Psalm 19: YOUR Response to GOD'S Greatness

Psalm 19:4 "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer."

Have you ever wondered what the correct response is to God's greatness? Perhaps you have been in a time of complete awe of something that he has done for you, and you wondered how you ought to respond. In Psalm 19, David teaches us how we ought to respond to the greatness of God. Let us look there today to find how we can respond in obedience to the Lord's general and special revelation.

First, let us look at the Lord's greatness this morning. In verses 1-11 of this Psalm, David shows how God reveals himself in both his general revelation (verses 1-6) and his special revelation (verses 7-11). God's general revelation is the revelation of himself found in his creation, that is, the world around us. David speaks of how "the heavens declare the glory of God" and how they daily and nightly* reveal knowledge. God's special revelation is the revelation of himself found in both Jesus and the Bible, that is, the word that he has given us. David tells us of how God's laws and testimonies do many things, some of which are reviving our soul and making us wise. Both of these biblical doctrines (general revelation found in God's world and special revelation found in God's word) tell of God's greatness.

But how ought one to respond to these great revelations of God? David tells us in the rest of ths Psalm, which is so beautiful:

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.

In summary, the correct response to God's greatness is obedience to him. David shows us that because of God's greatness, we ought to plead to the Lord to convict us of the sins that we may not know we are committing so that we may correct them, and furthermore to keep us from the sins that we know we are committing but keep committing anyway! We ought to ask the Lord to save us from the sins that we both know we are committing and do not know we are committing. This is what David refers to iin the last verse of the Psalm by speaking of how he is asking the Lord to "let the words of [his] mouth and the meditation of [his] heart be acceptable in [God's] sight." David desires to be blameless to the Lord, which is his response to God's greatness. David desires nothing more after seeing God's greatness than to be full obedient to God, and therefore blameless before him.

So, how do you respond to God's greatness? Does it lead you to your knees to cry out to God that he may help you obey him? Or are you hard-hearted and respond to God's greatness by disobedience? My brothers and sisters, let us obey God for all that he has done! Surely great is our reward if we do so (Psalm 19:11)!

*The word "nightly" isn't very popular, but if Vanilla Ice can use it in the first verse of "Ice Ice Baby," then I can use it in my daily devotional.