FBC Daily Devotional – February 17, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good Thursday morning to you. I hope your week is going well and that the Lord is blessing you already in this day.

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Did you get to read Psalm 19 this morning? If you're following the Bible reading plan, I hope you were able to do that already.

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If not, that's where I want to focus our attention this morning for a few minutes. This psalm is really one of my favorites.

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It's a psalm that praises God for his self -revelation. It tells us that God has chosen to reveal himself in two different but important ways.

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The first part of the psalm, the first several verses, verses 1 through 6, speak of God's revealing himself in his creation.

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It talks about the fact that creation speaks not in a language that is a human language, but it's a language that every human understands.

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So no matter where you go in the world, people can hear the message of creation if they will but pay attention and if they will but listen.

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In fact, I just recently bought a book. I like hiking and backpacking and so forth.

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I just bought a book along that theme. I didn't know much about the author. I've read one other thing by him before but it intrigued me and it's the title of the book has to do with creation speaking or the wilderness speaks or something like that.

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So I thought it'd be an interesting book. I come to find out the guy's, you know, he's not a believer and what creation says to him is not what creation says to me.

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You know, it's like I can go outside anytime, anywhere, even if I'm walking around the neighborhood, but especially when

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I go walking along the river by a lake or whatever and you know where there's an abundance of trees and birds and all the rest of that.

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I like hiking where there are mountains and so forth. And in anywhere

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I go out in creation, if I take the time to pay attention, creation speaks.

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It speaks. And that's the theme of the first several verses of Psalm 19, that creation tells us things about the

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Creator if we will but listen, if we will but see those things. But that kind of revelation only goes so far.

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So God has revealed himself to us in creation. In fact, Paul talks about the fact in Romans chapter 1 that man is without excuse because creation testifies to the

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Creator. Man turns around and worships and serves the creature, the created thing, rather than the

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Creator. But that creation and what it reveals to us about God is somewhat limited.

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It only tells us so much. We can conclude that God's a God of order. He's a God of beauty.

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He's a God of complexity. He's a God of immense power and so forth. But here's the thing, just by looking at creation, you're not going to really understand much about yourself and what

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God has to say about you and your relationship to him and why your relationship with him is non -existent before you come to Christ.

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Creation is not going to tell you about Jesus. Creation is not going to tell you how you can be right with God and how you can be justified in his sight.

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For that, we need special revelation. We need God's disclosure of himself in the written word.

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And the last part of the psalm, verses 7 through 13, talk about that fact, that you can open up the

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Bible anywhere in the in anywhere, Old Testament, New Testament, whatever, and you will find something for your soul.

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So this section, especially verses 7 through 11, just highlights several different things, several different ways that the word nourishes you.

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You can get food for the soul. You can get insight for living. You can find something that rejoices your heart.

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You can gain understanding for the mind. You can get some warning for the path ahead that you're walking.

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God's self -revelation offers all of that. You see, so it's a wonderful psalm regarding God's revelation.

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But the question that we have to ask ourselves about that revelation is simply this.

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Do I value it? And let's ask that question about God's general revelation as well as his special revelation.

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We think about the general revelation of creation. Do we really value it?

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We have to be careful. I understand that. As believers in Christ, we want to be careful that we don't go off the deep end and worship the creation.

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But at the same time, it is a reflection of the handiwork of God.

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It is a reflection of our God. So do we value that creation? We must not have an attitude of it's okay to abuse it.

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It's okay to misuse it. It is virtuous to be stewards of it and so forth.

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So we need to value that general revelation, the creation. But more importantly, the second half of the psalm challenges us that God's special revelation, his word, is more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.

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So just how greatly do I value God's word,

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God's revelation of himself to me? Do I consider it to be more essential, more valuable, even than my paycheck, much as we need those things?

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That's the attitude we need to have. And then as the psalm closes, as the psalm closes, it ends with this with this prayer that on the basis of who you are,

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O God, and in what you have revealed about yourself and what you reveal to me about myself, he prays, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight,

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O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Well, I hope you value God's revelation and I hope it leads you to that kind of a conclusion, praying that God would find your words from your mouth, your meditations in your heart, that they'd be pleasing and acceptable in his sight.

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Let's pray to that end. So our Father and our God, as we meditate on your revelation,

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I pray that we would not only value it deeply, but we would look into it frequently. And do so, so that it might mold and shape the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart.

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May these things be acceptable, pleasing in your sight, for you are our strength and our

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Redeemer. Bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name.

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Amen. All right. Well, I hope you have a good rest of your Thursday and that God will bless you richly in it.