Responding to God
Psalm 19:1–14
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14
The final three verses of this psalm are the climax of the psalm. For in them the psalmist applies what he has been learning to himself. They show that he has been learning.
His response to God’s self-revelation falls into two categories.
The first is prayer that God will forgive his sin and deliver him from additional transgressions. Sometimes we treat forgiveness lightly, asking God to forgive us but not really thinking that we are sinners, at least not serious sinners, and treating forgiveness almost as a basic human right. It is clear that David does not do this. He is aware of sin’s subtle nature and complexity, dividing it into categories: errors, which are wrongs innocently committed; hidden faults, that is, faults unknown to himself because so deeply ingrained in his personality, certainly not hidden to God; and willful sins, which are sins of deliberate presumption. The latter are probably equivalent to “great transgression” in verse 13. The psalmist also knows that he can never be fully aware of these sins in order to seek forgiveness unless God reveals their presence to him by the written law.
We remember the prayer of the tax collector in Jesus’s well-known parable, for although it is less detailed, it contains the same essential elements. The tax collector prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13). We know this man was coming to know God and was really praying to God, because he saw himself to be a sinner, as David also did. The Pharisee did not.
The second part of David’s response to God’s revelation of himself is an appeal to God as his Rock and Redeemer. We are not only led to see ourselves as sinners when we study the Bible. The Bible also leads us to the One who is our only deliverer from sin. And, wonder of wonders, he is the same one who has revealed himself gloriously in the heavens. The heavens tell us that he exists and that he is all-powerful. The Bible shows that he is our Redeemer from sin, that is, the one who is able to break sin’s bonds and set us free, and that he is the Rock upon which the redeemed man or woman can build and be kept from transgressions.
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.