As I read Psalm 19, I know David has experienced a sunrise. Its glory speaks to him of God’s glory; his goodness, wisdom, beauty, and majesty bring David’s heart to marvel in wonder and adoration.
David’s reflection on the goodness of the morning sun shifts from meditation on the sun, to contemplation of the Creator God who warms all with his goodness, and the beautiful way he orders human life through his law. David sees how God’s law is different from the pagan cultures around him:
The law of the Lord is perfect refreshing the soul
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy making wise the simple…
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold
They are sweeter than honey from the honey comb
By them your servant is warned, in keeping them there is great reward.
The splendor of the law reaches and warms us like the sun. The sun becomes the perfect metaphor. David feels warmth as the sun drives away the pre-dawn chill and experiences its goodness. Goodness for all.
God uses the pleasure of the sun’s warmth to open David’s heart to worship during which he writes lyrics to his song. This expression, his creative response, engages his thoughts further, and further still: morning by morning God gives the gift of warmth and light, his sun to shine, his law to illumine the way, and David realizes we are intimately known.
Who can discern their own errors?
Forgive my hidden faults
Keep your servant also from willful sins
May they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
Contemplating the sunrise, loving its beauty, enjoying the physical pleasure of its warmth, and being moved by it to create a poem to express heartfelt devotion leads to an experiential knowing that our Creator is very good.
His creation is such a gift we can barely take it in.
His ways are more precious than our most treasured possessions. He is safe. He draws us near. He is for us, not against us. We can run to him for help.
Our Creator loves us and we respond with heartfelt devotion: worship and praise.
Joy.
The goodness of dawn is experienced and God becomes known. David’s heartfelt worship experience is what I was experiencing when I watched the sunrise and let it warm me.
Creation was leading me into a true worship experience.
Does looking out the window at a beautiful sunrise during my devotions please the Lord? I think so. I think David thought so, too. At least, he concluded his poem praying it would: “May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight. Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).