Kayla Smith

Have I ever mentioned how much I love the book of psalms?

No?

Well. I love it. A lot.

The poetic truth found throughout this book continues to blow me away, and psalm 19 is no different.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. (v7-9)
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. (v13-14)

“Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins”

Presumptuous here means proud or arrogant.

So, here, David is asking God to keep him away from prideful sin.

Man. Ffffiiiinnnneeeee.

When I look at this psalm as a whole, the thing that keeps hitting me in the forehead is: the law of the Lord is the only thing that is true and right and holy and anything outside of that – anything you, Kayla, manufacture for yourself – is pride. It is sin. You are presuming you know better than God. That you can run the world. And contrary to popular belief, girls do not run the world. (Thanks Bey.)

I love that, in verse 10, David says that everything listed above is sweeter than honey. And we’re not talking about Jessica Alba.

The law and testimony and precepts and commandments of the Lord are to be desired. I don’t get to make my own rules up. The laws of the Lord are not meant to hold a good man down. They are not meant to suck the fun out of life.

No.
They are to be desired because they lead to life.
They lead to deep, intimate communion with God.
They teach us how to be more like Jesus.

Following the laws of the Lord perfectly don’t save us. Jesus has already done that. We cannot perfectly do all that He has laid out in His law. But they do teach us about God’s character and show us how great His love is – that, even though we cannot keep His law perfectly (and sinless perfection is the requirement to come before Him) He sent His Son, Jesus, to live His law perfectly, die a brutal death on our behalf, and raise again, defeating death and sin and hell forever. The law shows us our great need. The law shows us how great our Savior is. And that…well…that is definitely sweeter than honey.

to read all of psalm 19, click here