“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the symbol.”
– Psalm 19:7
Psalm 19:7 is such a great verse. It’s the hinge verse in Psalm 19. What I mean by that is that for the first six verses we see a picture of God’s glory in creation about how the heavens declare his glory. The sky proclaims his handiwork and how the world is speaking, shouting really all the time from the rising of the sun to its going down.
Everywhere in the world we see creation shouting the glory of God and the goodness of God and the wonder of God. But then you get Psalm 19:7, and as you’re always thinking there’s no way you could get any higher than this when it comes to God’s revelation of himself, it goes even higher and basically the psalmist takes God’s revelation in the world and says what’s even greater is God’s revelation of himself in his word, and you see the law of the Lord is perfect reviving the soul.
Greater than God’s revelation of Himself in the world is God’s revelation of Himself in His Word.
That just begins a whole litany of descriptions of God’s word as his testimony and the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord and fear of the Lord and the rules of the Lord, and you see these adjectives. It’s perfect. It’s sure, right, pure, clean, true, better than gold and all kinds of gold, sweeter than honey, and in hearing Your word we’re warned and we find great reward. And so Psalm 19:7 just shifts this whole psalm to say greater than God’s revelation of himself in the world is God’s revelation of himself in his word.
This Verse Thanks God For His Word
And so we’re driven to pray, “God, thank you for your word. We praise you for your word where we see creation shouting your glory to the point where we wonder can it get any better than that, and we praise you that it gets much better than even that, that we have when we open up our bibles in our hands 66 books that are all your word.
God, thank you for this gift that you have given us, and it is perfect. It’s sure. It’s right, pure, clean, true. Better than gold. It’s sweeter than honey to our souls’ taste buds. Oh, God, we love your word. We love its effect in our lives, its fruit in our lives. The way it revives us. The way it makes us wise. It rejoices our hearts. It enlightens our eyes. The way it endures forever. It’s righteous altogether.
Psalm 19:7 Asks For His Power Of His Word In Our Lives
Oh, God, thank you, thank you, thank you for your word. Help us to, even as we saw in the very beginning of Psalms, help us to meditate on it day and night. Even in the closing words of Psalm 19 here, may our words and the reflection of our hearts be acceptable before you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Oh, God, show the power of your word in our lives so that your glory might’ve made known, not just in the world and not just in the word, but in our lives based on this word in this world. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
