Virtual Reunions FNF - Psalm 19

David Keddie addresses our Virtual Reunions FNF with a reflection on Psalm 19. 

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Thank you Bill. I thought I'd Say just a couple things about You can follow along in a Bible This is Psalm nineteen to the The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all end of the world. In them he has set a tent for bridegroom leaving his chamber. And like a strong man runs its Its rising is from the ends of The end of the heavens and its And there is nothing hidden from The law of the Lord is perfect, The testimony of the Lord is The precepts of the Lord are The commandment of the Lord is The fear of the Lord is clean, The rules of the Lord are true More to be desired. Are they than gold, even much Sweeter also than honey and Moreover, by them is your In keeping them there is great Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden Keep back your servant also from Let them not have dominion over Then I shall be blameless and Let the words of my mouth and acceptable in your sight, O Let me just pray as we start. Heavenly father, we thank you for this Psalm and for the perfection of your creation and the perfection of your word that they speak. They declare, your Majesty, that they revive the soul, and that in you we can find forgiveness of sin. and so teach us. Heavenly father, draw us to draw Pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You know, I love this Psalm. This was my grandmother's I grew up in a psalm singing Um, and so in her last days, would ask us to sing this Psalm, And we would sing it. And really, what does it say? It's about God's revelation, He has revealed himself in his The heavens declare the glory of in His Word. The law of the Lord is perfect. It's sure right, pure, clean, true, more to be desired than gold, right? It leads us to, uh, it does warn It leads us to to confess to the Verse twelve. Um, to ask the Lord to declare us innocent from hidden faults, to keep us back from presumptuous sins, from the, the, the, um, obvious bold sin, not just the hidden sins, but also the the open defiance of God. We come before the Lord seeking Um, and then it ends in this put to various Christian songs, including ones we've, we sang Uh, in PCF Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. And just you know, the beauty of I think about this in reunions. I was talking to an alum, uh, friends, um, from the class of oh three who were visiting Princeton because their, their son was looking, is looking to apply to Princeton, um, in the coming year. And, you know, he works in a And what did he say? You know, they're hitting, uh, I, I mean, I, I don't know if impression of what he, uh, what It's beauty all the way down. That's how he described his Beauty, the beauty of God's God's creation all the way down The heavens declare the glory of I think of, uh, a p f alum, um, Andrew Houk, class of two thousand, uh, who's now the dean of the engineering school here at Princeton. And we were having him talk to And, you know, he turned to job twenty six, uh, which he points to, you know, job is talking about, uh, the power of God in creation. You know, verse six of job twenty six, Sheol is naked before God. And Abaddon has no covering. We are exposed before God, even The place of the dead is exposed fourteen, especially for Andrew, But the outskirts of his ways. And how small a whisper do we hear of him, but the thunder of his power. Who can understand right? The creation declares the glory It doesn't require speech, and all the earth. Um and, uh, all of it speaks to But of course, it's not just in that Romans one sense that Um before the Lord, but also God has spoken in words. He has given us his word, which is perfect, which is sure and right and pure and clean and true. More precious than gold. His word, which is living and edged sword, piercing to the joints and marrow, and intentions of the heart and the thirteen as it goes on, and no sight, but all are naked and whom we must give account. And so God's Word, you know, I was talking about this in a We were doing this Psalm and how like it does, it warns us, right? It shows us the error of our The law of the Lord, its us, um, our, our, our need for And yet the language of the Psalm, verse seven, is that the law of the Lord revives the soul. Right. It makes wise the simple. It rejoices the heart. It enlightens the eyes. It's not merely perfect truth it leads us to enlightenment. It leads us to rejoicing. It leads us to the reviving of Um, and it does that because we can come to God in confession, right? There is, uh, you know, how does how does the how do the ten commandments begin? How does, how does the law of Exodus twenty, I am the Lord the land of Egypt, out of the It's the proclamation of God's people, uh, through no merit of chose them, uh, brought them out And because of that salvation that they received, that temporal salvation out of the land of Egypt, therefore they are his people, and therefore they should respond in obedient worship, in following the law of the Lord. And therefore they're able, um, of his steadfastness to his promises that they're able to, we are able to walk forward as whose mouths and the meditations in the sight of the Lord because And we, you know, we have the uh, David, the psalmist, uh, the fulfillment of the ages. And we know Jesus Christ, the one who has made a sacrifice for sin taken in his own body on the cross. Uh, the price for sin and obedience imputed to us as innocent before the Lord. And so indeed that does revive It does delight, uh, the heart. It causes us to rejoice in a way world, nice as they are in their for the service of God. All the gold of the world or The. Whether that be physical wealth whatever, the things that we so recognize that to know and God's Word teaches us. What is our purpose? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And so this is our call. Uh, this is our joy. This is our purpose. This is our delight. And this is why we at Pkf generation after generation. I mean, we're not so far from Um, pkf, which is a little hard That's a lot of years without Um, uh, God has been very faithful to the campus. Um, uh, in that ongoing witness, the Lord our God, to rejoice in himself, who's, and who has Amen.