'THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY'
"THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY"
(Psalm 19:1-6)
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, October 17, 2010
On this beautiful
October day, we are having church outside under a pavilion of praise. We can understand how David burst forth in
this beautiful Psalm of worship to the Chief Musician, The Lord of Glory, Jesus
Christ.
Psalm 19:1: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and
the firmament shows His handiwork. Day
to day utters speech, and night to night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their
voice is not heard.
Their line is gone out through al the earth, and their words to the end
of the world. In them has He set a
tabernacle for the sun. This is as a
bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man to run a
race. His going forth is from the end of
the heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from
the heat thereof.”
The Psalm declares a
two-fold revelation of the Lord which are written for the instruction and
edification for the children of men.
He has revealed himself in the
eloquence of nature and the clarity of
scripture.
In the first six
verses, the name of God (or El) appears once and Jehovah not at all. In the last eight verses, which speak of the
Law, the name Jehovah appears seven times.
There is a seven-fold description of the Word of God. It is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true
and righteous. (seven adjectives) There
are six nouns describing the Word of God.
It is the law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear, and judgments of
the Lord. The Word will convert, make
wise and rejoice the heart and enlighten the eyes.
The following
excerpts are from “Declaring the Glory”
by: Rev. Lyn Gitchel
19:1: “The
heavens declare the glory of God.”
The word “declare”
here means to “continually rehearse” and implies constant repetition for a
definite reason. It is the picture of a
drama that is acted out nightly on the stage of the heavens against a backdrop
of the galaxies.
19:2: “Day
unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge.”
The word “uttered” is
found other places in the scriptures, sometimes connected with prophecy. It means “constantly telling forth” in the
same way that prophecy goes forth and declares a message.
19:3: “Their
line is gone out through all of the earth…”
Again we have the
thought of a drama acted out day after day, night after night. “Their line” means the “spoken phrase” that
is used over and over in this drama. In
a play, there are set lines and phrases for each actor to say. He must not deviate from these, he must speak
the line, or lines, allotted to him by the writer of the drama time after time,
until the drama is discontinued. This is
the meaning of this phrase “their line is
gone out through all of the earth.”
19:4: “…their words to the end of the world.”
“Words” here in the
Hebrew “millah” and is used mostly in the Bible book of Job and is different
from the word generally translated “words”.
It means “teachings,” words that instruct. These words are there to teach us something.
Thus we might
paraphrase these verses like this:
“The heavens
continually rehearse the glory of God, and the firmament shows His
handwork. Day unto day is constantly
giving a teaching and night unto nigh supplies the knowledge we need to
understand it. There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard.
Their spoken phrase is rendered daily and nightly on the stage of the
heavens, and their teachings give instruction to the whole of the world.”
In these two verses
we see several different voices that are speaking:
- The heavens
- The firmament
- Days
- Nights
The connect
together. The heavens and the firmament
go together, and so do days and nights.
Each is saying something different and has a completely different
message. Here again we have the picture
of a drama. The heavens and the
firmament come first and then the days and nights give us the finale and show
the purpose. The days and nights show
how the whole things will be achieved and worked out by God.
So let’s look at what
each act of this drama covers and what it is saying:
Act 1: The heavens…declare…the glory.
Act 2 The firmament…His handiwork.
The first act of this
drama displayed in the heavens is about the glory of God and how it affects his
creation, his handiwork. It is showing
us something God is doing and how he is doing it.
Act 2: Day after Day…is speaking prophecy
Night after night…is giving
knowledge or information, poetical language.
We can assume that the information being given by the night after night
drama is needed to explain the prophetic speech of the Day.
And so to summarize
what we see here, we learn that the heavens and the firmament are telling us
that the glory of God will somehow be revealed through his creation, God’s
handiwork, and that the day and night routine that goes on continually
throughout our existence is teaching us the method God will use to achieve it
and when.
Genesis 1:1 and
1:6-8:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And God said, let there be a firmament in the
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
A firmament is a
space---literally an expanse---and God set this firmament, this space, in between
the earth and its surrounding moisture and gases. The result was that the firmament pushed the
gases and moisture away from the immediate surface of the earth thus separating
the waters which were below the firmament---rivers, oceans and seas---from the
waters which were above the firmament---clouds, gases---and as He did this,
there was formed the atmosphere in which life was able to be sustained.
The atmosphere was
heaved up into place by the firmament that came between it and the earth. The word heaven was in everyday use meaning
something that was lifted up (heaved up) with effort. Over the years, it has come to mean the blue
skies above us. Beyond that, the place
in the realm of the Spirit where the God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with
the Hosts of Heaven are.
19: 4-6: “In
them has he put a tabernacle for the sun…”
There are two
predominant words used in the Hebrew which have been translated
“tabernacle”…The usual word translated tabernacle is “miskaan” which means a
residence, a dwelling place, and this is the word used most of the time about
the tabernacle in the wilderness that God instructed Moses to have them build.
God’s purpose for
this tabernacle, he said, was that he might “dwell among them” (Ex. 25:8) and
therein lies the key. It was to be a
dwelling place for the presence of God.
It has always been
God’s intention to dwell with his people.
From the days of Adam and Eve he made that clear. It has been man’s choice to remain separate
from God, not God’s choice. We are now
the tabernacle of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
But that is not the
Hebrew word used in Psalm 19. The word
there is different---and also deeply significant. It is the Hebrew word “ohel” and it means “a
tent, clearly conspicuous from a distance.”
He then goes on to say the word comes from the root word, “ahal” which
means “to shine clearly”.
How about that!
Psalm 19 speaks of a
“tabernacle for the sun” which is said to shine clearly, so clearly that it is
conspicuous from a distance.
As the moon reflects
the glory of the sun and has no brilliance of its own. We can apply this to our own lives and learn
that we have nothing in ourselves to offer to the world in darkness. The only light we can offer is the reflected
brilliance of the risen and glorified Christ.
Now we have gone one
step further.
We have learned that
the secret to our own lives is in actually “housing” the Son---actually being a
dwelling place for him.
Lyn quotes this
chorus as her favorite:
“For I was born to be His dwelling place
A home for the presence of the Lord
So let my life now be consecrated unto Thee
That I may be what I was born to be.
We were born to be
his dwelling place, in our own selves to house the Lord. It is only as God fully and completely fills
our lives that we will be what he intended for us to be from the start.
19: 4-6: In them
has he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber…”
…In the book of
Revelation, John, in that magnificent vision he had while exiled in Patmos, is
told by the angel that he will be shown the bride of Christ (Rev. 21: 9-10)
“Come hither, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife,” said the
angel and then carried John away in the spirit to a high mountain where he was
able to look down on a great city, a metropolis---a huge crowd of people. The bride of christ is made up of born-again
believers who have entered into an intimate relationship with Christ.
The picture of the
sun, the greater light which is the fullness of the glory, symbolizes Christ
our heavenly bridegroom. The bride-groom
is seen coming out of his chamber, his bedroom, only it is not any
chamber. The word used is the Hebrew
word “chuppah” and is the bridal chamber…
Redemption does not
finish with the marriage of the Lamb to his bride. The marriage is but a step along the way…The
intimate relationship of Christ to his bride is to produce in us duplicates of
himself, his image and likeness. We, of
course, are not speaking of biological sons, but about the nature and likeness
of Christ. Ephesians 4:13: “till
we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”
When that image is
“birthed” in and through us, we will be fully reflecting his glory.
(Gal. 4:19) “My little children, of whom I travail in
birth again until Christ be formed in you.”
19:4-6: “…as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.”
…The picture here is
one of joy, of exhilaration, a picture of a man giving a joyous whoop and
raising his arms in the excitement of accomplishment. One of the hardest things to understand abut
the love relationship of christ to his bride is the intensity of the love that
he has for each of us…
Christ actually takes
joy in our company and is exhilarated by our time spent with him…
Zephaniah 3:17: “He will rest in his love, he will joy over
you with singing.” The picture is
one of togetherness, the silence of love when two people are so wrapped up in
each other they say nothing. They simply
enjoy each other’s presence and the love flows between them in happy silence…as
we set aside time just to be in His Presence, where his presence, there is the
glory.”
Mt. 17: 1-8: “Jesus…was
transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment
was white as the light.”
Ps. 19:6: “His going forth is from the end of the
heaven, and his circuit to the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the
heat thereof.”
There is no speech or
language where their voice is not heard.
God’s glory appears to all mankind in the speech of creation. All people may hear these natural immortal
preachers speak to them in their own tongue the wonderful works of God.
The Lord has left all
man three witnesses of him: Creation,
Conscience and divine revelation, precepts and promises, especially the gospel.
Tonight “The Law of
the Lord is Perfect”.
Carolyn Sissom,
Pastor
Eastgate Ministries,
Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V.
Text from Declaring The Glory
by: Rev. Lyn Gitchel; Principles of
Present Truth from Psalms by: Kelly
Varner; Matthew Henry Bible Commentary.
Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views
of those from whom I have gleaned. I
hope you will order the book by Lyn Gitchel.
It beautifully describes how the Lord is taking us from glory to glory
to reflect the Glory of Jesus Christ.