Greetings, friends. It has been a while since I shared a devotional thought with you flowing from my times with the Lord. As I progress through my Bible reading plan (shown below if you are interested), I’m now up to the book of Psalms. The psalms are filled with word pictures, colorful imagery, emotion (positive and negative), Hebrew parallel poetry, and great theology. In Psalm 19, David turns our gaze onto the world, using the image of all creation (specifically the heavens and skies) in verses 1-6 “declaring,” “proclaiming,” “pouring out speech,” with a “voice,” and “words.” All of this communication is focused on exalting God, glorifying Him, revealing knowledge about Him and His handiwork. I can’t wait to go on a backpacking trip this summer with my son Andrew where we will be surrounded by creation declaring God’s glory!

Then in verses 7-11, David moves from God’s world to God’s Word, which is another form of communication about God. Many parallel words are used to identify God’s Word (law, testimony, precepts, commandments, fear of Lord, rules). Likewise many adjectives and descriptions are used to help us see the value of God’s Word: perfect, reviving the soul, sure, making wise the simple, right, rejoicing the heart, pure, enlightening the eyes, clean, enduring forever, true, righteous altogether. Then David shares his heart through comparison of the Word to things that people value: the desirability of gold and the sweetness of honey. God’s Word is more precious, more to be desired even than fine gold; it is sweeter, better tasting than pure honey. God’s Word is more dear to us than anything this world has to offer. David ends in verse 11 by sharing two benefits for God’s servant that flow from the Word: 1) God’s Word offers warning, to keep us from wandering; and 2) God’s Word offers reward, to urge us toward obedience.

May we join with all creation in declaring God’s glory, pouring out speech about the great God He is. And may we delight in God’s Word, just as David did. I am blessed to be devoting my life to helping others study, understand, obey, and teach God’s Word. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14)