O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.—Psalm 19:7–14

Introduction
One of the dominant cultural attitudes today is suspicion. We are encouraged to be suspicious. After all, how many people out there are making a living out of scamming others? In my day, it was Publishers Clearing House, and a letter with a picture of Ed McMahon: “Dear Mr. Myer [sic], Open immediately—you have won one million dollars.” Everyone knew that was a gimmick. The dual fact that (1) they misspelled your name and (2) that everyone on the block got the same “offer” just made it more obvious.

Today, Internet crime continues to grow as a cultural phenomenon. I read one Internet security advisor that said “Though we have smarter online users, better detection tools, and a host of legal tools at our disposal, Internet crime is worse than ever.” He said that he has been fighting Internet crime for more than 20 years and a radical shift has taken place. 

In the old days, the daily malware hot sheet was known as the Dirty Dozen because it listed only a dozen malware programs. Today we have literally hundreds of millions of malware programs, thousands of professional hacking organizations, and tens of thousands bit players who steal hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars via the Internet every year (Roger Grimes, “5 Reasons Internet Crime is Worse than Ever”).

Suspicion doesn’t just characterize our culture because of scams, but because of the dominant philosophy espoused in our day. It goes by different names or labels, but many call it postmodernism. Postmodernism is defined as suspicion of metanarratives (or all-encompassing truth claims). All truth claims mask a play for power—they try to get power or authority over us. You have heard me say before that I think claims like this are self-defeating (the fancy philosophical taunt is self-referentially absurd). It contradicts itself—it doesn’t pass its own standards, it is intellectual hypocrisy. It is like saying, “no sentence can have more than seven words.” A sentence that has eight words cannot affirm that no sentence can have more than seven words.

In the same way, postmodernism does not pass its own test. “All truth claims mask a play for power”… Wait a minute, isn’t that statement a truth claim? I think you just told me to reject that truth claim as a play for power. It just doesn’t work to say that “all truth claims”—except the one I am making ... “mask a play for power.”

I hear a similar attitude of suspicion—almost jaded or cynical—unleashed on the Bible. Distrust of the Bible is celebrated as a mark of mature thinking: critical, sophisticated, independent thinking—that is—thinking that is the polar opposite of gullible or dependent upon your parents thinking. Now, let me be clear here. Skeptics are welcome at Bethlehem. I enjoy speaking to people who are checking out Christianity and have lots of questions about the Bible. I totally welcome that. I look forward to it after our services every week. Test that invitation out. Let’s talk later.

What I want to warn some of you against is the approach I encounter in too many conversations about the Bible—I feel that this one is irresponsible. People feel very free to declare their categorical distrust of the Bible, but they do so without warrant or argument. More than once this has happened on an airplane or bus or even a bookstore: “O, I see you have a Bible. You know you can’t trust that. You know the Bible is full of errors.” My normal response is to say, “O, if you don’t mind me asking, which error bothers you the most?” Typically, the response I get back is silence—they can’t cite anything. They are simply content to pass along someone else’s conclusion that they embraced without adequate explanation or evidence. What they embraced was not even an intellectual position, but an attitude of distrust. Don’t make the colossal conclusion to reject the Bible rest firmly on nothing. We are not even talking about a flimsy foundation, but no foundation, no warrant, no argument—only attitude.

I think the same thing when I hear statistics that say 75% of people in America think the Bible is reliable. If you are going to say that what the Bible has to say is reliable, you should at least know what it has to say. Late night talk shows thrive on exposing how little people know about the Bible. Trusting attitudes about what it says are not based upon a knowledge of what it says. One late night talk show host moved through the audience asking people to name just one of the Ten Commandments. Someone said, “God helps those who help themselves?” Laughter … Next question: Name one of the apostles. No one could. But they could all still name the members of the Beatles (George, Paul, John, and Ringo). A Gallup survey showed that only 2 out of 10 people could correctly identify the person who preached the Sermon on the Mount (Jesus).

My point in this introduction is that your evidence had better be strong enough to hold up your conclusions or your convictions! An elephant-sized conclusion is not going to be held up by evidence that can’t fill up a Styrofoam cup. The conclusion crushes the cup.

If you were to play one of those word association games, and they held up a picture of the Bible what would you say? Trustworthy, true, reliable, inerrant, inspired. What would happen if we were to ask the Bible? What would the Bible say about itself? Our passage uses the word “perfect.” But it does not stop there. Let’s look …

Outline and Main Point of the Text: 

1. God’s Revelation (vv. 7–11)
2. Our Response (vv. 12–14)

The main point is the prayer of response in verses 12–14: “Lord, may your word do its deep cleansing work in me while I rest in You as my Rock and Redeemer.”

I want you to see up front how the two points of the outline come together to form this main point: “Because of what your word is and what your word does (point #1), Lord let it do its work in me” (point #2).

a. What the word is (perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, desirable,)
b. What the word does (revives, makes wise, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever, righteous altogether, rewarding—worth it!)
c.  How the word addresses us (law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, rules)—absolute, binding authority; words not to debate or barter or ponder—words to obey. The Bible is the royal scepter King Jesus uses to rule his church.

The law of the LORD is perfect,
     reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
     making wise the simple;
the precepts 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 rules of the LORD are true,
     and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
     even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
     and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
     in keeping them there is great reward.

David presents us with six interrelationships between what the word is and does. 

The Word Is	The Word Does
1. Law of the Lord is perfect	reviving the soul
2. Testimony of the Lord is sure	making wise the simple
3. Precepts of the Lord are right	rejoicing the heart
4. Commandment of the Lord is pure	enlightening the eyes
5. The Fear of the Lord is clean	enduring forever
6. The rules are true and righteous            valuable and desirable	warning and rewarding

1. Because the Word is perfect it revives the soul (v. 7). Perfect means that it is not deficient in any way—and because it is complete (covering all of life) the word is able to stir up the soul—no matter what the sins have been or the problems are—the word has a way to address us and bring us back to God.
2. Because the Word is sure or trustworthy, it makes the simple wise (v. 7). You don’t have to be an all-wise traveler to navigate the twists and turns of life, the Bible is a trustworthy—(worthy of trust) guide. We don’t have to be an independent adventurer like the legendary David Livingstone traveling into the unknown interior of Africa to make a map—God has given us the map—only the fool will think himself too wise to follow God’s map.
3. Because the Word is right, it makes the heart rejoice (v. 8). This is similar to Paul saying that love rejoices with the truth. When truth is found, the heart says “yes.” That fits perfectly. When something comes with the ring of truth, it is pleasing to the heart. Like Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, where one secular reviewer said, this is like heaven’s music because at some points it is not just a pleasing note, but the next note seems so perfect that there could not have been another note that belonged there than the one he chose. It brings joy—the sense of rightness brims with such fullness that is so satisfying.
4. Because the Word is pure, it enlightens (or gives light to) the eyes (v. 8). The word illuminates the right path and so it provides light to follow the path and stay on it (Psalm 119:105).
5. Because the Word is clean, it endures forever (v. 9). The relationship here is fairly straightforward. Things that get corrupted are in the process of decay. Clean or pure things endure. The word of our God endures forever.
6. Because the Word is true and altogether righteous and desirable, it warns and rewards (vv. 9–11). We have to wait until verse 11 to get to the parallel of what the word does. David has an extended meditation on how valuable and desirable the word is. The word is more desirable than things that are greatly valuable like gold or greatly enjoyable like honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

Because the Word is altogether righteous, true, valuable, and desirable, the Bible is a treasure that promises pleasure and reward. We are warned against the false promises of pleasure that sin makes (lies and errors and deceit that bring great disaster and damage). The Bible makes true promises that bring delight and reward. He does not overpromise and under deliver—sin always does.

Therefore, let us pause for a moment and feel the weight of what David is saying. The Bible is not just to be regarded as true, but as a treasure. Do you see the difference of emphasis? Yes, the Bible can be rejected by skeptics as something untrue, but it can be neglected by believers as something undesirable. Do you throw stones at people who reject the Bible—what about your neglect of the Bible? Aren’t we walking contradictions? We say that nothing is more true and valuable and desirable—but then we neglect it. The wickedness of my heart and my remaining sin offer the only explanation for why I can say one thing and do another.

Before we move on to the response, we should also note the manner in which the Bible speaks to us. David could have spoken of the divisions of the word like Law, Prophets, and Writings. But instead he multiplies parallels: law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, rules. What do these terms share in common? They all convey an absolute, binding authority. The Bible does not present itself as giving words that we can now debate or barter or merely ponder. No these are words to obey. The Bible is the royal scepter King Jesus uses to rule his church. Our sin is seen clearly in the fact that we would rather hold the scepter than kiss the scepter. That is why David responds the way he does in point 2.

a. Prayer for deep self-awareness and deep cleansing from errors, hidden faults, and presumptuous sins (vv. 12–13)
b. Appeal of trust in God as Rock and Redeemer (v. 14)

Who can discern his errors? 
     Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; 
     let them not have dominion over me! 
Then I shall be blameless, 
      and innocent of great transgression. 
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart 
     be acceptable in your sight, 
     O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

Because of what the word is and what the word does, David prays that the word would do its work within him. He begins with the recognition of his need in verse 12. He can’t discern his errors. He needs help. We are plagued by moral blindness. Hebrews warns about being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We need help because we cannot spot sin’s deception without the spectacles of the word. That is why he pleads for God to reveal David’s hidden faults.

Here now we have the unifying thread for the whole Psalm. Some people that want to see contradictions in the Bible say this psalm does not fit together; it was originally two separate psalms. There is a creation poem like other creation poems from different ancient religions and then there is a poem about God’s law. Wrong! Let me ask a question. Why does the first part end with a description of the sun—and in particular—why end on the note that says nothing is “hidden” from the sun’s heat? That seems odd. Why not say, “everything is warmed by the sun” or “nothing is left untouched by its heat?”

It says “nothing is hidden from its heat” (v. 6) because the word “hidden” (v. 6, 12) is the hinge of the two halves of the psalm. Just like no part of the world can be hidden from the penetrating heat of the sun, so no part of the soul can remain hidden from the word’s probing work. 

Next, David calls upon God to keep him from presumptuous things. The relationship between hidden and presumptuous things is illuminating here. Presumptuous sins would be open, public, high-handed, deliberate sins committed when the conscience has grown hard because of the gradual hardening of hidden, private sins. If hidden sins fester long enough, they will embolden more public sins. At this point, the reign of sin takes deeper dominion and sin’s dark power becomes a tyrant and master, enslaving the sinner. Therefore, David prays against private (hidden) sins that will grow into public presumptuous sins. Kill the snake of sin when it is still small and easily stomped, don’t wait until it grows into a snake big enough to swallow you.

But only one word can provide the explanation for something that stands out in Psalm 19. Why would someone want to open themselves up so that they can know everything that is wrong with them?

The car analogy: Imagine that you are going to take your car into the mechanic shop because the service light or icon comes on. I want to find out what is going wrong. Do a thorough inspection—bumper to bumper. You want a certain kind of report: Oh it is a really simple fix, it turns out that the gas cap was not secure. You do not want a report that is pages and pages—brakes, shocks, struts, a/c condenser, tie rods, transmission, on and on and on. That is overwhelming. You lose heart and feel like giving up.

But change the analogy. What if it is your first car and your father bought it for you and told you to take it to the mechanic and that money was not an issue—he already told the mechanic to fix every issue because he wanted his daughter to have a safe and reliable car. The bill has already been paid. Now you want him to find things. If it is paid for, then find everything that is wrong and fix it! I don’t want it breaking down in the middle of winter!

In the same way, God makes a way so that you don’t have to be totaled—and scrapped like we deserve to be. We don’t try to fix ourselves up or hide our flaws. The word is “redeemer.” God is the redeemer who pays the purchase price for our sin. Then the deep probe comes and it is welcome because all the sins are already forgiven and we want them to be fixed.

If you understand that sin is cancerous and will kill you, then you don’t want it invading other parts of your life, you want the cancer to be removed. You ask the surgeon, did you get all of it. No one says, “will you please leave some of it?”

Believers:
And now it is the blood bought birthright of every child of God to walk in the light as he is in the light. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness. We are lights in the world. We shine like stars in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Jesus said you are the light of the world. He did not say, “become the light of the world.” No—you are. He rescued us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son—we have a share with the saints in light. So walk in the light.

Skeptics:
So don’t unleash your skepticism on the Bible, be humble enough to sit under it and listen—read deeply, think deeply, pray deeply, search it and watch as it searches you. Hebrews 4:12 is an awesome reminder of the relationship between what the Word is and what the Word does.

What the Word Is	What the Word Does
For the word of God is living and active,	piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow
Sharper than any two-edged sword	and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The Bible is a book like no other. We read it, but it also reads us.

I once heard the testimony of an atheist that received a copy of the Gospel of John. He started reading it and he had to close it—not because he hated what he was reading but because it scared him. He knew he was reading a book, but he got the eerie feeling that this book was reading him too. It didn’t just tell him what he was doing it also told him why he was doing them. The book was reading his heart, laying it bare, and telling him all about the dark places in his life and revealing dark motivations. It was uncanny and terrifying.

Then it happened. He read about this man—the word of God made flesh. Jesus started talking to people and he did the same thing. He told them things about themselves that only they could know and no one else. He was doing the same thing that the word of God does, because he is the word of God in the flesh. John 2:24 says that Jesus did not need man’s testimony about man because he himself knew what was in man. John 3 gives us an example by referring to a man—Nicodemus. He came to him claiming to see who Jesus was, but Jesus told him that he didn’t see anything—not Jesus and not his own need. He needed to be born again.

In John 4, he asks the Samaritan woman to go call her husband. She said she did not have a husband. Jesus said she was right, she actually had five husbands and the one she was with now was not her husband. She went to the village and said, come see a man who told me everything that I ever did. In John 6, Jesus cut through the fog of pretending and told them that they were not following him because they really understood who he was, but because he gave them a free meal.

Why would you want to come to a person like this that can read your whole heart—all your thoughts and actions and attitudes? What is he going to do with that information? You get to the end of the story in John’s Gospel and you see his answer: “pay for them by dying for them.” Someone that sheds his blood for you is not scamming you. Let perfect love cast out fear and suspicion. Come to him, receive all that he has done for you, and I tell you the truth—if you come to him, he will not cast you out.