“The heavens are telling of the glory of God… The Torah of the LORD is perfect… Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer” (Ps 19:1, 7, 14).
Psalm 19 speaks of a spiritual journey that begins with what some may consider the most impersonal title for God, El, and ends with a title that reflects a personal experience of God’s love and goodness: Goeli (my Redeemer). These very different titles also reflect the very different manners in which the two kinds of revelation (general and special) help us understand who God is, who we are, and, more importantly, who we ought to be.
Two Important Truths
By staring up at the sky and listening to its testimony, we stand in awe at the power of El, who dwells in heaven (vv. 1-6). By meditating on the Torah and listening to its testimony (vv. 7-13), we learn two very important truths. The first truth we learn is about El. In Scripture, El reveals to us his personal name, and it is YHWH (not Zeus, Baal, or Asherah). Scripture tells us that El wants us to know him personally, and by reading the Scriptures, we discover the absolute perfection of all his ways (vv. 7-10). The second truth we learn is about ourselves. We quickly learn how our own hearts testify, not about the power and perfections of God, but about the power of sin in our own lives and about the depths of our own imperfections (vv. 11-13).
Our journey to a personal relationship with God is completed when we witness God’s power, the perfections of his person, and the depths of our own depravity.
At that moment, we finally cry out for God to change us from within. We ask God to transform our words and our thoughts from a testimony against us to a testimony about God’s incredible love and power to save! But dear friends, it’s impossible to take this incredible journey from El to Goel (from God to Redeemer) when all we do is spend our time staring at our smartphones instead of gazing up at the sky and meditating on the Scriptures.
“Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in Your ways” (Ps 119:37).
