Burunche’s Blog

The Perfect Revelation of the Lord

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end; and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes 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 judgments of  the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength[my rock] and my Redeemer.”

This psalm is only 14 verses long, but it’s very powerful. There are three main parts.

1. “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.” The first part of the psalm describes the marvels of God’s creation in brief but memorable words.
2. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes 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 judgments of  the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” The second part praises God’s laws, commandments, the fear of the Lord, and the Lord’s judgements.
3. “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength[my rock] and my Redeemer.” The final part of the psalm is a heart-felt prayer for the magnificent Lord of the Universe to cleanse our hearts and minds.

APPLICATION: Why does a psalm that ends with a prayer for spiritual assistance begin with a description of the magnificence of God? God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. God will remain God, whether or not we praise Him; however, we praise God to remind ourselves of God’s greatness. Unless we remember how great God is, how can we trust Him to help us spiritually?

This psalm has special significance for my husband and me. When we first met at a church prayer meeting, there was a praise chorus based on this psalm that echoed and re-echoed in our hearts and that became part of our story as a couple. (If you’re interested, you can find the song at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ykfw3-i7s for the video with words.)

I find the last few verses are the ones I use the most. “Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength[my rock] and my Redeemer.” The older I get, the more I realize that many of my sins stem from presumption based on previous experiences. As we gain experience, we may assume Olympic status as jumpers to conclusions. There is also an increasing temptation to overlook our personal sins while we magnify those of others. Jesus addressed this problem when he compared critics to people walking around with huge beams of wood in their own eyes while they were searching for tiny specks in the eyes of other people.

There’s also another application of these last verses. When we speak, do our words honor the Lord? If we are reading things or enjoying posts on social media, are we entertaining ourselves with things that honor God or not? If someone sends us questionable videos, do we watch them before deleting them? Remember the old computer adage: GIGO-Garbage In Garbage Out.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, keep us back from presumptions sins; let them not have dominion over us. And let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

This entry was posted on October 1, 2023 at 12:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.