Psalm 8 - Over All the Earth

Introduction

What is the glory of God? We talk about glory constantly in the Bible. You know, "the glory of God" is one of those automatic answers to most of the questions that come up in a Bible study. Just take any question that begins with "Why did God...", and the answer is very probably "for the glory of God." And it really is such a central subject in the Bible. So what is the glory of God?

Why am I asking this question? Because this psalm revolves around the glory of God. Psalm 8 begins and ends with the same sentence: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!" The Hebrew word translated "magnificent" (addir) goes further than beauty alone; it also means "majestic," "powerful," "grand." A whole field of vocabulary that is ultimately tied to the glory of God in all its complexity. In fact, glory is the very word the BDS [one Bible translation in French] uses here: "how admirable your glory is over the whole earth." So let me ask my question again: what is the glory of God? Let us take a moment to meditate on that.

Human glory

On 20 December 1998, a certain footballer was born, and not a minor one: I am of course talking about our dear Kylian Mbappé. He went from unknown player to young prodigy very early on, and he made his debut for the French national team at only 17. He was already becoming known before the national team, but the national team in particular propelled him onto the international stage, especially with the 2018 World Cup that France won (a proud moment for France!).

Here is an example of human glory that we know well. His glory started to shine everywhere. Glory here, for Mbappé, is the fact that people all over the world watch him play, that they started taking a closer interest in him, betting on his performances, buying his jerseys with his name on the back of course, playing with him in all sorts of video games, seeing him appear in countless adverts, and even writing songs about him (good ones and bad ones)... In short! Whether you like him or not, Mbappé shone, and he still shines today in the eyes of the whole world.

He is at the center of attention. The spotlights are pointed at him. That is what glory is. Something grand that stands out from the crowd, something you cannot fail to see.

The glory of God in this psalm

As I said a moment ago, this psalm also speaks about glory. But a glory that is not based on the ability to kick a ball around; it is based on other things. It is based on what God has done, and on the characteristics of his person. This sentence, "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!", wraps around the psalm like a sandwich, and as is often the case when we find sandwiches in the Bible, we must never read the bread and the steak separately. The two are closely connected. Here is what the sandwich contains:

• The bread: a truth announced: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

• And the steak: a kind of demonstration, a justification of the truth that has just been announced. The steak describes why the spotlights and the eyes of the world should be fixed on God.

I suggest we divide the contents of this sandwich into three major demonstrations of the glory of God.

1. The praise of infants

(v. 1-3) "To the choirmaster, on the gittith. A psalm of David. LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth! Your majesty rises above the heavens. Through the mouths of children and infants, you have founded your glory to confound your adversaries, to silence the enemy, the man greedy for revenge."

This verse is not easy to understand. Why does it speak about children and infants? Why do they have enemies? And why does God found his glory through their mouths? "Founded your glory," which the Greek in fact rendered as "established praise." How does that justify our guiding verse (the bread)? How does it justify the claim that the name of the LORD is magnificent over all the earth?

So I started reasoning backwards, a proof by contradiction for the mathematicians among us. I asked myself what it would look like if we replaced children with strong men. Strong men victorious over their enemies, well... that makes sense. They are strong! They know how to defend themselves, they know how to attack, it is even normal. It is so normal, in fact, that there would not be any praise in their mouths at all. Or if there were, it would be praise directed at themselves. The glory here would go to the strong man, because it is his strength that leads to victory. Yet the psalm clearly says that you, LORD, have founded YOUR glory to confound your adversaries, or "you cause praise to spring up" as the BDS translates it. Hence the proof by contradiction: replacing children with strong men would prove nothing about the glory of God, and nothing about his name being magnificent over all the earth. His name would be hidden here behind the name of the strong man.

QED, in a way. The best way for God to make his glory shine, beyond any possible doubt, is for him to choose to give victory to people who are clearly weak. And honestly, what is weaker than an infant? I have a 4-month-old daughter, and after 4 months (and 4 months is not nothing), I find myself delighted that she can at least hold her head up! Suffice it to say that this particular skill is not what will help her triumph over her enemies... What is weaker than a human infant! A baby is enormously dependent on adults for several years, otherwise it dies! A human child cannot be fully autonomous before the age of 12, 13, 14, 15! That does not exist among animals, that many years of dependence before becoming autonomous. And in the few rare species where late dependence can be observed, it never reaches the level of a human child. And yet it is through their mouths that the LORD causes praise to spring up against his enemies. They are the ones he supports and makes victorious.

And when David wrote this psalm, he was very well placed to write these words. He is, after all, the one who, while still very young, walked toward the giant Goliath and said to him: "You come against me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD." Infant that I am, I am literally coming at you with stones, but above all I come in the name of the LORD. And in giving David the victory over Goliath, the glory that bursts out is not David's glory but God's.

1 Corinthians 1:28-29 "God chose the low and despised things of the world, the things that are nothing, to reduce to nothing the things that are, so that no one may boast before God."

This is what moves us once again to repeat the refrain: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

Let us continue reading the psalm.

v. 4 "When I contemplate the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars that you have set in place,"

The sentence is incomplete, but I am stopping here on purpose. Because looking at the sky is in itself enough to prove that the name of the LORD is magnificent over all the earth. Before moving on to verse 5, which puts the greatness of God in perspective with the lowliness of man, let us first take the time to observe the greatness of God.

2. Contemplating the sky

What I love about this verse, "when I contemplate the heavens," is first of all how accessible it is. Contemplating the sky requires no effort at all; you simply step outside and look up. It is easy, and anyone with eyes is meant to be able to see the sky. And when we look at the sky, what do we see? Let us talk a little astronomy (nothing advanced, I promise, just simple observation):

During the day

• The thing that jumps out at you, that you cannot fail to see, is obviously the sun. Quite simply the brightest thing our eye is capable of seeing, and in fact so bright that you must not even look at it directly, at the risk of burning your retinas. I am one of those people who did not have glasses during the eclipse, and please do not try this at home, but I still tried squinting at the sun in short bursts, and nothing worked. Even though the sun is so far away, its power is felt instantly. But in observing the sun we do not only see a ball of power, we also observe the benefits that flow from it: a source of light so that we do not bump into every obstacle, and a source of heat so that we can live.

• Looking at the sky during the day also lets us see something surprising, or rather lets us fail to see something: the end. We see an expanse of sky whose end escapes us. Our poor little brain cannot even conceive that there might be no end, and to this day, with all our advanced astronomical tools, we have not found the end. A small aside: today we are able to see galaxies so distant that the light coming from them had to travel more than 13 billion years (at the speed of light!) before reaching us. And still there is no end in sight. It is dizzying!

At night

• We observe another heavenly body, the moon, which takes over so that we do not sink into total darkness even without the sun.

• We also observe a countless number of shining stars, beyond counting with the naked eye. A painting that is spoiled today by human light pollution in our big cities (ironically), but that reveals itself perfectly once you are far from any other light. An XXL painting of breathtaking beauty!

What this teaches us about God

Just by lifting our eyes to the sky, we see a work of art that speaks about its author. Whether you are a Christian or not, whatever your nationality, here is what contemplating the sky teaches you about God:

• God is powerful, powerful enough to be able to create such things.

• God is not restricted by any limit.

• Whatever his reason may be, he provides for our needs, in light and in heat, by day and by night.

• And finally, we observe that God is quite the artist. He could have made things purely functional, but we do not only have a God who provides; we have a magnificent God, worthy of contemplation.

"LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

Now that we have admired the glory of God in his greatness, here is yet another aspect of that glory:

(v. 4-9) "When I contemplate the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars that you have set in place, I say: 'What is man, that you should remember him, and the son of man, that you should care for him?' You have made him a little lower than God and you have crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands, you have put everything under his feet, sheep and oxen alike, and even the wild animals, the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, everything that travels the paths of the seas."

3. The reign of man

Here David mentions the creation mandate that God gives to Adam: to multiply and to reign over his creation, in Genesis 1. And so David contemplates the sky, as we have just done, and sees how great God is, and how beautiful and complex his creation is. And naturally David ends up comparing man to all of that, and he says to himself, "Really? You are entrusting your creation to us? WOW!" Glory to you, our God, for entrusting us with such a beautiful and great responsibility, and with a dominion over your creation that we are not worthy of. "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

The reign of man is not very glorious

But if I want to be honest, there is still a "but" in this story. We could rightly say to ourselves that watching men reign has rarely been a beautiful sight, and has rarely been an occasion for magnifying the name of God. We can see clearly through history what very poor kings men have been, and even today what very poor leaders they are (naming no names). And quite simply, we see how men on a large scale mistreat this creation and push it a little further toward its ruin. How does letting man reign over creation magnify the name of God?

In reality, what would magnify the name of God is if we reigned the way he reigns, in his image! And that was in fact the whole purpose of the creation mandate in Genesis 1: "Then God said: 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness! Let him rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky [...]'." That was the goal, that we would reign in his image.

But as you know, the fall of Adam and Eve entered history, and from then on this image of God that we carried within us has never stopped deteriorating, never stopped turning into a caricature. We who are supposed to represent God dishonor him. Watching man reign, you could even say that the name of the LORD is not magnified but, on the contrary, insulted, because we are supposed to be his image.

Of course, God is not indifferent to this. His anger toward us accumulates again and again and again, like a cup of wrath that fills up and that will one day be poured out on everyone.

A model of reigning is given to us

But God, even faced with the bad reign of men, still manages to make his glory burst out over all the earth. This is what the Bible calls the "good news," the gospel. God raised up, from the line of man, a man who carried within himself far more than the image of God. In Jesus, we were able to see what God looks like in all his perfection! No one else has ever radiated the image of God as powerfully as Jesus, for the simple and good reason that Jesus is not merely an image of God, he is God. Consequently, through his ministry on earth, we have been given a faithful example of what the reign of God looks like.

To see Jesus reign is to see the creator Father reign. A king who serves his neighbor and not himself, a king who lifts up rather than puts down, who washes the feet of his disciples rather than the other way around. Jesus says it himself to his disciples in Matthew 20:25-28:

"Jesus called them and said: 'You know that the rulers of the nations lord it over them, and that the great ones hold them under their power. It will not be so among you. Instead, whoever wants to be great among you shall be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave. This is how the Son of Man came, not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.'"

And indeed, Jesus ended his ministry by drinking that cup of God's wrath entirely and unjustly, in the place of his people. Hanged on the wood as the ultimate act of service toward his own.

Jesus takes the throne

Through this cross we are given the solution to the problem: through this cross it is Jesus who takes the supreme throne, and it is to him that all things are subjected. It is his perfect reign that will be applied, and that, for its part, glorifies God. From his first coming we have been able to watch his kingdom grow and grow, and at his return Jesus will display his reign perfectly, for eternity. Great, problem solved! But it does not stop there, it goes even further. In his grace, Jesus chooses to share his reign with those who overcome, with his people, as Daniel 7, Luke 22 and of course Revelation 2, 3 and 22 tell us, among many others. How can that be? We do not know how to reign in the image of God; the image of God in us is completely twisted. And yet even there, through the reconciliation that Jesus offers us, he also sends us his Spirit, who transforms us and who brings to birth in us a new man, now capable of striving toward his image.

And one day, when we join our creator, we will then be perfectly capable of reigning in the image of God, fully filling the role for which God created man. In this way we will glorify him for eternity through the reign of Jesus Christ, which he, the King of kings, will share with us.

And knowing all of this should produce something in us. Not the pride of such a privilege, of having been chosen for such a destiny, but rather praise in the mouths of the children that we are: "LORD, our Lord, how magnificent your name is over all the earth!"

Conclusion

To finish: as you have understood, this psalm highlights several aspects of the beauty, the power and the glory of God.

• His name is magnificent because it is his strength that makes the weak victorious.

• He is magnificent to the point that the infant praises him for it.

• He is magnificent in his power, in his greatness, and in his beauty visible in the sky.

• He is magnificent because he does not keep the enjoyment of his creation for himself, but creates man in order to share it with him.

• He is magnificent because even when man fails, and insults such a generous creator, he also plans a way to restore him and to enable him to fulfill his role.

So when we meditate on this psalm, I hope that what naturally rises up in us is wonder toward God! Let us do our very best to remember these things, so that we can always say "WOW!" So that we can always rejoice in being his children, and grasp what is at stake in our role. Our role, after all, is to contribute in our own turn to magnifying his name wherever he places us!

But also, when we meditate on this psalm, I hope that what rises up in us is humility as well, a heightened awareness of our dependence on God. Let us lower ourselves like children; that is what God wants! Jesus tells us in Matthew 18:3: "Truly I assure you: if you do not change and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."

We must be like children, aware that we are completely powerless and dependent on God for absolutely every aspect of our life. And may that dependence drive us to plead for his help. Let us pray without ceasing that he would help us to fulfill such a great role, and that he would transform us deeply, in small things as in great ones, so that we resemble him more each day.

Psalm 19 - The God Who Shows Himself

Introduction

I don’t know if you’ve been following the news, but you’ve no doubt heard about the solar eclipse that took place this Wednesday; perhaps you were even able to witness the spectacle. It is a celestial phenomenon that occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun. And if you missed the spectacle, unfortunately you’ll have to wait until 3 September 2081 to see the next one in France.

It’s the sort of event that fascinates people. You only have to look at social media to realise the excitement surrounding this phenomenon.

And it’s hardly surprising; the sky has always fascinated humankind. We observe it, we study it, and sometimes we even look to it for answers about our own existence. And for many, this contemplation gives rise to an even more fundamental question: where does it all come from? ‘The universe baffles me, and I cannot conceive that this clock exists without a clockmaker,’ said Voltaire, the famous Enlightenment philosopher.

Why does the universe give rise to such thoughts? Why, when we look up at the sky, does the question of a creator arise so naturally? Does the universe have a message for us?

Fortunately, we didn’t have to wait for Voltaire to find answers to these questions. Over 3,000 years ago, David, the king of Israel, marvelled at the beauty of the heavens, and from this contemplation he composed Psalm 19.

For David, creation is not silent. When we look up at the sky, we do not merely see stars, planets or extraordinary phenomena such as an eclipse; rather, we behold a work that bears the mark of its Creator and proclaims his glory.

But Psalm 19 goes much further. God reveals himself not only through his creation, but also through his word.

And faced with this revelation, David does not simply remain a spectator: something happens within him. God’s revelation ultimately leads him to look into his own heart and respond to God.

It is this journey that I invite you to follow with me in this psalm.

Its general theme can be summarised as follows: God reveals himself through his creation and through his word to lead us to a life of worship.

The psalm divides quite naturally into three parts:

• Lift up your eyes: God reveals himself (1–7)

• Open your ears: God speaks (8–11)

• Come to him: God saves (12–15)

1. Look up: God reveals Himself

Let us read again from verse 2: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament reveals the work of His hands. One day tells it to another day, and one night makes it known to another night.’ As he looks up at the starry sky, David recognises God’s glory and work. The Bible speaks very often of God’s glory, but what exactly does that mean? And above all, what does it have to do with the heavens? David affirms that: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God.’ In other words, the heavens tell us not only what God does, but also what God is. God’s glory is the visible manifestation of his person and character. David does not see God directly, but as he contemplates his work, he discerns traces of his power, wisdom and beauty.

Well, I don’t know about you, but personally, as a true Parisian, I very rarely visit the capital’s museums; however, a few years ago, I visited the Louvre and was captivated by the beauty of the paintings. The first thought that sprang to mind was, ‘Wow! What talented painters! What masterful work!’ As I gazed at these works, I wasn’t just thinking about the paintings themselves; their beauty naturally led me to think of those who had painted them. That’s rather what happens here with David. Standing before this immense, heavenly painting, he exclaims, as it were: ‘What a glorious Creator!’ The work speaks to us of the artist. Creation speaks to us of God.

But in practical terms, what does creation teach us about the glory of God? There is much that could be said, but I would like to draw our attention to three aspects:

• Firstly, creation reveals God’s power to us: think of the billions of stars, the billions of galaxies that God has created; think of the power that God displayed in creating everything simply by his word. It is quite simply mind-boggling.

• Secondly, creation reveals to us God’s wisdom and order: verse 3 reminds us that God created day and night; this is what we read in the account of creation in Genesis chapter 1, verse 5, where it is written, ‘God called the light “day” and the darkness “night”’. You might ask, ‘What does this have to do with wisdom and order?’ The connection is this: in the beginning, the world was nothing but chaos, but God brought order by separating the light from the darkness. In fact, if we think about it carefully, creation essentially consists of bringing order where chaos reigned. God expresses his wisdom by bringing order to creation. We won’t do this now, but do take the time to reread Genesis chapter 1 and note all the times when God creates order by separating the elements of creation and putting them in their proper places. Creation reflects God’s wisdom and order.

• And thirdly, creation reveals God’s beauty to us. We sometimes find it hard to believe that beauty is something objective; we say to ourselves, ‘Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!’ Yet Psalm 19 invites us to see things differently. David does not say, ‘Personally, I find the sky magnificent.’ Instead, he asserts that the heavens objectively proclaim God’s glory. And this idea is already present in the very account of creation. On several occasions, it is written: ‘God saw that it was good.’ Creation is not beautiful because people have declared it to be so; it is beautiful because God, who is perfectly good, willed it and declared it to be good. I know this is not a very popular idea today, but beauty is not merely a matter of taste. It has its origin in God himself. And as we contemplate the beauty of creation, we glimpse a reflection of the beauty and goodness of its Creator.

We can see, then, that God’s glory is revealed through creation. But we may each ask ourselves: am I meant to receive this revelation? To whom is it addressed? Do we need special glasses to see God through creation? So let us continue with me to verses 4 and 5; let us read:

‘It is not a language, nor are they words; their sound is not heard. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world, where he has set up a tent for the sun.’

God reveals himself through creation, and this revelation is universal. It is addressed to all people, in a clear and comprehensible way. Every human being can discover who God is by observing creation. This is what the Apostle Paul states in the Epistle to the Romans: ‘God’s invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world; they are understood from what he has made.’ One does not need to speak a particular language, or belong to a particular people, or even be in a particular place to know that God exists and that He is glorious. Look again at verses 4 and 5: ‘one language’, ‘the whole earth’ – does that remind you of anything? Remember the Tower of Babel. People wanted to speak a single language and remain gathered in one place to make a name for themselves. Psalm 19 offers a striking contrast to the misplaced ambition of the people at Babel. God does not need any human language to make a name for Himself. He does not need a specific place where people would come to meet him. His creation speaks all languages, because it speaks none. Its testimony reaches the whole earth, to the ends of the world. Wherever we live, whatever language we speak, creation proclaims to each and every one of us the glory of its Creator.

This is particularly well illustrated by the image of the sun that David uses. Let us read verses 6 and 7 together: ‘And the sun, like a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber, runs its course with the joy of a hero; it rises at one end of the heavens and ends its course at the other end: nothing escapes its heat. ’ Just as no one can escape the light and heat of the sun, no one can escape the testimony of creation: revelation extends to all people.

But perhaps this image of the sun makes you feel a little uncomfortable; one might get the impression that David is speaking of the sun as if it were some sort of deity. And this is no trivial matter; there are a great many pagan peoples who have fallen into idolatry by worshipping the sun as if it were God. But David takes the opposite view to this idea; he clearly affirms that God is the Creator and the sun is merely a creature. In verse 5 he says: ‘God has set a tent for the sun.’ God did not literally create a tent for the sun, as if the sun were to go in to sleep at night. But this image simply reminds us that the sun is in the place God has assigned to it, faithfully carrying out the mission entrusted to it by its Creator. This is what we read in Genesis: ‘God made the sun to rule over the day’. The sun is, in a sense, a testimony to God’s glory and to his desire to make himself known throughout the earth.

So far, we have seen that creation reveals who God is. But what difference does that make to us today? How can we live in the light of this revelation? Three practical applications for us this afternoon:

• Firstly, we are called to look at creation through the eyes of faith. When we contemplate a sunset, a starry sky or the power of the sea, let us not stop at the spectacle itself. Let creation lead us to its Creator; nature exists to show us that God is glorious, all-powerful and infinitely good. And if you do not believe there could be a Creator, do as Voltaire did: doubt, question, ask yourself: is this universe really here by chance? Or is there an all-powerful Creator who wants to make himself known to me through his creation?

• Secondly, we are called to worship God alone, not creation. The sun is not God, nature is not God, and the stars do not govern our destiny. Giving creation the place that belongs to the Creator has a name in the Bible: it is called idolatry. It is easy to look down on the pagans of antiquity and say to ourselves: ‘How could they have worshipped the sun or the stars? They must have been truly stupid!’ Yet idolatry is much closer to us than we realise. When we consult our horoscope, when we believe that the stars influence our mood for the day, or when we speak of ‘Mother Nature’ as if creation possessed a will of its own. Psalm 19 reminds us that creation does not exist to draw our worship to itself. Rather, it is like a signpost: it points to its Creator. Let us admire creation, yes, but let us worship only the One who made it.

• And thirdly, let us not be content with creation alone. Yes, the universe is a vast open book that reveals to us who God is. But it does not tell us everything we need to know. Some people think they can be close to God simply by admiring creation and living in harmony with it, and whilst that is a good thing, it is not enough to live in communion with God. Creation does not tell us that we are sinners; it does not explain why we need a Saviour. We need a revelation that goes further. That is why David will now lead us to an even more precious revelation: that of the Word of God – this is the second point.

2. Listen carefully: God is speaking

Imagine an architect building a magnificent house for you. Every detail has been carefully thought out: the proportions are harmonious, the materials are of high quality, and the light illuminates every room perfectly. By visiting this house, you could learn a great deal about its architect. You would realise that he is skilled, creative and highly knowledgeable. But imagine that, once the house is finished, the architect disappears without ever speaking to you. Despite everything you know about him, there would still be many unanswered questions. What is his name? Why did he build this house? How does he view you? Does he love you? What is he asking of you? To find answers to these questions, it would no longer be enough simply to look at the house; the architect himself would have to decide to speak.

This is precisely what God does. He reveals himself through his Word. And it is this revelation that David celebrates in the second part of the Psalm.

So let us read from verse 8: ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is true, making the simple wise. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure; it endures for ever; the Lord’s judgements are true; they are all just. They are more precious than gold, than much fine gold; they are sweeter than honey, even honey that drips from the comb.’

Even before we fully grasp what David is saying here, there is one word that should leap out at us—I don’t know if you’ve noticed it—it is repeated six times: the Lord, the Lord. We might ask ourselves: why does David switch from ‘God’ to ‘the Lord’? Why this shift between the two parts of the psalm?

This is no mere coincidence. In the first part, David speaks of ‘God’ as he contemplates his power manifested in creation. But from verse 8 onwards, he consistently uses his personal name: ‘the Lord’, Yahweh in Hebrew.

When you meet someone for the first time, you don’t say, ‘Hello, I’m a student’ or ‘Hello, I live in such-and-such a place’; no, you start by saying your name. It is the name that enables us to enter into a personal relationship. That is exactly what is happening here: the name ‘the Lord’ reminds us that the God of whom David speaks is not only the Creator whom we can observe through his works, but also the God who has made himself known personally to his people.

And this name has not been chosen at random. Throughout the Bible, it is the name most closely associated with the covenant that God establishes with his people. The most striking example is found in Exodus chapter 3, when God reveals himself to Moses at the burning bush. Remember: Moses asks God what his name is, and God replies, ‘I am who I am’. Then, a few verses later, he says, ‘This is my name for ever, and this is the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.’

We can sometimes take God’s name lightly; I am not referring specifically to swearing or the disrespectful use of his name, but rather to the way in which we read God’s Word. Certain words can become so familiar that we end up forgetting their power. We read ‘God does this’ and ‘The Lord says that’ in an almost detached manner. But David reminds us that God is not an impersonal force nor a distant Creator; rather, he is the God who reveals his name, the God of the covenant who calls his people to know him and to establish a personal relationship with him. When we read his Word, we are not simply accumulating knowledge about him, but we are listening to the God who has chosen to speak to us and to make himself known.

That is the whole difference between knowing facts about someone and truly knowing that person by listening to what they have to say to us.

And this is what happens in verses 8 to 11. David does not merely know God because he is familiar with His work; rather, he knows Him personally because God has spoken.

In the first part of the psalm, God reveals Himself through what He does, and we are invited to look.

But in this second part, something changes: we are no longer merely invited to look at what God does; we are invited to listen to what God says. Having appealed to our eyes, David now appeals to our ears.

And indeed, the tone of the psalm changes completely: we move away from the contemplative song of the opening verses into a text of wisdom. It almost feels as though we are reading a passage from Proverbs.

But what, then, does David tell us about the word of God?

David uses six different expressions to speak of the Word of God: the law, the testimony, the decrees, the commandments, the fear of the Lord and the judgements. All these expressions refer in one way or another to the revelation that God gives of himself and his will, but each one highlights a particular aspect of that revelation.

And in each phrase, there is a recurring pattern: it is as though David were highlighting, each time, a moral quality and an effect that the word has on those who receive it.

Look at the first phrase: ‘The law of the Lord is perfect; it revives the soul’:

• Here David is speaking of the law, the instructions and teachings that God gives to guide his people.

• What is the moral quality that characterises this law? David asserts that the law is perfect. The Hebrew word translated as ‘perfect’ (tamim) literally means complete, flawless, and upright. The Law of the Lord lacks nothing; it contains no errors or inconsistencies because it reflects God’s moral purity.

• And the second question: what effect does this Law have on those who obey it? David tells us that it ‘gives comfort’. Other translations say that it ‘restores the soul’. It is the idea of something that brings back, that restores, that breathes new life into. The Word of God does not merely convey information about God to us; it also has an effect on those who listen to it. It restores what is broken, it brings back those who have gone astray, and it restores strength to those who are downcast.

Now, we could spend a great deal of time reflecting in detail on the other five expressions, but I don’t think that is David’s intention. Let us remember that we are dealing with a psalm, that is to say, a poetic text. The power of this text lies not only in the expressions taken individually, but in the cumulative effect of all these expressions. David deliberately repeats the same structure several times to show us that God’s word is perfect in every respect.

And this perfection is manifested in two ways:

• Firstly, by what it is: the word perfectly reveals to us who God is and what His will is. It reflects the character of the One who speaks: it is perfect, true, upright, pure and just.

• Secondly, through what it produces: it works deeply within the heart. It is one of the means God uses to shape our hearts according to his will.

It can be easy to view the Word of God as a collection of instructions, a list of things to know and do in order to be on good terms with God. But that is not at all what David is saying.

David is not describing a dead word, but speaking to us of a living, active word.

Look at the verbs he uses: it restores, it makes wise, it brings joy, it enlightens. God’s Word does not merely point the way from a distance, telling us, ‘This is what you ought to do.’

The Word of God does not merely tell us that we must be wise: it makes the inexperienced wise. It does not merely tell us to rejoice: it gladdens the heart. It does not merely tell us where the light is: it enlightens our eyes. It does not call us to a morbid fear of God, but leads us to a reverent fear characterised by willing obedience to his commandments.

That is why the Word of God is so precious. That is why David can say in verse 11 that the Word of God is more precious than gold, sweeter than honey. Can we say the same?

As king, David was immensely wealthy; when he speaks of riches, he knows what he is talking about; when he says that the Word is more precious than gold, he does not say it lightly! For him, all his riches were nothing compared to the Word, which was able to reveal the almighty God to him and transform his own heart.

But David does not merely see the Word as something useful; he also sees it as something desirable—even more desirable than honey. He does not merely acknowledge the usefulness of God’s Word; he loves it with all his heart and allows himself to be enlightened by it, as he says in verse 12.

What difference does this make to us today? How should we live, knowing that God’s Word perfectly reveals who God is and is capable of transforming our hearts? Two practical applications for us this afternoon:

Firstly, we have seen that the Word of God is entirely sufficient to reveal His character and His will to us. That is why we are called to make the Word of God our supreme moral authority. This does not mean that we should not respect other forms of authority; the Bible is clear on this point: we are all called to submit to human authorities – the Highway Code, the Civil Code, and the laws of our country. But our moral benchmark should be the Word of God; no other authority should take the place of the Bible in defining our conduct.

And this is particularly important in our time, when moral values are changing very rapidly; what was considered wrong yesterday may be considered right today, and vice versa. Worse still, we may be tempted to define our own morality based on how we feel at any given moment.

But if God’s Word is perfect, if it speaks the truth, if its decrees are upright and its judgements are just, then when we are faced with a moral question, we should not ask ourselves, ‘What does society think about this?’ or ‘How do I feel about this?’, but rather ask, ‘What does God have to say about this moral issue?’

This does not mean that we systematically reject everything that human laws say, but it does mean that we should evaluate them in the light of the supreme law, the Word of God.

Secondly, and most importantly, most of us are probably less wealthy than David was, and yet, can we say that we cherish God’s word more than our bank balance?

So we might ask ourselves, ‘But why draw a parallel between God’s Word and money? They’re not comparable!’ But if we’re asking ourselves this question, it’s perhaps because we haven’t fully grasped the value of God’s Word.

A Bible like this costs €2.50 – that’s the price of a coffee at the bakery on the corner! And yet what it contains can offer us something that a billion euros could never buy.

With a billion euros, we can afford everything that brings us pleasure, but we cannot buy the joy of the heart that David speaks of. We can pay for the best advisers, but we cannot buy the wisdom that God gives. We can surround ourselves with every possible safeguard, but we cannot buy a restored soul. And above all, with all the gold in the world, we cannot buy the opportunity to know personally the God who created the universe.

Let’s ask ourselves: do we regard the Bible as merely important, or do we truly desire it? Do we read it simply because that’s what Christians do, or do we long to hear God speak to us and transform our lives through his Word?

These questions lead us to another question: what happens when we truly allow God’s word to enlighten us? That is our final point.

3. Come to him: God saves

Let us continue from verse 12 to the end: ‘Your servant, too, is enlightened by them; for those who heed them, the reward is great. Who can discern their own errors? Forgive me for those I am unaware of. Preserve your servant, too, from pride: let it not take hold of me! Then I shall be blameless; I shall not commit grave sins. Be gracious to the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart, O Lord, my Rock, you who redeem me!’

David is not indifferent; he allows himself to be enlightened by God’s word because it reflects the beauty and goodness of God, which he can admire through creation. David’s heart is filled with worship for God and a longing for his word. David is drawn to God: the more he discovers his Lord, the more he longs to draw near to him and live under his benevolent authority. We see this in his attitude towards God; he calls himself God’s servant.

If there’s one film that illustrates David’s attraction to God particularly well, it’s The Lord of the Rings. Perhaps some of you are familiar with this film; I won’t summarise it because that would take three hours. But there’s a character called Boromir, a valiant knight who, at the start of the film, refuses to submit to the authority of the future king, Aragorn, for various reasons. But as their journey progresses, Boromir gradually discovers who Aragorn really is. He sees his courage, his humility, his loyalty and his leadership. So much so that, as he lay dying, Boromir finally acknowledged his authority, pledged his allegiance to him and, with his last breath, said to him: ‘I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king.’

There is something similar in David: the more he contemplates God, the more he desires to belong to him and to live under his authority. His obedience is not a burden, but the response of a man filled with wonder at the perfection of his Creator.

But precisely because he contemplates this perfection, David finds himself faced with a problem: how can a sinful man live in accordance with the will of a perfectly holy God?

David knows that obedience to God is good and that it is a source of blessing; this is what we see in verse 12. But when he looks at himself in the light of this perfect Word, that is when the trouble begins.

David was a glorious king, a man after God’s own heart. Yet, as we know, David was also a sinful man – an adulterer, a murderer, a man incapable of perfectly obeying the Lord’s law. And he knows this; he is aware that the gap between his imperfection and the perfection God demands is too great for him to live in fellowship with Him.

So we might say to David: ‘Pull yourself together! You know God’s law; you just have to obey it!’ But let’s be honest: how many times have we disobeyed a simple rule even though we knew it? How many times do we let ourselves go a little over the speed limit because ‘it’s fine, it’s no big deal’? How many times have we lied because ‘it’s fine, it’s just a little white lie that doesn’t matter at all’?

The problem isn’t just that we don’t know God’s law; it goes much deeper than that. The problem is that we don’t always want to obey God’s law! Sometimes we want to follow our own rules because we think we can do better than God; it’s in our nature—that’s what verse 14 calls pride.

And I have some more bad news! Our problem runs so deep that we are sometimes unable to recognise our sins; we sin without realising it. This is what David says in verse 13: he acknowledges that he commits sins without even realising it; he understands that he cannot even trust his own judgement.

And this is precisely where the Word of God comes in. You’ll recall that in verse 8 we read that the law of the Lord restores the soul. But it does so in a way we often don’t even suspect. How? By bringing to light what is wrong with us, by exposing our sin. God’s law provides an honest diagnosis of the state of our hearts, and that is a good thing! To prescribe the right remedy, a doctor must make the right diagnosis. A good doctor cannot prescribe the right medicine unless he has first identified the cause of the illness.

But then what is the remedy? What does David do? Look at verse 13: ‘Forgive me for the sins I am unaware of. Also, keep your servant from the spirit of pride.’ David knows himself; he knows full well that he is incapable of obeying God perfectly in his own strength. So he appeals to God’s grace; he asks God to forgive his sins and to keep him from pride. God’s grace is the remedy for the problem of sin. God’s commandments are not there so that we can perform and achieve a sufficient level of obedience to stand before God; no, they are there to bring us to our knees before God’s grace.

Our God is truly astonishing. He is all-powerful, He is holy, He is perfect. Faced with all these superlatives, David ought to do just one thing: flee! And we should all do the same; we are unworthy of God’s perfection, incapable of obeying Him.

And therein lies the great paradox of this psalm: David does not flee from God; he runs towards Him!

Look at the end of verse 15: ‘O Lord, my rock, my Redeemer!’ To put it simply, God’s grace is manifested through redemption. When we wrong someone, we often ask them, ‘How can I make amends?’ But when we wrong God, God does not wait for us to make amends; He redeems us Himself. Such is God’s mercy, which does not give us the punishment we deserve, and such is God’s grace, which offers us the forgiveness we do not deserve!

How does God do this? How does He redeem us? David did not know all the details of this plan of salvation, but look at what the apostle Peter says about the prophets, of whom David was one. I read from 1 Peter 1:10–11: ‘The prophets who spoke of the grace that was to be yours searched and investigated this salvation. They were trying to discover the time and circumstances indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them, as He testified in advance to the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that would follow them.”

David did not know Jesus Christ with the clarity we have today, but the Spirit of Christ was already at work within him; David knew of God’s promise of salvation and could glimpse the coming Messiah.

The difference is that David looked in faith towards a promise that was yet to be fulfilled – that of the coming of the Messiah. We, on the other hand, look in faith towards a promise that has already been fulfilled. But at the heart of it all is the same Saviour: Jesus Christ.

Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, something of which neither David nor we ourselves are capable. On the cross, Jesus bore the condemnation that our disobedience deserved. This is how a perfectly holy God can welcome sinful people whilst remaining perfectly just: our sin is not ignored; it is paid for.

David does not run to God because his sin is less serious than he thought. He runs to God because God’s grace is greater than his sin.

And David’s response to God’s grace is magnificent: ‘Be pleased with the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart.’ David knows that he has been redeemed by God and forgiven his sins, so he desires to offer a life that is pleasing to God—a life that is a praise to God’s glory.

Are we ready to offer every aspect of our lives to God in gratitude for His grace towards us?

To conclude, the heavens proclaim God’s glory, His Word proclaims His holiness, and our redeemed lives proclaim His grace.

So let us marvel at our God’s creation, devour His Word with an insatiable hunger, and live a life wholly devoted to His glory.

Psalm 16 - The Path of Life

Introduction

"Higher, further, stronger!" ("Toujours plus haut, toujours plus loin, toujours plus fort !"): this was the battle cry that the contestants on the show Fort Boyard would shout together to motivate themselves or celebrate reaching the end of their run. Now, I know that our church includes young people and international members, so I owe you a bit of context: Fort Boyard is a French television show set in a former prison built in the middle of the sea.

The premise is simple: a team must complete several stages to raise money for a charity. But in practice, it is far from simple. To succeed, the contestants must face several particularly intense challenges.

To unlock the gate to the Treasure Room and guess the secret code word, the contestants must accumulate keys and clues by taking on extreme trials, such as bungee jumps from the top of the ramparts, balancing acts suspended over open air, exhausting agility courses, or stomach-churning encounters with snakes, spiders, and repulsive dishes. Once in the heart of the Fort, if the team holds all 7 keys and manages to spell out the correct code word, a fountain of gold coins pours out. They then have just a few dozen seconds to scoop up as many as possible by hand before the gate closes permanently! Ultimately, the entire sum is donated to a charitable organization.

At the end of the show, they shout: "Higher, further, stronger!"

It is an encouraging and motivating cry. It helps keep their minds focused on the treasure during difficult trials. And today, when we talk about the path of life, it isn't all that different from this show: full of trials, full of difficulties, full of unpleasant situations. Personally, it reminds me of that diagram showing a person on a bicycle trying to reach the top of a mountain, hoping the ride will be a straight line, but reality is far from it. They face ups and downs and obstacles along the way that make the journey very hard, requiring perseverance to hold on, keep going, and reach the summit.

Our psalm today is a cry that seeks to encourage and strengthen us in the face of daily challenges, but it also offers true hope against the greatest misfortune of our existence: death. Death, the consequence of sin. For this reason, I invite you to dive into the study of Psalm 16 and see together how it urges us to look always higher, to look always further, and to hold a perspective that makes us always stronger.

Always Higher (v. 1–4)

"Keep me safe, my God"

The psalmist begins by addressing God: he asks Him to guard him and tells Him that he seeks refuge in Him (verse 1). Unlike the psalms of previous weeks, this one does not directly outline his problems: he doesn't mention liars or attacks from enemies. It might be more subtle; we don't necessarily know what he needs protection from. But as usual, the best answer is found in the text itself, right from the opening verses:

"I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.' As for the holy people who are in the land, they are the noble ones in whom is all my delight. Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips."

He explains that there are holy people and idolaters, and that he has chosen his side. He notices that idolaters are multiplying; it feels like the majority of people around him are following other gods. Yet he resists and chooses his stand. He declares that he will not do as they do, that he wants to be different and refuses to pour out blood offerings to foreign gods.

He resists, and this resistance is not easy: he is surrounded, overwhelmed; everything he sees around him is idolatry. On the other hand, he rejoices when he sees that there are holy and godly people in the land. Naturally, he feels affection, delight, and genuine brotherly love for them in the midst of this idolatrous environment.

I don't know about you, but this reminds me of the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. A few years later, after the reign of David, the people of Israel were deported to Babylon. Among them were Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, four young men chosen to enter the royal circle. It was a program designed to teach Babylonian culture to young deportees, which involved worshiping foreign gods and offering sacrifices to them. But these young men refused to commit idolatry; their worship belonged exclusively to the Lord. They shared a friendship and brotherly love rooted in their common worship of the Lord within an idolatrous environment. Obviously, this did not please the authorities of the time, and they faced life-threatening, deadly trials.

So, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, just like David in this psalm, turn to God, call upon Him, and acknowledge their total dependence on Him in their hardships, as well as their own inability to resist through their own strength. They recognize that He alone is their refuge and He alone can preserve them.

In the face of trials, the saints turn to God: they look always higher.

Always Further (v. 5–6)

"A delightful inheritance"

Psalm 16 is one of the psalms that best describes the relationship between David and God. He tells Him: "Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure." In our modern language, it's like saying to someone: "You are the one in whom I take delight, the one who gives me rest; you are my assurance, you are my peace."

These aren't words you say to just anyone! They are strong, deeply valuable words, intentionally spoken to someone precious to us. We see an intimate relationship here, a true covenant between God and David.

The psalmist's assurance rests on who God is to him and what He does for him daily: He gives him peace. But this assurance isn't limited to the present moment; it is also grounded in what God has promised him and what He will grant him in the future. He writes: "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." He has the certainty that God will not abandon him, neither now nor in what lies ahead. He holds the absolute conviction that God is faithful to His promises.

In this text, we don't have a clear, explicit answer regarding the exact nature of this inheritance and delightful possession that David expects. But we can connect it to the promise God makes to him in 2 Samuel 7, when He announces that his kingdom will endure forever. He tells him in verse 12:

"When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son."

David draws all his assurance from what God has promised him. He is in a difficult situation, yet he hopes in God's promises. He knows what God did for his ancestors, and he trusts Him. He knows that God cares for him today, but he also knows that for the future, God will keep him and secure his portion because He is faithful to His promises. God promised him a descendant whose kingdom will last forever. His lot is secure.

Similarly, if we continue drawing a parallel with the story of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, their sole assurance was God. Their hope was His deliverance in the face of death threats, the furnace of blazing fire, and the lions' den. They knew what God had done for their ancestors, and they trusted Him. They knew God was taking care of them today, but they also knew that for the future, God would preserve them and secure their lot because He is faithful to His promises. God had promised them a descendant who would reign forever. Their lot was secure.

In the face of trials, the saints turn to God, and their hope is anchored in God's promises: They look always higher and always further.

Always Stronger (v. 7–8)

"I will not be shaken"

Recently, we celebrated our church's 11th anniversary, and during our church retreat weekend in June, for our last evening, we played a game formatted like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It was based on our church's history and lots of other fun anecdotes. The winner was the one who accumulated the most correct answers, and Alex and Mariana Gerguina won. They happened to be sitting not too far from Christophe, who organized the game. I’m not saying there was any cheating, it might just be a coincidence! But in the original version of the show, you have the option to call a friend for advice on an answer, which can make you win the game. If the rules had allowed us to call the game's organizer directly, and we were sitting right next to him, that would have been an absolute guarantee of getting the right answer and winning!

Returning to our psalm, David says: "I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me." David receives counsel from God! Even during difficult times, he does not lack guidance. He says he keeps the Lord continuously before his eyes, and that is why he will not be shaken.

Who can counsel God, the Creator of the world? Can you imagine the advantage David has, having God by his side, counseling and instructing him? Of course, David wouldn't be shaken; he has God right in front of him. This confirms a very special, exclusive relationship between David and God. And frankly, it makes you want it too! It is a relationship that renders him unshakable in the face of hardship.

Likewise, let's briefly look back at Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In the fiery furnace and in the lions' den, they were not alone. God was with them and rescued them. Even more provocative to those who condemned them: they were walking around inside the furnace, and Daniel was sleeping next to the lions. I don't know if you fully realize that!

Their strength was neither physical nor mental; rather, their strength was their relationship with God, a God who loves them and protects them. Unshakable.

In the face of trials, the saints turn back to God; their hope is built on God's promises, and that makes them unshakable. They look always higher and always further, and that makes them always stronger.

The Treasure (v. 9–11)

"Eternal joy"

In the show Fort Boyard, the winner takes home a treasure. But they only have a few dozen seconds to grab as many gold coins as possible before the door to the Treasure Room closes! If time runs out and a contestant gets trapped inside, the team risks losing their entire haul. And even though the tigers are secured in their cages, the pressure remains massive, and harvesting the treasure is extremely stressful. Because yes, I forgot to mention the tigers in the treasure room! All that stress and pressure, just to give everything away to charity! I completely respect the good cause and it's wonderful, but the adventurer in me says, "I'll pass!" Frankly, it just doesn't seem worth it!

The treasure in this psalm is beyond comparison. It is neither a quantifiable treasure nor a temporary one. The psalmist says he is filled with joy and gladness. And this joy doesn't just touch his heart, it encompasses his entire being his spirit, his soul, and his body. He writes: "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure." Furthermore, the psalmist does not fear death, neither physical death nor spiritual death: "Because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay." We see here the timeless nature of this treasure.

What is this incomparable, infinite treasure?

We quickly think of eternal life, since he states his body will not see decay. The text adds that it offers an abundance of eternal joy.

But eternal life is knowing God, You, the only true God.

This is a verse we will return to shortly.

This treasure is a flourishing relationship with God. It is eternal happiness, an eternal happiness that begins the moment we meet God and grows throughout our lives, through hard times and lighthearted moments alike. In God's presence, there is abundant joy, even when everything seems to go wrong. It isn't just about the destination; it is about the journey, a flourishing relationship with God throughout life, in every circumstance.

Outro

"I am the way, the truth, and the life"

But how can we obtain this treasure? How can we have a flourishing relationship with God?

What assures us that if we cry out to God, He will hear us? What assures us that God is with us and has promised us a beautiful inheritance? What assures us that we will stand unshakable?

Psalm 16 is not merely a cry of encouragement, a simple push to help us persevere daily or boost our morale when things go wrong. This psalm is not merely a psalm of David, and we cannot appropriate it for ourselves without recognizing its prophetic dimension.

In the first section, we saw that the psalmist sought holiness, yet we also know he fell by committing adultery. In the second section, we saw the promise of a beautiful inheritance, yet he had a son who hunted him down and sought his death. And we know that King David died, and his body rests today in a tomb, having certainly experienced decay.

"Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day."

I am quoting here the words of the Apostle Peter in Acts 2, verses 29 to 31:

"Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay."

This Psalm was prophesying and speaking about someone else: someone who remained perfectly holy, without a single stain of sin before God. It speaks of someone who kept God faithfully, constantly before His face. It speaks of someone who literally conquered death, whose body saw no decay, and who is seated today at the right hand of God.

This psalm prophesies the coming of Jesus. This psalm is about Jesus.

If we can take this psalm as our own today, it is thanks to one person alone: Jesus.

• If we can speak to God and call out for His help, it is because Jesus restored the path.

• If we can love God and take delight in Him, it is because Jesus lives in us.

• And if we are going to live for eternity, it is because Jesus rose again and, in Him, we have eternal life.

Having this infinite treasure, which is a flourishing relationship with God, is only possible through Jesus.

And Jesus Himself, in His prayer before the cross, said: "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God..." (John 17:3).

So, what is this counsel that God offers? What is this path of life that God makes known to us?

Jesus is the path of life!

"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.'«, John 14:6–7

The path of life is a relationship of exclusive worship toward God that leads us to depend on His love and provision in every moment of life. It is a hope built on who He is, what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. God is our treasure, and all of this is only possible through Jesus.

Conclusion

As we reach the end of this message, I want to speak to those who have not yet put their faith in Jesus: Why was this psalm written, and why are we reading it today? It is to tell us about Jesus, about who Jesus is and what He did for us.

Jesus, God's beloved, His only Son, loved you unto death to give you life. Come to Him; do not wait any longer! He is gentle and beautiful. Jesus conquered death and He lives; He is seated at the right hand of the Father. Come to Him, in Him is eternal life.

And for those who have placed their faith in Christ but are not experiencing fulfillment: look higher, look further. Look to Jesus. In Jesus, you have eternal life and eternal joy. I am not minimizing suffering; I acknowledge how hard it is to turn to God during trials. But our God is near to us; He hears and saves us through Jesus. Let us call upon Him, take delight in Him, and hope in His promises.

Higher, further, stronger, all thanks to Jesus.

Let’s pray.

Psalm 12 - A Prayer in the Midst of Lies

You may have noticed that today's psalm, the psalm from last week's sermon, and, small spoiler, next week's psalm as well, all deal with situations that are rather sad, even depressing. So allow me to talk to you about a sad subject too: we are about to enter an election season. In fact, we are already in it.

In France, we are getting ready for 2027. In the United States, there will be the midterm elections, and an American election ends up affecting the whole world, even us here. And in a few months there will be elections in Brazil as well, less important and less far-reaching, but since I am Brazilian, I mention them anyway.

And this is the classic season in which we find ourselves in the middle of a tsunami of lies, of twisted truths, of speeches full of bad faith, and so on. Now, yes, perhaps I am painting too dark a picture. It is a good thing that we live in places where people have a voice through elections, and even if it is imperfect, it matters. But it is one occasion among many where we see how badly we lack the virtue of loving the truth. We would be so much better off with more of it.

A world saturated with lies (vv. 1-4)

Lying does damage, in an election season and in any other circumstance. With false words, people without scruples manipulate others, sin dresses itself up as justice, and society as a whole suffers. And that is the reason behind the lament of today's psalm: it is a collective lament, "save us!" Because loyal, truthful people are missing.

On the contrary, the psalm says, people lie to one another. Even when they pay each other compliments, pleasant things, these are flattering words with a double intention. Could we not recognise our own time, our own situation, in this psalm? I am not criticising our age by saying "things were better before," because ever since sin entered the world, lying has been sown everywhere. What I mean is that this lament is still current: we lack loyal, truthful people who do not lie, and we feel that lack, and that lack does damage.

Politicians lie to the people about their intentions; they lie to each other about their alliances; it is not rare for people to lie on their tax returns; companies conceal the fact that they are poisoning the soil and the water; in marriages, lying wreaks havoc, and there are even apps designed so that people can arrange adulterous encounters. And then we lie to one another on social media, displaying a life that is not real, edited, shaped with the intention of producing an impression that is not true.

(I am not saying that social media is intrinsically evil, and I am not saying that it is not. But we can see in this psalm and elsewhere in the Bible that lying is not only passing on false information, but also passing on true information with a bad intention, with the intention of harming or of producing a false idea.)

Lying, the catalyst of sin

Lying is not simply one sin among others; it is the catalyst of sin. We see in the Bible that humanity's first sin was provoked by a lie from the serpent. Then the first murder begins with a lie; you can read it in Genesis. But look at our own history: the worst genocides, the worst abuses, the worst tyrants were all made possible by the power of human speech. Lies, manipulation, threats. And even today, how many atrocities have stayed buried in silence because someone said: "What are you going to do? If you say anything, it will be your word against mine, and nobody will believe you."

And how many times, I ask you to look back over your own life, have we been deeply wounded by a lie aimed at us, by a broken loyalty, or by a "truth" turned into a weapon, spoken in order to bring us down? And we have to recognise that we are part of the problem: how many times have we used our words not to bless, but to wound, to manipulate, to lie.

As we grow up, we come to realise that in our tongue, in our power of speech, we carry a loaded gun, ready to fire. And that we can very easily do intense harm to people if we use it. And what a weight it is to know that this gun exists, that it is always there, loaded, and that we must not use it. And what regret every time that, in an argument, we use it against someone who ought to be the object of our love: a friend, a spouse, a brother, a colleague.

But we look around us, we look at the powerful, and we see that the people with the fewest scruples about using this word-weapon are the ones who climb the ladder of power, and we can begin to wonder whether that is not simply how the world works.

All right, I did say this description was going to be fairly depressing. But is it false? This is the reason behind the collective cry of this psalm: "Save us, LORD! Cut short these lying lips!"

God rises and keeps us

In this psalm we see God's answer, and then a return to daily reality. God answers in verse 5: "Because the poor are oppressed and the needy groan, now I will arise, says the LORD; I will bring salvation to those who long for it." You see, God says that he intervenes not only because truth is being trampled on, but because people are being oppressed by lying and falsehood. God cares about truth, yes, but we can see throughout the Bible that he has a particular concern for those who are oppressed and have no one to help them. And he declares that he acts to place in his salvation the one who seeks it.

So let us pay attention to God's answer in this psalm: even though we cry out to God to cut short those who spread lies, that is not exactly what he says he will do. He says that he rises, that he acts to place in his salvation, in his safe place, the one who asks him for it. It may look like a detail, but the rest of the psalm shows that this is indeed the right reading: for now, God is not going to stop lying altogether; he is going to protect from lying those who call on him.

Verses 6, 7 and 8 are the psalm's response to God's proclamation. With confidence, they declare, in verse 7: "You, LORD, will keep them; you will protect them from this generation for ever." In the Bible Semeur, and in the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, we read: "You, LORD, keep us and will always protect us from these people."

And the last verse shows that the psalmist knows the world's situation does not change straight away: "The wicked prowl on every side when what is vile is honoured among men." This situation persists: it is what the psalmist sees around him, it is the context the people still see when they finish singing this psalm, it is the situation we see around us today. You see: in verse 7 he says that God will keep us; in verse 8, the wicked prowl everywhere, and baseness reigns among men.

The Nouvelle Français courant translation brings out this contrast with an "even if": You, Lord, will keep the oppressed, you will always preserve us from these evil people, even if the wicked prowl all around, even if corruption overtakes humanity.

The reason for the psalmist's confidence lies in verse 6: the words of the LORD are not impure like ours, but pure, pure like silver passed seven times through the fire to be refined. Nothing is left in it that is not silver, nothing is left that is not pure. This is the complete opposite of what we see around us: God does not use his word to deceive; he does not speak with a double heart, with a hidden intention that contradicts the one he shows. His word is true, pure and powerful, and he does not lack the power to accomplish what he says.

How does God keep his promise?

So a legitimate question we might ask is this: in what way does God protect from lies those who call on him? We look around us, we look at the news, and we see that there are still victims of the practice of lying: people who have been manipulated, who are unjustly condemned, who are the targets of hate speech, and so on.

We can see in the Bible at least three ways in which God fulfils this promise: (1) God preserves the truth in spite of the lie. (2) God preserves those who call on him by saving them from the lie through salvation in Jesus Christ. (3) God will destroy every lie in the new creation.

1. God does not let the truth die

Yes, one of the ways God preserves us is that, in his grace, he does not allow the truth to disappear completely. Proverbs 12:19 says: "Truthful lips endure for ever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment." And a very common saying goes: "a lie has short legs; it never gets far." Now, a lie always lasts longer than it deserved to. But at some point it goes away, and the truth remains.

Think of the truth of the gospel: so often persecuted, so often distorted, so often people have tried to silence it or to alter it. And yet it is still here. And many of its opponents and alternatives are not.

Think too of that truth which God has placed in the human conscience and in Scripture: that all human beings were created equal, and that there is no inferior or impure race among us. So many times this truth has been questioned, distorted, hidden; and yet, despite the opposition that still exists, it is still here, and God in his grace does not let it be entirely forgotten or erased.

Think of marriage, which today is sometimes presented as an outdated, oppressive institution that ought to be reformed and reshaped, or even abolished. And in spite of the opposition, this truth will remain and will be kept by God: that marriage exists for the good of human beings, in a commitment of full faithfulness between a man and a woman. And it will outlast the lies that have attacked it in the past and that oppose it today.

2. God saves us in Jesus and gives us the Spirit of truth

But God also preserves us from the lie by saving us in Jesus. Jesus, who took upon himself the sins of all those who are in him, including lying, endured in his sufferings the false accusations of those who put him to death. He knows very well, then, the crushing world described by Psalm 12. In the middle of his trial, Jesus tells Pilate that he has "come into the world to bear witness to the truth" (John 18). And Pilate answers cynically: "What is truth?"

Jesus was condemned and put to death in a balance of power where the lying words of the powerful of his day seemed to have the upper hand. And yet all of this was done so that God's words through his prophets might be fulfilled, and so that, raised on the third day, he might bring in all those who, by his grace, call on him for salvation. He saves us and also gives us his Spirit of truth, his Holy Spirit, who convicts us of sin and equips us to speak the truth to one another, as Paul says in Ephesians 4:

You were taught to put off the old self, which belongs to your former way of life and is being destroyed by its deceitful desires; to be renewed by the Spirit in your minds; and to put on the new self, created after God in the righteousness and holiness that truth produces. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth to his neighbour, for we are members one of another.

So, by his Holy Spirit, God cuts short our lying tongues and our deceitful desires, and renews our minds. We are thus equipped, among those who are in Christ, to rid ourselves of the lie.

And so we do not really have the right to take a defeatist stance towards lying: neither towards the lie that surrounds us, nor towards the lie that persists in our words and our thoughts. Let us not be deaf, then, to the Spirit of truth when we ask God to protect us from lies, for he also wants to protect us from the lies that remain in our own hearts. That is why, in our time of confession at every service on Sunday, we ask God to forgive the sins we commit with our words as well.

And if we have twisted truths in order to manipulate, in order to wound; if we have used our lips, our skill in argument, to get the better of someone unjustly, then let us listen today to the word of God, which pronounces judgement on all proud and false speech, and let us ask forgiveness with real repentance, listening to the Spirit of God rather than to the inner monologues we can produce to justify ourselves.

And perhaps it is worth saying this plainly: if you are the one who has been lied about, the one who has been crushed by someone else's words, this psalm is your prayer. God does not tell you that the lying will stop. He tells you that, if you call on him, he rises and puts you in a safe place. That he cares, already today, about your cry.

3. God will destroy every lie

And finally, we have in Scripture the promise that at the return of Jesus, in the new creation, there will be no lie. In Revelation 22 we read, concerning the new creation: "Outside are the vile, those who practise magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, those who worship idols, and everyone who loves and practises falsehood."

Everyone who loves and practises falsehood: this is not merely one item on the list of what does not enter the new creation; it is a summary of all the categories. To love the lie, to prefer it to the truth, and to practise it: here is the summary of everything that has no place in the world to come.

This is a hope for us; it is a promise we must keep in mind, especially when we are exasperated by the world we live in. It is also a call to live already in the practice of truth, because truth is what will last, what God equips us for, what has its place in all eternity.

Psalm 13 — God, can you hear me?

Who thinks that life with Jesus is easy?

If we thought that becoming a Christian would solve all our problems... Well, we were wrong.

Being a Christian doesn't spare us from illness and the difficulties of this world. If it did, everyone would know about it—pharmacies would be selling Bibles instead of medicine. Being a Christian actually adds to our worries. We now see our sinful nature much more clearly, and we struggle daily to put to death what displeases God. We want to change our attitudes, which sometimes hurt others. But we often see little results and feel discouraged. Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow Him. So we walk against the tide, in a world that opposes God and those who belong to Him.

Fortunately for us, we have a great God to whom we can entrust all our sufferings and struggles. No matter what happens to me, I know I can talk to Him about it, and He will deliver me from it.

But the reality is that we've all gone through difficult times; perhaps you're even going through a period of intense suffering right now. A job search that drags on, the search for a husband or wife, recovering from an illness that seems incurable, waiting for a child who never comes. So we pray to God, repeating the same prayer over and over, day after day for the same thing, month after month, or even for years, without receiving an answer. To the point where we ask ourselves: God, can you hear me?

And this Psalm of David today is an excellent example of lamentation, prayer, and gratitude when we're going through difficult times and have no answer.

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1. Patient in suffering (v. 2–3)

In this Psalm, we see that David is suffering, but we don't know exactly what he's going through. The word "enemy," which appears several times, might lead us to conclude that there are literally enemies who are out to kill him. In the book of 1 Samuel, we are told that David was pursued by Saul, and in the book of 2 Samuel, that he was pursued by his son Absalom. But since the Psalms are poems, this could be metaphorical, representing the illness he suffered from toward the end of his life, or the anguish he felt over his own sin.

Suffering should not come as a surprise to us. By disobeying God, humanity brought sin into the world, and the entire creation suffers the consequences: death, a broken relationship with God, and a deceitful heart that affects our relationships and our daily lives.

**Genesis 3:17–19** — "Then God said to the man, 'Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, "You shall not eat from it," the ground is cursed because of you. In pain you will eat from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you will return."

As Christians, we are not spared from the consequences of sin. As long as we are on this earth, we continue to live with hearts stained by sin in a broken world.

Our hope is that, despite these sufferings, we have a God who watches over us and cares for us. I read in **John 15:7**:

> "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you."

But sometimes God takes longer than we would like to answer our prayers.

And that is the case here with David, with the repetition of "How long?"

> "How long, O Lord, will you keep forgetting me? How long will you hide your face from me? How long will I have anxiety in my soul and sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy attack me?"

We don't know how long David has been waiting for answers, but this repetition emphasizes his impatience. "Lord, my enemies are out to kill me. I need you now—why are you taking so long to answer?"

And unfortunately, I feel like we're becoming more and more impatient. I work in web design, and human impatience is a central issue in the websites and apps we design. We know that if a page takes too long to load, the user is likely to leave, and we've lost a potential customer. That's why you see loading bars or flashing elements on the page before it fully loads. It's a way of saying, "It's coming, it's coming—don't leave; just wait a few more seconds." We lead lives at 100 miles an hour and no longer have time to wait. And as Christians, we find ourselves doing the same thing with God. How much longer will I wait for this job I so desperately need? How much longer will I struggle with this sin that's ruining my life?

And it is this impatience that leads David to say, "How long, O Lord, will you keep forgetting me? How long will you hide your face from me?" This waiting makes us feel abandoned by God. And I do mean "feel" abandoned. It is a feeling we have, but it is not reality. God does not abandon us. I read from **Isaiah 49:14–16**:

> "Zion said (here, Zion refers to the people of Israel), 'The Lord has forsaken me; the Lord has forgotten me!' Can a woman forget the baby at her breast? Does she not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even if she did forget him, I will never forget you. See! I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."

I don't know if you've ever done this—written something on your hand to make sure you don't forget. We are engraved on God's hands; we are constantly under His watchful eye. We are His children, and He loves us with a love even stronger than a mother's love for her newborn. And like a good parent, He knows better than we do what we need and when we need it.

Our emotions lead us to believe that in times of trial and suffering, when there are no answers, God has forgotten us. But the reality is quite different: "I will never forget you." Having feelings is a good thing; it's normal to feel pain, joy, sadness, and doubt—especially when we're going through difficult times. As someone said in my small group this week, "It's okay to cry." We just need to be careful that our feelings don't override our reason and lead us to believe false things. Here's a first lesson for us this morning. Like David, we should come to God and express our feelings. We should always be honest and transparent with God, sharing our sorrows and questions with Him; He is the one best able to understand us—He is our Creator, after all.

So if God hasn't forgotten us, why doesn't He help us when we're suffering? That's a question that's hard to answer precisely. For God's plans are divine and not fully revealed to us.

But here is some encouragement found in **Romans 8:28–30**:

> "And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called; those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified."

God does not let us suffer in vain. We are His children. His entire plan works for the good of those who love God. And by His power, He uses the difficulties of the present moment to shape our souls and make them conform to the image of Christ for the days to come.

There will be a time of judgment, but through His grace—as a testimony of His love—He grants everyone time to repent. I read in **2 Peter 3:9**:

> "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

God is patient with us; let us be patient with Him.

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2. Persevering in prayer (v. 4–5)

So how do I wait it out? It's all well and good to know that this trial is meant to shape my soul, but I'm in pain. Day after day, I'm wearing myself out. And little by little, with no answers, I'm losing hope.

But here is David's attitude in the face of despair—the turning point of this Psalm and perhaps the main lesson for us this morning: perseverance in prayer. I'll read from verse 4:

> "Look upon me and answer me, O Lord my God! Give light to my eyes, lest I fall into the sleep of death! For my enemy might say, 'I have overcome him,' and my foes might rejoice when they see me shaken."

In the earlier verses, David thought God had forgotten him. But David does not trust his own feelings. He knows that God has not forgotten him and that his only hope is in Him. So he cries out even louder and implores His help. We see this in the repetition of his plea: "Look, answer me, O Lord, my God!" Brothers and sisters, here is a magnificent example of faith. Believing when life is going our way is easy. But believing when there is no reason to do so—that is what faith is. I read in **Hebrews 11:1**:

> "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Faith is a deep conviction that God will fulfill what He has promised, and it is believing in the reality of what God has revealed, even if our eyes cannot yet see it.

David prays for this. "Give light to my eyes, so that I may not fall asleep the sleep of death!" David acknowledges that his view of the situation is clouded by his emotions. He has the humility to admit that, as a mere human being, he cannot understand why things are this way. His most heartfelt prayer, then, is to ask God to give light to his eyes. Through this prayer, he asks for insight, for clarity; he asks for wisdom so that he may see as God sees. It is only through God and His Holy Spirit that we can understand and accept this trial. Only then can we recognize that the absence of an answer does not mean God has abandoned us. And only then can we be guided and find the right way to act during these difficult times.

Let's emphasize the importance of his plea: "Lest I fall asleep the sleep of death!" Even though David is under attack by enemies and fears for his life, I believe he is referring here to a spiritual sleep. As a Christian, what is worse than death is spiritual death. Despite the difficulties David is facing, he knows that the worst thing that could happen to him would be to be without hope, without a relationship with God. If we are not enlightened by God, we are in darkness. Just as nature needs the sun, we need God's light. So when suffering persists and answers are slow in coming, let us pray to God not to let us sink into despair but to shine His light upon us so that we may keep hope in His promises.

David's attitude reminds me of children when they fall. Their knee is scraped, the wound is there, it's bleeding, it hurts—it must be serious—so they panic, and the tears and cries follow. Despite the pain, they run to their parents, who will come to their rescue. A big hug, a few reassuring words, and off they go running again. The knee injury is still there, but their parent's reassuring words give them a new perspective and show them that the injury isn't so bad after all. I admit that I especially love this feeling with God. When my heart is heavy, I pray; I entrust myself to Him. I hand over to Him whatever is weighing me down. And very often, after a sincere prayer, my burden is still there—but now it feels light. This lightness will only be temporary; my anxious nature will come back to haunt me. So it's up to me to persevere in prayer to experience it again.

By giving these examples, I in no way mean to downplay the suffering you may be experiencing. I don't know what you may have gone through or what hardships you're currently facing. Perhaps something very difficult—far more serious than a minor knee injury. Something that has been going on for far too long. It's normal for you to be in pain. **Romans 8:22**:

> "We know that until now the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains."

And to go from tears to cries of joy, like David did, is simply impossible. Impossible on our own. Impossible without God's help. And that is precisely why we pray.

But perhaps you don't know Christ. And perhaps you, too, are going through difficult times. Know that what He has done for us, He has also done for you. As we saw earlier, "He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance." Please, don't wait. Your problems won't miraculously disappear. But Jesus is waiting for you with open arms to comfort you. If you have doubts, ask Jesus to enlighten you, to open your eyes, so that you may be convinced and recognize that He is the way that leads to life.

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3. Joyful in hope (v. 6)

And in verse 6, what a radical change! It's as if David's prayer were magical. The answer comes instantly. His outlook is transformed.

> "I trust in your goodness; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing praises to the Lord, for he has done me good."

His gaze is no longer focused on himself, on his feet, and on his present sufferings. Instead, he looks up to heaven, toward God and the promises to come. His joy lies in the assurance of salvation that no one can take away from him. Paul says in **Romans 8:18**:

> "I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

In difficult times, let us remember that we have God's favor. Through Jesus Christ, His Son—who bore the righteous wrath we deserved, died on the cross, and rose again—our sins are forgiven. Our lives are no longer without hope. Our sufferings are only temporary. Creation will be restored, evil eradicated—no more suffering, no more pain. And in that kingdom where God reigns supreme, a place is reserved for us, and eternal life awaits us. This is not easy, for we do not yet see it. But we can look forward to the certainty of what we hope for and rejoice in it.

It reminds me of when I was little and my parents would tell me we were going to the amusement park. Of course, we had to wait for school break to go. I must have been in elementary or middle school, but at that age, waiting for the next school break feels like forever. So every night I'd already imagine myself there, the rides I'd get to go on, and in what order so I could go on as many as possible. And I'd feel a certain joy in my heart even though we weren't even there yet.

Today, I think they call that "the hype"—when something is cool and everyone wants it. Friends, in Jesus we have eternal life, and no one can take it away from us. Let's keep our hearts focused on the excitement of the promises to come.

David, who was lamenting just two verses earlier, is now singing in praise of the Lord. Despite his current difficulties, David remembers that things haven't always been this way; he looks back and recalls how God has cared for him.

Let's look back at where we were: alone, facing ourselves; slaves to sin; unable to save ourselves. In His mercy, God came to seek us out, lift us up, and save us. Do you remember the moment you said "Yes" to Christ? That indescribable joy that burned within you and the sense of freedom you experienced.

In times of trial, let's remember that there haven't been only bad days. We said at the beginning that the Christian life isn't necessarily easier. But in some ways, it is. Looking back, we see that Jesus has changed our hearts and is making us better people. Life's worries no longer carry the same weight. We are no longer devastated by difficulties. And all the times we've received kind encouragement from a brother or sister. When we've experienced the intense joy of helping others. And even in the simplest of things. Let's remember that God renews His kindness toward us every day. It is He who gives us breath. It is He who allows us to enjoy a sunny day.

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Conclusion

This Psalm reminds me of what we sometimes experience on Sundays when we come to church—perhaps even today. We come with heavy hearts, weighed down by the burdens of the week, weary, acknowledging that we can do nothing in our own strength and that our only hope is Jesus. So we pray, we praise, and we remember the truths of the present and those to come. As the service ends, we feel lighter—filled with the peace and joy that God gives to those who come to Him. Let's not wait until Sunday to experience this.

Let's be patient in our affliction. No matter what we're going through, no matter what our struggles are. No matter the time of day or the day of the week. Let's come and weep before God. Let's not be ashamed to cry out to Him about our sorrows and doubts. God is never too busy to listen to us.

As we wait for His answer, let us persevere in prayer. Let us ask God to shed His light on our eyes, to help us see as He sees, so that we may stand firm in the face of trials. So that we may recognize that, even in the absence of an answer, God has not forsaken us.

With the help of His Holy Spirit, let us remember the joys of the past and the promises to come. Let us remember how He has led us to Himself, the blessings He showers upon us every day, and the assurance that one day we will be with God, freed from all suffering for eternity.