Today as we approach a changing of the seasons when the natural world sheds its summer glory and prepares for its dormant season, I’m pulled back to the opening lines of Psalm 19, a song of David that has guided our Wednesday posts over the summer:
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. — Psalm 19:1-16
During our study of the Ten Words, God surprised me with a microcosm of His natural world in my own backyard. Waking in the wee hours of the morning, my rhythm was to fix a cup of tea and take my Bible and computer onto the back deck to study, write, and pray from Psalm 19 and Exodus 20:1-17. God gave me glorious sunrises stretching across the sky and the sound of nocturnal critters creeping back to their nests to sleep. Animals guided by daylight scamper across the yard in search of breakfast, often playing chase with one another, and birds awoke with joyful songs.
I recognized that I didn’t need to travel to new places or live on a big piece of property to delight in God’s magnificent creation. All of creation declares the goodness of my God, and in the daily discipline of rising early to be still with Him, He gave me not only a time to enjoy the natural world that proclaims His glory but also a time to better see His law as a beautiful gift of love. His law is…
- Perfect, reviving my soul (vs. 7)
- Sure, making me wise (vs. 7)
- Right, rejoicing my heart (vs. 8)
- Pure, enlightening my eyes (vs. 8)
- Clean, enduring forever (vs. 9)
- True and righteous (vs. 9)
His law is truly more to be desired than gold and sweeter than honey (vs. 10). It warns me, and in its keeping, it rewards me (vs. 11).
I pray, “Lord, You discern my errors. You search out the things in me that man can’t see but that go against Your best for me. Keep away from me the sin that begs for my allegiance. May I be blameless before You (vs. 12-13).”
And now as the leaves fall from the trees and the squirrels scamper across my yard in search of treasures for their winter storehouses, I am sitting longer with the final verse of Psalm 19, a verse that I know I need to commit deeper into my memory as we face a world full of anger and heartache, a world in desperate need of Jesus. I cry out, “Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (vs. 14).
Amen.
Here’s little printable gift for you to keep these words before you as we move from summer to fall.
