuable than gold… In keeping Torah there is great reward.”
How much time do we spend preparing for the day like this, especially Sunday morning, which is the primary day for bible study and worship? How much time do we spend desiring Gods Word to guide us and lead us? How often do we contemplate God’s Word as something sweet and valuable for our lives?
Pastors talk a lot about sermon preparation. Each pastor has his favorite routine for getting a sermon ready. Some pastors spend an hour of prep for every minute of delivery. Others… well… let’s just say, some pastors don’t spend nearly that much time. Some think their prep is finished when they type “Amen!” on the manuscript. Yet, other pastors will spend additional hours rehearsing their presentation of the sermon. For all pastors, preparation includes a load of prayer, contemplating the truths of the text and how to illustrate them and apply them.
That said, it dawns on me that we don’t do much teaching on is how a listener should prepare for a sermon. When it comes to church, a lot of times we just show up, often tired, empty-headed, and totally unprepared to receive the Word. The pastor does the preparing. We come almost daring him to get our attention—to wake us up. Here is something funny: The church where I grew up actually dimmed the lights when the sermon was preached. I don’t know why they did this, but you could almost hear people getting ready for a nap.
But David was up early, looking everywhere—even the rising sun—to be reminded of God’s word and God’s will. So, what would preparation look like for us today? Here are a few suggestions for how we can prepare ourselves to receive God’s Word in this New Year:
- First, remind yourself that we are the people in this world who delight in God’s Word. If we don’t who will? And we have to remind ourselves of this all the time because our sinful flesh doesn’t think it needs God’s Word. That’s why it’s way easier to sleep in on Sunday morning than get up early and go to Sunday school or Bible study. Instead, when you come to church, expect good things, even great things from your Lord. If you need help with this, read Psalm 19.
- Spend time in the week prior to the sermon reading and meditating on the sermon text and its context. At my church we publish that information each week in the bulletin. Read it, live in it, and pray your thoughts on it back to God this week.
- Come to the sermon with your specific needs that day. What struggles are you having? What assurances do you need? Come, expecting to have these needs met by the Word of God. It’s amazing how a sermon text and title may at first seem to be irrelevant to your need, but as the sermon unfolds God speaks to your struggle.
- Be ready to ask questions of the sermon like these: What does God want me to know here (insights)? What does God want me to be (attitudes and values)? And what does God want me to do (actions)? Expect the Word to bring change, improvement, growth, and transformation.
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Pray with me the concluding words of Psalm 19: Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
O Lord, open my lips... 