Psa 19 | EE | STEP | This is a song of David for the music leader. The heavens are telling us about the glory of God. The sky is showing the things that his hands have made.

Psalms 19

God’s Two Books

This is a song of David for the music leader.

1 The heavens are telling us about the glory of God.

The sky is showing the things that his hands have made.

2 One day pours out the story to another day.

One night tells the next night what it knows.

3 But they do not use words and have no languages.

Nobody hears their voice.

4 Yet what they say goes into all the earth.

Their words go to the ends of the world.

God has made a home for the sun in the sky.

5 The sun comes out from his home like a bridegroom.

He is very happy to run fast, like a very strong man.

6 His sunrise is at one end of the heavens.

He travels in a big circle to the other end.

Nothing can hide from the heat of the sun. ^{▼▼19:6 Psalm 19 is about words. In verses 1-6, nobody speaks the words. We see the moon and the stars and the sun. We see the earth and the animals and the plants. They all make us feel inside ourselves, ‘Somebody made all this.’ The psalm tells us in verses 1 and 4 who that is. His name is God. We have a special name for all these things that God made. We call them all ‘nature.’ Nature is like a very big book. It tells us, ‘God made everything.’}

7 The book of the LORD is wonderful.

It makes people feel alive again.

We can trust what the LORD tells us.

He points out the way when we are not sure of it.

8 What the LORD tells us to do is always right.

It makes us feel happy deep down inside us.

What the LORD commands us is pure.

It makes our eyes shine with new light.

9 The fear of the LORD is a clean fear.

It will always remain with us.

Every word that the LORD says is true.

Every one of them is righteous.

10 They are of more value than gold,

even a lot of pure gold.

They are sweeter than honey,

even the best honey that bees make.

11 Also, they are a guide to your servant.

Good things come if he obeys them. ^{▼▼19:11 Look at verses 7-11. Can you find the name ‘God’ in it? No, because here God has a different name. Here he is the LORD. This is the name that people use when they decide to follow God. He becomes their LORD. This part of the psalm is not about the book of nature. This is about the book that we call the Bible. Psalm 19 is a very small part of the Bible. You are reading Psalm 19 in a small book. It has only 112 pages. Bigger books have a lot of pages. David did not have books like ours. He had scrolls. These were long piece of paper. Scrolls were several metres long. God did not write the nature scroll down. It is just a picture to give us help.
So, here are 2 important books about God. In the book of nature we learn how great God is. We learn that he is wonderful. We may feel afraid of him. Christians call this ‘awe.’ It makes us want to tell God that he is wonderful. We call this ‘worship.’ The other book is the Bible. It tells us how to follow God, and make him our LORD.}

12 Who can know when he has made mistakes?

Forgive me all my secret sins.

13 Also, stop your servant from wanting to sin.

Do not let sin rule over me.

Then nobody will say that I did wrong.

I will be clean because you help me.

I will not do anything very bad.

14 LORD, I want everything that I say to make you happy.

I want all my thoughts to please you.

You are my Rock and you are my Redeemer. ^{▼▼19:14 Verses 12-14 tells us how to start following God.}