Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 19:1
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
1. “The glory of the Lord” denotes (1) that visible manifestation of His Presence by which He was wont to reveal Himself to Israel, the Shechinah as it was called in later times (Exo 16:7; Exo 16:10; Exo 33:22; Rom 9:4): and (2) in a wider sense, as here, the glory of God is the unique majesty of His Being as it is revealed to man, that manifestation of His Deity which the creature should recognise with reverent adoration. All creation is a revelation of God, but the heavens in their vastness, splendour, order, and mystery are the most impressive reflection of His greatness and majesty. The simplest observer can read the message; but how much more emphatic and significant has it become through the discoveries of modern astronomy!
the firmament) Lit. the expanse: the vault of heaven, spread out over the earth (Gen 1:6 ff.; Job 37:18), proclaims what He has done and can do.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 6. The universal revelation of God in Nature.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The heavens declare the glory of God – They announce, proclaim, make known his glory. The word heavens here refers to the material heavens as they appear to the eye – the region of the sun, moon, and stars. The Hebrew word is used in the Scriptures uniformly in the plural number, though in our common translation the singular number is often used. Gen 1:1, Gen 1:8-9, Gen 1:14, Gen 1:17, Gen 1:20; Gen 6:17; Gen 7:11, Gen 7:19, Gen 7:23; et soepe. The plural, however, is often retained, but without any special reason why it should be retained in one place rather than in another. Gen 2:1, Gen 2:4; Deu 10:14; Ezr 9:6; Psa 2:4; Psa 8:1, Psa 8:3; Psa 18:13. The original idea may have been that there was one heaven above another – one in which the sun was placed, another in which the moon was placed, then the planets, the fixed stars, etc. Above all was supposed to be the place where God dwells. The word glory here means that which constitutes the glory or honor of God – his wisdom, power, skill, faithfulness, benevolence, as seen in the starry worlds above us, the silent, but solemn movements by day and by night. The idea is, that these convey to the mind a true impression of the greatness and majesty of God. The reference here is to these heavens as they appear to the naked eye, and as they are observed by all men. It may be added that the impression is far more solemn and grand when we take into the estimate the disclosures of the modern astronomy, and when we look at the heavens, not merely by the naked eye, but through the revelations of the telescope.
And the firmament – See the note at Dan 12:3. The word rendered firmament – raqya, means properly an expanse – that which is spread out – and is applied to the heavens as they appear to be spread out or expanded above us. The word occurs elsewhere in the following places, and is always rendered firmament in our common version, Gen 1:6, Gen 1:7 (twice), Gen 1:8, Gen 1:14, Gen 1:15, Gen 1:17, Gen 1:20; Psa 150:1; Eze 1:22-23, Eze 1:25-26; Eze 10:1; Dan 12:3. The word firmament – that which is firm or fixed – is taken from the word used by the translators of the Septuagint, stereoma, from the idea that the heavens above us are a solid concave. In the Scriptures the stars are represented as placed in that expanse, so that if it should be rolled together as a tent is rolled up, they would fall down to the earth. See the note at Isa 34:4. The reference in the passage before us is to the heavens as they appear to be spread out over our heads, and in which the stars are fixed.
Showeth his handywork – The heavens make known the work of his hands. The idea is that God had made those heavens by his own hands, and that the firmament, thus adorned with sun, and moon, and stars, showed the wisdom and skill with which it was done. Compare Psa 8:3.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The glory of God
Nature exists not for a merely natural, but for a moral end; not for what it is, but for what it says or declares.
I. What nature tells us to think of God.
1. Nature reveals God. The race as a whole have heard the declaration of His eternal power and Godhead. In proportion as they have heard, adoring, they have risen in the scale of manhood.
2. Nature declares the knowledge and power of God. The marks of mathematical and geometric law in nature are conspicuous. The more we explore the different departments of nature, the more we find it pervaded by strict arithmetical and dynamic laws. We meet thought everywhere. The race of man, as a whole, has heard, and to some extent understood, the testimony of nature to infinite thought and power.
3. Nature declares that God is just and good. This has been called in question. Nature says that every natural law, if obeyed, tends to happiness. Natures laws are benevolent, Men have not fully appreciated this, for one reason, because they have so commonly broken those laws and have suffered. But does nature in any wise speak of the Divine mercy? This question has often been wrongly answered. Listen attentively, and you will hear nature say that God is merciful. It is a striking fact that very many, if not all, physical penalties can be mitigated, if not relieved, by some counter law, some curious side-process or arrangement. God has so made nature as practically to encourage self-sacrifice for each other. Whenever men take pains for each other, to help each other over their faults and their consequences, there is an illustration, however faint, of the Divine principle of mercy. Mercy is the policy of the Divine government; it is the character of God Himself.
II. What God thinks of nature.
1. God looks upon nature as a basis of language. Let the heavenly orbs be for signs. Signs are vehicles of ideas. Let them say something; let them be words. The universe is Gods telephone, Gods grand signal service system by which He can flash messages from the heights above to the deepest valleys below. The material system is Gods great instrument of conversation.
2. God tells us what to think of this eloquent material system. It is Gods most glorious schoolroom by which to teach us reality,–above all, to teach us self-government, and painstaking for one another. Why are we in such a world? Because we needed to be. We need what we get here. We need that knowledge of ourselves which nature can give. We need to be where we are. We need just the restraints and the liberties, the trials and the triumphs, the joys and the sorrows, the smiles and the tears, the bliss and the anguish of this strange life. And in all, and through all, we need to know Him who placed us here, and is revealing Himself to us in a thousand ways. (Charles Beecher.)
The Biblical conception of nature
The whole of revelation reposes on this broad platform: how God and nature stand to one another. Now, there are two opposite extremes into which our conceptions on this point may fall. We may immerse God in nature; or we may isolate nature from God.
1. We immerse God in nature if we treat nature as itself possessed of properties which are strictly personal; as when, for example, we accustom ourselves to think of it as originating its own processes, as intending its own results, or as conscious of its own plan. Men talk of nature as though it were aiming at certain ends, striving to accomplish them, adapting itself to new conditions, overcoming fresh obstacles, and so forth. The corrective lies in the scriptural idea of creation as an act of will of One who is outside of material being. Scripture is strictly philosophical when it traces all phenomena, all change, ultimately to a will. But will is an attribute of personality; and the Person whose will determines that nature should be what it is must be a Person not Himself included in the nature which He wills shall be. He is God. Again–
2. We may unduly isolate nature as Gods workmanship from God the worker. We do this, e.g., when we conceive of the universe as teaching us nothing of God, being only a whirl of material change without spiritual meaning; or when we represent it as a machine which, being somehow endued with a given stock of force, must go on so long as the force lasts, like a watch that has been once wound up. To separate the work from the worker after this sheer and mechanical fashion may do some harm to science, and it leaves hardly any foothold for religion. Again, the spiritual conception of creation will furnish the corrective. According to it, God is personally separate from and above nature, yet for all that He has put into His handiwork His own thoughts. We may fairly say that both sides of the idea lie in embryo in the solitary phrase, By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made. For the word of any person serves two functions: it is the organ of command, conveying an act of will; it is also the organ of expression, revealing the speakers nature. Stupendous conception of primary force! The force of personal will, resident in the Supernatural Being, in the one sole unmade, unborn Person, who is that He is; is, and was, and is to come, the Almighty. The sole cause; sole origin of being; sole efficient factor in the beginning; is this act of volition or self-determination of an Infinite Personal Will. He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. It accords with experience; it satisfies philosophy; not less does it meet the religious necessities of the spirit; for if I am to worship at all, where shall I find a nobler object of worship than the Person who will give being to all beings but Himself? On the other hand, the word of a speaker while it utters his will must no less reflect, consciously or unconsciously, his inner self. It seems to me that in this Biblical conception of nature as the revelation of its Maker we find the common root whence have grown two very dissimilar growths of the ancient and of the modern world. The great fact of the whole ancient world was this, that its multiform religions started from a nature basis. The sun and stars, the reproductive forces of animal and vegetable life, the decay and revival of the year, the wondrous cycle, in short, of cosmic change through which nature accomplishes herself, was the common fact which very early riveted the attention of primitive man, till out of it there grew up in many lands, under many shapes, a system of religious observance everywhere the same in principle. Being whose thoughts these objects revealed, men began to adore the symbol, and to forget the Invisible Person behind it. Easy and rapid was the downward plane to idolatry and polytheism and gross fetish worship. Yet what is worth noting is, that such nature religions would have been impossible had not nature really spoken to unsophisticated men a Divine message, had it not been charged to their souls from the first with Divine ideas. We are far enough removed now from that early stage of human experience. The world is grown aged, and the work of its age is not to worship nature, but to master it. Yet this modern science which leads to the utilisation of physical forces for human needs is not less an outgrowth from the same root. For all our power over nature reposes immediately on our correct reading of natural laws. Observation of naked facts will never put into mans hand the sceptre of the physical world, Naked facts must lead on to the discovery of law; and law is the Divine idea governing the facts; and when man has discovered and mastered that Divine idea, then he becomes in his degree a divinity on earth, a lord over matter, a maker and disposer in his turn. What does this mean but that we come to read behind phenomena the thought and will of One whom, because He is a personal Spirit as we are, we can comprehend? We reach the secret principles on which He makes, not made merely but is ever making, the world; and when we thus know His mind, or on what lines His will moves, we enter upon a share of His dominion; we fall in with His working plan; we, too, govern by imitating Him. I have cited both ancient nature worship and modern nature study as alike dependent for their possibility upon the same truth of Scripture; this, namely, that nature, being made by Gods Word, speaks to us His thoughts. But if I desired conclusive evidence how insufficient is this revelation of itself to guide men to friendly communion with God, where could I find any more conclusive than is furnished by the history both of ancient nature religions and of modern science! Of the one the tendency was more and more to immerse God in nature, till He was wholly lost in His own handiwork. Of the latter–modern science–the tendency very decidedly is to isolate nature from God, as a wholly separate existence whose relationship to its Author (if any) is at least unknown. This moral revelation, which began with Abraham and culminated in Jesus Christ, admits of being both compared and contrasted with the older nature revelation.
1. The later revelation starts from and builds upon the earlier one. It is not so often recollected as it should be, but once seen it cannot be doubted that underneath every other relationship which the God of the Bible claims to sustain to us as Lawgiver, Father, Redeemer, Promiser, Saviour there lies this broad, original relationship of all–that He is our Creator. That tie to Him, which we share with even the dumb cattle and the dead earth, bears up and justifies all the rest. Man is a portion of the created universe, and its Maker must be his Lord and King.
2. It must be clear that such a revelation as we actually possess in the Bible is only possible if God be (as the Bible teaches) at once above nature, and yet present, self-revealed in nature. First of all, we are ourselves part of the world, and if we are to receive communications that transcend what the world itself can tell us, then He who gives them must stand outside of and above the world. The supernatural is impossible if God be inseparable from nature or be its slave. On the other hand, the actual revelation recorded in the Bible employed nature as its organ. In the revelation of new truth God is constantly found availing Himself of the old creation. Dreams, and visions, and voices to the ear, the thundercloud on Sinai, the cleft sea, dearth and the plague, the vicissitudes of war, conquest, and revolt were all turned into vehicles for teaching saving lessons to mankind. The whole of Bible teaching, too, attaches itself to the parables of nature. Above all, His final revelation of Himself is in the life of a Man, a true natural life resting on the physical basis of a true body, born of a woman; so that the highest of all revelations is in appearance the most human, the least supernatural.
3. The voice of the new revelation agrees with the voice of the old. To develop the congruousness of the Divine image in nature with the Divine image in Scripture would take too long; I only suggest it to you. The absolute unity of plan which strict research is daily proving more and more–a unity now known to reach as far as the planets in their spheres–attests that the Creator is one. And Scripture proceeds on the unity of God. (b) Throughout all nature we find a will at work whose method is to bind itself by orderly method and fixed law. This reveals a mind in God intolerant of what is arbitrary, eccentric, or illegal. All is variety, yet all is system. Now, the revelation of the Divine will in Scripture is likewise the revelation of a law, and its chief end is the reduction of moral anarchy to moral order. (c) Again, we are daily learning how patiently, and through what long, slow, even laborious processes God has been pleased to build up His physical universe, as though a thousand years were to Him of no more account than a single day, so long as the results are wrought by growth and evolution, rather than by sudden shocks or interventions. This is Gods way in nature, and it has been His way in grace. (d) Once more, the God of nature avenges the transgression of every physical law by a sentient creature. Scripture discovers precisely the same features in the moral and spiritual rule of God. So far the two revelations walk abreast. Thanks be to God, the Gospel continues its parable where the voice of nature falters and grows mute. Of law, of transgression, of penalty and reward, of life and death, nature has no less to say than the Bible has. But of another law higher than that of penalty, of grace which transcends judgment, of the spiritual law of self-sacrifice, of redemption of life by life, and giving up of the just for the unjust, and forgiveness of sin and regeneration of the lapsed,–the physical universe is wholly, or all but wholly, silent. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)
Gods works and Word
Providence is the best schoolmaster. This Psalm leads us, and is designed to lead us, to a contemplation of nature. Not the faintest apprehension appears, lest contradictions may be discovered between the world book and the word book. The sympathy with nature is complete, and not the less so because the poet has been enabled to penetrate the closest of her secrets. The wisest of men are those who with pious eagerness trace the goings-forth of Jehovah as well in creation as in grace. Just that is the wisdom here. The study is a reverent study. God is seen everywhere. The lines are saturated with theology. There are, however, other voices of praise. While, doubtless, the heavens are the work of Gods fingers and declare His glory, His Word is yet more to be desired. Fascinated as David has been with the contemplation of the Creators works, he does not make the blunder of despising the written revelation. Some of the grounds for a conclusion which so exalts the Word above the works.
1. A comparison of the contents of the two revelations. From nature we may learn the existence of an infinite personal God. But is this mighty Author of the universe a friend? There throbs the tremendous interrogation concerning which the heavens make to the eager shepherd boy no answer. With regard to the problems which most deeply affect our welfare, nature only baffles us. The Gospel far surpasses all that nature can be made to teach.
2. Not only in its contents, but in the proclamation of them, is the Word magnified. Consider the instrumentalities selected for the utterance of the Gospel. Angels, the Son of God.
3. Consider by what enforcement of his Word God is magnified. In nature there is no provision for effectively reaching the conscience and moving the will. To apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ, the Spirit has come.
4. Observe the stupendous effects produced, by Gods Word. Enlightening the eyes. rejoicing the heart, making wise the simple, converting the soul, here are effects chiefly wrought by Gods Word. (Hanford A. Edson, D. D.)
The testimony of the works and the Word
Nature is the volume in which the Godhead of the Creator is plainly discoverable. Scripture is the volume in which all may read the Divine will concerning men.
I. Natures testimony to the existence of God. Nature is here pictured as comprising the heavens and the firmament, together with alternating days and nights–these sublime works witnessing for God. David attempts to teach no lesson in astronomy. He imagines an observant and thoughtful man opening his eyes upward, and affirms that what this man beholds proves the presence and power of God. These heavens are forever telling or revealing the presence, power, majesty, supremacy of the Infinite. What he means to say is, that the realm of nature, beautiful in outline, vast in proportions, grand in order and methods of movement, illustrates glorious qualities of being and of character, and that in this creation the good of man and of all sentient beings has been so manifestly sought and secured that God therein is plainly revealed as ever present in power and in proclamation of Himself. Here, then, is not astronomy, but revelation. A scene in which he affirms that the humblest observer may be convinced of Gods existence and glory. These things could not have originated in what has been called a casual hit of atoms, they must have had a Creator, and the Creator can be no other than an infinite and eternal God.
II. The revelation of God in Scripture. Looking first at the stellar world, and viewing the splendour of a solar day, David confesses his vision of God is incomplete, and so he affirms the Infinite to come nearer to man than in the stars, and making Himself better known in the law, the testimony, the statutes, the Commandments, and in the providences which play around him. The term law may refer to the preceptive portions of Scripture; testimonies may mean doctrines; statutes, ordinances and forms of worship; commandments are directions to duty; fear indicates anxiety to please God; and judgments are Gods record or declaration of the results of unforgiven sin. But all these terms may be gathered up as referring to the body of Scripture, revelations which have been made either by voice, or vision, or inspiration in any form. The writers purpose was to indicate the excellent properties and purposes of Scripture, including precept, promise, and perfect rules of life. Calling this revelation the statutes of God, the idea evidently is of something binding on universal man. Calling it the fear of the Lord seems to refer to that filial affection which reigns in a human heart, making man ashamed of sin, and becoming for him a cleansing power. Judgments of the Lord is a comprehensive phrase, summing up the substance and object of Scripture.
III. The law, testimony, statutes, commandments, fear, and judgments of the Lord tested. Put them to the test of personal experience. This shall prove whether or no the claim of the Psalmist has warrant in the lives of men. There never was a man who received the law of God into his heart and obeyed it who did not become a new man, enriched thereby beyond all measurement or estimate. (Justin E. Twitchell.)
Gods glory in the skies
The immediate outlook upon nature is independent of scientific elaboration. It is unalterable by intellectual mutations and advances; it rests on those permanent relations which hold between the soul of man within and the world without. But the whole stress of the Psalm is laid on that aspect of the natural world which it is the work of science to emphasise and to extricate. What the Psalmist sees is the manifestation of law, of regularity, of reason. There is about it all, as the mighty drama discloses itself, the calmness, the majesty, of rational knowledge. The awful silence in which the tremendous scene proceeds is more eloquent than words. Dumb in the vault, yet filled with voices that toll in our ears, voices that cry without a language, and assure us of that eternal consciousness which possesses the entire round of the heavens, whose rule and line goeth out throughout all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. Universal law acting in silence, with absolute security of rhythm. The mystic eloquence of law. That is the vision which overawes the Psalmist; and is not that the very essence of our scientific presentation of nature? Law acting in silence, that is nature as science discloses it. Silent as it may be, this perfect law, this undeviating order, this calm precision, this infinite regularity of succession, this steady certainty of movement, this unbroken universality, these disciplined forces, this rhythmic harmony, this balance, this precaution, this response of day to night, and night to night, that is intelligence, that is reason, that is consciousness, that is speech! No one can face it in its wholeness, part answering to part, and each to all, without becoming aware of its mystic eloquence. It all speaks, speaks as it works, speaks without a language, speaks without a sound. The Psalmist has but to lift his eyes, and then above it, allied to it, a corresponding world opens out,–a world, too, of law, of certainty, of regularity, of order, no less than the world of nature. Here, too, all is sane, rational, secure, quiet, and sure, as the silent stars in the night. This higher order of life moves along the course set before it, and its laws never flag or fail; no chance confuses it, and no unruly accident disturbs it. This world is the world of consciousness, the world of the moral law, the world of the religious spirit, the world of the fear of the Lord. Laws, statutes, testimonies, commandments,–no physical world could be based on grounds more fixed and uniform and sure. Everywhere precision, everywhere unalterable rigour–that is what delights him. Error, wrong, sin–these may be on his own side, but this does not shake the absolute authority of this reign of law without him. Only, it makes him tremble, lest even unwittingly he may have introduced any quiver of disturbance into this fabric of exquisite and harmonious order. Who can tell how oft he offendeth? Oh, cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Can we recover at all for ourselves this mental temper of the Psalmist? This world of which he is speaking is what we name spiritual, religious, supernatural, and as soon as we have touched such names as these we recall something wholly unlike nature, wholly opposed to scientific law and the necessities of reason. Yet veracity, regularity, universality, these are the very notes of the Divine action in both spheres, and in both, therefore, there is the same ground for reason to work upon. Nature will enable us to understand the supernatural. Our faith in Christ Jesus lays large and unfaltering trust in the veracity of human faculties, in the solidity of knowledge, in the reality of an instructed and intelligent experience. Base your belief in Jesus on the convictions that form the ground of your confidence in the stability and reality of life. (Canon Scott Holland.)
The moral law and the starry heavens
Two things, said Kant, fill the soul with awe and wonder: the starry heaven above, and the moral law within. How many of us have felt this amazement without expressing it! Approach man from a material point of view, and he is utterly insignificant; but view him from a spiritual point of view, and how wonderful is he! That strange faculty within him which witnesses to a law above himself, which speaks to him of the right even when he is yielding to the wrong, which enables him to hold communion with infinite perfection, which gives meaning to such words as trust, duty, obedience, religion, that faculty which perpetuates in him the image of his Maker; whence did it come? Yes, said Pascal, man is a worm, but then he is a worm that thinks. This is exactly the mystery which filled a mind so powerful as that of Kant. To see no mystery in man and his spiritual nature is a sure mark of a shallow and second-rate mind. What is the thought which the contemplation of the heavenly bodies presents to us most prominently? Is it not order or law? But how about the spiritual world? Are there laws for mind as well as for body? Is there not an order in moral things which cannot be violated with impunity? The Kingdom of Heaven is a reign of law too. One order alike for the material and the moral. The law of the material world we reach through observation and generalisation; the law of the soul through Gods revelations of Himself to mans spiritual nature, but both are alike of God, and not two laws but one. How pure, elevating, and ennobling was the writers conception of true religion. (J. A. Jacob, M. A.)
Gods works and Word
Every varying mood of nature is an index finger to the power and glory of the Creator. His works lie open beside His Word,–the one a volume of illustrations, the other a book of inspired principles. In the 19th Psalm these double volumes of revelation are bound together. There is both a world book and a word book in the Psalmists thought. Both are bearing eternal witness to the Creator.
I. The witness of the heavens. In the clear dry air of the East the heavens shine with a strange brilliancy. To the reverent soul of David, the stars in their courses and the moon in her phases were nightly lessons of wonder and of God. To the Psalmists eye the whole firmament was written over, and the whole universe was resonant to his ear with the name of God. And to the eyes of this devout shepherd, this witness of creation to its Creator was continuous. And yet this witness of the heavens is silent. It is their silence which puts such terrible emphasis upon the testimony of the heavens; for silence is the great law of the universe. This witness is also universal in its reach and influence. The stars preach a gospel of Divine law and power, before which worshippers of all races and generations have kneeled in reverence and awe. But man, made in the likeness of God, is not measured by physical, but by moral standards. The moral law written upon conscience and soul has brought man into fellowship with the Infinite, and there follows that sharp transition in thought which cuts this Psalm like the keen stroke of a knife when David remembers the glory of Gods law. Grander than that of the heavens is–
II. The witness of the moral law. In this sudden rebound from the glory of the sun to the greater glory of the truth the Psalmist seems to chide himself for having forgotten the greater in the less. For what the sun is in the natural world, bringing light and inspiring growth, the law of God is in the spiritual, revealing moral darkness and quickening the life of souls. Climbing up adjectives of admiring descriptions, David unfolds the nature of the Word of Jehovah. It is perfect, with a completeness which fits all needs and encompasses all souls. It is sure,–an eternal verity to which men may anchor and never drift. It is right, with an absolute rectitude and justice. This Divine law not only reveals the glory of Jehovah, but also–
III. It reveals the heart of man. Without the revelation of the mirror man is a stranger to his own face; without the revelation of Gods law we were strangers to the guilt of sin. For the law lays a man bare to himself. Gather up the lesson of the Psalm–
1. That there is no conflict between Gods works and Gods Word. There may be conflict between the flippant guesses of men and the Thus saith the Lord in the Book. But the world book and the word book are one and the same truth.
2. The Psalm reveals the vastness and variety of the witnesses which God has put about us. The heathen of all lands have deified the forces of nature and the planets of the sky, and worshipped. Such witness is ours, but supplemented by the written Word, the enlightened conscience, the civilised state, and the Christian Church. (Monday Club Sermons.)
The revelation in nature
Modern poets are never tired of dwelling on the beauties of nature. The Hebrew poet perceived these just as keenly, but he never set them forth for their own sake. He considered them only as they bear on our moral and spiritual relations with God, or as they illustrate the being and glory of the Most High. So it is here, The first line sets forth the continuous action of the transparent vault which arches over the earth. Its order and beauty and splendour are not the work of chance or the product of blind unconscious forces, but bear willing witness to the perfections of the one Supreme Creator. He made them, and they are forever telling the story of His unsearchable riches. There is no pause, no interruption in the testimony. Day after day, night after night, the unbroken succession goes on. It is poured out as from a copious, gushing fountain. The sentiment is as true as it is poetical. In every age and land the starry heavens have proclaimed to the thoughtful observer: It is He that hath made us. The fact that this is done without the use of articulate language, so far from weakening the testimony makes it stronger. A modern critic coolly expunges this couplet on the ground that it is prosaic and that it directly contradicts the preceding verse, whereas it is a fine statement of the fact that words are not literally used; and there is no more contradiction in it than in the common proverb, Actions speak louder than words. The heavens have a voice, but it is one that speaks not to the ear but to the devout and understanding heart, as Addison has well expressed it in the well-known stanzas, according to which the radiant orbs, though they move in solemn silence, still in reasons ear rejoice. In the next couplet the poet proceeds further. Not only is the testimony of the heavens distinct and clear and unbroken, but it is also universal. Their line means their measuring line, for this is the established meaning of the word, and there is neither need nor justification for changing the text. The province of these witnesses for God is co-extensive with the earth. Everywhere the heavens compass the globe, and everywhere they preach the same Divine sermon. In the Epistle to the Romans (Rom 10:18) the Apostle employs these words to express the wide diffusion of the Gospel among the Gentiles, and its freedom from all national or ecclesiastical restrictions. As Hengstenberg well says, The universal revelation of God in nature was a providential prediction of the universal proclamation of the Gospel. The Apostle says their sound instead of their line, because he followed the Septuagint version. The sense is, of course, the same. In Pauls day the Gospel occupied the central position in the Roman world: it is for Christians now to make it actually as universal as the witness of the heavens. To carry still further forward the figure, the sun is introduced because his apparent course indicates clearly the width of the domain covered by the testimony of the heavens. In them is his position. All talk of sun gods in this connection is simple folly. David is not reciting mythology, but writing poetry. In this view he compares the bright reappearance of the morning sun to that of a bridegroom coming forth from the nuptial apartment, and his steady ongoing through the skies to the rapid course of a hero on his joyful way to the goal of victory. Nothing can be more striking than these figures. The king of day starts from one end of heaven and never pauses till he reaches the other, and his presence is one that can be felt as well as seen, for nothing can hide itself from his heat. Here comes a quick transition from Gods revelation of Himself in nature to the similar revelation in the written Word. Its abruptness is quite excusable in view of the analogy, the law being in the spiritual world what the sun is in the natural. (Talbot W. Chambers, D. D.)
Gods works and Word
The Bible recognises no conflict between science and religion. It asserts a unity of origin for the Word and the world. Faith takes Gods word; science takes mans. But
Science walks with humble feet
To seek the God that faith has found.
I. That the Bible nowhere contradicts established science.
This is an amazing statement, for the Bible was written by unlearned men. Every truth of today has been opposed by men, not by Scripture. No doubt the Bible often speaks of things as they appear to the eye, as sunrise and sunset. But these are not contradictions to science.
II. The Bible always has been, and is yet, far in advance of the discoveries of science. Ere science discovered the order of progress in the developed world, or that the strata of the earth were formed by the action of water, and that the mountains were once under the sea; or that the earth was a sphere; or that the earth was upheld by no visible support; or that the stars were innumerable; or that light makes music as it flies; or that the sun had an orbit of its own–the Bible had said all these things. The Word is as full of undiscovered wisdom as the world.
III. Very few scientific men recognise any antagonism between the revelation by word and that by works. The American Association for the Advancement of Science embraces the great names in this country. At its last meeting it was found that seven-eighths of these were professing Christians. The greatest of them see God in nature today.
IV. Nature is a universal revelation of God, but of the lowest kind. The heavens so declare the glory of God that even a heathen savage is without excuse if he do not discern God. The law of the Lord is the next higher revelation. See what is here said of it. But the highest revelation is Christ. He brings life and love to light; reveals a greater power in spiritual realms than gravitation is in material realms. But all revelations are one and of one God. (Bishop R. W. Warren.)
The revelation of the prophecy of the heavens
I. The heavens a revelation of God. They show Gods character, as all works show character. The fault has been in men if they have not apprehended the declaration of the heavens. Paul said it could be clearly seen. This revelation is–
1. Ceaseless.
2. Wordless. The Hebrew rightly rendered reads–No speech nor language; their voice is not heard. That is, they utter no articulate words.
3. Universal. Their line–the measuring line used for the determining the boundaries of estates–takes in the whole earth; throughout this vast territory the signs which proclaim God are found.
II. This revelation a prophecy of that of the Gospel. For it also is universal. Hence Paul quotes this Psalm. But how came Paul to see this meaning in Davids words? Because the heavens are Christs handiwork. Without Him was nothing made that was made. And they manifest and declare Him. It is plain, therefore, that if He thus send His heavens to proclaim Him through all lands, and to sing His praise, much more will He desire that the Gospel of His grace by which far more glory will be His should be known far and wide, to the ends of the earth, that none may be hid from its saving light and heat. What a teacher, then, we have in the heavens. They sing to us of God, and of God in Christ. They declare the glory of Him whom not having seen we love. (Samuel Cox, D. D.)
Gods two great preachers
I. Nature as a preacher. It continues its eloquent discourse from age to age, and its aim in all is to draw the mind of man from the visible to the invisible, from the material to the spiritual, from itself to universal being.
II. The Bible as a preacher. This preacher is called by different names, law, testimony, statutes, commandments, fear of the Lord, judgments of the Lord.
1. The character of this preacher. Perfect, established, righteous, holy, thoroughly sound, precious.
2. The work of this preacher.
(1) A soul-restoring work.
(2) A mind-enlightening work.
(3) A heart-gladdening work.
(4) A life-regulating work.
(5) A sin-convincing work.
(6) A prayer exciting work.
The Psalmist prays against sin, and he prays for holiness. The text implies three facts concerning human words and thoughts–
1. That God takes cognisance of them.
2. That God is pleased with right words and thoughts.
3. That God aids man in the promotion of right words and thoughts. (Homilist.)
Nature a preacher
Five subjects for thought.
I. The subject of the discourse. The glory of God. Nature proclaims Gods existence, government, and attributes.
1. The fact of nature reveals the being of God.
2. The vastness of nature, the immensity of God.
3. The uniformity of nature, the unity of God.
4. The regularity of nature, the unchangeableness of God.
5. The arrangements of nature, the wisdom of God.
6. The happiness of nature, the goodness of God.
7. The purity of nature, the holiness of God.
8. The beauty of nature, the tastefulness of God.
9. The variety of nature, the exhaustlessness of God.
II. The incessantness of its delivery. Nature as a preacher never tires, never pauses. Whilst generations come and go, this great preacher continues his sublime discourse without a break or pause.
III. The intelligibleness of its language. Its language is that of symbol; the easiest language for man to understand. A language of signs, addressed to eye and heart. So intelligible is the language that there is no excuse for ignorance of God.
IV. The vastness of its audience. Their line–that is, their instruction. All men live under those heavens, all of which are vocal with discourse of God.
V. The immensity of its resources.
1. The greatest light dwells in the heart of this preacher.
2. The greatest light circulates through the whole being of this preacher. From the subject learn–
(1) Mans capacity to study and to worship God.
(2) Mans obligation to study and to worship God. Study nature scientifically and religiously. (Homilist.)
Nature in Scripture
The scientific contemplation of nature is wholly absent from Scripture, and the picturesque is very rare. This Psalmist knew nothing about solar spectra, or stellar distances, but he heard a voice from out of the else waste heavens which sounded to him as if it named God. Comte ventured to say that the heavens declare the glory of the astronomer, not of God; but if there be an order in them, which it is a mans glory to discover, must there not be a mind behind the order, and must not the Maker have more glory than the investigator? The Psalmist is protesting against stellar worship, which some of his neighbours practised. The sun was a creature, not a god; his race was marked out by the same hand which in depths beyond the visible heavens had pitched a tent for his nightly rest. We smile at the simple astronomy; the religious depth is as deep as ever. Dull ears do not hear these voices; but whether they are stopped with the clay of earthly tastes and occupations, or stuffed with scientific wadding of the most modern kind, the ears that do not hear Gods name sounded from the abysses above have failed to hear the only word which can make man feel at home in nature. Carlyle said that the sky was a sad sight. The sadness and awfulness are taken away when we hear the heavens telling the glory of God. The unscientific Psalmist who did hear them was nearer the very heart of the mystery than the scientist who knows everything else about them but that. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
God revealed in nature
Is the picture to be accepted as a revelation of the artists genius? Is the poem to be regarded as a test of the poets mental power? Then carry this rule with you in all your contemplations of the universe–as you walk beneath the dome of heaven, as you tremble in the shadows of the everlasting hills, as you rise into rapture while gazing on the swelling grandeur of the great deep and feel yourself wrapt in the presence of God. The universe is the thought of God made visible. (R. Venting.)
God seen in nature
The immortal Newton exclaimed, Glory to God, who has permitted me to catch a glimpse of the skirts of His garments. My calculations have encountered the march of the stars. So sang Copernicus, Volta, Galileo, and Kepler. How truly did Young write, the undevout astronomer is mad.
The firmament sheweth His handiwork.—
The comet and its teachings
Not often during the lifetime of a generation does a comet present itself. Give thought to the bright vision which no doubt engages the attention of other worlds beside our own, and on which the gaze of the unfallen inhabitants of celestial spheres may be fixed in reverent admiration.
1. Notice its beauty. In the exhaustless provision which God has made for our love of the beautiful we recognise an assurance that He regards with yet tenderer care our far deeper longings, the moral wants of our souls. 2, As we gain from science a knowledge of the movements of the comet we are impressed with the supremacy of law. No portion of the universe is more completely under the control of law than these comets, which were once supposed to be so erratic. Whatever is within the attraction of the sun moves upon one of three curves. As soon as a sufficient portion of the course of any body is known its whole curve can be ascertained. It is to the universal supremacy of law that all the achievements of science have been due. The supremacy of physical is a guarantee for the authority and permanence of moral law. The same Being who has established the one has pledged His veracity to the maintenance of the other.
3. Further knowledge of this comet impresses us with the magnitude of the universe. How numberless are the bodies inhabiting the measureless expanse. Of these worlds, is it likely that ours alone is inhabited?
4. Viewed in the light of these considerations, how insignificant does the world appear! And how insignificant is man! It is his soul alone that gives him dignity in the scale of being.
5. What a conception does a just view of the universe give us of the greatness and dignity of God! Who can escape His eye? Who can defy His power?
6. How great is the Divine condescension, especially as manifested in the atonement! (H. L. Wayland.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM XIX
The heavens and their host proclaim the majesty of God, 1-6;
the excellence and perfection of the Divine law, 7-10;
its usefulness, 11.
The psalmist prays for pardon and preservation from sin, 12, 13;
and thy his Words and thoughts may be holy, 14.
NOTES ON PSALM XIX
The title of this Psalm has nothing particular in it; but it is not very clear that it was written by David, to whom it is attributed; though some think that he composed it in the wilderness, while persecuted by Saul. For this opinion, however, there is no solid ground. There is no note in the Psalm itself to lead us to know when, where, or by whom it was written. It is a highly finished and beautiful ode.
Verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God] Literally, The heavens number out the glory of the strong God. A first view of the starry heavens strikes every beholder with astonishment at the power by which they were made, and by which they are supported. To find out the wisdom and skill displayed in their contrivance requires a measure of science: but when the vast magnitude of the celestial bodies is considered, we feel increasing astonishment at these works of the strong God.
The firmament] The whole visible expanse; not only containing the celestial bodies above referred to, but also the air, light, rains, dews, &c., &c. And when the composition of these principles is examined, and their great utility to the earth and its inhabitants properly understood, they afford matter of astonishment to the wisest mind, and of adoration and gratitude even to the most unfeeling heart.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The heavens declare the glory of God, Psa 19:1. So do night and day, Psa 19:2,3, and the sun, Psa 19:4-6. The perfection, purity, and extent of Gods law; its effects, Psa 19:7-12. He prayeth against presumptuous sins, Psa 19:13.
The heavens; these visible heavens, so vast and spacious, richly adorned with stars, so various and admirable in their course or station, so useful and powerful in their influences.
Declare; not properly, but objectively, as the earth, and trees, and stars are said to speak, Job 12:8 38:7; Isa 55:12; they demonstrate or make it evident and undeniable to all men of sense or reason; they are as a most legible book, wherein even he that runs may read it.
The glory of God, i.e. his glorious being or existence, his eternal power and Godhead, as it is particularly expressed, Rom 1:20; his infinite wisdom and goodness; all which are so visible in them, that it is ridiculous to deny or doubt of them, as it is esteemed ridiculous to think of far meaner works of art, as a house or a book, &c., that they were made without an artist, or without a hand.
The firmament; or, the expansion, i.e. all this vast space extended from the earth to the highest heavens, with all its goodly furniture, the same thing which he called heavens.
Showeth his handywork; the excellency of the work discovers who was the author of it, that it did not come by chance, nor spring of itself, but was made by the Lord God Almighty.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. the glory of Godis the sumof His perfections (Psa 24:7-10;Rom 1:20).
firmamentanother wordfor “heavens” (Ge 1:8).
handyworkoldEnglish for “work of His hands.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The heavens declare the glory of God,…. By which we are to understand not the heavens literally taken, though these with the firmament are the handiworks of God, and do declare the glory of his perfections, especially his wisdom and power; these show that there is a God, and that he is a glorious one: but either Gospel churches, often signified by the kingdom of heaven, in the New Testament; the members of them being heaven-born souls, and the doctrines and ordinances ministered among them being from heaven; and there being a very great resemblance between them and heaven, in the company and communion enjoyed in them; and who declare the glory of the divine perfections, which is very great in the handiwork of their redemption; and who ascribe the glory of their whole salvation to God: or rather the apostles and first preachers of the word, as appears from Ro 10:18; who were set in the highest place in the church; had their commission, doctrine, and success from heaven; and who may be called by this name, because of the purity and solidity of their ministry, and their constancy and steadfastness in it, and because of their heavenly lives and conversations: these declared the glory of the divine perfections; such as those particularly of grace, goodness, and mercy, which are not discoverable by the light of nature or law of Moses, as, they are displayed in the salvation of men by Christ, in the forgiveness of their sins, the justification of their persons, and the gift of eternal life unto them: they taught men to ascribe the glory of salvation to God alone, Father, Son, and Spirit; they set forth in their ministry the glory of Christ, of his person, and of his offices and grace; and they showed that redemption was his handiwork, as follows:
and the firmament showeth his handiwork; for the same persons may be called the firmament, since they that are wise are said to shine as the brightness of it, Da 12:3. These were like to stars in it, and were the light of the world, and declared that redemption is the work which Christ undertook, and came into this world to perform, and which he has finished; his hands have wrought it, and his own arm has brought salvation to him. The Targum interprets the heavens and the firmament, of such persons as contemplate the heavens, and look upon the firmament or air; and so do some other Jewish writers w.
w Jarchi & Kimchi in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(Heb.: 19:2-4) The heavens, i.e., the superterrestrial spheres, which, so far as human vision is concerned, are lost in infinite space, declare how glorious is God, and indeed , as the Almighty; and what His hands have made, i.e., what He has produced with a superior power to which everything is possible, the firmament, i.e., vault of heaven stretched out far and wide and as a transparency above the earth (Graeco-Veneta = , from , root , to stretch, ), distinctly expresses. The sky and firmament are not conceived of as conscious beings which the middle ages, in dependence upon Aristotle (vid., Maimonides, More Nebuchim ii. 5), believed could be proved fro this passage, cf. Neh 9:6; Job 38:7. Moreover, Scripture knows nothing of the “music of the spheres” of the Pythagoreans. What is meant is, as the old expositors correctly say, objectivum vocis non articulatae praeconium . The doxa, which God has conferred upon the creature as the reflection of His own, is reflected back from it, and given back to God as it were in acknowledgment of its origin. The idea of perpetuity, which lies even in the participle, is expanded in Psa 19:3. The words of this discourse of praise are carried forward in an uninterrupted line of transmission. (fr. , Arab. nb , root , to gush forth, nearly allied to which, however, is also the root , to spring up) points to the rich fulness with which, as from an inexhaustible spring, the testimony passes on from one day to the next. The parallel word is an unpictorial, but poetic, word that is more Aramaic than Hebrew (= ) . also belongs to the more elevated style; the deposited in the creature, although not reflected, is here called . The poet does not say that the tidings proclaimed by the day, if they gradually die away as the day declines, are taken up by the night, and the tidings of the night by the day; but (since the knowledge proclaimed by the day concerns the visible works of God by day, and that proclaimed by the night, His works by night), that each dawning day continues the speech of that which has declined, and each approaching night takes up the tale of that which has passed away ( Psychol. S. 347, tr. p. 408). If Psa 19:4 were to be rendered “there is no speech and there are no words, their voice is inaudible,” i.e., they are silent, speechless witnesses, uttering no sound, but yet speaking aloud (Hengst.), only inwardly audible but yet intelligible everywhere (Then.): then, Psa 19:5 ought at least to begin with a Waw adversativum, and, moreover, the poet would then needlessly check his fervour, producing a tame thought and one that interrupts the flow of the hymn. To take Psa 19:4 as a circumstantial clause to Psa 19:5, and made to precede it, as Ewald does, “without loud speech…their sound has resounded through all the earth” (341, d), is impossible, even apart from the fact of not meaning “Loud speech” and hardly “their sound.” Psa 19:4 is in the form of an independent sentence, and there is nothing whatever in it to betray any designed subordination to Psa 19:5. But if it be made independent in the sense “there is no loud, no articulate speech, no audible voice, which proceeds from the heavens,” then Psa 19:5 would form an antithesis to it; and this, in like manner, there is nothing to indicate, and it would at least require that the verb should be placed first. Luther’s rendering is better: There is no language nor speech, where their voice is not heard, i.e., as Calvin also renders it, the testimony of the heavens to God is understood by the peoples of every language and tongue. But this ought to be or ro (Gen 11:1). Hofmann’s rendering is similar, but more untenable: “There is no speech and there are no words, that their cry is not heard, i.e., the language of the heavens goes forth side by side with all other languages; and men may discourse ever so, still the speech or sound of the heavens is heard therewith, it sounds above them all.” But the words are not (after the analogy of Gen 31:20), or rather (as in Job 41:8; Hos 8:7). with the part. is a poetical expression for the Alpha privat. (2Sa 1:21), consequently is “unheard” or “inaudible,” and the opposite of , audible, Jer 31:15. Thus, therefore, the only rendering that remains is that of the lxx., Vitringa, and Hitzig: There is no language and no words, whose voice is unheard, i.e., inaudible. Hupfeld’s assertion that this rendering destroys the parallelism is unfounded. The structure of the distich resembles Psa 139:4. The discourse of the heavens and the firmament, of the day (of the sky by day) and of the night (of the sky by night), is not a discourse uttered in a corner, it is a discourse in speech that is everywhere audible, and in words that are understood by all, a , Rom 1:19.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| God’s Glory Seen in the Creation. | |
To the chief musician. A psalm of David.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handywork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. 3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. 4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. 6 His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
From the things that are seen every day by all the world the psalmist, in these verses, leads us to the consideration of the invisible things of God, whose being appears incontestably evident and whose glory shines transcendently bright in the visible heavens, the structure and beauty of them, and the order and influence of the heavenly bodies. This instance of the divine power serves not only to show the folly of atheists, who see there is a heaven and yet say, “There is no God,” who see the effect and yet say, “There is no cause,” but to show the folly of idolaters also, and the vanity of their imagination, who, though the heavens declare the glory of God, yet gave that glory to the lights of heaven which those very lights directed them to give to God only, the Father of lights. Now observe here,
1. What that is which the creatures notify to us. They are in many ways useful and serviceable to us, but in nothing so much as in this, that they declare the glory of God, by showing his handy-works, v. 1. They plainly speak themselves to be God’s handy-works; for they could not exist from eternity; all succession and motion must have had a beginning; they could not make themselves, that is a contradiction; they could not be produced by a casual hit of atoms, that is an absurdity, fit rather to be bantered than reasoned with: therefore they must have a Creator, who can be no other than an eternal mind, infinitely wise, powerful, and good. Thus it appears they are God’s works, the works of his fingers (Ps. viii. 3), and therefore they declare his glory. From the excellency of the work we may easily infer the infinite perfection of its great author. From the brightness of the heavens we may collect that the Creator is light; their vastness of extent bespeaks his immensity;, their height his transcendency and sovereignty, their influence upon this earth his dominion, and providence, and universal beneficence: and all declare his almighty power, by which they were at first made, and continue to this day according to the ordinances that were then settled.
II. What are some of those things which notify this? 1. The heavens and the firmament–the vast expanse of air and ether, and the spheres of the planets and fixed stars. Man has this advantage above the beasts, in the structure of his body, that whereas they are made to look downwards, as their spirits must go, he is made erect, to look upwards, because upwards his spirit must shortly go and his thoughts should now rise. 2. The constant and regular succession of day and night (v. 2): Day unto day, and night unto night, speak the glory of that God who first divided between the light and the darkness, and has, from the beginning to this day, preserved that established order without variation, according to God’s covenant with Noah (Gen. viii. 22), that, while the earth remains, day and night shall not cease, to which covenant of providence the covenant of grace is compared for its stability, Jer 33:20; Jer 31:35. The counterchanging of day and night, in so exact a method, is a great instance of the power of God, and calls us to observe that, as in the kingdom of nature, so in that of providence, he forms the light and creates the darkness (Isa. xlv. 7), and sets the one over-against the other. It is likewise an instance of his goodness to man; for he makes the out-goings of the morning and evening to rejoice, Ps. lxv. 8. He not only glorifies himself, but gratifies us, by this constant revolution; for as the light of the morning befriends the business of the day, so the shadows of the evening befriend the repose of the night; every day and every night speak the goodness of God, and, when they have finished their testimony, leave it to the next day, to the next night, to stay the same. 3. The light and influence of the sun do, in a special manner, declare the glory of God; for of all the heavenly bodies that is the most conspicuous in itself and most useful to this lower world, which would be all dungeon, and all desert, without it. It is not an improbable conjecture that David penned this psalm when he had the rising sun in view, and from the brightness of it took occasion to declare the glory of God. Concerning the sun observe here, (1.) The place appointed him. In the heavens God has set a tabernacle for the sun. The heavenly bodies are called hosts of heaven, and therefore are fitly said to dwell in tents, as soldiers in their encampments. The sun is said to have a tabernacle set him, no only because he is in continual motion and never has a fixed residence, but because the mansion he has will, at the end of time, be taken down like a tent, when the heavens shall be rolled together like a scroll and the sun shall be turned to darkness. (2.) The course assigned him. That glorious creature was not made to be idle, but his going forth (at least as it appears to our eye) is from one point of the heavens, and his circuit thence to the opposite point, and thence (to complete his diurnal revolution) to the same point again; and this with such steadiness and constancy that we can certainly foretel the hour and the minute at which the sun will rise at such a place, any day to come. (3.) The brightness wherein he appears. He is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, richly dressed and adorned, as fine as hands can make him, looking pleasantly himself and making all about him pleasant; for the friend of the bridegroom rejoices greatly to hear the bridegroom’s voice, John iii. 29. (4.) The cheerfulness wherewith he makes this tour. Though it seems a vast round which he has to walk, and he has not a moment’s rest, yet in obedience to the law of this creation, and for the service of man, he not only does it, but does it with a great deal of pleasure and rejoices as a strong man to run a race. With such satisfaction did Christ, the Sun of righteousness, finish the work that was given him to do. (5.) His universal influence on this earth: There is nothing hidden from the heart thereof, no, not metals in the bowels of the earth, which the sun has an influence upon.
III. To whom this declaration is made of the glory of God. It is made to all parts of the world (Psa 19:3; Psa 19:4): There is no speech nor language (no nation, for the nations were divided after their tongues,Gen 10:31; Gen 10:32) where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone through all the earth (the equinoctial line, suppose) and with it their words to the end of the world, proclaiming the eternal power of God of nature, v. 4. The apostle uses this as a reason why the Jews should not be angry with him and others for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, because God had already made himself known to the Gentile world by the works of creation, and left not himself without witness among them (Rom. x. 18), so that they were without excuse if they were idolaters, Rom 1:20; Rom 1:21. And those were without blame, who, by preaching the gospel to them, endeavoured to turn them from their idolatry. If God used these means to prevent their apostasy, and they proved ineffectual, the apostles did well to use other means to recover them from it. They have no speech or language (so some read it) and yet their voice is heard. All people may hear these natural immortal preachers speak to them in their own tongue the wonderful works of God.
In singing these verses we must give God the glory of all the comfort and benefit we have by the lights of the heaven, still looking above and beyond them to the Sun of righteousness.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 19
EVIDENCES OF GOD
Verses 1-6:
By Theology of Nature
This Psalm sets forth two sources of evidence regarding God: 1) First, through the testimony of nature, and, 2) Second, through the articulated Law of the Lord. The creation reflects, witnesses of the glory of God; While the articulate or spoken law is declared by David to be “perfect,” “pure,” “sure,” “true,” “clean,” “right,” and “righteous.” Both the testimony of nature and the “articulate” law of the Lord render men without excuse for failing to receive and obey the call of the living God in their lives, Rom 1:18-20; Rom 2:1; Heb 3:4.
Verse 1 asserts that the heavens declare (witness of) the glory of God (Jehovah) and the firmament reflects the work of His hands, as a canvas reflects the character of the artist. This they do unceasingly, day and night, uttering testimony of the majestic existence of their creator and sustainer. The sun, moon, and stars bedeck the heavens as a grand cathedral. from which they declare the glory of creations creator and sustainer, Isa 40:22. One is not to look at these heavenly bodies and worship them, but to the God of glory whom they reflect. Every effect has an antecedent cause. The universe has its cause centered in its creator and sustainer, Gen 1:1; Joh 1:1-3; Act 17:28.
Verse 2 certifies that heaven’s luminaries continually utter speech, and continually show forth knowledge, without interruption or cessation, day and night, as they testify of their creator and sustainer, the true and living God, Rom 1:20.
Verse 3 adds that “there is (exists) no speech nor language, where their voice of silent eloquence is not heard.” In the midnight hours, at the dawn of every day, and at the sun’s meridian height. The natural heavens speak forth a language that men in all nations understand. Their speech and song of heaven’s praise is an eloquent theology of nature that renders the world without excuse, of which some poet has written:
“The heavens articulately shine, and speak of their architect Divine,” See Act 17:28; Heb 1:3.
Verses 4-6 further witness that “their line,” measuring line, as far as heaven and earth reach, goes as silent testimony of Divine glory, to the ends of the world. For in the heavens He has set a central tabernacle for the sun, as the center of the universe, a type or symbol of the “Son of righteousness,” whose glory all His creatures should acknowledge and seek to reflect, Zec 1:16; Mal 4:2; Joh 1:14. This sun is compared with a bridegroom coming forth from his chamber with full array of vigor, conscious power as an hero in his hour of full glory of strength, coming forth to take to his care a bride. He rejoices as a strong man to run a race, Ecc 11:7.
Verse 6 explains that this central creature of heaven’s luminaries is never still or idle. It continually goes forth from the end of heaven shining, giving light, never passing by day or by night, with nothing hid or concealed from its heat, light, or warmth, Ecc 1:5; Joh 1:4; Joh 1:8-9. Even so nothing is out of the reach of the love, affection, and care of the Lord Jesus Christ, Joh 3:16; Rom 2:1.
Nature’s Revelation of God is:
a) A full revelation.
b) A constant revelation.
c) A varied revelation.
d) An inaudible revelation.
Yet how eloquent is her voice, by day and by night, to those who “have ears to her,” or heed. And cursed are those who have ears but turn away from the voice and call of the Holy God, respecting not the call of God through nature, to seek the saviour who may be found by all, Joh 7:17; Joh 15:5; Luk 14:35; Rom 1:21-24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. The heavens declare the glory of God. (444) I have already said, that this psalm consists of two parts, in the first of which David celebrates the glory of God as manifested in his works; and, in the other, exalts and magnifies the knowledge of God which shines forth more clearly in his word. He only makes mention of the heavens; but, under this part of creation, which is the noblest, and the excellency of which is more conspicuous, he doubtless includes by synecdoche the whole fabric of the world. There is certainly nothing so obscure or contemptible, even in the smallest corners of the earth, in which some marks of the power and wisdom of God may not be seen; but as a more distinct image of him is engraven on the heavens, David has particularly selected them for contemplation, that their splendor might lead us to contemplate all parts of the world. When a man, from beholding and contemplating the heavens, has been brought to acknowledge God, he will learn also to reflect upon and to admire his wisdom and power as displayed on the face of the earth, not only in general, but even in the minutest plants. In the first verse, the Psalmist repeats one thing twice, according to his usual manner. He introduces the heavens as witnesses and preachers of the glory of God, attributing to the dumb creature a quality which, strictly speaking, does not belong to it, in order the more severely to upbraid men for their ingratitude, if they should pass over so clear a testimony with unheeding ears. This manner of speaking more powerfully moves and affects us than if he had said, The heavens show or manifest the glory of God. It is indeed a great thing, that in the splendor of the heavens there is presented to our view a lively image of God; but, as the living voice has a greater effect in exciting our attention, or at least teaches us more surely and with greater profit than simple beholding, to which no oral instruction is added, we ought to mark the force of the figure which the Psalmist uses when he says, that the heavens by their preaching declare the glory of God.
The repetition which he makes in the second clause is merely an explanation of the first. David shows how it is that the heavens proclaim to us the glory of God, namely, by openly bearing testimony that they have not been put together by chance, but were wonderfully created by the supreme Architect. When we behold the heavens, we cannot but be elevated, by the contemplation of them, to Him who is their great Creator; and the beautiful arrangement and wonderful variety which distinguish the courses and station of the heavenly bodies, together with the beauty and splendor which are manifest in them, cannot but furnish us with an evident proof of his providence. Scripture, indeed, makes known to us the time and manner of the creation; but the heavens themselves, although God should say nothing on the subject, proclaim loudly and distinctly enough that they have been fashioned by his hands: and this of itself abundantly suffices to bear testimony to men of his glory. As soon as we acknowledge God to be the supreme Architect, who has erected the beauteous fabric of the universe, our minds must necessarily be ravished with wonder at his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power.
(444) Dr Geddes has remarked, in reference to this psalm, that “no poem ever contained a finer argument against Atheism, nor one better expressed.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
GOD S WORK, WORD AND WAYS
Psa 19:1-14.
THE 23rd Psalm as a revelation of Gods grace and love, is probably the best known and best loved chapter of the 150 that make up the matchless Psalter, if not the best known and best loved chapter of the Bible. But when one comes to think of the glory of God, to contemplate His exceeding greatness as that greatness is revealed, and even demonstrated, in the physical universe, his mind turns immediately to the 19th Psalm. Memory forces through his lips the words,
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech; night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech, nor language, where their voice is not heard;
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Our theme for this chapter, if named The heavens are telling, would be the most correct translation of the opening sentence of this Psalm. Nature is not dumb, but eloquent instead. The sun does more than smile; it speaks. The stars do more than twinkle; they talk and sing and one theme forever engages their tonguesthey tell the glory of God!
It will be seen before we shall have finished the study of this Psalm that the theme of their speech,
The Glory of God, is that of nature, of revelation and of grace, and we can best express it in these sentences. The glory of God as seen in the infinity of His work, the glory of God as revealed in the perfection of His Word, and the glory of God as manifested in His faultless ways.
THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE INFINITY OF HIS WORK
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
He fills all space with the fruits of His hands. Any attempt to account for this universe apart from God is not atheism onlyit is insanity. A creation without a Creator is a conception that dispenses with reason. There are two sentences in sacred Scripture that all infidels vainly resist and insanely reject: Gen 1:1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and Heb 11:3, The worlds were framed by the word of God.
It does not require a vivid imagination to conceive creation. The faith that accepts a Creator has, in the very circumstance of such acceptance, compassed the thought of creation! That God should speak or even will a world, a solar system, a Milky Way, a universe, and that each and all should instantly appear at His pleasure, to take its place in the infinite stretch of space, is natural to faith.
Astronomy serves to give us an increasing conception of Gods greatness. Recently I had through the mails a leaflet published by Prof. Frost of Yerkes Observatory, Chicago, attempting, as an expert, to give some conception of the universe and succeeding marvelously in whelming the reader with immeasurable distances and innumerable worlds and even systems. The modern radio comes more nearly giving us a line of measurements that can be used in connection with the infinite distances of space than anything hitherto knownthe light wave by which sound travels goes 186,000 miles in a second, and it may be, true as some scientists are contending, that at certain portions of the day it travels at a distance of 60 miles in height from the earth, suggesting the probability that ether is a better conductor than air. The moon is 240,000 miles remote from the earth, requiring about 1 1/3 seconds for what I am now saying to be heard by the man in the moon! Mars is 37,000,000 miles from the earth, requiring about three minutes for a light wave from us to reach him. Saturn is 750,000,000 miles from the earth, requiring a little more than an hour for light to travel from our earth to that planet.
When we learn there are suns so remote from us that thousands and millions of years are required for light to travel from them to us, space that goes into mile-measurements that stagger imagination and that the Milky Way is not made up, as was once supposed, of star dust but of innumerable stars and even systems packed into the infinity of space, then indeed we come to a clear comprehension of what the inspired writer meant when he said, The heavens declare the Glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Our text also suggests another thoughtHe makes their silence as a song. You remember Mendelssohn composed what he called, A Song without Words. Surely this text could have been the inspiration of his thought. There are many Scriptures that men have been wont to spiritualize, that better understanding will compel us to literalize. For instance, the Lord says to Job,
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? (Job 38:4-7).
To me there is a double suggestion herethe combined music of Gods creation and Gods greatness. The stars do sing! The Psalmist says, Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice, and the word is properly translated to sing. Modern science gives a meaning to what was aforetime regarded as mere poetic expression, and now we know that the light wave is Gods medium of conveying sound, and that when the undulations go below a certain point we cannot hear them, and above another point, they are lost; but in neither case do they cease. A scholar of great repute renders the words of the Psalm perhaps with most accuracy, after this manner: Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening (or radiations of light) to sing, that is, to give forth sound by vibration.
Shakespeare, ignorant of the marvelous light discoveries characterizing our day, anticipated it all when he says (and interpreted in a measure this Psalm):
Theres not the smallest orb which thou beholdest,But in his motion, like an angel sings,Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim,Such harmony is in immortal souls;But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
And Arthur Pierson, quoting this, says, In the future life our senses will doubtless be so delicate and refined that we shall be able to hear not only the separate key notes, but the infinite swelling harmony of these myriad stars of the sky as they pour their mighty tide of harmonious anthems into the ear of God. Then shall we be able to understand the truth of the hymn:
In reasons ear they all rejoice,And utter forth a glorious voice;Forever singing, as they shine,The hand that made us is Divine!
No wonder God rejoices in His works. He sits in the midst of a universal orchestrathat pours into His ear one ceaseless tide of rapturous song. He dwells in the midst of light; to us it is only ineffable glory; to Him it is music!
Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
He sets centers to every separate system. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof (Psa 19:4-6).
Modernists are accustomed to charge conservatives and the Bible itself with all sorts of mental absurdities. Only a few days since, an editor in a Western city, thinking to answer my contention that the Bible is an inspired Book, said, Why does the Bible teach that the earth is the center of our solar system when the discoveries of Copernicus have proven that the sun instead holds that central place? In common with so many claims of these gentlemen, this is all baseless. The Bible teaches no such thing and never did! It makes the sun the center of the system in this very text. From the heat thereof radiates all life and light for the entire solar system. Nothing of that sort is ever said of the earth.
The Book of Job, one of the most ancient writings extant, says that the dayspring, or rising sun, took hold of the ends of the earth. (Job 38:13).
The only conceivable basis on which even the poorest student of the Bible could ever rest the contention that the Scriptures regarded the earth as the center of the solar system, would be in the prominence given to it in the first chapter of Genesis, a fact which finds explanation in the circumstance that God is not there discussing the heavens or what they contain, but the earth instead and His creative acts therein.
If these gentlemen would cease talking about the mistakes of Moses and the blunders of the Bible, and give themselves to a study of the science morgue they would find in it some strange and now discarded opinions. Take the science of materia medica, for example. There are works on anatomy in existence close to 4,000 years old. Does anybody consult them? Hardly! Hippocrates is known as the Father of Medicine, and yet his biographer declares that he knew little or nothing of it, not even having studied anatomy!
Galen, the Greek scientist, laughed at all the medical sects of his day and originated electicism.
We have now allopaths, homeopaths, hydropaths, naturopaths, electropaths, chiropractors, osteopaths, Christian Scientists and how many more who shall mention? And yet we are told medicine is a science!
We have Darwinian evolution, LaMarckian evolution, Mendelian evolution, and yet we are told evolution is a science!
We have Aristotlian philosophy, Descartian philosophy, Newtonian philosophy, Baconian, philosophy, Hutchinsonian philosophy, Nietzscheian philosophy and yet we are told philosophy is a science!
It has been confessed by more men than Sir James Simpson that scarce a text-book on any scientific subject survives ten years, and yet superficial thinkers talk of Biblical views that have perished before the assured results of modern science. We ask, How assured are they? And what assured results in modern science exist today that do not harmonize absolutely with what is spoken in the Word of God? The Bible does not teach a flat earth; it never did; but a round earth instead; for when Christ shall come, it will be midday in one place, midnight in another, and at cock-crowing in a third!
The Bible does not teach a four cornered earth but employs a general figure of the four quarters known to this day and oftentimes used by navigators themselves. The Bible falls into no scientific absurdity and when we remember that great portions of it are three thousand years of age and all of it two thousand, it stands absolutely alone as a text-book that can remain serviceable to man, dependable under all circumstances and worthy of eternal consideration! For ever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven!
That remark leads us naturally to our next point and to the further study of this chapter.
THE GLORY OF GOD AS REVEALED IN THE PERFECTION OF HIS WORD
The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the Testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The Statutes 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 for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward (Psa 19:7-11).
Consider the claims herein set forth! Some critics have thought that this second portion of this Psalm was probably written by another than David. How absurd, unscholarly, superficial! David, while keenly appreciating the works of God and recognizing in them His unspeakable glory, was no mere Nature worshiper. To him, the Word of God was altogether as wonderful as were the works of God; Revelation as marvelous as Creation.
Gods Law is both perfect and beautiful. You will find no flaws in it. What man has reason to think he could strengthen it by subtracting something from it, or make it more efficient by adding something to it? The Book of Revelation concludes,
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book;
And if any man shall take away from the words of the hook of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city (Rev 22:18-19).
Why? Is God such an autocrat that He will have no man speak after He has spoken, or such an egotist that He will have no man detract from what He has said? No, the reason lies deeper than that. When God has finished, there is nothing more that needs to be said. In fact, there is nothing more that can be said, and when God has finished, to take from what He has uttered, the least particle, is to mar the perfect.
Men rave against static revelation,, and imagine that such a conception makes no provision for progress, and that a fixed religion must necessarily grow obsolete with the flight of time, but all such arguments forget that Gods work and Gods Word are alike perfect and on that account nothing can be added, nothing dare be subtracted. If anything could have been added, we would have new and better commandments than those found in the Bible. Who will name them? If anything could be subtracted, and the race profit, some passages would long since have been put in discard and portions of whole books piled on the ash-heap, but to this hour not one jot or tittle has failed, and we have the prophetic Word of God that it will forever remain.
Oh, ye blind infidels, how futile is your fight; oh, ye timid and quaking Christians, alarmed lest Modernism dethrone God, discredit the Bible and destroy the Christian faith; how poor is your appreciation of the greatness of the first, the eternal accuracy of the second, and the all-sufficiency of the third! As long as man lives on the earth, the Law of the Lord will abide in perfection and power! The Testimony of the Lord will continue to make wise the simple, the Statutes of the Lord to rejoice the heart of the righteous; the Commandments of the Lord to purify the life and enlighten the eyes of them that obey; the fear of the Lord will continue as a cleansing power and the judgments of the Lord will be regarded as true and righteous altogether, more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb, * * and in keeping of them there is great reward!
But we conclude with the third occasion of Glory!
THE GLORY OF GOD AS SEEN IN HIS FAULTLESS WAYS
Here we have a strange combination effecting a contrast. One would imagine a distinct break in the thought of the chapter. He has been dealing with God, speaking of His greatness as manifested in the physical universe, and of the marvels of His Word. Then suddenly he drops that whole subject and turns to a consideration of himself. But that is no non-sequitur. It is the most logical process conceivable.
One cant forget himself when once he sees the glory of the Lord. In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims * ** * and one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. Then he turned from that vision straight to himself and cried, Woe is me! for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, and he assigns his reason for so feeling, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
The perfection of God throws a blinding light upon the imperfections of man! The least iniquity looms! What has been regarded as a mere error passes understanding, and what one has hidden away as a secret fault is suddenly exposed to the glare of the noonday sun. It is in the presence of Gods greatness that we feel our littleness. It is before Gods wisdom that our ignorance is exposed, and in the presence of Gods perfections our presumptuous sins seem dominant.
Years ago, in my pulpit, I discussed a series of four subjects: little sins, secret sins, presumptuous sins, the unpardonable sin. I searched the Scriptures and found a separate text for each and treated it in its turn, and shortly after I had finished the four sermons, I was reading my Bible and stumbled upon all my texts in two verses, the 12th and 13th of this very chapter: errors, little sins, secret faults, presumptuous sins, the great transgression! Truly, here is an evolution worthy of the name, and yet when we so speak we have to do what the scientists insist upon, use language loosely, for this is development rather than evolution. There is no new species created here. An error may be a little sin, but it is a sin. Secret faults may be hid from the eyes of men, but they are larger sins. Presumptuous sins are simply sins overgrown and the great transgression is sin in its final form, in its fixed and eternal estate! The overwhelming consciousness of it all comes in consequence of the contrast with the character and conduct of the Mighty God! As was-said of His Son, You will find no fault in Him. As was true of Christ, that, though tempted in all points like as we are, yet He was without sin, so God the Father cannot be tempted by sin, and yet when one remembers the unspeakable love that led the Father to give His only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, then the great transgression takes on its unpardonable proportions. What a condition! How wretched is guilty man when once brought into the presence of the great and mighty God! How black and foul his every breath as compared with the purity of Jehovahs person! Who, then, can be saved?
Listen to the last word. It has in it hope; it points the way. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.
There is with man no power to resist the Adversary; of himself he can do nothing. There is with Christ all power in heaven and in earth. His strength is our sufficiency. We can do all things through Christ which strengthened us. Man has voluntarily sold himself into slavery, the slavery of Satan and into the slavery of sin. Where and how is his redemption? In the Lord of Hosts, his Redeemer!
Modernism has no message for the man of error. It has no way out for the victim of secret faults. It even invites to presumptuous sins, and it has no gospel against the great transgression. But go now to the old Gospel, and the only Gospel, and let it speak, and lo, the way is opened. He was manifested to take away our sins (1Jn 3:5); the plan of God is placed before us, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil (1Jn 3:8). The Redeemer is presented, The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (Joh 1:29). The sinner may hope, for Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners (1Ti 1:15). Salvation is at hand, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luk 19:10).
O man, look unto the Lord. He is your Strength and your Redeemer!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
INTRODUCTION
This psalm instructs its readers in the glory and goodness of God; first, by directing their contemplation to the structure of the heavens, to the course of the sun, and to the kindly influences of its light and heat upon the earth; secondly, by inviting their attention to the revealed law, which is more especially adapted to impress them with a sense of Gods superintending care, and to increase their understanding and knowledge of the Divine power and will. The psalm, therefore, divides itself into two parts; the first, extending to the 8th verse; and the second, comprising the remainder.Phillips.
NATURAL THEOLOGY
(Psa. 19:1-7.)
The Psalmist here represents the universe as a grand cathedral in which the sun is the great preacher, ever declaring the glory of the Creator.
We notice:
I. The subject of the revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God. The contemplation of the glory of nature must not lead to the deification of nature; it should lead up beyond the entire world, and beyond all the heavens, to the knowledge of the glory of God mirrored therein, and excite to the adoration of the Almighty Creator declaring Himself therein. The expanse of the heavens which cannot at all be surveyed by man, has yet received its limits from Him who is alone Infinite and Almighty. Even the sun, which is worshipped by so many nations as the king of heaven, receives the measure of its motion, and the revolution of its course from the same hand, whose government and work disclose themselves in all things as by the hand of a Master, whom all His works praise.Moll. We must not stop with nature, but see in her forces and glories the signs of a Divine existence and love. We must not survey the heavens, as some do, in a coarse utilitarian spirit. The heavens reflect the Divine glory in their own glory. The colours in the heavens bear no discoverable relation to the utilitarian ends of light, they are a testimony to Gods own love of beauty; incidental colours dashed into the creation without any direct bearing upon the known functions fulfilled by light; dashed in to tell us that God loves beauty, that He is full of it, and that these things are His own dim reflections. Nature declares the wisdom, power, love, and faithfulness of God. Some unbelieving men have dared to find fault with the works of God. One of these recently and blasphemously spoke of creation as a blundering contrivance. But how poor are the grandest works of man when compared with the works of God! When the disturbed fairies left the palace they were building incomplete, the legend tells us that no architects or painters could be found to complete the edifice, such was the wondrous beauty of spiritual workmanship; but if God had left any portion of the universe incomplete, which of our critics would have finished it? Ah! we cannot rival the magnificent proportions, the exquisite balancings, the splendid hues, the perennial freshness and glory of creation.
II. The characteristics of the revelation. Mark 1. Its fulness. Uttereth speech. Pours forth speech.Kay. It streams forth as from an overflowing spring, is the sense of the original. There are abundant evidences of Gods power and glory.
2. Its constancy and perpetuity. The heavens are declaringalways declaring. Day unto day, &c. The idea of perpetuity is here. The words of this discourse of praise are carried forward in an uninterrupted line of transmission.Delitzsch. 3. Its variety. Day and night, with their various phenomena.
4. Its silence. (Psa. 19:3.) Mark the unobtrusiveness of natures deeper teachings. Their voice is not heard, lit. is inaudible. They have a language, but not one that can be classed with any of the dialects of earth. They have a voice, but one that speaks not to the ear, but to the devout and understanding heart.Perowne. The sense of the whole passage is this: that although the heavens are not endued with the power of human speech, yet the instruction which they convey is not less definite; the lessons which they teach are not, on that account, less clear and distinct to the intelligent and pious student of nature. The number and stupendous magnitude of the heavenly bodies; the sun which governs the day; the moon and stars, which render to man such important service by night; the clouds gathering water, which descends and refreshes the earth; the thunder and lightning, and the elements; all these preach to us as intelligibly as if they addressed us in our own language; and not only to us, but to all nations; the greatness and wisdom, the mercy and loving-kindness of Jehovah.Phillips.
The heavens articulately shine,
And speak their Architect Divine.
If we will know God in nature, we must have a seeing eye, and a hearing ear. Holy silence itself is a speech, provided there be the ear to hear it.Tholuck.
5. Its universality (Psa. 19:4-7). Their line, &c. Their measuring line extends to the confines of the earth. The glorious sun declares the glory of God all over the earth.
III. The importance of this revelation. Some Christians speak depreciatingly of nature, but it is a mistake. The Psalmist in this place declares the harmony of creation with the moral law. The object of the psalm is not to contrast the moral and material revelations, but rather to identify their author and their subject. The doctrinal sum of the whole composition is, that the same God who reared the frame of nature is the giver of a law, and that this law is in all respects worthy of its author.Alexander. The first part of the psalm treats of God in visible nature, the second, of God in moral law; and these two great ideas are ever needed to balance each other. If we think of God in nature only, and forget God as revealed in moral law, we glide into pantheism. The most perfectly organised and commanding form of pantheism the world has ever seen (that of India), was growing up at the very moment David wrote, from this one-sidedness of view: the lights, the clouds, the winds of heaven, all manifestations of God, were being substituted for the moral essence of God itself, and becoming separate gods. On the other hand, contemplation of God as revealed in moral law, and forgetfulness of Him as revealed in nature, is apt to produce a narrow, cramped, and degenerate type of religion such as the Jews presented in their darkest and most exclusive moods. The two ideas will always be needed, the one to counterpoise the other; and David ever expresses the wisest and most far-reaching instincts of inspiration in putting them side by side.
IV. The limitation of this revelation.
As Lord Bacon says: The heavens indeed tell of the glory of God, but not of His will, according to which the poet prays to be pardoned and sanctified.Delitzsch. Lord Bacons Prayer: I have delighted in the brightness of Thy temple. Thy creatures have been my books; but Thy Scriptures much more. I have sought Thee in the courts, fields, and gardens; I have found thee in Thy temples. Fallen man needs the truth of God bringing home to him, with a clearness that nature cannot accomplish. And we need many truths of which nature knows nothing. There is this great difference between Gods book of nature and His book of grace. The one, splendid and glorious as its Almighty Maker, was formed for man in innocency, and is imperfectly adapted to a fallen state; the other is suited to a corrupt nature, and, telling of mercy, addresses itself to its wants, and speaks with a Divine power which refuses to be silenced or passed by.Ryland.
Lessons:
1. We need never fear that the true religion of nature will lead us away from God.
2. The believer in God alone apprehends the highest glory and significance of nature. None save a believer can rightly meditate on the works of God. Worldly men may, and do, understand and admire the wonderful works of God; the lover of science can truly estimate the wisdom and the beauty which pervade all nature; who else, indeed, can so well do it? But unassisted, man rests there; his thoughts go no further. It is by faith that we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear; and thus the mind is led from nature up to natures God.Ryland.
3. The believer finding deep joy in the workmanship of God, finds full satisfaction only in turning to that moral law which is the revelation of Gods nature.
THE SOUL-RESTORING POWER OF LAW
(Psa. 19:7.)
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The same Almighty Hand which had given the sun his light-giving, life-sustaining power in the physical world, had provided life and light also for the spiritual world.Kay.
Mark:
I. The attribute of the law. It is perfect. The law of God, the moral law, as given in the whole of the Scriptures, is perfect, i.e., free from all defect or blemish. It is spotless.
1. It is the perfect transcript of the glory of God. It is the exact expression of Gods moral nature. The earth is a reflection of Gods metaphysical gloryit tells us of His eternal power and Godhead; but the revelation of Gods will in moral law is the revelation of His highest nature and glory. As such a revelation it is perfect. It is not mixed and marred like the words of men; it is a stainless mirror reflecting the sublime holiness of the deity. It is the picture of God drawn by His own hand. It is light, and in it is no darkness at all.
2. It is the perfect theory of the good of man. The divine law is called perfect, i.e., spotless and harmless, as being absolutely well-meaning, and altogether directed towards the wellbeing of man.Delitzsch.
Through the disorder of our nature we regard moral law as our great enemy, as that which stands in the way of our freedom and our joy, but really it presents us with the grand secret of living and immortal good.
II. The effect of the law. Converting the soul. Paul tells us in the Romans how the law condemns, how it threatens, how it kills. And this is the effect of the law as considered in itself. But we must remember that when the Psalmist is speaking here of the law, he comprehends in it the promises of God, and regards it in connection with the great system of sacrifices. The evangelical idea is included in the views of law which he gives us in this psalm. If the law is separated from the hope of forgiveness and the Spirit of Christ, it is so far from the sweetness of honey, that it rather kills poor souls by its bitterness.Calvin. Thus understood, the law revives the soul.
1. It brings back the soul to God. It calls it back from its wanderings by reminding it of its ingratitude, by setting before it its high destiny, by bringing it to its true Shepherd and Guardian.Perowne. Having restored the soul to God,
2. The law strengthens and perfects it. The law harmonises, vivifies, strengthens, rejoices, the whole moral man. It gives the same support to the mind that food does to the body when exhausted (Lam. 1:11. See also Psa. 23:3; Pro. 25:13).French. The word here translated restoring is used of restoring from disorder and decay (Psa. 80:19), from sorrow and affliction (Rth. 4:15), from death (1Ki. 17:21-22).Kay. The perfect law makes those who receive it faultless.
THE LIGHT-GIVING POWER OF THE LAW
(Psa. 19:7.)
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Observe:
I. The infallibility of the law. The testimony of the Lord is sure. Testimony, i.e. revealed will. Probably the two tables of the testimony, containing the decalogue, are here especially referred to.French. But we must understand the moral law as a whole. This law is sure, or, true. It is true, therefore, sure. It is raised above all doubt in its declarations, and verifying itself in its threatenings and promises.Delitzsch. We want a doctrine that is infallible; speculative and unverified teaching we feel to be untrustworthy and powerless.
1. We cannot believe in the infallibility of the Church. One Pope contradicts another; the same Pope is inconsistent with himself. Neither,
2. In the infallibility of philosophers. The faith of one generation of thinkers is laughed at by the next. Neither,
3. In the infallibility of ourselves, of our personal opinions and convictions arrived at outside revelation. There is no infallible guide but the moral law declared on Sinai and developed in Holy Writ. We must not live according to the maxims of men, neither must we make intuitions and inward impressions our rule of action, but prayerfully seek light on the holy oracles, and God will not permit us to wander into false ways.
II. The subjects of its illumination. Making wise the simple. The simple, lit. the open, not here the foolish as often in Proverbs, but he who is ready to become a fool, that he may be wise, who has the true childlike spirit (Mat. 11:25; 1Co. 1:27), which best fits him to become a disciple in the school of God.Perowne.
1. We must feel our need of guidance.
2. We must be sincere and open in our search for instruction.
3. We must be fully prepared to obey the light as it is given.
THE JOY-GIVING POWER OF THE LAW
(Psa. 19:8.)
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
If our moral life attain to completeness, we shall observe in it three stages in relation to the law of God.
I. The period of rebellion against the law.
In our original, natural state, we fret against Gods commandments. There is a twofold reason for this.
1. We rebel against the law because it denies us certain gratifications which we covet. Our irregular desires lead us to covet what the law denies. But,
2. We rebel against the law chiefly because it is the law. We dislike the law because it is the will of another asserting itself above our will. We resent the law not only because it sometimes comes between our passion and its gratification, but because of its dogmatism. Our will shall be supreme; we will be our own law. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed, can be.
This is lifes first stage. Law is a tyranny we resent. Next comes,
II. The period of submission to the law.
We come to the conviction that it is better to submit than to rebel; we cease to be Gods enemies, and become His servants. We painfully keep the law, but cannot be said to love it. There is a constant friction. Then comes,
III. The period of joy in the law.
In ancient times laws were put into verse, and there comes a period, if we live rightly, when Gods laws become poetry to us,the statute becomes a song. Holiness becomes beauty to the eye, sweetness to the taste, music to the ear. Gods law, the grand expression of Gods nature, becomes the great object of our love and desire! I delight to do Thy will, O God. Philosophers rejoice in natural law,they are never weary of celebrating the glorious reign of law, and to discover law and extol it, is considered the highest intellectual triumph. But to admire the moral law, the law which denies so much that we like, and enjoins so much that we do not like, this is, indeed, the triumph of life. If the statutes of the Lord are to rejoice our heart,
(1.) We must know them better. The more clearly we perceive the nature of the Divine law, the more we approve of it. Open Thou mine eyes that I may see wonderful things out of Thy law.
(2.) We must grow in love. A growing love turns law into music. What is painful to dry reason, the heart makes light.
(3.) We must be obedient. Every act of obedience makes the next act more easy, until at last what was forced and painful becomes instinctive and delightful.
Lessons:
1. In keeping the law of God, we find true delight. The statutes of the Lord are right. How fatal such a severe, inexorable, unyielding law to happiness! No; to keep the law of God, which is given in all its fulness in Jesus Christ, is the secret of sublime content. Let believers not rest until they realise this high condition. We praise God because He is good; but not enough because He is righteous. We obey the law because it is safe; but do not sufficiently find liberty and joy in it.
2. There is no real satisfaction except in keeping the statutes of God.
THE PURIFYING POWER OF THE LAW
(Psa. 19:8.)
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The idea here is that the spotless law imparts to us its Divine quality, and thus fills the soul with vision and joy. Inquire.
I. How the law makes us pure? It does this
1. By setting before us a pure ideal. It brings all heaven before our eyes, and there is something impulsive in the very spectacle of perfection.
2. By awakening in our soul passionate desires for purity.
3. By strengthening us to reach the highest planes of life. Show,
II. How this purity is the source of spiritual strength, joy, and vision.
1. Strength. There is an allusion here to the dimness of the eyes produced by extreme weakness and approaching death, recovery from which is figuratively represented as an enlightening of the eyes.Alexander. Sin and corruption mean weakness, but the truth of God in Christ brings to the soul newness of life. Purity is another word for power.
2. Joy. Dimness of eyes means sorrow; enlightening the eyes means the return of gladness. Impurity means disorder and misery; purity means harmony and brightness.
3. Vision. Our bewilderments spring from our passions. Purity is vision. The pure in heart shall see God.
THE ABSOLUTE PERFECTION OF THE LAW
(Psa. 19:9-11.)
Consider:
I. The incomparable excellence of the law as considered in itself (Psa. 19:9).
1. The purity of the law. The fear of the Lord is clean. The commandments which teach the fear of the Lord are without any admixture of error or unrighteousness. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
(1.) The moral law as contained in the Scriptures contains no false principle of conduct or action.
(2.) The moral law as given in the Scriptures is no lower form of morality for an imperfect civilisation, but the absolute law for the highest creatures and the highest worlds.
(3.) The moral law is not merely correct in the main, but all and every of its special requirements are just and righteous.
2. The stability of the law. Enduring for ever. It is changeless and everlasting. The moral law continues. The ceremonial law was abrogatedit served its purpose, and ceased to be; civil law is susceptible to continual modifications; natural law will be changed, for the sun and sky and planets shall be dissolved in fire; but moral law abides firm as the throne of God. Not one jot or tittle of it shall perish.
II. The incomparable excellence of the law considered in its relation to those who keep it.
1. Intellectually considered it is of supreme excellence. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. This seems to point to the mental appreciation of the truth. More than gold, than fine gold, than much fine gold. They will do that for us which gold cannot do.
2. Emotionally it is. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Experimentally it is unutterably grateful, filling the soul with sweetness. Sweeter than honey and the droppings of the comb. More grateful than all the pleasures of sense. What wonder is it that this converting, instructing, exhilarating, enlightening, eternal, true, and righteous Word should be declared preferable to the riches of eastern kings, and sweeter to the soul of the pious believer than the sweetest thing we know of is to the bodily taste! How ready we are to acknowledge all this! Yet the next hour, perhaps, we part with the true riches to obtain the earthly mammon, and barter away the joys of the spirit for the gratification of sense! Lord, give us affections towards Thy Word in some measure proportionate to its excellence; for we can never love too much what we can never admire enough.Horne. Dr. Duncan said a little before his death: I wish I had a little more personal faith. I think with the Psalmist that these things are more precious than gold, yea, than much fine gold; but I cannot go so well with him in that, they are sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. I stick at that; that has often been a plague with me; the precious things were more as casketed jewels than as meat and drink. They delight the intellect; but, oh! I wish I had a loving heart! I go mourning all the day for want of it.
3. Practically it is (Psa. 19:11). The twofold province of revealed law. It is to preserve. It admonishes, points out peril, and saves. A miners safety-lamp was brought out some time ago, which, besides serving the purpose of an ordinary safety-lamp, sounds a note of warning to the workmen the moment the air around becomes so charged with fire-damp as to be dangerous or explosive. Thus the Word, which is a lamp unto our feet, gives a timely note of warning lest we fall into temptation and sin. And in the keeping of it there is great reward. It is true that in the end it will bring us great recompense. The Hebrew word signifies the last, the end of a thing; and thence it may signify reward, as the consequence or result of an action.Phillips. But this is hardly the truth intended here. In the act of keeping themnot merely as the consequence of doing so.Kay. Not only for keeping, but in keeping of them. As every flower hath its sweet smell, so every good action hath its sweet reflection upon the soul.Trapp.
The work of righteousness is peace:
The great rewards already given;
And all Thy servants, Lord, confess
Obedient love is present heaven.
SECRET FAULTS
(Psa. 19:12.)
Let us consider what these secret faults are, and our duty in the recollection of them:
I. The sins known to ourselves, but not known to the world. There is a certain portion of our life which is sheltered from the popular gaze. There is a certain privacy left us, so that God may put us to the test as to how far we are good because the world looks at us, and how far we are good because He looks at us. How have we acted here? How acted when free from the criticisms of society? Is it not true that we are often more pure before men than before God? We put the best side of everything to the world: but this is more true of our characters than it is of anything else. How carefully we veil our faults from our neighbour! our schemes of pride! our unspoken anger! our fits of envy! our greed of gold! our stained imaginations! And thus it comes to pass that good men think worse of themselves than society does. When, on a certain festive occasion, Pestalozzi, the German philanthropist, was presented with a wreath, he put it gently away, saying, Crowns are not for me, but for the innocent. The best of men have ever had the feeling that if the world knew them better it would praise them less.
II. The sins known to the world, but not to us. We see sins that the world cannot see; they see sins we do not see. How often men are egregiously mistaken concerning themselves and their doings! And this applies, perhaps, more to character than it does to anything else. Individuals move amongst us, in whose countenance, in whose eye, we behold the evidence of a fatal disease, and yet they see it not; and thus we often see in those with whom we have to do evidences of moral disorder and imperfection which they apprehend not, or apprehend very imperfectly. We may be very sure that our friends see similar faults in us. The portrait our friends paint of us is very different from that rose-coloured picture we draw of ourselves.
III. The sins neither known to us, nor to the world, but which are known to God. There are deeps of evil in us with which we have but the slightest acquaintance. As Alexander Smith says, What strangers we are to ourselves. In every mans nature there is an interior unexplored as that of Africa, and over that region what wild beasts may roam. The perfection and spirituality of Gods law render it almost impossible for a fallen son of Adam ever to know all the innumerable instances of his transgressing it. Add to which, that false principles and inveterate prejudices make us regard many things as innocent, and some things as laudable, which, in the eye of heaven, are far otherwise. Self-examination is a duty which few practise as they ought to do: and he who practises it best will always have reason to conclude his particular confessions with this genial petition, Cleanse Thou me from secret faults.Horne. To society we wear a mask, to ourselves a veil, but to Gods eye neither mask nor veil, for our iniquities are set before Him, our secret sins in the light of His countenance. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Learn,
1. To recognise the reality and guilt of our secret sinfulness. These secret sins are real sins. These faults are of daily and hourly incursion, involuntary and unavoidable infirmities, yet are they sins properly so called; and we must be cleansed from them by the merit and Spirit of Christ.Trapp. No one is to plead as an excuse, or to justify themselves by the secrecy and delicacy of many sins, the unfathomableness of the human heart, the impossibility of a complete knowledge of self and sin.Moll. Our secret faults make us weak. They rob our character of beauty, as a flower fades when a worm is at the root. They are likely to become manifest faults. As Bishop Hopkins says: The least sin, if let alone in the heart, will, like a small speck in fruit, spread to a total rottenness. Our secret faults will confront us at the bar of God. He shall bring every thought into judgment, with every secret thing.
2. To seek forgiveness and cleansing from this secret sinfulness. Clear thou me from hidden faults. The word translated clear is borrowed from the law, and means not so much to cleanse by renovation of the heart, as to acquit by a judicial sentence. (See Exo. 34:7; Num. 14:18.) Such an acquittal, in the case of sinners against God, involves the idea of a free forgiveness.Alexander. Let us seek this forgiveness, but let us seek also the cleansing grace. Psa. 19:14.
But who can all his errors tell,
Or count the thoughts by which he fell?
Omniscient God, to Thee alone
My sins infinity is known!
Do Thou my secret faults efface,
And show forth all Thy cleansing grace.
Law goes further than our power of introspection, and the cleansing power must go deeper than our own insight.
PRESUMPTUOUS SINS
(Psa. 19:13.)
Let us inquire:
I. What these sins are? Deliberate, wilful, and high-handed sins. Wilful, insolent ones.Kay. Divines have distinguished sin into three kinds; called sins of ignorance, sins of infirmity, and sins of presumption. The will is supposed to concur more or less in all, otherwise they could not be sins; but they have their names from what is most prevailing and predominant in each. If there be more of ignorance than wilfulness in it, it is a sin of ignorance; if there be more of infirmity than wilfulness in it, it is a sin of infirmity; but if there be more of wilfulness than of either, or both the former, it is then a wilful sin; and that is what the text calls presumptuous sin.Waterland. These are sins of scarlet dyesins evidently against reason, conscience, society.
II. Out of what they arise? The order observed by the Psalmist is most instructivefirst secret faults, then presumptuous sins. The latter arise out of the former. We ignore our secret sins, and they are uncared for, unrepented of, unstriven against, and they develop into bold and outrageous sin. Let us watch the first strayings of our heart from God and righteousness. Not all at once do men become open and high-handed sinners. We observe:
III. The dark tyranny they exercise. Let them not have dominion over me. Dr. Phillips translates this: From the proud, i.e., from tyrannical or haughty governors. This is much better than to render it by presumptuous sins. But this translation has not the sanction of the great commentators. Alexander says: The Hebrew word properly denotes proud men, but seems to be here applied to sins by a strong personification. Keep thy servant from presumptuous, or wilful sin; literally, from proud, presumptuous, insolent ones, the tyrants of the soul (Num. 15:17-31); let them not have dominion over me.Wordsworth. When sin comes to this pass it is hard to be repented of. It is hard to renounce. The soul is at the mercy of sin. Like tyrannical governors oppressing a captured city, so does sin triumph and grind down the soul. It is comparatively easy to shake off faults whilst yet incipient, private, and occasional; but they have become tyrants whose yoke it is well nigh impossible to shake off when they have developed into habitual, open, shameless sins. The sinner, then, is the slave of imperious lusts. Observe:
IV. The absolute sin in which they culminate. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. The great apostasy. The idea is, that wilful sins extinguish Gods Spirit within us. The unpardonable sin. Secret sins lead to open sin; and open sin indulged in, persevered in, leads to the great transgressionthe quenching of the Spirit, and final apostasy from God.
1. Let us beware of secret faults.
2. Let us beware of presumptuous sins. There are no sins so dark and awful but we are capable of them. Let us watch and tremble lest we should fall into those insolent, defiant sins which provoke the mighty and glorious Being who has set His glory above the heavens.
3. Let us live in dependence upon Divine aid. Keep back thy servant. Cry mightily to God for preventing grace.
4. Let us seek for entire sanctification of spirit (Psa. 19:14). It were vain, indeed, for a man to seek to purify his own heart, but David sees in God his Strength and Deliverer. Christ delivers from sin; His Spirit purifies the heart; and that Spirit preserves us with garments unspotted from the world.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 19
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Greater than the Glory of God in the Heavens is the Grace of Jehovah in the Law.
ANALYSIS
A Composite Psalm: in which, by the mere force of Juxtaposition, the Grace of Jehovah in the Law, is seen to be even More Precious than the Greatness of God in the Heavens. Stanza I., Psa. 19:1-2; Psa. 19:4, The Witness to God borne by the Heavens in General. Stanza II., Psa. 19:4 c6, The Witness by the Sun in particular. Stanza III, Psa. 19:7-9, The Excellence of the Law in Itself and in its Beneficent Effects. An Overflow from the foregoing Stanza (Psa. 19:10). Stanza IV., Psa. 19:11-14, A Personal Application: with Prayer, for Profit by the Law, and for the Divine Acceptance of this Psalm.
(Lm.) PsalmBy David.
1
The heavens are telling the glory of GOD,
and the work of his hands the expanse is declaring:
2
Day unto day doth pour forth speech,
3
and night unto night doth breathe out knowledge:[176]
[176] M.T. adds:
There is no speech, and there are no words:
unheard is their voice.
Sep. and Vul. expand this into:
There is no speech, there are no words,
where their voice is not heard.
These are followed by the italics in A.V. Delitzsch renders as follows:
There is no speech and there are no words,
whose voice is inaudible.
Drivers alternative rendering runs:
It is not a speech, neither are they words,
the voice whereof cannot be heard.
4
Through all the earth hath gone forth their voice,
and to the end of the world their sayings:
For the sun hath He set up a tent therein;
5
and he is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
he rejoiceth as a hero to run a race.
6
From one end of the heavens is his going forth,
and his circuit unto the other end thereof;
and nothing is hid from His glowing sun.[177]
[177] So. Br.
7
The law of Jehovah is perfect[178]refreshing[179] the soul,
[178] Or: blameless, whole, sound.
[179] See Pro. 25:13, Lam. 1:11; Lam. 1:16; Lam. 1:19; and cf. Psa. 23:3. Lit. bringing back, i.e. restoring, invigorating. The soul is the principle of life . ; here, of the spiritual life.Dr. To restore the sense of lifeDr. Glossary I. to Parallel Psalter
The testimony of Jehovah is trustworthymaking wise the simple;
8
The precepts of Jehovah are right[180]rejoicing the heart,
[180] Or: upright. Ml.: straightforward. Cp. Psa. 119:137.
The commandment of Jehovah is clear[181]enlightening the eyes;
[181] Or: bright. Sep. far-shining.
9
The reverence of Jehovah is cleanenduring evermore,
The regulations of Jehovah are truthvindicated altogether.
10
More desirable than goldyea than much fine gold,
Sweeter also than honeyor than the droppings from the comb.
11
Even thine own servant findeth warning in them
in keeping them the reward is great.
12
Mistakes who perceiveth?[182]
[182] Lapseswho marketh them?Del. That is, sins of inadvertence; cf. Lev. 4:2, R.V. marg.Dr.
from concealed things acquit me,
13
Also from presumptuous ones restrain thy servant
let them not rule over me:
Then shall I be blameless[183]
[183] Ml.: one whole (all of a piece).
and be cleared of great transgression.
14
Acceptable be the sayings of my mouth
and the soft utterance of my heart,
Before thee continually,[184] O Jehovah
[184] So Sep. as the measure requiresBr.
my rock and my redeemer.
(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 19
The heavens are telling the glory of God; they are a marvelous display of His craftsmanship.
2 Day and night they keep on telling about God.
3, 4 Without a sound or word, silent in the skies, their message reaches out to all the world.
The sun lives in the heavens where God placed it
5 And moves out across the skies as radiant[185] as a bridegroom going to his wedding,[186] or as joyous as an athlete looking forward to a race!
[185] Implied. Literally, is like a bridegroom.
[186] Implied. Literally, going forth from his chamber.
6 The sun crosses the heavens from end to end, and nothing can hide from its heat.
7, 8 Gods laws are perfect. They protect us, make us wise, and give us joy and light.
9 Gods laws are just and perfect. Reverence for God keeps us pure and leads us on to heaven.[187]
[187] Or, The rules governing the worship of the Lord are pure and need never be changed.
10 His laws are more desirable than gold. They are sweeter than honey dripping from a honeycomb.
11 For they warn us away from harm and give success to those who obey them!
12 But how can I ever know what sins are lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.
13 And keep me from deliberate wrongs; help me to stop doing them. Only then can I be free of guilt and innocent of some great crime.
14 May my spoken words and unspoken thoughts be pleasing even to You, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer.
EXPOSITION
This is a psalm of exquisite beauty, which winningly invites us along the path of exposition; but which, nevertheless confronts us with a difficulty which we shall do well to settle at once if possible, so as to study the psalm without distraction and to the utmost profit. The difficulty, when first stated, appears sufficiently formidable; seeing that it involves the serious question whether or not Psa. 19:3 should be regarded as an excrescence. Whoever will look at this verse as it appears in the A.V., will readily understand the nature of the problem. Strip off the three italic words which, in that version, are incorporated with it, and which young readers will remember are to be taken as having no express warrant in the original,and the statement remaining is found to be a thrice repeated negative: no speech, nor language, their voice is not heardin express contradiction of both the spirit and letter of Psa. 19:1-2; Psa. 19:4; and the remarkable thing is that the Hebrew text handed down to us, simply contains these three unqualified negatives. Next observe, that the supplied words have the startling effect of converting the negative into a positive; and asserting that, wherever any language is spoken, there the heavens utter a voiceof course, in harmony with the context; thereby getting over the difficulty, and not wholly without authority, seeing that both Septuagint and Vulgate (Greek and Latin) versions contain the very words (or their equivalent) which thus turn the statement completely round. Noting these things, the first impulse of many readers will undoubtedly be to acquiesce is this solution, by saying: Evidently some little word or words have dropped out of the Hebrew, the substance of which has been fortunately preserved by the ancient Greek and Latin versions. Well: for those so content, the verse will be found at the foot of the text; and further, inasmuch as some think that even the direct negatives of the Hebrew can be harmonised with the context, as either a sort of aside spoken by an objector (which was suggested in the Emphasised Bible) or with a sort of mental gloss. No LITERAL voicethough, in reasons ear, there is a voice, for this cause, the literal Hebrew, as reflected in the R.V., is also given at the foot. Now will these contented readers exercise a little forbearance towards a few more critical minds, who are not so easily satisfied, but who prefer the opinion that this verse is an excrescence. Their reasons are: first, that it just makes this stanza so much too long, which alone would not count for much, but is of sufficient force to sustain the additional reason now to be submitted: namely, secondly, that as soon as the negative is turned into a positive, then it is needless, seeing that Psa. 19:1-2 positively assert that the heavens, etc., tell, declare, pour forth and breathe out their witness to Gods glory; and further, that Psa. 19:4 makes this positive assurance universal in extent. So that, in a word, by dropping the two lines which make the stanza too long, nothing substantial is lost, while brevity and point, as well as symmetry, are gained. The reader who is not yet quite persuaded to join the more critical, will at least understand, without a disturbing thought, why the following exposition takes the shorter and more direct route leading to the same end.
The general witness of the heavens is brought to bear upon a point twice expressed: it is the glory of Godtheir brightness and beauty being expressive of his own; and being, as they are, the work of his hand, the inference is that he is greater than they. The fact that the heavens bear this witness is four times expressed: they tell it out or recount it, as if spoken of a story composed of numberless details, they declare it, as with authority, making Gods glory conspicuous; they pour it forth in a stream of eloquence as from an exhaustless fountain of evidence; and they gently breathe out the intelligence, with such soft accents as leave the truth larger, loftier, louder than their low utterance can attain. The second couple of these verbs is apportioned, the one to the day, and the other to the night. It is the day that pours forth speech, as through the channels of a thousand voices: it is the night that breathes out her almost inaudible whispers. Moreover, one day speaks the the next, the day-studies being handed on for further days to prosecute; and the night, ceasing her story when the day appears, takes up the broken thread when the next night comeswhich is poetically true to fact: since day-studies can only be pursued by day, and night-studies by night. To suggest all this without actually saying so is a triumph of the poetic art. An effective synonymous couplet sets the seal of universality upon this testimony to the glory of God. Wherever men can dwell, God is there, in his works, to speak to them of himself. So much, says Stanza 1., of the heavens in general.
But now the sun takes a stanza all to himself; and, as seems meet, the figures wax more bold. The emphasis now to be laid on the sun is shown by his position at the very head of the stanza. An excellent point of connection with the first stanza is gained by attributing the act of setting up the tent for the sun to God himself (the El of the opening line of the psalm) and for once we spell the pronoun He with a capital initial. The word tent is the simple and usual rendering of the Hebrew ohel, and no Sunday garment is needed for it. The word therein naturally refers back to the heavens of Psa. 19:1, and so forms another link of connection with the first stanza. Moreover, as every eye can see where the sun enters his tent in the evening and where he reappears in the morning, the perhaps rather fanciful question arises whether the ancient Hebrews were quite so backward in their nature-views as is commonly supposed. The emphasis on the pronoun he in the second line of the stanza naturally carries the mind right back to the sun at the head of the previous line: and he is like. By a most beautiful figure of speech, comparing the sun to a bridegroom coming forth with a smile on his face from his nuptial chamber, the freshness of the sun every morning is expressed. With joy behind him, he has at the same time gladness before him, as he comes forth like a hero rejoicing in the consciousness of his staying powers, and that whoever may have need to retire for sleep at mid-day, he, unwearied, will be able to hold on his way till his race is run. The poets eye measures the racers course from one end of the heavens to the other; and, impressed with its magnificent sweep, his mind is struck with the universality of the suns searching warming rays. The word for sun at the beginning of the stanza was shemesh, the customary word: it is now, at the end of the stanza, hammah, a poetical and less customary word to denote the orb of day; and though derived from a root meaning to be hot, yet in O.T. usage it is always used of the sun himself, and not merely of his heat, as all the other instances of its occurrence in the O.T. will show: Job. 30:25, S. Son. 6:10, Isa. 24:23; Isa. 30:26. It is hence permissible to conclude that here also is the sun himself that is meant; and, if so, the pronoun His (His sun),again spelling it with a capital, like the He of the first line,will once more carry us up to God, whose representative the sun so strikingly is: implying, without expressing, that, as the sun searches all, so in a higher sense does God. Thus the end of the second stanza returns to the beginning of the first, and the two are locked into a unit.
With Stanza III. we enter upon the second half of the psalm: the transition to which is certainly very abrupt, however we may account for that circumstance; some conceiving that here we have two distinct psalms on two distinct subjects, whose juxtaposition, as an afterthought, naturally causes the sense of abruptness; others thinking that the same mind that originated the first half, pausing to face a new but counterpart theme, instinctively adopted a new vocabulary and a new style. The exact genesis of the change we may never know, but the fact of the change remains undeniable, and the magnitude and tenor of it we may briefly trace.
Note, then, that the Divine name El, the Mighty One, used once, and once only, in the former half of the psalm, now gives place to the Divine name Jehovah, which occurs six times in this stanza and once in the next, making seven times in all, in the second half of the psalm. This fact is significant; for, though this second half of the psalm is not strictly speaking about Jehovah himself but about his Law, etc., yet the repeated use of this different and more gracious Divine Name clearly ought to be regarded as shedding a soft lustre over the whole of this division of the psalm. If it only be true that Jehovah is pre-eminently a name of grace, as it undoubtedly is, then everything which it touches is graciously affected thereby. Whether law, testimony, precept, or whatever else of Jehovah, every form of his instruction for my guidance is lit up by its relation to himself, as the Becoming One, the helper of his people.
With this agree the breadth and variety of both nouns and adjectives which are related to Jehovah: his law in his instruction to guide as well as his law to bind; his testimony witnesses to his own grace as well as to the saints duty; and so on to the end. The same with the adjectives: perfect, lacking nothing that the soul needs; trustworthy, warranting the fullest confidence; right, satisfying mans better judgment; clear, saying what it means, making duty plain; clean, no foul spot in it, to corrupt and abolish it; truth, giving right decisions between man and man, claim and claim, and therefore regulations worthy to regulate.
But if nouns and adjectives have the grace of Jehovah resting on them, how much more those beautiful little pendants hanging upon them, each like a jewel in the ear of beauty; which, in four cases, describe the beneficent action of Jehovahs instruction, and in the two remaining instances attest its self-preserving power. The actions are all gracious: they refresh, they make wise, they gladden, they enlighten. Such Divine guidance must abide: enduring evermore, their Divine perfections are vindicated from all attacks, and they mutually explain and defend each other.
But is all this praise of the Law, not just a little exaggerated? No! why should it? Granted that the Law was a tutor guiding to Christ: are we to think that the child-guide had no affection for his ward? Besides, the terms employed are too broad and various to be limited to the mere binding force of the edicts from Sinais summit: though even the Ten Words of Thunder had their gracious undertones. Let the Christian bethink him whether he cannot translate the whole of these six synonyms into the terms of Jesus and his Apostles, and then sing, How gentle Gods command! Do the New Testament instructions not refresh, make wise, gladden, enlightenand endure, triumphantly vindicated?
That overflow, the 10th verse,what means it? It looks as though, to the incipient apprehension of the psalmist, it had occurred, as a first thought, to have EIGHT full-fledged synonyms of the Law, as in Psalms 119; which half-formed design was subsequently abandoned; and then the unused colours were dashed on the canvas in magnificent profusion that nothing might be lost. Instead of saying seventhly,The word of Jehovah is costlymore desirable than gold! and, eighthly, The statutes of Jehovah are satisfyingsweeter than honey, his enthusiasm breaks bounds, and he takes the saints experimental response alone and intensifies two phases of it into a climax, and exclaims without more ado: More desirable than goldyea, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honeyor the droppings of the comb.
The transition at Psa. 19:11 to the last stanza is very striking. Hitherto, neither El nor Jehovah has been directly addressed; but now a sense of nearness leads the psalmist reverently to look in the face of Jehovah, and say, ThyThouThee. He is in his heavenly Masters presence, and dutifully terms himself Jehovahs servant, yet without losing his sense of nearness or favoured acceptance; for he lays stress on this as a further commendation of the regulations of the Divine Law: Even thine own servantwho has long delighted himself in thy precepts and made them known to otherseven HE findeth warning in them; lest, through inattention or over-confidence, he should insensibly or presumptuously fall into the error of the wicked. Thus admonished and restrained, he can bear witness that in keeping them the reward is great.
As if now moved to a searching of heart, the psalmist abruptly exclaims: Mistakes who perceiveth? By the emphasis he throws on the word mistakes through boldly preplacing it, he calls pointed attention to the precise nature of the failures of which he is thinking. Of course he is keeping within the general limits of practical mistakes, errors of conduct in doing or leaving undone, as alone worthy of notice here; but in thus calling attention to their exact character, he throws his mind back on this as the essence of them, that, being genuine mistakes, they are of course unperceived, or they would not be mistakes; and then the disturbing question arises: How often may I not have unwittingly done wrong? For wrong, after all, was the doing of the thing graciously forbidden, or the leaving undone of the thing graciously commanded. It was wrong all the samethough I noted it not: the law was transgressed, and my soul lost its refreshing. And so on, along the interminable line of sins of ignorance, which yet are sins. And therefore the psalmist is moved to pray the first prayer of the psalm: from concealed things (understand, SUCH concealed things, concealed from myself by error or inadvertence, otherwise they might still have been presumptuous though concealed from others) acquit me. What a searching lesson for us all!
Carelessness, in not noticing or remembering Divine Law, may lead to indifference as to heeding it when known and remembered; and thus sins of ignorance suggest sins of knowledge and daring; and behind even these the impulse to commit them may be strong, the temptation great; and then Divine restraint will be needed and is here earnestly soughthow earnestly, is seen by observing how aptly the petitioner reminds himself that he is Jehovahs servantand therefore bound by every tie thrown about him by his Masters favour,and by observing how seasonably he calls to mind that presumptuous sins, if not sternly checked, will assume dominion over him. No wonder that, with an evident sense of relief, a mind thus happily sensitive should exclaim: Thenacquitted from unwitting sins and restrained from presumptuous sinsshall I be perfectnot indeed in degree, but in whole-heartedness, and be cleared of great transgression.
Most appropriately is this last stanza of the psalm concluded by the unique prayerin which surely even the holy men of today may join, at a long distance behind those holy men of oldaccepted be the sayings of my mouthwhich are here set forth as pruned to suit the strings of my lyre, and the soft utterancethe tenative soliloquisingof my hearton mine own ear while constructing this my poem: Before thee, continually (surely the recording angel made a memorandum of them all!) O Jehovahthou God of covenant gracemy Rock of strength and confidence, and my Redeemerfrom sin, sorrow and death.
There is little need to say, that reasonable latitude should be given to the inscription To David. So long as the Royal Librarian felt justified in thus marking a psalm, the ends of literary justice and working convenience were met. A psalm may have been written by one of Davids prophetic scribes or singers; yet, if offered to his royal master, and examined and approved by him, it would naturally be regarded strictly Davidic, and be fittingly deposited in the department of the library set apart to Davids psalms. Notwithstanding all this, there would seem to be a peculiar poetic justice in attributing the first part of this psalm to David himself. The shepherd of Bethlehem was as familiar with the sun as with moon and stars; and having, in the leisure hours of his pastoral duties, oft marked the freshness of the sun in his rising, the triumphant valour of his unwearied way, the vast sweep of his daily circuit, the searching energy of his penetrating heat, and the calm majesty of his nightly retirement to his tent,who so likely among psalmists as he, to have penned this snatch of song in his praise? The poetic justice lies in cherishing the conception that he who harped to the moon and the stars in Psalms 8 was the likeliest man to be allowed to sweep his strings to the sun in Psalms 19. It has been remarked, in the above Exposition, that even this snatch of song to the sun possesses a closely welded unity. Nevertheless, its ending is abrupt, and if it stood alone, must, as a psalm, have been pronounced unfinished. This apprehension is at once appeased by the theory of co-authorship. What the original ending of the sun-stanzas may have been, we know not; but the hypothesis is an easy one, that it had in it some local or temporal element which could be spared for the worthy purpose of making way for a second part. And then, as to the authorship of that second part, who so likely as Hezekiah to have composed it? With the passionate love for the law and for the temple and for the functions of priests and Levites which history attributes to him; with the leisure and the culture which as a prince naturally fell to his lot; and with the high poetic genius which, from Isaiah 38, we know he possessed;who so likely in all history as he, to have wedded this Law-Bride to that Sun-Bridegroom? Besides, the segments of truth are formed for cohesion; and the poet who penned the second part of this psalm, is the likeliest man whose shadow has ever been seen, to have possessed in himself and been able to command in gifted associates, the constellation of sanctified genius adequate, under Divine guidance, to the production of that literary marvel, Psalms 119,after which it is but little to say, that, of course, he also wrote our present Psalms 1. Thus, another chain of unity at an early date, is forged for binding together The Song Book of all coming ages. The king whose delight it was to speak of the Maker of heaven and earth (Isa. 37:16; Psa. 121:2); and who encouraged the priests and Levites in their devotion to the Law of the Lord (2Ch. 31:4), would readily adopt (and expand) this poem of DavidsThirtle, O.T.P., 314.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
Why doesnt Rotherham include verse three in the text of his translation? Discuss the problem.
2.
What is the meaning of the expression the glory of God?
3.
Do the heavens speak of the glory and power of God to an unbeliever? Cf. Rom. 1:20-23. Discuss.
4.
The sun is especially considered in the handiwork of Godcheck our present known facts on the immense size of the suni.e. compared with the earthWhat is the tent of the sun?
5.
Give three of the beautiful comparisons made between the sun and a bridegroomDiscuss.
6.
Is there some connection between the first half of this psalm (Psa. 19:1 thru 6) and the last half? (Psa. 19:7 thru 14) what is it?
7.
Discuss the terms lawand testimonyas they relate to Gods word.
8.
Discuss the adjectives: perfectrightclearcleantruth as they relate to our response to Gods Law.
9.
If the Old Covenant was to produce such response as: refreshmake wisegladdenenlightenhow much more the New Covenantdiscuss how this can actually happen.
10.
How can God help us overcome sin? Be practical and personal.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) The heavens declare.Better, the heavens are telling. The poet is even now gazing at the sky, not philosophising on a familiar natural phenomenon, nor is he merely enjoying beauty. Not only is his sthetic faculty satisfied, but his spirit, his religious nature is moved. He has an immediate apprehension, an intuition of God. He is looking on the freshness of the morning, and all he sees is telling of God, bringing God before him. This constitutes the essence of the greater part of Hebrew poetry. This is the inspiration of the bard of Israela religious inspiration. The lower, the aesthetic perception of beauty, is ready at every moment to pass into the higher, the religious emotion. All truly great poetry partakes of this elevationHebrew poetry in its highest degree. Some lines from Coleridges Hymn before Sunrise in the Yale of Chamouni not only supplies a modern example, but explains the moral, or rather spiritual process, involved
O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,
Didst vanish from my thought; entranced in prayer,
I worshipped the Invisible alone.
(See an article on God in Nature and in History, in The Expositor for March, 1881.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. The heavens declare Publish, with the adsignification of praise; they celebrate, as the word often denotes.
Glory of God The moral excellence of his nature. Num 14:20-21; Joh 11:40.
Firmament The Hebrew , ( rakeea,) firmament, comes from , ( raka,) to spread out. In the Old Testament the noun has the sense of expanse, and also of firmness, steadfastness. The latter idea comes to us through the Septuagint, , and the Vulgate firmamentum. It occurs once in New Testament, Col 2:5, and is rendered steadfastness. The idea of firmness is phenomenal, because the sky, as an arch, appears to support the celestial bodies. Job 37:18. The Hebrews had no accurate knowledge of celestial distances, and the firmament, with them, sometimes meant atmosphere, (Gen 1:6-7,) and at others, as in the text, the region of the planets and stars. Gen 1:14; Dan 12:3. The Hebrew idea of rakeea embraces the notions of extension and regularity, and as Girdlestone says, ( Hebrew Synonymes, page 424,) “It is clear that the ideas of heaven presented to the Jew by the Bible are singularly in accordance with the views entertained by students of modern astronomy.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God Speaks Through Nature ( Psa 19:1-6 ).
‘The heavens declare the glory of God,’
And the firmament reveals his handiwork.
Day to day utters speech,
And night to night shows knowledge.’
The psalmist tells us that as we behold the glory of the heavens, the sun, the moon and the stars, and the wonder of the expanse above, with its splendid panoply of glistening blue, they declare to us God’s glory. Their beauty, splendour and vastness reveal something of what He is. Their very construction reveals his creativity and skill.
From surveying the heavens, says the Psalmist, we can understand something of God’s greatness, of His orderly power and control, and of the fact that He is the source of all earthly beauty and splendour. And finally we understand the idea that He is far above all.
Here we learn that every day has something new to say to us about God, every starlit night gives us greater knowledge of Him. The daylight, centred on the sun, reveals to us His created beauty, His intricate design, His sense of order, the darkness reveals a sense of mystery and yet through the moon and the stars we enjoy the certainty that all is in its place and that God has not forgotten us.
That is why Paul could say, ‘The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and Godhead.’ (Rom 1:20).
So central to the Psalmist’s revelation is that creation speaks to us constantly, bringing discernment and knowledge about the divine as God applies their lesson to our inward spirit, and that both day and night constantly proclaim Him and make Him known to the responsive heart.
‘Day to day utters (literally ‘pours out’) speech.’ Each day the message of the glory of God flows out abundantly to those who will hear, from every part of creation.
‘And night to night shows knowledge.’ And when the day is over contemplation of the night sky grants to us an awe and reverence as we behold its splendour and teaches us His mighty power, for the moon is steady in it purpose and regulates the months, and each star remains in its place and moves in measurable ways.
Psa 19:3
‘There is no speech nor language,
Their voice is not heard.’
They do not speak in human tongue, for then they would only have a limited message for some. They are not heard through a human voice. Rather do they speak a universal language, a permanent word that never ceases. Their quiet splendour and silent eloquence ensure that we are never tired of listening to them, and cannot avoid them.
Psa 19:4
‘Their line is gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.
Thus does their message reach out to the whole earth, to the end of the world. ‘Their line’ here refers to the measuring line (Jer 31:39; Zec 1:16), going out and measuring the sphere in which God is active through them, and ‘their words’ express their universal influence as they reveal His glory.
The use of the measuring line was always a symbol of God about to act (Eze 40:3; Zec 1:16; Zec 2:1-2).
Psa 19:4-6
‘In them has he set a tent for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoices as a strong man to run his course.’
His going forth is from the end of the heavens,
And his circuit unto the ends of it,
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
And central to all this influence and activity is the sun that He has created. No god this, but an instrument of His pleasure, provided with its tent, its chamber, (that is, the place from which it can come forth), like a man emerging from his tent in the morning and a bridegroom appearing in all his splendour and triumph from the bridal chamber (Isa 61:10). This is how it appeared to man as he saw it rise and set. Like a man rises at sunrise and leaves his tent so does the sun rise for its day’s labour. Its ‘tent’ refers simply to wherever it comes from, described in picturesque language and in human terms.
And then like a strong man it fulfils its potential, it runs its course, from one end of heaven to the other, and nothing avoids its heat. It warms all that is, with none preventing it. It is God’s gracious provision for man’s welfare.
The whole vivid picture considers things as man sees them every day. Here is the whole panoply of creation, and here the sun rising and appearing in its splendour, making its way across the heavens, warming up the earth, reaching to every corner, and then, having performed its duty, setting in the west. For nothing is more prominent in the work of creation than the sun, set by God to play its part as ‘the greater light’ (Gen 1:16). And nothing more effective in doing His will for the benefit of man.
So sun, moon and stars and the whole of heaven are a permanent reminder of the glory of God, and of His wondrous handiwork and gracious provision. It is a living work of art, a glorious spectacle of beauty and effectiveness and purpose. And it makes warm the whole earth and fills it with light.
But there is also something else that arises every morning and goes out through all the world and constantly brings to man light and heat and beauty and splendour, and that is ‘the word of YHWH’ as revealed in and taught from the Scriptures. They too declare the glory of God and reveal His handiwork (Psa 19:1), they too speak and give knowledge (Psa 19:2), they too warm the earth (Psa 19:6), they too provide for the deepest needs of man.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psalms 19
Historical Background – Psalms 19 shows the two ways that God reveals Himself to mankind: through creation, and through His Word. Creation gives us a general, or natural, revelation of God while the Scriptures give us specific, or special, revelation about Him. Psa 19:1-6 deals with natural revelation while using the name El ( ) for God. This is a contracted form of the Hebrew word Elohim ( ). Unfortunately, because of man’s depravity, natural revelation is insufficient to redeem mankind. Therefore, Psa 19:7-10 deals with special revelation through God’s Word, and these verses use the proper Hebrew name for God YHWH ( ), which has been revealed only to God’s people Israel. E. W. Bullinger says that Psa 19:1-6 reveals the Creator through His works, while Psa 19:7-10 reveals Israel’s Covenant God Jehovah through His Word. [21] He believes that the stars of the Zodiac were used before the time of Moses as a testimony of God to the children of man. When the Scriptures were recorded beginning with the Pentateuch around 1500 B.C., there was no longer any need to look to the stars for insight. For the divine revelation of God could now be found in the Holy Scriptures. Finally, Psa 19:11-14 reveal man’s proper response to his revelation to God.
[21] E. W. Bullinger, The Witness of the Stars (London: E. W. Bullinger, c1893), 2.
Theme – Joh 1:1-5 reveals to us the divine attributes of the Word of God. The Word is (1) eternal, (2) God Himself, (3) the medium of creation, and (4) the source of Life. Benny Hinn says that the “Word” within the context of this passage of Scripture means, “the Revelation of God.” [22] In other words, since the beginning of time, God has revealed Himself to mankind through His creation by the means of “the light,” or the revelation of Himself, that shines in the darkness of every man’s soul. Hebrew Psa 3:1 tells us that there are two aspects to God’s being; His essence and His glory. Joh 1:1-5 tells us that the Word is an attribute of His essence, and Psa 19:1 says creation reveals His glory. God’s glory is revealed to mankind through His creation, while His essence is revealed through the Word of God. God’s creation reveals to mankind a general revelation of Himself (Psa 19:1-6), while the Word reveals specific details of God’s divine nature or essence (Psa 19:7-10).
[22] Benny Hinn, “Fire Conference,” Miracle Center Cathedral, Kampala, Uganda, 5-6 June 2009.
Heb 1:3, “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”
Psa 19:1, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
Outline Here is a proposed outline of Psalms 19:
1. Natural Revelation of God Psa 19:1-6
2. Special Revelation of God Psa 19:7-10
3. The Redemptive Purpose of Natural and Special Revelation Psa 19:11-14
Psa 19:1-6 Natural Revelation of God – Psa 19:1-6 deals with the theme of the natural revelation of God. We find a parallel passage to natural revelation in Rom 1:19-32, which teaches us that creation reveals to mankind the two-fold attributes of God. First, it reveals that there is an all-powerful and eternal God. Secondly, it reveals that this God is overseeing His creation as the Godhead. The amazing intricacies of nature tell us that creation has a purpose and a divine Creator who is intervening in His creation to insure that it fulfills its purpose.
Psa 19:1 (To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.) The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Psa 19:2 Psa 19:3 Psa 19:4 b-6
In the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ is likened to the sun shining in its strength.
Rev 1:16, “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength .”
Psa 19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Psa 19:4
Isa 28:10, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:”
Isa 28:13, “But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”
Psa 19:5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
Psa 19:6 Psa 19:6
[23] Hartmut Frommert and Christine Kronberg, “The Milky Way Galaxy,” [on-line]; accessed 1 September 2009; available from http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~powersr/New/notes/3rd%20%20year%20misc/3013%20galaxies/The%20Milky%20Way%20Galaxy.htm; Internet.
Psa 19:7-10 Special Revelation of God Psa 19:7-10 deals with special revelation through God’s magnificent Word. Note in Psa 19:1-6 the Psalmist begins by recognizing natural revelation through God’s glorious handiwork, then turns to recognize special revelation through God’s glorious Word.
Psa 19:7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
Psa 19:7
Comments The Word of God is His “instrument” that restores man’s soul, his inner make-up, his thoughts and mindset, back to the original state that God created man to be. Each person enters life with the innocence of a child, but as he grows up, the difficulties of life can defile and embitter the soul of man. God’s Word is the only thing that is capable of restoring man’s mind back to its original state of purity.
“the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” – Comments The Word of God gives wisdom to the person who lacks any sense. It takes the carnal mind of man, depraved and darkened from sin, and restores it to the mindset that God intended it to be, a mind full of the wisdom of God, creating a person who understands the ways of God. If a person is not bright and intelligent, the Word of God will restore the mind and make it sharp and able to learn and understand.
Psa 19:8 The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Psa 19:8
Psa 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
Psa 19:10 Psa 19:10
Psa 19:11-14 The Redemptive Purpose of Natural and Special Revelation The purpose of natural and special revelation is redemptive. Overwhelmed by the revelation of God’s glorious creation and His wondrous Word, the psalmist pleas to God in response to the revelation of Almighty God. In Psa 19:11-14 the Psalmist is praying that sin will not have dominion over him (Psa 19:12), so that he might be found accepted by God (Psa 19:14). Note that David was the first person in the Holy Bible to call God his Father. In other words, he understood forgiveness of sins and fellowship with God, which revealed to him the fatherly attributes of God. Prior to David, no man understood this divine attribute of almighty God.
Psa 19:11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
Psa 19:11
Psa 19:12 Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Psa 19:12
Psa 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Psa 19:13
Psa 19:13 “let them not have dominion over me” – Comments – In Gen 4:7 God explained to Cain that his sacrifice was not accepted because of sin, and warns him not to let sin have dominion over him.
Gen 4:7, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
Psa 19:13 “then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression” Comments – The psalmist has tasted the joy of being upright with God as his conscience bears witness of his forgiveness of sins and pureness of heart. Perhaps the phrase “the great transgression” refers to the final day of judgment.
Psa 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
Psa 19:14
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A Prophecy of the Gospel.
v. 1. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth, v. 2. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge, v. 3. There is no speech nor language, v. 4. Their line, v. 5. which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, v. 6. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, v. 7. The Law of the Lord, v. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right, v. 9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. v. 10. More to be desired are they, v. 11. Moreover, by them, v. 12. Who can understand, v. 13. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins, v. 14. Let the words of my mouth,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE nineteenth psalm is one of meditative praise. The psalmist, looking abroad over the whole world, finds two main subjects for his eulogyfirst, the glorious fabric of the material creation (Psa 19:1-6); and, secondly, the Divine Law which God has given to man (Psa 19:7-11). Having thus poured out his heart in praise and thanksgiving to God, he turns his eye inward upon himself, and finds many shortcomings (Psa 19:12). The thought of these leads him to prayer, and so the hymn concludes with a few short petitions (Psa 19:12-14).
Rhythmically, the divisions correspond to the changes in the thought. There is first a stately movement, continued for six versos, devoted to the glories of the universe; then a livelier strain in longer (mostly double) lines, praising the Law of the Lord, and extending to five verses only; finally, a conclusion in short, broken lines, limited to three verses.
The psalm is generally allowed to be David’s, and is declared to be his by the title. There are no internal indications by which to assign it a date.
Psa 19:1
The heavens declare the glory of God; literally, the heavens are recounting the glory of Godof El, “the Mighty One”the God of nature (see Rom 1:20). David is perhaps carrying out his declared intention (Psa 18:49) of praising God among the heathen,” and therefore takes their standpointthe ground of nature. And the firmament showeth his handywork. (On “the firmament,” see Gen 1:6, Gen 1:20.) It is the entire atmosphere enveloping the earth, in which the clouds hang and the birds move. Like the starry heavens above, this, too, “showeth,” or rather, “proclaimeth,” God’s handiwork.
Psa 19:2
Day unto day uttereth speech; literally, poureth out speech, as water is poured from a fountain. Each day bears its testimony to the next, and so the stream goes on in a flow that is never broken. And night unto night showeth knowledge. Dr. Kay compares St. Paul’s statement, that “that which may be known of God” is manifested to man through the creation (Rom 1:19, Rom 1:20). A certain superiority seems to be assigned to the night, “as though the contemplation of the starry firmament awakened deeper, more spiritual, thoughts than the brightness of day.”
Psa 19:3
There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard; rather, there is no speech, there are no words; their voles is not heard; i.e. the speech which they utter is not common speechit is without sound, without language; no articulate voice is to be heard. (So Ewald, Hup-feld, Perowne, Kay, Hengstenberg, Alexander, and our Revisers.)
Psa 19:4
Their line is gone out through all the earth. It is much disputed what “their line“ means. The word used, qav (), means, ordinarily, a “measuring-line” (Eze 47:3 : Zec 1:16, etc.), whence it comes to have the further sense of a terminus or boundary; that which the measuring-line marks out. It is also thought to have signified an architect’s rule; and, hence, anything regulative, as a decree, precept, or law (see Isa 28:10). The LXX. translated it in this place by , “a musical sound;” and Dr. Kay supposes “the regulative chord,” or “key-note.” to be intended. Perhaps “decree” would be in this place the best rendering, since it would suit the “words” (minim) of the second clause. The “decree” of the heavens is one proclaiming the glory of God, and the duty of all men to worship him. And their words to the end of the world. Though they have neither speech nor language, nor any articulate words, yet they have “words” in a certain sense. Millim is said to be used of thoughts just shaping themselves into language, but not yet uttered (Kay). In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. God has made the heavens the sun’s dwelling-place, the place where he passes the day. There is, perhaps, a tacit allusion to the Shechinah, which dwelt in the tabernacle of the congregation:
Psa 19:5
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; literally, and he is as a bridegroom. The bridegroom went forth to meet the bride in glorious apparel, and “preceded by a blaze of torch-light” (Kay). The sun’s “chamber” is where he passes the nightbelow the earth; from this he bursts forth at morning in his full glory, scattering the darkness, and lighting up his splendid “tabernacle.” And rejoiceth as a strong man-to run a race (comp. Jdg 5:31, “As the sun when he goeth forth in his might“). The Prayer-book Version, if less literal, better conveys the spirit of the original.
Psa 19:6
His going forth is from the end of the heaven The poet, like other poets, describes the phenomena as they appear to him. He does not broach any astronomical theory. And his circuit (i.e. his course) unto the ends of it; i.e. he proceeds from one end of the heavens to the other. And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Many things are hidden from the light of the sun, but nothing from its “heat.” which is the vital force whence the whole earth receives life and energy.
Psa 19:7-11
The transition from the glories of the material universe to the “law of the Lord” is abrupt and startling. Some go so far as to say that there is no connection at all between the first and second parts of the psalm. But it is the law and order that pervades the material universe which constitutes its main glory; and the analogy between God’s physical laws and his moral laws is evident, and generally admitted (see the great work of Bishop Butler, part 1.).
Psa 19:7
The Law of the Lord is perfect. Whatsoever proceeds from God is perfect in its kind; his “Law” especiallythe rule of life to his rational creatures. That salvation is not by the Law is not the fault of the Law, but of man, who cannot keep it. “The Law” itself “is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom 7:12). Converting the soul. The word employed, meshibah, is used of restoring from disorder and decay (Psa 80:19), from sorrow and affliction (Rth 4:15), from death (1Ki 17:21, 1Ki 17:22). The Law, by instructing men, restores them from moral blindness to the light which is theirs by nature (Rom 1:19), and, as a further consequence, in many cases, restores them from sin to righteousness. The testimony of the Lord is sure. ‘Eduththe word translated “testimony”is employed especially of the Decalogue (Exo 25:16, Exo 25:21, Exo 25:22, Exo 25:26; Num 9:15; Num 17:1-13 :23; Num 18:2, etc.); but may be regarded as sue of the many synonyms under which the whole Law may be spoken of (see Psa 119:2, Psa 119:14, Psa 119:22, Psa 119:24, Psa 119:88, etc.). The Law is “sure”i.e. fixed, firm, stablein comparison with the fleeting, shifting, unstable judgments of human reason. Making wise the simple; i.e. enlightening their moral judgment.
Psa 19:8
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; rather, the precepts of the Lord are right. Another of the many synonyms under which the Law may be spoken of (see Dr. Kay’s preface to the hundred and nineteenth psalm). God’s precepts “rejoice the heart” of the godly. They are not felt as stern commands, but as gracious intimations of what God desires man to do for his own good. The commandment of the Lord is pure; i.e. spotless, clean, without fault (comp. Psa 19:7, “The Law of the Lord is perfect”). Enlightening the eyes; i.e. giving light to the intellect.
Psa 19:9
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever. Hengstenberg explains “the fear of the Lord” in this place as “the instruction afforded by God for fearing him.” And certainly, unless we adopt some such explanation, we shall find it difficult to account for the intrusion of the clause into its present position. The Law, the testimony, the statutes (or precepts), the commandment (Psa 19:7, Psa 19:8), and the judgments (Psa 19:9), are external to man, objective; the fear of the Lord. as commonly understood, is internal, subjective, a “settled habit of his soul.” It is not a thing of the same kind with the other five nominatives, and appears out of place among them. Hence it seems best, with Professor Alexander, to adopt Hengstenberg’s explanation. The Law, viewed as teaching the fear of God, is undoubtedly “clean “i.e. pure, perfectand “endures for ever,” or is of perpetual obligation. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. In “judgments” we have another of the recognized synonyms for the entire Law (Psa 119:7, Psa 119:13, Psa 119:43, Psa 119:52, Psa 119:62), which is from first to last “exceeding righteous and true” (Psa 119:138, Prayer-book Version).
Psa 19:10
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. (For the difference between “gold” () and “fine gold” (), see the ‘Homiletic Commentary on Job,’ p. 458.) God’s Law is a far greater good to man, and therefore far more to be desired, than any amount of riches; much more must it be preferable to honey and the honeycomb.
Psa 19:11
Moreover by them is thy servant warned. This verse is a sort of connecting link between the second and the third parts of the psalm. Through its subject-matter, which is still the Law of the Lord, it belongs to the second part; but metrically, and by the introduction of the person of the psalmist (“thy servant”), it belongs to the third. David feels that to him it is the crowning excellency of the Law, that it teaches, instructs, or “warns” him. And in keeping of them there is great reward. Not only the reward promised in Exo 15:26, or “the recompense of the reward” laid up for men in heaven, but a present reward “in the act of keeping them” (Kay). Obedience, like virtue, is its own reward.
Psa 19:12-14
A consideration of the Law cannot but raise the thought of transgression. Man “had not known sin but by the Law” (Rom 7:7), and he cannot contemplate the Law without being reminded of possible disobedience to it. The psalmist’s thoughts are led in this direction, and he ends with an earnest prayer against “secret sins” (Psa 19:12), against “presumptuous sins” (Psa 19:13), and against sins of word and thought (Psa 19:14), addressed to “God his Strength [or, ‘his Rock’] and his Redeemer.”
Psa 19:12
Who can understand his errors? rather, who can discern (or, perceive) his errors? i.e. all of them. Who will not overlook some, try as he may to search out his heart? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Those which are hidden from me, which I cannot discern.
Psa 19:13
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins (comp. Exo 21:14; Num 15:30; Deu 17:12). Wilful, intentional, deliberate sins are intendedsuch as cut off from grace. They are called “presumptuous ones,” being “personified as tyrants who strive to bring the servant of God into unbecoming subjection to them” (Hengstenberg). Let them not have dominion over me (comp. Psa 119:133; Rom 6:14). Then shall I be upright; or, “blameless” (, LXX.). And I shall be innocent from the great transgression. There is no article in the original. Translate, and innocent of great transgression (see the Revised Version).
Psa 19:14
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight. Nor let my doings only be righteous; let the door of my lips be kept, that I utter no evil word, and the recesses of my heart be purged, that I think no evil thought. O Lord, my strength; literally, my Rock (), as in Psa 18:1. And my Redeemer (comp. Psa 78:35; and see Gen 48:16; Exo 15:13; Le 25:48; Rth 4:4; Job 19:25; Isa 63:9). As applied to God, the word “Redeemer” () always means a “Deliverer” from sin, or death, or danger.
HOMILETICS
Psa 19:12, Psa 19:13
The saint’s prayer against sin.
“Cleanse thou me.” Natural theology, revelation, spiritual experience,these are the three successive spheres of thought through which this wondrously beautiful psalm leads us. God in nature; God in Scripture; God in the heart and conscience to which he manifests himself. And in this last sphere, reading the psalm with Christian eyes, we can see what the inspired psalmist “desired to see, but saw not”God in Christ. First (as in Psa 8:1-9.), David lifts up his eyes to the sky; and as he beholds the starry host in its silent unswerving march, the moon walking in brightness, marking, as she waxes and wanes, the lapse of days and months; the sun coming forth in morning splendour, accomplishing his appointed journey, and leading the seasons in his train,the royal singer sees in all this a perpetual revelation of the glory of God, his wisdom, power, goodness, and unchanging law. Whether men attend to it or not, the revelation is there.
“What though no real voice or sound,” etc.
Then the psalmist’s mind rises to contemplate a higher region, in which a nobler law than the laws of nature reveals God’s glorythe region of thought, duty, spiritual life. Compared with this, all outward beauty and order are but a passing shadowy show. “The Law of the Lord,” etc. (Psa 19:7). Lastly, conscience opens the windows of the psalmist’s own inmost soul, and lets the light of this glorious and perfect Law shine in. “In keeping reward” (Psa 19:11). Yes. But is that reward mine? Have I kept this glorious and perfect Law? If I have not wilfully broken and presumptuously despised it, yet has not my best obedience come immeasurably short? “Who can understand his errors?” And then the lofty and almost jubilant tone of the psalm is subdued into lowliness, and it closes with prayer, “Cleanse,” etc. In these closing verses there is progress and climax.
(1) Secret faults, from which the psalmist prays to be cleansed;
(2) presumptuous sins, from which he prays to be kept; and
(3) great transgression, of which he trusts God will hold him guiltless.
I. SECRET SINS. Perhaps St. Paul had this passage in his mind (Rom 2:12, Rom 2:16). , There are two sorts of sin, widely different, which may be called “secret sins.”
(1) Sins which the offender practises secretly, and carefully keeps secret;
(2) sins into which we fall unawares, and which are a secret even from ourselves.
Of both kinds those solemn words are true (Psa 90:8). Not seldom, the searching light of the great day is anticipated, and a hidden course of sin brought to light, to the confusion and ruin of the sinner. Of all the sad sights that meet the eye, and well-nigh break the heart of the Christian pastor, incomparably the saddest is when one who has lived in honour and esteem among his fellow-Christians, perhaps far on in middle life, or even in old ageactive and prominent as a Christian worker; alas! in some cases even in the Christian ministryis suddenly discovered to have been secretly leading a dishonest, impure, or intemperate life (like a tree, hollow at the heart, suddenly uprooted). Such cases not merely grieve; they astound. They give terrible point and emphasis to the question, “Who can understand errors?” (for, you observe, the word “his” is inserted). Who can unravel the deceitfulness of sin, or comprehend its folly, or picture the inward anguish of a life of “secret sin,” hidden under a surface of apparent godliness and Christian activity? Evidently, however, it is the other kind of sins of which the text speakssins which God sees in us, though we see them not in ourselves. This is clear, firstly, because of the tone of intense sincerity pervading this psalm; secondly, because the word here rendered “cleanse” means “to absolve,” or “set free from guilt.” It is the same rendered “innocent” in Psa 19:13 (Revised Version, “clear”). We must include, however, the idea of actual inward cleansing, by the Holy Spirit, of the thoughts, desires, and affections, from which such sins spring; because, wherever God bestows pardon, he gives grace to” follow after holiness.” That such sins are sins, and need God’s forgiveness, is plain from the fact that we blame ourselves on discovering them. “I was wrong; I did not see it: I meant to do right, but I see I was very wrong.” We failed to see what a larger exercise of charity, or humility, or sympathy, or care and attention, would have enabled us to see. We judged too harshly, hastily, ignorantly. We were absorbed in some agreeable duty, and neglected a more urgent but uninteresting one. How often we bitterly blame ourselves for what at the moment we never thought wrong; perhaps even prided ourselves upon! If we ourselves often make this discovery, what a multitude of sins hidden from our forgetful memory and imperfectly enlightened conscience, must lie naked and open to him who sets “our secret sins in the light of his countenance” (Heb 4:13)! What need to pray, “Cleanse,” etc.!
II. Here is, secondly, a class of sins regarding which the psalmist prays, not to be pardoned for having committed, but to be “kept back”withheld, restrained altogether from committing them: “PRESUMPTUOUS SINS.” The best commentary here, because the one we may suppose the psalmist to have had in mind, is in the Law of Moses (Num 15:1-41; especially Num 15:27-31). These are the sins of which St. John says that the true child of God does not commit sin (1Jn 3:9). He has fully taught that real Christians do commit sin, and need forgiveness (1Jn 1:9, 1Jn 1:10; 1Jn 2:1). But not wilful sinsin “with a high hand” (1Jn 5:18). A child of God knowingly and perversely disobeying God, despising God’s Law, defying Divine justice, practically denying the Lord that bought him, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace, is an impossible suppositiona practical contradiction. Yet, how significant is it, that David prays to be “kept back” from even such sinsrestrained by a power not his own! He even sees peril of sinking into abject bondage: “Let them not have dominion over me!” These are the sins of which our Lord speaks (Joh 8:34). The more willingly and wilfully a man sins, the more does he forge fetters for himself, and become “tied and bound.” With profound humility and knowledge of his own heart, the psalmist feels that he has in himself no security. “Is thy servant a clog?” said Hazael (2Ki 8:13); but he did it (Pro 28:26; 1Co 10:12; Psa 119:117).
III. GREAT TRANSGRESSION. What the psalmist humbly prays, he confidently hopes. That he may “absolved,” “held guiltless,” or (as verse 12) “cleansed.” This cleansing, as it regards sins actually committed, is what St. John calls being cleansed by “the blood of Jesus Christ” (1Jn 1:7); St. Paul (Rom 5:9), “being. “justified by his blood;” St. Peter (1Pe 1:2), “sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. To forgiveness, the idea of practical holiness, actual purity, is added by the word “upright;” literally (as Revised Version), “perfect;” namely, with that perfection of which Scripture so often speaksintegrity; whole-hearted sincerity. What may we understand by “great transgression,” from which the psalmist hopes to be clear? It seems to correspond to the “sin unto death” of which St. John speaks (1Jn 5:16, 1Jn 5:17). Hence was drawn the famous attempt to classify sins:
(1) “mortal,” or “deadly;”
(2) “venial,” capable of forgiveness.
The fatal mistake is in trying to judge of sins apart from the person who sins. What is a sin of ignorance in one may be a presumptuous sin in another. The sin of which one repents and finds forgiveness may in another be a sin against so much light and grace that it is impossible to renew to repentance (Heb 6:4, Heb 6:6)”a sin unto death.” Let us not pry into that dark abyss; but seek to keep far from its fatal brink. Only remember and be sure of thissorrow for sin and desire for pardon and purity are a sure proof that no unpardonable sin has been committed. God “pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel”the message of his grace and love in Christ Jesus. To every onewhatsoever his sins may bewho can truly make this prayer his own, the Saviour answers as of old, “I will: be thou clean.”
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE
Psa 19:1-6
The voice of God in his works.
There is enough in this psalm for twenty discourses. But in this department of the ‘Pulpit Commentary’ it is not our province to dwell on specific texts, however attractive, but to indicate how by a homiletic exposition of the psalm as a whole, it may be brought home to us for everyday life in the continuous unfolding of the Scripture. At the same time, the two divisions of the psalm are so entirely distinct that they call for separate treatment, as they open up to the preacher entirely different branches of thought and instruction. There is no reason to question the Davidic authorship of the psalm, but it is so couched that from its contents there is nothing by which we can infer either its authorship or date; and it so speaks to man as man, that it is of equal value by whomsoever or whensoever it was penned. We have in its first six verses a rehearsal of the voices of God in the firmament above. And we gather from the forms of expression that the writer was accustomed to speak of natural phenomena in the language of his day. In his view the firmament of heaven spread out as a hemisphere above the earth, like a splendid and pellucid sapphire, in which the stars were supposed to be fixed, and over which the Hebrews believed there was a heavenly ocean. The Bible was not meant to teach science, but to teach God. Science has to do with the matter, order, and laws of the creation. In religion we have to do with the great Author of all. And while we find the writer far enough away from our present conceptions of what the heavens are, we find he is one to whom God had spoken as Jehovah, the great I AMand who had been taught God’s Law to man as well as God’s utterances in nature. And as God’s voices to us have become clearer than they were in the psalmist’s time, by his revelation in Christ Jesus, so the glory of his works has become amazingly clearer through the discoveries man has made therein; and he will fall very far short of a suitable setting forth of the truths of this first half of the psalm, who does not utilize the recent discoveries of science as a pedestal on which to set, in clearer and fuller ways, Jehovah’s glory! The expositor is bound to show how gloriously science helps religion, in furnishing him with new material for setting forth the greatness of God l An unfolding of the verses before us will lead us along several lines of thought, with which we propose to deal cumulatively.
I. THERE ARE NATURAL OBJECTS AND FACTS HERE SPECIFIED. The heavens. The firmament. The sun. The orderly succession of day and night. In regard to each of these, science helps religion. And grand as was the scene in olden time to the natural eye, and with all the imperfections of ancient knowledge, the grandeur is unspeakably vaster now, owing to discoveries which have since been and are still being made (The expositor of this psalm needs to read up to date in astronomical researches.)
II. AMONG THEM THERE IS INCESSANT ACTIVITY. “The heavens declare,” etc. Their activity is not conscious on their part, but it is nevertheless real. Light is ever acting on the vegetable world, and helps to open the petals of the flower, to give blossom its colour, and fruit its sweetness. Thus there is a reciprocal relation established between the sunbeam and the plant. So also is there between the stars above us and the mind of man. And though they utter not a word (Psa 19:3, Hebrew), they are sounding forth a message to the soul of man. “Their line is gone out,” etc. (Psa 19:4). The word “line” is one of much interest. It meant, first, any cord or string; then a string stretched out so as to emit a musical sound; then the sound emitted by the string; then a full musical chord.
“For ever singing, as they shine,
‘The hand that made us is Divine!'”
III. THESE ACTIVITIES ARE WONDROUSLY VARIED. The four verbs used here are all of them exceedingly expressive. The heavens are falling the glory of God, recounting it to us as in the pages of a book; the firmament is showing his handiwork, setting it before our eyes as in a picture; day unto day welleth forth speech, pouring it out as from a fountain; night unto night breatheth out knowledge, breathing it out gently so that the attentive listener may hear. “During the French Revolution, it was said to a peasant, ‘ I will have all your steeples pulled down, that you may no longer have any object by which you may be reminded of your old superstitions.’ ‘But,’ replied the peasant, ‘you cannot help leaving us the stars.'”
IV. WITH ALL THIS VARIETY OF EXPRESSION, THEY TELL OF A CREATING POWER. “The glory of God;” “The firmament showeth his handiwork.” When this is said, there are two points involvedone implied, the other expressed. It is implied that man has the faculty of understanding these varied forms of expression. Surely a perceived object implies a perceiving subject, and a message addressed implies the existence of those by whom it can be understood. The question of the origin of things will, must, come up; quite irrespectively of method, there will be the question of cause. The old design argument is valid as ever, though it may need to be thrown into a different form. That which it requires mind to understand, must a fortiori require the equivalent of mind to bring into being. From nature’s framework, power, wisdom, benevolent adaptation, order, etc; are manifest. Even the objection raised from the existence of wasted seeds, abortive organs, rudimentary and undeveloped possibilities, comes to nought when it is remembered that no atom of matter is wasted, but, if unused at one moment, is worked up again in other collocations. The advance of the most cultured thought at the present time is remarkable. The old atheism is now out of date; and so, intellectually, is even the old agnosticism. It is behind the times. The latest developments of Darwinism honour God. But while on the ground of knowledge and culture, intellect must admit the existence of “a Power above us,” it is only the lowly, devout, and loyal spirit that will see God in all things, and enjoy all things in God.
V. GOD‘S MESSAGE FROM THE HEAVENS IS RESPONDED TO IN HOLY SONG. Whoso forgets the title of the psalm will miss much of its beauty and glory. It is meant for the choirmaster. It is to be set to music, and uttered in song. Poetry, music, song, are the audible response of man to the inaudible voices of the day and of the night. Through the stars, God speaks to man without words; with his voice man speaks to God. Thus the universe is one grand antiphony. God’s music delighting man; man’s music adoring God. The heavens speak to us of God; we respond to the God of heaven.
Note: Although we do not wish here to anticipate unduly the teaching of the second half of this psalm, yet we may be permitted to remark that, glorious as the music of the heavens is to those who have ears to hear, yet there is another message from the eternal throne, which alone tells us the thoughts God has towards us, and which, when understood and received, does touch our hearts and move our tongues to louder, sweeter, tenderer song than ever nature’s glory could inspire.C.
Psa 19:8-14
The voice of Jehovah in his Word.
The Prophet Isaiah, in his forty-fifth chapter, and in the eighth and ninth verses, refers both to the work of God’s hands in the world which he has created, and to the words of his lips in the promises he has made; and in both cases it is said, “not in vain” “Not in vain” is the earth formed; “not in vain” is the promise uttered. In both there is a Divine aim and purpose. That antithesis between the works and the Word of God is more ancient than Isaiah’s day. It goes back to the time of Moses, who in the ninetieth psalm speaks to God as the Ever-living One, the Framer of the earth, and yet the Refuge of his people. And between Moses and Isaiah, in this nineteenth psalm we have the like distinction drawn. Its first six verses refer to God’s works in the world, the rest, to his words in the Word. Seven lines of exposition are required for their unfolding.
I. THE HEAVENS SPEAK OF GOD; THE WORD DECLARES JEHOVAH. It is too commonly supposed that the use of the several words “Elohim” and “Jehovah” indicates a difference either of date, of document, or of authorship. There does not seem to us to be any adequate ground for such distinctions. As we in one and the same sermon or tract may use a dozen different names for God, why may it not have been so of old? The word “Elohim” indicates God as the God of nature. The word “Jehovah” points to him as the revealed God of our fathers. And it is from our own revealed God that the Word proceeds, from the depths of his heart; it is far more than any works of his hands. Hence the change of the word “God” to the word “Jehovah.”
II. JEHOVAH, THE REVEALED GOD, HAS PUT BEFORE US PRICELESS MATERIAL FOR OUR USE. There are six various terms to indicate this. Law; or the great body of truth in which God would have his people instructed. Testimony; or the Divine declaration as to what he is, has done, is doing, and will do. Statutes; or precepts, which indicate specific duty. Commandments; or rules for the regulation of the entire life. Fear; i.e. that fear of him, so repeatedly enjoined, and which in an infantine age was the predominant view of duty towards God. Judgments; the right-settings, in the Divine declarations pronounced against sin and in favour of righteousness. Let us put all these together, and lo! how rich are we in having all these voices from the eternal throne! But how much richer still are we in having the words of the New Testament economy superadded to those of the old!
III. THE WORDS OF JEHOVAH ARE AS REMARKABLE FOR QUALITY AS FOR VARIETY. The very names given to them are inspiring: “perfect,” “sure,” “right,” “pure,” “true,” “righteous,” “standing fast.” These several terms may be gathered up into threetrue in statement, right in direction, everlasting in their duration. Even so. In the words of God we have absolute truth. In the precepts of God we have perfect directories for life and duty. And we know that, change what may, time is on our side, for “the Word of the Lord endureth for ever” Note: The words of God in the Bible are the only ones to which these epithets apply. Then it will be a very serious mistake if in school education or family training we ever allow the Bible to be crowded out or set on one side. For we must note
IV. THAT THE WORDS OF GOD ARE ADDRESSED TO THE INNERMOST PART OF OUR NATURE. (Verse 7, “the soul.”) Although this word, in Hebrew, is very frequently used in as free and popular a sense as it is with us, yet, on the other hand, it often denotes the highest part of our natureeven that which pertains to spirit, conscience, and to the regulation of the moral life of man. Such is the case here; as, indeed, the marvellous effects of the Divine Word (as pointed out under the next heading) plainly indicate. So much is this the case, that the Word is regarded even here as “dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow,” and as a “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” The Old Testament conceptions of man and of sin are very deep and very solemn. As the late Dr. Duncan, Professor of Hebrew, rightly remarked, “The Hebrew language is peculiarly rich in religious and moral terms, though scanty enough in others. The reason is evidentit chronicled a revelation.”
V. THE EFFECT OF GOD‘S WORDS ARE AS MARVELLOUS AS THEIR CONTENTS AND AIM. Some six of these are specified in the psalm. And one other is illustrated by its writer. The six effects referred to are:
1. Converting the soul. Restoring it, calling it back from its wanderings, and causing it to return to God and home.
2. Making arise the simple. Where the words of God arc read, studied, appropriated, by an honest and upright heart, they will lead in the way of understanding, and make wise unto salvation.
3. Rejoicing the heart, by their disclosures of God’s glory, grace, wealth, and love. To those who drink in the Word, God is their “exceeding Joy.”
4. Enlightening the eyes. This may mean either illumination or refreshment, restoring life and fainting energies (cf. 1Sa 14:24, 1Sa 14:29). The former meaning, “illumination,” is triply true; tot God’s commandments enlighten a man concerning God, duty, and himself. There is nothing like the searching Word to reveal to us what we are.
5. Warning is another effect. The exhortations to good and the dissuasion from evil are standing menaces of the peril of refusing the one and choosing the other.
6. Reward. No one can follow the commandments of God without ensuring a rich, ample, constant recompense.
Another effect of the Word of God is illustrated by the writer of this very psalm, who shows us the influence it had upon him. It awoke from him an earnest, prayerful response, awakened by the sight of himself which the commandment gave. The prayer is threefoldagainst involuntary, secret, and presumptuous sins. It is:
1. Cleanse me, which has a double meaning of” Pronounce me clean, and keep me so.”
2. Keep me back. It is a prayer that the restraining grace of God may keep in subjection a wayward and impulsive nature.
3. Accept me. (Verse 14.) It is an earnest prayer that at the moment the Word reveals his guilt, the grace of God may cover it with the mantle of forgiving love, and receive him in spite of all his guilt. And to this prayer there is appended an earnest plea. The praying one invokes two of the names of God in which the Old Testament saints were wont most to delight, “My Rock” and “my Redeemer.” The word translated “Redeemer” is specially noticeable. It is Goel. (For illustrations of the use of the former word, see Deu 32:4, Deu 32:31; 2Sa 22:32; Psa 62:2, Psa 62:6, Psa 62:7; Psa 73:26; Isa 26:4. Of the latter, see (in Hebrew) Num 35:12, Num 35:19, Num 35:21, Num 35:24, Num 35:25, Num 35:27; Job 19:25; Isa 41:14; Isa 43:14; Isa 60:16; Isa 63:16.) Note:
(1) How unspeakable is the mercy that, though our guilt might welt make us dread the approach to a holy God, yet his grace is such that we may flee to him and find deliverance there! The same Word which unbares our sin also reveals his grace.
(2) The revelation of God through the stars will not suffice for us; we want the word of promise too.
(3) Those who most luxuriate in the Word should also, more than others, luxuriate in the works of God.
(4) Those who accept both know perfectly well that nothing in the book of nature can run counter to the book of grace.C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH
Psa 19:1-14
Nature as a preacher.
Mark
I. THE GRAND SUBJECT. “The glory of God.”
II. THE SPLENDID AUDIENCE. “All the earth.”
III. THE FAITHFUL DELIVERY. Marked by truth, freshness, constancy, impartiality (verses 1-4). Other preachers cannot continue by reason of death. Hence there is change. One succeeds another. But this preacher goes on without break or weariness from day to day and age to age, bearing witness for God (Rom 1:20; Act 14:17).
IV. THE DIVERSE RESULTS. Minds vary. Where there is freedom of thought, there will be difference of opinion. When Paul preached at Athens, “some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again on this matter. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed” (Act 17:32-34). And so it is here. Some hear, and others hear not. Some recognize God’s presence and working, and give him praise, and others deny that in all they see there is anything more than the evolution of matter, and the play of cause and effect.
V. THE NECESSITY OF THE WORD. Nature can teach, but only such as are susceptible. It can proclaim the glory of God, but only to such as have already been brought to the knowledge of God. Our minds have been darkened and deadened by sin. Nature cannot tell us how sin is to be taken away. It is dumb as to a Saviour. it cannot inspire hope. It cannot convert the soul. Hence the necessity of the Wordof the Law by which is the knowledge of sin, and the gospel which reveals to us a Saviour. It is those who have been brought to the knowledge and love of God through Jesus Christ who are best able to appreciate the service of nature.W.F.
Psa 19:7-10
The Word of God.
This passage may be regarded as teaching three things concerning the Word of God, or the Bible.
I. WHAT IT IS. Six names are used, and six different statements are made with regard to the Bible.
1. It is “the Law of the Lord,” and, as such, it is “perfect.”
2. It is “the testimony of the Lord,” and, as such, it is “sure.” In it God speaks with solemn earnestness and insistance, and what he says may be trusted.
3. It is “the statutes of the Lord;” and the statutes of the Lord are “right.” The way of duty is clearly and unmistakably marked out.
4. It is the “commandment of the Lord.” It is not mere counsel or instruction, but has all the authority and awfulness of “commandment.” And as such it is “pure,” clear as crystal, illuminating as the light.
5. It is “the fear of the Lord.” This may stand for religion (Pro 15:33; of. Deu 17:19), and as such it is “pure and undefiled.” It is “our reasonable service.”
6. Lastly, the Bible is spoken of as “the judgments of the Lord.” This refers to the administration of the Law. God’s “judgments,” being the execution of his will, must be “true.” Based upon the eternal principles of right, they must themselves be eternal.
II. WHAT THE BIBLE DOES.
1. “It converts the soul” (Psa 23:3; 1Ti 1:15).
2. It “makes wise the simple” (Psa 119:130; Act 16:31).
3. It “rejoices the heart” (Psa 119:162; Act 8:39).
4. It “enlightens the eyes” (Psa 16:11; Eph 1:18, Eph 1:19).
5. It “endureth for ever” (Psa 100:5; 1Jn 2:14-17).
What is here stated as doctrine is elsewhere illustrated as fact. It is, as we believe the doctrine, that we shall become witnesses to the facts (1Co 6:11; 1Pe 1:23-25).
III. WHAT THE BIBLE DESERVES. We have it in our hands. We have heard its character, and the claims made in its behalf, and what is our response? The language employed by the psalmist fitly expresses what our feelings and conduct should be, how we should treat God’s most Holy Word.
1. It deserves to be valued more than gold.
2. It deserves to be loved and delighted in as “sweeter than honey and the honey-comb.”
3. It deserves to be studied and obeyed with increasing devotion; for thereby our minds are enlightened, and our lives illumined, and great is our reward in purity and peace and the love of God. And if we have learnt its preciousness ourselves, we shall surely labour to make it known to others, that they also may be enriched by its treasures and blessed with its joys.W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 19:1-10
God’s revelation of himself in nature and in his Word.
In nature it is continuous. Day utters speech unto day, night unto night. It is speechless; it has a language, but it is not articulate. It is universal. Gone out through all the world, and through all time. In his Word it his a converting powerpower to make wise, to rejoice the heart and enlighten the eyes. It endures for ever; unlike the firmament, and is entirely true and righteous.
I. A COMPARISON OF THESE TWO REVELATIONS.
1. Both reveal God‘s glory. The heavens reveal his glory by day and by night. But our solar system is but the glory of a single point of light, when compared with the glory of all the systems that fill infinite space. But quality rather than quantity is the test of the glory of any work. To redeem and reclaim a world of souls from the ruin of sin transcends the work of creating and sustaining all the suns and the stars of the universe; and this is the glory of God’s Word.
2. Both contain important instruction. “Day unto day uttereth speech” (Psa 19:2). “The testimony of the Lord is sure [or, ‘true’], making wise the simple.”’ To the devout mind nature suggests more than it directly teachesthe Sun of Righteousness, the mighty Quickener and Joy of darkened souls. Christ the great Bridegroom of the Church. But the Word uttered by prophets, Christ, and inspired men, expels our ignorance upon the topics most necessary to our highest well-being. They make us truly wise.
3. Both demand study and labour to enjoy their blessings. Great things can benefit us only by the exercise of earnest and inquisitive thought. La Place and Newton thus came to understand the science of the heavens; Milton and others, their poetry; and David and others, their religion. We benefit by the Word in a similar way. Study leading to practice and experience will open its stores of truth to us.
II. A CONTRAST OF THESE REVELATIONS.
1. The one universal, the other partial. Every one not born blind has seen the heavens; there are millions who have never heard of Christ. God does some things by taking them entirely into his own hands; but he takes us as fellow-labourers in the work of making known his Word.
2. The one is full of great spiritual energies; the other is not. Material things can do only material work; nature cannot alter a depraved will or heal a wounded conscience. Spiritual forces must rouse spiritual natures like ours. Christ is the Word of God, and can give the highest deliverance and salvation which souls need. Makes us wise with the noblest wisdom, gives light to the mind. The one rejoices the senses, the other the heart. The mourner can be made to sing, the captive to leap for joy, the heartbroken to laugh with gladness, the penitent to receive peace. Nature can do nothing of this to any extent.S.
Psa 19:11-14
Man’s relation to the Divine Law.
The former part of the psalm is a comparison and a contrast between God’s revelation of himself in nature and in his Law. Now the psalmist passes on to consider his own relation to the Divine Law; what light it throws upon his character and circumstances, and what rewards it bestows upon those who abide in the steadfast observance of it.
I. WHAT THE DIVINE LAW TAUGHT THE PSALMIST. (Psa 19:12, Psa 19:13.)
1. His manifold sins and errors. “Who can understand his errors?” Who can tell how often he offendeth? Our sins and mistakes are greater in number than we can understand or reckon. Our moral infirmity is greater than we can estimate.
2. That he was largely an ignorant transgressor. “Cleanse thou me from the sins that I know not of.” Arising from self-deception and self-ignorance. Others see in us what we cannot see in ourselves. The proud and covetous and unjust do not think themselves so. Cleanse us from the pretence to virtues which we have not.
3. To pray for deliverance from the temptation to deliberate sins. That he might not commit presumptuous, wilful sin. He does not ask for the pardon of such sins, but to be restrained from them. “If we sin wilfully after that we have come to the knowledge of the truth,” etc. No sacrifice in the Jewish Law for such sins.
II. THE LAW GREATLY REWARDS THE STEADFASTLY OBEDIENT. (Psa 19:11, Psa 19:14, 15.)
1. By giving them an increasing spirit of consecration. “Let my words and meditations and actions be more and more acceptable in thy sight.” Obedience leads to further obedience, and longs for nothing short of being perfectly acceptable to God.
2. By giving a more perfect consciousness of God‘s acquaintance with our thoughts and ways. The whole passage shows that, as well as the fourteenth verse. The disobedient think they can hide their ways from God. “How doth God know?” The obedient know that all things are naked and open before him; and rejoice in the thought, because they are aiming at what is acceptable to him.
3. By revealing God as a sure, faithful Redeemer from all evil. A rock is the image of faithful stability, and means that God will not swerve from his promise of redemption. The disobedient are the unbelievers; they attribute their own mind to God, and so cannot trust him.S.
Psa 19:14
A sacrifice and a prayer.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer.” Let us look at this language
I. AS OFFERING A SACRIFICE. The thoughts and feelings of the soul uttered and unuttered.
1. The sacrifice is spiritual. Words and meditations. Man’s heart is the most precious thing God has createdthe jewel of the universe. The thoughts that come out of the heart and the words that utter themthese are the precious treasures the psalmist offers before God.
2. The sacrifice is complete. The words of the mouth and the meditation of the heart indicate the whole man. This is the Christian view of man’s priestly workthe presenting of body and soul as living sacrifices. Not a partial offering of one part of our lives, nor of the outward apart from the inward life, but the total consecration of our whole being.
3. This offering is not acceptable to God on its own account. It is acceptable to God on account of the great expiatory sacrifice, and because that has brought us into a new and peculiar relation with God. Intrinsically, the offering is not acceptable. For all man’s words taken together, what are they? Our words when they utter our most religious thoughts, our truest deepest faith, our most rapturous love, our triumphant hope and praise, are unworthy of being thus offered. But when you add the words of every day and every employment, these are vain, proud, irreligious, sometimes blasphemous. And then our thoughts! But God in Christ is pleased with our offering. A child’s letter is pleasing to its father because it is his child’s.
II. AS CONTAINING A PRAYER. Then what do they imply?
1. That God alone can deliver him from the sins he prays against. From secret and presumptuous sin. A faith is implied that God would so deliver him. They may have a wider meaning.
2. That God is the Inspirer of right words and right thoughts. “Make my words and thoughts such as shall be acceptable in thy sight.”
III. THE WARRANT FOR OFFERING BOTH SACRIFICE AND PRAYER. The psalmist felt that God was his Rock and his Salvation. Stability and deliverance are the principal thoughts here.S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 19.
The creatures shew God’s glory; the word, his grace. David prayeth for grace.
To the chief musician, A Psalm of David.
Title. lamnatseach mizmor ledavid. The author in this Psalm, as in many other places, considers the works of nature, and the words of revelation, as both of them laws of the same hand, and standing firm by the same authority; both highly perfect in their kind, and containing great matter of instruction; one for the whole world, the other for God’s people, and himself particularly. Mudge. The piety of this Psalm, says Bishop Sherlock, is so natural, and yet so exalted, so easy to be understood, and so adapted to move the affections, that it is hardly possible to read it with any attention, without feeling something of the same spirit by which it was indited. The holy king begins with the works of the creation, to magnify the power and wisdom of the Creator: they are a perpetual instruction to mankind; every day and every night speak his goodness, and by their regular and constant vicissitude set forth the excellency of wisdom by which they are ordered. This book of nature is written in every language, and lies open to all the world: The works of the creation speak in the common voice of reason, and want no interpreter to explain their meaning; but are to be understood by people of all languages upon the face of the earth. From these works in general, he singles out one, to stand as a testimony of the power of his Maker: The sun is the great spirit of the world, the life which animates these lower parts: How constant and unwearied in his course! how large his circuit, to impart light and genial heat to every dark corner of the earth! He is as a bridegroom, &c.
Psa 19:1. The heavens declare Tell, or preach, according to the force of the Hebrew. This language of the heavens is so plain, and their characters are so legible, that all, even the most barbarous nations, who have no skill either in languages or letters, are able to understand and read what they proclaim. What can be so plain and so clear, says Tully, as when we behold the heavens, and view the heavenly bodies, that we should conclude there is some deity, of a most excellent mind, by whom these things are governed? A present and Almighty God? which he who doubts of, I do not understand why he should not as well doubt whether or no there be a sun that shines. See De Nat. Deor. lib. 2: cap. 2 and Derham’s Astro-Theology, at the beginning.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 19
To the Chief Musician, A Psalm of David
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament sheweth his handywork.
2Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night sheweth knowledge.
3There is no speech nor language,
Where their voice is not heard.
4Their line is gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.
In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
5Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
6His going forth is from the end of the heaven,
And his circuit unto the ends of it:
And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
7The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul:
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
8The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart:
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold:
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11Moreover by them is thy servant warned:
And in keeping of them there is great reward.
12Who can understand his errors?
Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
13Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Let them not have dominion over me:
Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
14Let the words of my mouth,
And the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight,
O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Its Contents and Composition It is usually supposed that this Psalm consists of two parts, the former expressing the praise of God as Creator, the latter the praise of God as revealing Himself in the laws of Moses. Since now, not only the subject, but likewise the language and structure of the verses of the two parts is different, and they seem to follow one another without connection, many interpreters regard the two parts as two entirely different poems, composed at different times (Kster, Hupf., Bttcher), which were afterwards united together by a later poet (Ewald), or by the compiler (De Wette). But it has been very properly remarked against this opinion, that the difference of tone and rhythm corresponds with the difference of subject, and that moreover the subject of the one part has an essential relation to that of the other part, and not a relation subsequently thought out by reflection; for the identity of the God of Revelation with the Creator is the fundamental principle of the Theocracy, and is expressly testified to by the Old Testament from the earliest times. Furthermore these references are here expressed partly by the intentional use of the Divine name of El in the first part, and of Jehovah, and indeed seven times, in the second part, partly by the juxtaposition of Sun and Law, both of which are called Light, the former Job 21:26, the latter Pro 6:3, which thus mediates the transition from the one part to the other. As for the language of the Psalm, Hitzig especially, has brought into notice, and emphasized against Hupfeld, the ancient and particularly Davidic features, especially of the second part.21 Hengstenberg had already previously carried this out in a peculiar manner by maintaining that there are to be observed not two, but rather three parts; for after the description of actual facts, in two parts the Psalm turns directly to Jehovah, and becomes a prayer for forgiveness and preservation. These opinions are yet so held, that the composition must fall in the period before the sin of David with Bathsheba.
[Delitzsch: In the title of Psalms 18. David is called and in Psalms 19. he calls himself by this name. In both Psalms he calls upon Jehovah wih the name of , there at the beginning, here at the close. These, with other points of contact, have co-operated in inducing the compiler to attach this Psalm which celebrates Gods revelation in Nature and the Law, to Psalms 18., which celebrates Gods revelation in the history of David.22C. A. B.]
Str. I. Psa 10:1. Tell proclaimeth.[A. V., declare sheweth]. The heavens are personified as Psa 50:6; Psa 97:6; as the morning stars, Job 38:7; the trees, Isa 55:12; entire nature, Job 12:7; Psa 148:2 sq. Telling and proclaiming may consequently be asserted of them with expressions which elsewhere are used of historical narration, which proclaim the great works of God from generation to generation. This expression is the more pregnant, as the history of the creation of the heavens and its stars in Genesis, to which the word rakia (comp. Psa 150:1) refers, is represented as toledoth, and has had a historical course, which again was called forth and closely determined by the will of God and His activity as a Divine artificer, so that there is impressed and expressed (Calv.) therein, not only His creative power (Geier, et al.) but the action of His hands, that is His mastership and His majesty, the reflected image of His Godhead (Rom 1:20). [Hupfeld: The heavens as the work of God reveal the Creator (as we say, the work praises the master) comp Psa 136:5; Isa 40:22 sq.; Isa 42:5; Isa 44:24, etc.Handywork=hand-work, work of the hand.C. A. B.] The participial forms state, that these are constant and characteristic witnesses.
Psa 10:2. Day unto day poureth forth speech.[A. V., Uttereth]. The interrupted character of this declaring, which reveals the glory of the Creator, is occasioned by a chain of tradition. It is not said that the heavens preach to us by day and by night (Maurer), or that the changes of time praise God (Isaki, Calv.) and that which in these changes is seen in the heavens, and happens under the heavens on earth, (Aben Ezra, Stier), but the difference of the heavens by day and by night is had in view, and therefore day is placed in direct reference to day, and night to night in order that their communications may gush forth or well forth (Psa 78:2; Mic 2:6; Mic 2:11; Pro 1:23). [De Wette: The poet personifies the day and the night, and has them transmit the praise of God to every following day and every following night, as the father transmits to his son the songs and sayings praising his illustrious ancestry which he has inherited from his father. Rosenm.: Declaratur prdicatio sine intermissione. Et quia clum prdicat per dies et noctes, cum interdiu princeps astrorum, sol, conspicitur, noctu stellarum pulchritudo; et quia dies et noctes sibi invicem succedunt, ideo polico artificio finget noster, unum diem peracto cursu et prdicatione sua, tradere diei sequenti verba prdicationis, et noctem quoque, peracto cursu, et quasi hymno cantato, tradere nocti sequenti munus canendi, ut ita continue, et sine ulla intermissione dies et noctes quasi choreas dcant, et Deum laudibus celebrent.C. A. B.]
Psa 10:3. No speech and no words whose voice unheard (might be) [A. V., (There is) no speech nor language (where) their voice is not heard].The interpretation of these words as a relative clause, after Vitringa (Observ. Sacr p. 841, 59), approved by De Wette, Delitzsch, Hitzig, accords with the figure previously used, and gives the appropriate sense; that this natural language of the heavens is not a speech whose sound cannot be understood, but is rather a (Rom 1:19) [that is manifest to all.C. A. B.] The , connected with the participle, is a poetical expression altogether like the alpha privativum (Ewald, 286 g; 322 a). Against this interpretation may be objected, not so much the parallelism which is thereby lost, as the reference of the suffix to the words which immediately precede, speech and words, whilst the suffix in the following line [Psa 10:4 a] refers back to heavens and the firmament, with which day and night correspond. But if we should apply this reference here likewise, and at the same time restore the parallelism (Kimchi et al.), then by this formal correctness we would only get the plain matter of course explanation, destroying the poetical movement and rhythm, that the expressions just used are not exact but poetical. We must not, however, regard this verse as a later gloss. The poetical use of , which even Olshausen remarks, is already opposed to this. Still less can it be maintained that the antithesis is found in the following verse, that these dumb witnesses, without sound and language, are yet loud speakers, heralds everywhere understood. For then we must either supply the particle of antithesis (Flam., et al.), which is altogether arbitrary, or regard ver 3 as the antecedent to Psa 10:4 (De Dieu), or regard it really as a preceding circumstantial clause (Ewald23), which is as hard to believe as the supposition (Hupf.24) of an Oxymoron only half expressed: dumb, and yet loud enough. This contrast cannot be derived organically from the emphasis of the clause; it is simply forced into the clause. This is still more the case with Hengst, who finds indicated the forcibleness of the testimony which needs no language [Alexander]. The language does not admit of the interpretation which Luther, Calv., Geier and most ancient interpreters follow, after the ancient translations, that this testimony of the heavens is understood by people of all languages [Barnes]; nor indeed of the turn which Hofmann (Theol. Stud. und Krit., 1847) has given it: no speech, and no words, are there that its call is not heard, that is, the speaking of the heavens is carried on along with all other languages; the speech of the heavens sounds above all. Bttcher translates: Where is preaching and where are words? Not a sound of it is to be heard.25
Str. II. Psa 10:4. Their line.Only the meaning measuring line can be proved for the word (Isa 34:17; Zec 1:16, etc.), which goes as far, or extends as far, as the territory extends, Jer 31:39; Job 38:5, Isa 34:17; Eze 47:3 (Chald., Isaki, Geier, Rosenm., Hengst., Hupf, Delitzsch). The meaning sounding string (De Wette, after some more ancient interpreters), is no more in the word than that of thread of discourse (Hitzig), or the line of writing (Aben Ezra, Calv., Cocc.). The derivation from =to stretch out, in the sense of from (Ewald, Maurer), is possible, and the Sept. (comp. Rom 10:18) really has , Symm., , Vulg. and Jerome, sonus, Peschito, its proclaiming. But this meaning of sound, tune, is not proper to the word elsewhere, hence Olsh., Maurer, Gesen., propose to read instead of , which, however, is used in the previous verse. The parallelism again (Camph.) is more in favor of a word for sound than of one for territory. Yet without this the extent of this proclaiming is stated as locally unlimited, much more embracing the entire circuit of the world.[In them.Hupfeld very properly refers the suffix here to the heavens in which God has set up a tent or abode for the sun, so Perowne and Barnes. Barnes: The meaning is, that the sun has his abode or dwelling-place, as it were, in the heavens. The sun is particularly mentioned, doubtless, as being the most prominent object among the heavenly bodies, as illustrating in an eminent manner the glory of God. The sense of the whole passage is, that the heavens in general proclaim the glory of God, and that this is shown in a particular and special manner by the light, the splendor and the journeyings of the sun.C. A. B.]26
[Tent (A. V., tabernacle).Hupfeld: A dwelling is poetically assigned to the sun by God, so far as it, like all the stars, has its firm place in the heavens, from whence it begins its daily course in the following verse and again returns; without doubt with special reference to its abode at night (Geier). Comp. in the following verse, the bed-chamber, from which it steps forth in the morning. Thus Hab 3:11 : The sun and moon stand still in their habitation (), and the , lodgings or houses, of the constellations of the zodiac as stations of the sun. The same figure among the Greeks and Romans (Hom., Ovids Metam.), and Ossian (III. 91). Comp. Herder, Geist. d. Heb. Poes., I. 78 sq.C. A. B.]
The allegorical reference of many ancient interpreters to the heavens as a figure of the Church, and the sun as the figure of the gospel, originates from the supposition, that there is here a prophecy used in Rom 10:18. But the apostle uses these words only on the ground of the parallel here given of the natural and historical revelations as typical of the proclamation of the gospel, which should embrace the entire world. [Perowne: St. Paul, Rom 10:18, quotes the former part of this verse in illustration of the progress of the Gospel. Faith, he says, cometh by hearing, and then asks, Have they (i.e. the nations at large) not heard? Yea, rather, so widely has the Gospel been preached, that its progress may be described in the words in which the Psalmist tells of Gods revelation of Himself in nature. The one has now become co-extensive with the other. The prconium clorum is not more universal than the prconium evangelii.C. A. B.]
[Psa 10:5. And he is like a bridegroom (A. V., Which (is) as a bridegroom).It is better to regard as beginning an independent clause, as Delitzsch, Moll., Ewald, Perowne, et al. Hupf. uses a colon, but the relative construction is without warrant, and makes the clause too much dependent upon the preceding. Perowne: Nothing can be more striking than the figures in which the freshness and gladness of the young morning and the strength of the suns onward march, are described. Delitzsch: The morning light has in it a freshness and cheerfulness, a renewed youth. Therefore the morning sun is compared to a bridegroom, the desire of whose heart is satisfied, who stands as it were at the beginning of a new life, and in whose youthful countenance the joy of the wedding-day still shines.As a hero to run a race.Delitzsch: As in its rise it is compared to a bridegroom, so in its rapid course (Sir 43:5) it is compared to a hero (vid.Psa 18:33), for it goes over its course anew, every time it steps forth, bestowing its light, and overcoming all things with (Jdg 5:31). Riehm: The meaning is not he rejoices in running, but: he rejoices running = he runs joyfully (Hitzig). The same comparison is used in the Zendavesta, II. 106 (De Wette). Barnes The idea is that the sun seems to have a long journey before him and puts forth all his vigor, exulting in the opportunity of manifesting that vigor, and confident of triumphing in the race.C. A. B.]27
[Psa 10:6. His going forth.Hupf.: , the usual word for the rising of the sun, appears here in its original figurative meaning: going forth, with reference to the stepping forth () from his chamber (Psa 10:5), in contrast with , going into the chamber at his setting, instead of which here , revolution, running down (from , Isa 29:1; , encompass, revolve), elsewhere of the passing away of the years, Exo 34:22; 1Sa 1:20, here of the daily passing away of the sun (A. V., circuit). This is not a description of its extended course (De Wette), but of the entire extent of its course: from one end of the heavens to the other (corresponding with over the whole earth, and to the end of the world, Psa 10:4, which here receive their explanation and fulfilment), and of its all-penetrating heat.Nothing is hid from its heat.Hupfeld: This refers properly to its all-penetrating warmth, heat (from which the sun poetically has the name , the hot, in contrast to the moon , the pale, Isa 30:26); but including likewise the light, comp. in all languages a similar proverb, that the sun sees and brings all things to light.Barnes: The rays of the sun penetrate everywhere. Nothing escapes it. It is not a more march for show and splendor; it is not an idle and useless journey in the heavens; but all things, vegetables, birds, beasts, men,all that lives,feel the effect of his vital warmth, and are animated by his quickening influence.C. A. B.]
Str. III. Psa 10:7. [Delitzsch: The transition from the one part to the other has no external medium, it is only indicated by the fact that the Divine name [Jehovah] takes the place of (El). The word of nature reveals (El), the word of Scripture (Jehovah); the one Gods power and majesty, the other His counsel and will. Twelve eulogies of the law follow, two by two of which are constantly related as presumption and conclusion, according to the scheme of the Csura, rising and sinking as waves. We feel how the heart of the poet, when he begins to speak of Gods word and the revelation of His will, begins to beat with redoubled joy.C. A. B.]
The law.The word means properly: instruction, doctrine, and therefore may mean likewise the word of prophecy (Isa 1:10; Isa 8:16); yes, it may be used of the of the last times. But this does not prove that it means here the Gospel (Cocc.), or the revelation and word of God in general (many ancient interpreters, likewise Stier). The following synonyms, then Psa 10:11, show that the reference here is only to the revelation of the law given by Moses as the rule of life for Israel. So it is not said that the Thorah converts the soul (Stier), or leads the spirit back into itself (Augusti), but this expression in its idiomatic use has no reference to the moral character, but to the experiences of life. The refreshment and reanimation of the soul is called its restoration and bringing back. Comp. 1Sa 30:12; Lam 1:11. [Alexander: The effect of converting the soul would not have been attributed to the law in this connection, where the writer is describing the affections cherished towards the law by men already converted, which removes all apparent inconsistency with Pauls representation of the law as working death, and at the same time the necessity of making the law mean the Gospel, or in any other way departing from the obvious and usual import of the Hebrew word.The testimony.Perowne: As testifying, bearing witness of Gods character, both in His goodwill towards those who obey Him, and in His displeasure against transgressions, especially in the latter sense. It is as Harless says: The word of God testifying of Himself and affirming what He is, in opposition to the apostasy of man (Ethik. 14, Anm). Vid.Deu 31:26-27 Hence the force of its connection with the ark and the mercy-seat, Exo 25:16; Exo 26:34; Lev 16:13; the symbol of Gods righteous severity against sin being hidden beneath the symbol of His grace and mercy.C. A. B.]
Simplicity is not the silly (Luther), nor the natural man in general (most interpreters), nor the open-minded and susceptible (Stier), such as the pious and the wise must certainly remain in order to further progress (Hengst.), but the man who is in the condition of one in his minority, uneducated and open to every impression, especially to slander and temptation (Hupf.), who, however, has not yet lost the disposition of a child (Calv.) (comp. Mat 11:25; 1Co 1:27).
Psa 10:8 [Delitzsch: The law is divided into , demands, or declarations respecting the obligations of man [A. V. statutes], these are , right as norma normata, because they proceed from the just and holy will of God, and as norma normans, because they lead in the right way into right paths; they are therefore , their training and direction removes all obstructions, satisfies the moral needs and gives the glad consciousness of being in the right way to the right end. , Jehovahs statute (from , statuere), is the essence of His commands. The statute is called, lamp, Pro 6:23, and the law, light. So here, it is , pure, as sunlight (Son 6:10), and its light imparts itself by: , enlightening the eyes, which is meant not only of enlightening the understanding, but likewise of the entire condition, it makes spiritually clear and lovely as well as spiritually sound and fresh, for dimness of eye is trouble, sadness, perplexity.C. A. B ]28
Psa 10:9. The fear of Jehovah is here evidently metonymic = doctrines or their practice, as Isa 29:13.[CleanBarnes: , thor, means properly clear, pure, in a physical sense, as opposed to filthy, soiled; then, in a ceremonial sense, as opposed to that which is profane or common (Lev 13:17), and then, in a moral sense, as a clean heart, etc.,Psa 12:6; Psa 51:10. It is also applied to pure gold, Exo 25:11. The sense here is, that there is nothing in it that tends to corrupt the morals or defile the soul. Everything connected with it is of a pure and holy tendency, adapted to cleanse the soul and to make it holy.Enduring forever.Standing to all eternity. Not temporary; not decaying; not destined to pass away. It stands firm now, and it will stand firm forever. That is the law of God, considered as adapted to make the heart holy and pure is eternal. What it is now it will ever be. What its teaching is now it will continue to be forever.Judgments.Delitzsch: are the jura of the law, as corpus juris divini, all that is right and in accordance with right according to the decision of Jehovah; these laws are , truth, guarding and protecting itself, because as distinguished from most laws other than those of Israel they have an unchangeable, moral foundationRighteous altogetherBarnes: That is, they are, without exception, just; or, they are altogether or wholly righteous.C. A. B.]
Psa 10:10 [Hupfeld: The conclusion: hence the incomparable value of the Divine law, brought into view by comparison with the most important material goods after which men strive: Gold, as the rarest and therefore the most costly good and most sought after, symbol of the dearest possession and object of the most eager strife of men; Honey, as the sweetest symbol of the most delightful enjoyment The former comparison in the same sense (with pearls and precious stones), likewise Psa 119:72; Psalms 127 and frequently, in Pro 2:4; Pro 3:14 sq.; Pro 8:10 sq., 19; Pro 16:16; Psa 22:1; Job 28:15 sq.; the latter likewise Psa 119:103 and Pro 21:13.Honeycomb, more properly as in the margin, dropping of honeycombs. Barnes: The allusion is to honey that drops from the combs, and therefore the most pure honey. That which is pressed from the comb will have almost inevitably a mixture of bee-bread and of the combs themselves. That which flows from the comb will be pure.C. A. B.]
Str. IV Psa 10:11. [WarnedBarnes: , zahar, means, properly, to be bright, to shine; then to cause to shine, to make light; and then to admonish, to instruct, to warn. The essential idea here is to throw light on a subject, so as to show it clearly; that is, make the duty plain, and the consequences plain. Comp. Lev 15:31; Eze 3:18; Eze 33:7 Alexander: The phrase, Thy servant, brings the general doctrines of the foregoing context into personal application to the writer.C. A. B.]
Psa 10:12. Errors.The word , which occurs only here, denotes the entire compass of unintentional sins, the , which had happened , and even on this account not only concealed from men (Lev 4:13, but likewise not even known by the person himself (Lev 5:2 sq.), because they might have been committed unconsciously, but when they became known, were to be atoned for by offerings (Num 15:22 sq.). In contrast with them are the trespasses (Num 5:30 sq.), which are said to be committed with uplifted hand and as not to be atoned for, from which therefore the Psalmist wishes to be preserved.
Psa 10:13. The word describes these as boasting [A. V. presumptuous (sins)], but not on the side of their appearance as disregarding all limits, but on the side of the origin of their sin from the heart boasting of its lusts. The plural form of this word is in other passages of Scripture always to be regarded properly as of haughty oppressors, and is likewise here thus taken by many, finally Kster and Olsh. But there is no other reference in this Psalm to the oppression of such hostile persecutors (the Sept. and Vulg. have read ). The context leads to the sphere of moral preservation, not of protection against external power. The expression ruler [A. V., have dominion] in the following member of the verse is entirely appropriate and clear only when we regard the plural form as denoting the abstract (Kimchi, Rosenm., Delitzsch, Hitzig), which especially recommends itself in an ancient piece of composition. The reference to the evil influence and the tempting power of association and intercourse with proud transgressors (De Wette, Hupf., Camph.), forces the abstract into the explanation in order to be endurable, and obscures the contrast that is in the clause Gen 4:7, Rom 5:14, and similar passages which are cited lead directly to an abstract, and = hold back, preserve, is usually connected with an abstract (Gen 20:6; 1Sa 25:39). Still less is it to be supposed that the intentional sins are here personified as tyrants (Hengst.) which strive to bring the servant of God under their unworthy dominion. It is the boasting of his emotions which is charged against David (1Sa 17:28) comp. Jam 1:14 (Hitzig), which at the close of the verse after its expression as , (= apostasy, treachery, rebellion) is marked with a word in apposition which expresses not the frequency (Calv.) but the greatness of the iniquity. The word (Psa 10:12 in Piel. Psa 10:13 in Niphal) is a judicial word, and stands always with reference to guilt and punishment. [Delitzsch: Declare innocent, speak free, leave unpunished.C. A. B.]
Psa 10:14. [Delitzsch: The Psalmist finally prays for the gracious acceptance of his prayer, in which heart and mouth unite, based upon the faithfulness of God, which is firm as a rock, and His redemptive Love.Be acceptable.Perowne: The usual formula applied to Gods acceptance of sacrifices offered to Him (Lev 1:3-4, etc.). Prayer to God is the sacrifice of the heart, and of the lips. Comp. Hos 14:2, so will we offer our lips as calves. Alexander: This allusion also serves to suggest the idea, not conveyed by translation, of atonement, expiation, as the ground of the acceptance which the Psalmist hopes or prays for.Jehovah, my rock and my redeemer.(A. V., my strength), in the margin correctly rock. Perowne: The name of Jehovah is repeated for the seventh time. The epithets my Rock, my Redeemer, have here a peculiar force. For He is my strength in keeping the Law; my Redeemer as delivering me from the guilt and power of sin.C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The contemplation of the glory of nature must not lead to the deification of nature; it should lead up beyond the entire world, and beyond all the heavens, to the knowledge of the glory of God mirrored therein, and excite to the adoration of the Almighty Creator declaring Himself therein. The expanse of the heavens which cannot at all be surveyed by man, has yet received its limits from Him who is alone Infinite and Almighty. Even the sun, which is worshipped by so many nations as the King of heaven receives the measure of its motion, and the revolution of its course from the same hand, whose government and work disclose themselves in all things as by the hand of a Master, whom all His works praise. It is true the praise of nature is different by day from what it is by night; yet it preaches incessantly, and its sermon is not only heard everywhere in the world, but likewise is capable of being understood by every one.
2. But if the glorious works of God are so instructive and edifying to man, how much greater advantage may he derive from the law of God which is infinitely more glorious? For it is one and the same God, who declares Himself in creation, and reveals Himself in history. In natural things, however, only the glory of His metaphysical nature can be known; but the glory of His moral nature reveals itself in the words of His law, in which His will and counsel find expressions.
3. The twelve eulogiums of the law, whose parts are related to one another as presumption and consequence, and which are compared by Luther with the twelve fruits of the tree of life, refer to that excellence peculiar to the law of God as such, which is likewise expressly brought into view by Paul, Rom 7:12; Rom 7:14, by which it is the jewel of Israel and the comfort of those who act according to it. For the character of the Thorah as a Divine instruction respecting the duties to be fulfilled by the people of God and its individual members in all the relations of life, involves its having essentially the form of a testimony manifesting the will of God, and it divides itself into commandments and statutes which relate to the fear of Jehovah, and have the meaning of legal statutes They consequently have not only gone forth from God and received the essential characteristics of a complete and reliable rule of the rectitude and purity of all ordinances, the sincerity of their end and aim, the truth of statutes and decisions, but likewise treat of the true relation to God according to its subject and aim, and therefore spiritually refresh and admonish, whilst they rejoice the heart and enlighten the eyes. Moreover as essential parts of Divine revelation, they are of eternal duration, and are right, and continue in this connection in the history of redemption (Mat 5:17 sq.). Thus the law of Jehovah is Israels most valuable possession and sweetest food, a gracious gift of God, glad tidings (Psa 40:10).
4. The true servant of God experiences both the enlightenment and refreshment, the correction and reward of the law. He is preserved from venality and self-righteousness by the fact that the reward presupposes the fulfilment of the law. Moreover the servant of God perceives in the law as the mirror of perfection, his own imperfection, and its reference to human sins in general in their variety, number, and enormity. If he applies it to his own person, his claim of merit falls away. Moreover the law instructs him at the same time respecting the difference between deadly sins and venial sins, respecting the means of atonement, and respecting the conditions of forgiveness of sins, and thus preserves him from despair.
5. Moreover the arrangement of the institutions of atonement and the ordinances respecting their use, belong likewise to the commands and statutes of the Thorah. In these the Creator and Lawgiver reveals Himself as the Redeemer. The law itself thus urges to seek salvation in the grace of God by repentance and faith, whilst it discloses to the sinner his guilt, and makes him experience his inability to help himself, but likewise lets him know the readiness of God to forgive, and brings His saving strength near.
6. The institution of the confessional together with the requirements connected therewith, is in opposition to the confession and prayer made, Psa 19:13 sq. (comp. Conf. August, art. VI). But no one is to plead as an excuse, or to justify themselves by the secrecy and delicacy of many sins, the unfathomableness of the human heart, the impossibility of a complete knowledge of self and sin. Justification is a speaking clear and a declaring guiltless on the part of God; in this David and Paul agree (comp. likewise Psalms 32). It presupposes on the one side the grace of God, on the other the laying hold of the same, which cannot happen without repentance any more than without faith. But where repentance and faith are, which are mutually necessary to one another, the servant of God is urged ever to make a more complete surrender of himself, and to more entirely consecrate himself to God, partly by the knowledge that with conscientious self-examination, there still remain to him faults to be regretted; partly by the experience, that with the most honest striving after sanctification the danger even of a grave transgression, and likewise of a great fall, never entirely vanishes from him. If the law is separated from the hope of forgiveness and the Spirit of Christ, it is so far from the sweetness of honey, that it rather kills poor souls by its bitterness. (Calvin).
7. An evidence of such disposition of soul is the prayer for pardon and preservation, if heart and lip unite in it, and the chief desire of the soul is that God will accept it as an offering well-pleasing to Him, that is, that He will hear it. The soul then turns with it to the God of revelation already known as his rock and his redeemer, in whose protecting power and saving love he trusts with the more security as he has already received and experienced salvation from Him. Original sin is not destroyed in this world, but pardoned. (Seb. Schmidt).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The glory of God is reflected for man even in the works of creation; but its splendor beams forth from the words of the revealed law, clearer than sunlight, yet it shines towards him most gloriously in acts of salvation for his redemption.Nature and history preach the same God, that Isaiah , 1) the almighty Creator of the world; 2) the holy Lawgiver of the children of men; 3) the gracious Redeemer of penitent sinners.It is true, our God is invisible, yet not unknown. There has never been a lack of preaching God, but often of people to hear the sermon, heed it, and obey it.Even pious people have still hidden faults, but they do not hide them.God helps us not only to know our sins, but likewise to receive pardon for our errors, and to obtain preservation from crimes.To the people of God the law of God is the most costly good and the sweetest food. Three things are indispensable to the salvation of men, 1) adoration of the majesty of God; 2) repentance for their sins; 3) reconciliation with God by redemption.He who would be the servant of God, must not only instruct himself by the law of God, but likewise be warned against transgression, and be led to its observance.As the Lord so the servant; as the service so the reward.
Starke: As the heavens with their courses and order are a sure witness of the omnipotence and wisdom of God, just so the gospel is to be a constant and faithful witness of Christ. See here the chief end of all the creatures of God! The Creators glory is to be advanced by them, and man is to know God aright from them, and learn to love Him and praise Him.It is shameful for man, the noblest creature, to be silent with respect to those things about which even dumb creatures speak in their fashion.No day should pass without my glorifying my God, and no night when I should not seek my rest in His grace.If David already, with the little proportion of revelation which he had, has uttered such excellent words, what should we now say, after the Scriptures of the New Testament have come to us, which have set every thing in a still greater light?As the gospel is glad tidings, so it likewise works Divine joy in those who allow themselves to be enlightened by it.The Holy Spirit accomplishes His office of admonishing the soul by the word of God, now by doctrine, now by the refutation of an imbibed error, now by punishing an observed impurity, now by awakening to faithfulness, likewise by consoling support in trouble.Although the law is a mirror of sin, yet no man can observe and know either the multitude or the secrecy of his faults, still less tell them to others.He who has given himself to God as a servant will be preserved by Him from being the servant of sin and the slave of Satan.As long as the righteous are in the world they will not be entirely pure owing to original sin, yet they are pure before God, partly on account of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, partly because God is pleased with their new obedience, whereby they free themselves from all gross prevailing sins.
Ambrose: Aliud est timere, quia peccaveris, aliud timere, ne pecces; ibi est formodo de supplicio, hic sollicitudo de prmio.Augustine: When thou prayest thou speakest with God; when thou readest the Scriptures, God speaks with thee.Osiander: God has done a greater and more glorious work in saving poor sinners, than in creating the world.Arndt: Gods word, praise and glory, cannot and must not fail.R. Stier: The first covenant in which God witnesseth His existence and will, joins on to the religion of nature and conscience which is presupposed, just as the other covenant which brings grace and truth, appeals to the law which preceded it.O. v. Gerlach: The prayer for forgiveness of debts is followed directly by the prayer for preservation in and from temptation, as in the Lords prayer.Tholuck: If all the preachers on earth were silent, and no human mouth told any more of God, there in the heavens His great glory and majesty are told and declared without cessation.Umbreit: It is a mysterious song, which is sung by the universe, and to which the poet listens; it sounds so that it is heard only in the depths of the human soul, where the spring of faith is.Diedrich: The work must praise the master everywhere, and blessed is he who understands it.
[Matth. Henry: From the brightness of the heavens we may collect that the Creator is light; their vastness of extent speaks His immensity; their height His transcendency and sovereignty; their influence upon this earth His dominion, and providence, and universal beneficence; and all declare His almighty power by which they were at first made, and continue to this day, according to the ordinances that were then settled.The holy Scripture, as it is a rule both of duty to God and of our expectation from Him, is of much greater use and benefit to us than day or night, than the air we breathe in, or the light of the sun.The discoveries made of God by His works might have served if man had retained his integrity; but to recover Him out of his fallen state another course must be taken, that must be done by the Word of God.Barnes: The reason why any man is elated with a conviction of his own goodness is that he has no just sense of the requirements of the law of God; and the more any one studies that law, the more will he be convinced of the extent of his own depravity.Spurgeon: We may rest assured that the true vestiges of creation will never contradict Genesis, nor will a correct Cosmos be found at variance with the narrative of Moses. He is wisest who reads both the world-book and the Word-book as two volumes of the same work, and feels concerning them, my Father wrote them both.He who would guess at Divine sublimity should gaze upwards into the starry vault; he who would imagine infinity must peer into the boundless expanse; he who desires to see Divine wisdom should consider the balancing of the orbs; he who would know Divine fidelity must mark the regularity of the planetary motions; and he who would attain some conception of Divine power, greatness, and majesty, must estimate the forces of attraction, the magnitude of the fixed stars, and the brightness of the whole celestial train.The gospel is perfect in all its parts, and perfect as a whole; it is a crime to add to it, treason to alter it, and felony to take from it.What a blessing that in a world of uncertainties we have something sure to rest upon! We hasten from the quicksands of human speculations to the terra firma of Divine Revelation.Free grace brings heart joy, earth-born mirth dwells on the lip, and flushes the bodily powers; but heavenly delights satisfy the inner nature, and fill the mental faculties to the brim. There is no cordial of comfort like that which is poured from the bottle of Scripture.Look at the sun and it puts out your eyes, look at the more than sunlight of Revelation and it enlightens them; the purity of snow causes snow-blindness to the Alpine traveller, but the purity of Gods truth has the contrary effect, and cures the natural blindness of the soul.Bible truth is enriching to the soul in the highest degree; the metaphor is one which gathers force as it is brought out; gold, fine goldmuch fine gold; it is good, better, best; and therefore it is not only to be desired with a misers avidity, but with more than that.Men speak of solid gold, but what is so solid as solid truth?On the sea of life there would be many wrecks if it were not for the Divine storm-signals which give to the watchful a timely warning. The Bible should be our Mentor, our Monitor, our Memento Mori, our Remembrancer, and the keeper of our conscience.He best knows himself who best knows the Word, but even such an one will be in a maze of wonder as to what he does not know, rather than on the mount of congratulation as to what he does know.We have heard of a comedy of errors, but to a good man this is more like a tragedy.Many books have a few lines of errata at the end, but our errata might well be as large as the volume if we could but have sense enough to see them. Augustine wrote in his older days a series of Retractations; ours might make a library if we had enough grace to be convinced of our mistakes, and to confess them.If we had eyes like those of God we should think very differently of ourselves.The transgressions which we see and confess are but like the farmers small samples which he brings to market, when he has left his granary full at home.C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[21][Riehm: The change in the structure of the verses occasioned by difference of tone, can so much the less be urged against the unity of the Psalm, since the structure of verses which prevails in the first part, reappears in Psa 19:11. Against the supposition that the praise of the law betrays a later period of composition, comp. Psa 18:22 sq. 31. The words of this Psalm resound in Psalms 119C. A. B.]
[22][Perowne: It may have been written perhaps in the first flush of an Eastern sunrise, when the sun was seen, going forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoicing as a mighty man to run his course. The song breathes all the life and freshness, all the gladness and glory of the morning. The devout singer looks out, first, on the works of Gods fingers, and sees all creation bearing its constant though silent testimony to its Maker; and then he turns himself with a feeling of deep satisfaction to that yet clearer and better witness concerning Him to be found in the inspired Scriptures. Thus he begins the day; thus he prepares himself for the duties that await him, for the temptations that may assail and the sorrows that may gather as a cloud about him. He has made trial of the preciousness of that word. He knows its deep, hallowing, soul-sustaining power. He knows that it is full of life and healing. But he knows also that it is a word that searches and tries the heart, that reveals the holiness of God, and the sinfulness of man; and therefore he bows himself in prayer, saying, As for errors,who can understand them? Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. This Psalm may be compared with Psalms 8 an evening psalm similar in its contemplations to this morning psalm. In both the contemplation of the Divine glory as declared in the heavens, begets a feeling of humility in the soul of the Psalmist which rises in Psa 8:5, into expression of faith and confidence in God, in Psalms 19, into prayer for forgiveness, preservation and acceptance.C. A. B.]
[23][Ewald: Without talk, without words, without its voice being heard, its sound became loud through the whole earth, etc.C. A. B.]
[24][Hupfeld compares this with Psa 8:3, the defence of God out of the mouth of sucklings.C. A. B.]
[25]
[Perowne agrees with Hengst. and Hupfeld, thus: Their voice is not heard, lit. is inaudible. This seems to be a kind of correction or explanation of the bold figure which had ascribed language to the heavens. They have a language, but not one that can be classed with any of the dialects of earth. They have a voice, but one that speaks not to the ear, but to the devout and understanding heart. The sense is very well expressed in the well-known paraphrase of Addison:
What though in solemn silence all
Move round this dark terrestrial ball,
*****
In reasons ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice, etc.
So Wordsworth: The elements are Gods Evangelists; the universe is Gods Church. The sermon which they preach has found its response in the universal assent of mankind. But the eloquence of the elements is a silent eloquence, and thus differs from the articulate utterances of the Church. The view of our author is preferable.C. A. B.]
[26][De Wette, Gesen., Maurer, Hitzig, Baur and Delitzsch regard the suffix as indefinite and relative. Thus De Wette: The end of the world is here designated as the dwelling of the sun, which is regarded as at the end of the heavens, where it passes the night, where in the evening at sunset it turns in, and in the morning goes forth. Thus Helios turned in with Thetis, and Ossian gives the sun a shady cave, where to pass the night.C. A. B.]
[27][Wordsworth: It cannot, surely, be by chance that we have here figurative expressions which describe the work of Christ, the King of kings, the Mighty Conqueror, who is compared in both Testaments to the sun (Mal 4:2; Rev 1:16; Rev 10:1), and shines forth as a sun in the Tabernacle of His Church, and dispels the darkness of sin and error, and illumines the world with His light: and who is also called the Bridegroom in Scripture, and as a Bridegroom (Joh 3:29; Rev 21:9) came forth from His heavenly chamber, to unite our nature to the Divine. He came forth de utero virginali tanquam thalamo (says Augustine), in order to espouse to Himself the Bride. His Church, and to join her in mystic wedlock to Himself. And therefore all ancient expositors agree in applying these words to Christ; and this Psalm is appointed, in the Sarum and Latin use, for Christmas Day; and in the Gregorian use, for the Annunciation.C. A. B.]
[28][Perowne: According to the expressive Hebrew idiom, it is to the soul what food is to the worn and fainting body. It is what the honey which he found in the wood was to Jonathan, when he returned, wearied and exhausted, from the pursuit of his enemies. Comp. Psa 119:18; Act 26:18; Eph 1:18C. A. B.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here another hymn, if not to the victories of Jesus in the works of grace, yet to his glory as manifested in the works of creation, and in the gospel of his salvation. In the former part, the wonders of God’s power, as displayed in the creation of the heavenly bodies; in the latter, the still more marvellous power as set forth in the new creation of the soul.
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
Psa 19:1
The book of God in creation, which the heavens open to the world; so full and plainly demonstrates his Godhead, that, as the apostle speaks, the invisible things of God are clearly seen by the things, which he hath made, even his eternal power and Godhead. Rom 1:19 . They most evidently prove a first cause, since they could not create themselves, nor have existed from eternity.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Honey of God’s Word
Psa 19
In the superbly sublime nineteenth Psalm David pronounces God’s word to be sweeter than honey and the droppings of the honeycomb. In the same passage he declares that ‘it is pure, enlightening the eyes’. Again the Psalmist says ‘the entrance of Thy word giveth light’. It is not the careless reading or the listless hearing of the book, but its entrance into the soul which produces this inward illumination. The spiritual eyesight must be opened in order that the spiritual beauty and wisdom and glory of the Divine word may be discovered. The growing Christian never outgrows his Bible; in the exhaustless jewel-mine every stroke of the mattock reveals new nuggets of gold and fresh diamonds.
I. Even as a mental discipline there is no Book like God’s Book. The humblest labourer who saturates his mind with this celestial schoolbook becomes a superior man to his comrades not merely a purer man but a clearer-headed man. It was the feeding on this honey dropping from heaven which gave to the Puritans their wonderful sagacity as well as their unconquerable loyalty to the right.
II. As the sunlight was made for all eyes, so this Book was made for all hearts. It is more than light, for it is an enlightener. Not only does it reveal the grandest, the sublimest and most practical truths, but it improves and enlarges the vision. Who of us that have been sorely perplexed about questions of right and wrong, and puzzled as to our duty, have not caught new views and true views as soon as we dipped into this honeycomb? Poor Cowper, harassed and tormented, found in the twenty-fifth verse of the third chapter of Romans the honey which brought light to his over-clouded soul. There is many a one who can testify how precious honey from heaven brought light and joy to his eyes when dimmed with sorrow. The exceeding rich and infallible promises were not only sweet, they were illuminating. They lighted up the valley of the shadow of death; they showed how crosses can be turned into crowns, and how losses can brighten into glorious gains.
III. Nothing opens the sinner’s eyes to see himself and to see the Saviour of sinners like the simple word. The Bible is a book to reveal iniquity in the secret parts. If the sceptic and the scoffer can be induced to taste some of that honey which Christ gave to Nicodemus, he may find hell a tremendous reality to be shunned, and heaven a glorious reality to be gained.
T. L. Cuyler.
References. XIX. 1. E. A. Bray, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 16. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 195. XIX. 1-6. R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 113. XIX. 1-7. W. Alexander, Primary Convictions, p. 163. XIX. 2. A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix. p. 147. XIX. 3. Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv. p. 249. XIX. 3, 4. V. W. Gregory, Expositor (3rd Series), vol. iii. p. 315. XIX. 4. W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi. p. 398. XIX. 4-6. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 1020. A. P. Stanley, Sermons in the East, p. 71. XIX. 5. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany, p. 12. XIX. 5, 6. J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, p. 227. XIX. 7. Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes Genesis to Proverbs, p. 147. 7,8. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 30. XIX. 7-9. G. Matheson, Expositor (1st Series), vol. xii. p. 89. XIX. 8. J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii. p. 36. XIX. 11. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2625. XIX. 12. G. H. Morrison, The Scottish Review, vol. ii. p. 134. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 299. Ibid. vol. iii. No. 116. J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i. p. 41. H. Thompson, Concionalia Outlines for Parochial Use (1st Series), vol. i. p. 111. XIX. 12-14. T. G. Selby, The Imperfect Angel, p. 88. R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 164.
The Sin of Self-confidence
Psa 19:13
Our purpose is to point out that life does not admit of negligence, self-confidence, and venturesomeness; and to urge a close and constant supervision of the soul.
I. To Treat Negligently Our Secret Faults is to become guilty of presumptuous sin. Immediately before our text we listen to the deprecation and appeal, ‘Who can discern His errors? Clear Thou me from hidden faults.’ Now, by these errors and secret faults we understand the Psalmist to indicate the thought, feeling, and bias which lie back of action, and eventually determine action. In the meditation of the heart, the chambers of the brain, the inclination of the will, action takes its rise and colour; and at this initial point, in the count of the sacred writer, we ought specially to be on our guard. Out of the heart are the issues of life; and this fountain ought to be kept under constant observation, as the inhabitants of volcanic areas watch the movement and colour of the water in the wells. According to the reasoning of the text and context, out of hidden faults spring presumptuous sins, out of presumptuous sins dominant sins, out of dominant sins the great transgression of final apostasy. Medical authority teaches that elephantiasis is sometimes occasioned by the bite of a mosquito; and the student of morals well knows that, as the most monstrous physical maladies arise in microscopic life, so the foulest sins originate in obscure errors of the mind, in distempered imaginations, in morbid feeling, in a bias of the will so faint as easily to escape notice. As St. James diagnoses the situation, each man is tempted when drawn away by his irregular desire, and enticed; then, the irregular desire having conceived, beareth sin; and sin, becoming full grown, brings forth death. The point of the Psalmist, then, is this that so soon as we discern in thought, emotion, or conduct any thing irregular, false, unhealthy, we ought promptly to take ourselves to task.
II. To Despise the Beginnings of Habit is to become chargeable with presumptuous sin. The Psalmist has here in view the terrible power of evil habit. ‘Let them not have dominion over me.’ St. Paul refers to the same hateful domination: ‘Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof. The ancients were only too familiar with tyranny, with its humiliations and cruelty; but they knew no despotism that was so terrible as that of a soul mastered by base desire: the tyranny that outrages reason, puts out the eyes of the heart, silences the conscience, fastens fetters on the will, and thrusts human nature in its inmost self into the bitterest bondage and degradation. To acquiesce in the lordship of lust, or to attempt in unavailing revolt to break its fetters, is the deepest depth of subjection and misery we may know. Let us not be guilty of presumptuous sin in yielding to the temerity which trifles with the beginnings of evil. The crease may be barely discernible, but there character will be rent; the scratch may be inappreciable, but here the soul will be shattered, and, perchance, cast with the rubbish to the void! Snap, then, the spider-thread ere it become a cord of vanity, a cart-rope to drag the tyrant’s chariot and the executioner’s tumbril. Block the track ere the lawless thought establish a right of way. Quench the kindling spark ere you perish in the impure flame of an infernal martyrdom. ‘Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.’
III. To Expose Ourselves Unnecessarily to Temptation is an egregious form of presumption. We have already spoken of those wanton persons who are never happy except when courting danger in some shape or other; and this folly finds its parallel in the spiritual life. Surely temptation enough arises out of natural, legitimate life, inevitable dangers stand thick through all the ground; and yet we madly multiply peril to the soul, as the hare-brained will graze the grave. How rashly we expose ourselves to sceptical influences! How heedlessly we take on worldly entanglements! How apt we are to minimize the perils of passion, feeding without fear! To dabble with any forbidden thing in the moral life is inexcusable folly; for it does not, and it cannot, bring any advantage whatever. The wounds received in the service of sin carry no honour; the ventures made at the bidding of vicious caprice yield no profit; the forbidden precipices we climb with bleeding feet only render our folly the more conspicuous and our punishment the more complete. ‘What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.’
IV. To Encounter the Inevitable Perils of Life Without Due Preparation is a sin of presumption. Nothing in nature is more remarkable than the way in which the creatures are fortified against their enemies; and it is noted that their defensive armour becomes more exquisite and complete as their assailants increase in power and efficiency. Cacti are preserved by formidable spines. Protective mechanics of a most complicated order are found in a number of plants. All kinds of ingenious weapons are developed by flower, insect, and animal; just the armour that best suits them, being finely adjusted to the severity of their environment. Thus God has not left His people without a ‘whole armour’; it would be strangely unlike Him if He had. And that armour is found in the intensity and fullness of their spiritual life. The armour of the saint is not something exterior and artificial: it is the protection that springs from the reality, intensity, and healthiness of the life of the soul. It is in the grasp of the truth by the understanding, in the sensibility of the conscience to righteousness, in the warmth of the heart’s love, in the clearness of the vision of the eternal, in the strength of our trust in God, and in the completeness of our consecration to Him. Here is the invulnerable panoply of the saints.
W. L. Watkinson, The Fatal Barter, pp. 129-43.
References. XIX. 13. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 76. XIX. 13. J. Keble, Sermons for Lent to Passiontide, p. 95.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Psa 19
[Note. This is universally regarded as one of the most profound and affecting of David’s compositions. Bacon says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, but not his will.” God’s will can only be known by his law. A marked difference between the style of the two portions of the psalm has been pointed out. The former portion is more varied in cadence, whilst the latter is more precise and condensed, nevertheless a pervading harmony has been recognised by the severest critics. It has been well said that the placing of these two ideas side by side is full of beauty and interest. To study nature and law is to cover the whole scope of pious education.]
A Grand Picture of Nature
Read the first verse, “The heavens are telling,” rather than “The heavens declare.” This form of expression keeps up the music of the remainder of the paragraph in the psalm referring to heavenly glory. “The heavens are telling” are now speaking; are not merely showing, as upon an infinite diagram, the glory of God, but are talking about it, repeating it in words which the soul can hear, and are eternally engaged in preaching the great gospel of beneficent nature. “The heavens are telling.” Which heavens? Not only is the word “heavens” grammatically plural, but suggestively a great host. There are many heavens. To which of the multitude innumerable does the rapturous poet refer? The heavens of Day? They are all whiteness, beautiful in glory; sometimes without a cloud, or vapour, or stain of anything earthly an infinite purity of light; a great, holy, celestial summer. When the poet, touching us, as if to call us to an attitude of attention, says, “The heavens are telling the glory of God,” it is perfectly easy for us to enter into his high mood, and to return a responsive assurance that we hear the music and catch the tones of the ineffable eloquence. He has strained nothing; he has reached the word appropriate to the occasion; in associating the name of the Lord with glory so vast, so pure, he has not broken in upon any true sense of proportion, or violated any noble instinct of veneration. “The heavens are telling.” Which heavens? The heavens of Night? Night has a glory all her own. She seems as if sometimes trying to keep the glory from us, so that we see but little shining glints of it sparkles, and twinkles, and flashes of a hidden splendour. Yet she has a pride of her own a skilful way of throwing back the robe and letting us see that there is much beyond. She will also condescend to be looked at in a way which would appear to have been divinely appointed “through a glass darkly,” a glass that reveals somewhat of distance, size, radiance, capacity, but there is no stopping-place in all the upward vista: where we pause it is simply for want of vision; the glory does not end where the eyesight fails. If, when conscious that there is universe beyond universe, in endless aspect, in infinite multiplication, the poet shall say, “The heavens are telling the glory of God,” we should interrupt his song and say, “Let it be louder;” or, “Let us unite with thee in praising the majesty of light.” Which heavens? The Oriental? They are quite different from the Occidental heavens. Dwellers in the western and northern lands do not see so many “patines of bright gold” as are seen by the Oriental gazer: the whole arch is ablaze with a white flame, or alive with innumerable eyes, as if all the galleries of heaven were thronged with angel spectators, looking down to see this earth, on which such tragedies divine have been begun, continued, and completed. We may, therefore, well ask, Which heavens? Every man has a heaven of his own. Blessed be God, it is possible to look upon the heavens and admire them without understanding their merely astronomical mechanism. The mere astronomer does not see the heavens. He is but a tabulist, keeping pace with himself in whole numbers and decimals, long lines of logarithms and other figures; he has always ink enough to put down what he has seen. The poet begins where the mere astronomer ends. He sees the genius of the whole. He speaks about it in language worthy of the altar at which his praise is kindled. The humblest observer may read “the glory of God” in the heavens. This is a volume God has published for all the race; this revelation was not done in a corner. We have to inquire for a book, to ascertain upon what terms it can be had, and to ask for assistance in interpreting its hardest words; but the great nature-book, the heaven-page, the star-syllables behold, all is free to the eye that can look and read. Do not let us imagine the heavens are not to be understood until the names of the stars are known. The stars have no names! We have degraded them by attaching appellations to them. The stars would not know themselves by the names we give them. Look beyond the name, the arithmetic, the size, into the spiritual meaning of all the balance and harmony and music, and thus acknowledge that “the heavens are telling the glory of God.”
It is beautiful to note how soon the Psalmist institutes a comparison between man and nature man and God. At first we think he is going to be wholly abstract, but an irresistible impulse, divinely started, soon draws him towards the making of comparisons as between the outward and the inward, the material and the spiritual, and thus to find in nature and in man a cooperative parable, nature having one part, man having the other part, and both the parts brought together to complete the significance. Thus the Psalmist says, “The sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race” ( Psa 19:4-5 ). This is a figure we cannot understand: hence my reference to the Oriental lands. The sun never plays the bridegroom part in our dull skies. He comes slowly. Sometimes he comes hardly at all, or looks upon the earth as if in a spirit of offence, standing back with more or less of haughty reserve and neglect. Sometimes he comes lingeringly: so we have here a dawn, a time when the sun is apparently beginning to come, or sending forth intimations that perhaps he will come in a given space of time. It is otherwise with the Orient: there the coming of the sun is like the bursting forth of a man from behind the curtains, which he has suddenly dashed aside, and the man is in full vigour and fire before we were aware of his intention to appear. Hence the difference of poetry as between Oriental and Western nations. The Oriental reader could not understand English poetry about the coming of the sun the earth waiting for him; nor could he understand our references to the uncertainty of the coming of the sun: the only sun he knows anything about leaps, starts suddenly with a dash, and illumes and transfigures the earth, so lately night-burdened, darkened with gloom. It is the same sun, but it is not the same atmosphere. Imagine the Orient and the Occident establishing competing sects, each upholding its own view of the sun, and each calling the other heterodox! The folly would be patent; the antagonism would be absurd. Yet this is the very thing that is done amongst Christian thinkers: the one thing forgotten is that the sun is the same sun, but the intermediate conditions are not the same. We are battling about the atmosphere, and forgetting the eternal steadfastness of the sun. Every man has a sun of his own a faith of his own a God more patent to himself than to any other man. There are as many religions, in the sense of aspects of religions, as there are men. It is an error to suppose that we all see the same aspect of God: but what we have to rejoice in is that all the aspects make up the one God. Were an Eastern poet to contend that Shakespeare had never seen the sun, we should not be able to estimate his criticism; perhaps we might even call him a fanatic; but when this very same principle comes into religious thinking, then we have society split up into sects, denominations, parties, decorated with especial banners, and degraded by especial mottoes. God is the same, Christ the same, truth the same, but the revelation is different, because of atmospheric peculiarity, because of individual temperament, training, opportunity for seeing things, and enlargement of mind. Better to magnify the unity of the sun, the eternal majesty of the light, than to be finding one another wrong upon grounds atmospheric, and because of conditions which do not hold good in equal degree in any two instances.
“Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard” ( Psa 19:2-3 ).
The meaning is that the heavens use no words. Where words have been used man has been exercising his little invention in the questionable science of nomenclature. The text should read: There is no speech, there is no language, their voice is not heard. This is a great silent testimony. This is a spectacle to be looked at, not a message to be criticised. Where the message is delivered, criticism begins. Hence we have remarks upon “manner.” To such awful depths of religious disgrace have we sunk! Sometimes we stumble at the message because we are unappreciative of the manner; then we are not earnest; we are not only foolish, we are dead men; not only dead men, but incurable fools. God, therefore, has used silent ministers to assist the great vocal ministry of exposition and persuasion. The heavens are inaudible in all their speech, yet intelligible. We can actually put into words all the appeals made by Night, if we look reverently and consider devoutly what is revealed on the blue page of the sky. A graphic writer of our own time has well said: “The greatest objects in nature are the stillest: the ocean has a voice, the sun is dumb in his courts of praise; the forests murmur, the constellations speak not Aaron spoke; Moses’ face but shone. Sweetly might the high priest discourse, but the Urim and the Thummim, the blazing stones upon his breast, flashed forth a meaning deeper and diviner far.”
“Day unto day uttereth” literally, pours forth like a fountain. “Night unto night sheweth” literally, breathes out, tells what it has to tell to the night that is coming on. So there is an astronomic tradition, a long-continued serial story, written in starry nights and sunny days. What talks the heavens have to one another! How the dying day tells to the day unborn its tale of experience what it has seen, what varieties of landscape, what mysteries of life, what tragedies of woe! So the moon tells nightly to the listening earth what she has to say. These starry talkers have passwords of their own: they speak in the cypher of light; there is no word, no sound, no speech, no language. Poor crippled language would be of no use in that high converse. Language is always a difficulty, a snare, a temptation, an inconvenient convenience. It brings us into all our troubles: it is when we speak that we create heterodoxies: could we but be silent, dumbly good could we look our prayers and cause our face to shine with our benevolence, and our hand do a quiet work of beneficence, how happy would the world be! Words do not mean the same thing to any two men; they may be accepted for momentary uses and for commercial purposes, but when it becomes a matter of life and death, time and eternity, truth and error, words are base counterfeits that should be nailed to the counter of creation as things by which a false commerce has been kept up amongst earnest and ardent men. Blessed be God for the silent testimony, for the radiant character, for the eloquent service. All history is silent; it is only the immediate day that chatters and talks and fusses about its little affairs. Yet the dead centuries are eloquent; the characters are all gone: the warriors are dead and buried, the orators have culminated their eloquence in the silence of death, the great solemn past is like a banquet-hall deserted; but it is eloquent, instructive, silently monitorial. Why do we speak of our little affairs? They have not yet come into shape; not for one hundred years may they be talked about in sober wisdom and with clear, calm judgment. Let us talk of things that happened long ago: our fathers told us what wondrous things the Lord did in their times. Silent history great, sad, melancholy, impartial history the spirit of the past should govern the unrest and the tumult of the present.
Now there is a sudden turn in the psalm; yet there is no lowering of its dignity.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes 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 for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether” ( Psa 19:7-9 ).
Some have thought that another author wrote the concluding portions of the psalm. Why? Surely not. This man who spoke so rapturously about nature never could have left the subject there. He was not a mere nature-worshipper. He so looked at nature as to convince himself that somewhere there was something yet richer, more of the quality of God. We do make such inferences in general life why not in matters religious? A great French astronomer said a long time before he made the discovery: Such and such are the palpitations from this quarter of the heavens, that there must be another planet not far. That other planet had never been discovered, but there were such signs in the heavens as could be wrought only by the revolutions and the light of some tremendous body. The astronomer kept his glass well to his eye, and watched with the patience of love and with the sobriety of wisdom, and in due time the great planet came within the field of the glass. At that same time a great English discoverer had been directing his eye in the same quarter; the discovery was made almost simultaneously as nearly all great discoveries are. It is wonderful how God confirms things by the mouth of two or three witnesses, so that men in various lands, and speaking various languages, come always at the same point to the same conclusion. David, looking upon all the stellar host, and all the solar day, said, “There is more: there is a law; there is a nearer approximation to mind than mere stars can ever make; watch, and listen, and pray.” He found a “law,” a “statute,” a “testimony,” a “commandment.” There is one peculiarity about these verses which ought to be clearly noted namely, every word can be proved to be either true or false. They expose themselves to an immediate practical test. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” Had that been a phrase complete in itself, it might have admitted of discussion, but it is only part of a sentence, the remainder being “converting the soul.” There we come upon ground which can be tested. Does the law of the Lord convert the soul? Put it thus: When the law of the Lord enters into a man’s nature, is he the same man in his temper, spirit, hopes, anticipations? Does he talk the same earthly language? Is he turned right round from east to west? Questions so simple admit of being answered with practical replies. It is not difficult to see a parallel between the action of the heavens upon the earth and the action of the law upon human nature. Does the sun restore the earth? Does the earth give signs of gladness because the sun has come? Does she answer his light with things green and beautiful, with songs a thousand-voiced, toned in every pitch of music and eloquence? Does she seem to make haste to show him all she has? When she makes her garden she seems to be making it for the sun rather than for the owner or the gardener. The earth, in her strong summer mood, is a reply to the sun. As surely as such is the case is it that man, affected by the law, the testimony, the statute, the commandment of the Lord, is restored, beautified, enriched, and brought to his true and very self as God meant him to be. These are not matters that admit of discussion: we ourselves are the living witnesses. Where, then, is there any place for wordy argument long and detailed discussion? The whole matter is settled on practical grounds. There never was a man who received the law of the Lord into his heart and obeyed it who did not instantly say that he was a new man that he was “born again.” Failing this proof of regeneration, we are at liberty to deny that he has ever known the law or ever received it into his spirit.
So the psalm is a grand picture of nature, and a grand recognition of revelation; still, it is incomplete: it wants another touch. What can we have more than nature and revelation? We can have experience. That is what the Psalmist finally supplies. He begins to mourn and complain, and to feel his own infirmity, and to desire divine sympathy and direction. “Cleanse thou me from secret faults” thou who didst make the all-redeeming sun. “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins” O thou that dost hold the great steeds of fire in leashes that cannot be broken. “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer” then I shall join the choral harmonies of creation; mine shall not be the one discordant note in creation’s infinite anthem; then all thy works shall praise Thee. “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins,” literally, from arrogant men men who seeing me above them, below them, around them, will not be law-burdened themselves; keep me in the society of the humble, the modest, the lowly-minded. To the babe thou wilt reveal thyself, to the little child thou wilt shew thy face; Lord, keep me back from boasting, blustering, arrogant men licentious fools who would burst thy limits and try to be gods themselves.
Prayer
Almighty God, thy sanctuary is on high; it is filled with angels; it is the home of the blessed; from it thou dost behold the children of men, and thou dost send help, thou loving Father, to those who put their trust in thee. The tabernacle of God is with men upon the earth; thy house is near our dwelling-places. Thou wilt send us a portion from thy table that our hunger may be satisfied; thou wilt number us amongst thy guests, and cause us to eat and drink abundantly at thy table. Thou dost connect all the worlds, mysteriously and lovingly, so that we speak of the whole family in heaven and on earth. Thou art so teaching us the mystery of life, and revealing to us its infinite glory, that now there is no more distance, there is no night, there is no sea, there is no need of the candle or of the sun to show things as they are; we are now citizens of heaven, companions of the angels, associates with the pure and the blessed; this is the miracle of the Holy Ghost wrought within us, little by little, like a dawning, expanding, growing day. Once we were blind, now we see; once we thought heaven was above the sky a beauteous image indeed to our child-mind but now it is within us, if so be we love God in Christ Jesus and try to serve him with all simplicity and earnestness; once we thought of the dead as gone away from us, now they are no longer dead: they have risen in our love and thought, they are the chief impulses of our life, they encourage us, bless us, enrich us: verily they live more today than when we could put our hands in theirs and look them in the face. Thou art changing all things: the water is becoming wine, the light is becoming heaven, the summer is paradise restored. Thou art giving us enlargement of mind, far-extendedness of vision; so we are no longer humbled by the things that die and that press upon us with rude urgency; we trample them under foot, and stand upon them as upon a hill which only helps us to see the further. We bless thee for all these upliftings, enlargements, and liberations of mind; thou hast made us thy freemen, invested us with a glorious liberty, and entrusted us with a sacred promise. We come to the house of the Lord to receive help. The way of the week is often crooked: its days are so many difficulties, its hours are multiplied temptations, all its engagements so flatter us, or lure us, or tempt us, that we may forget the sanctuary of God; but we come to the house of the Living One that we may ourselves live more abundantly yea, be filled with life, so much so that there-shall be no death in us; then we will step down into the week and rule it, command it, sanctify it by the energy of the indwelling Spirit. For all thine help we bless thee: it has turned night into day, it has made for us pools yea, and springing fountains in the wilderness; it has kept back the enemy; it has given us a place of security, and therefore an opportunity of growth. Bless the Lord, magnify him; yea, praise him with many instruments and with unanimous voice and unbroken love for his infinite kindness, his pity, and his care. Help us to live worthy of thy call. We cannot do so: every day we fall; we eat the forbidden tree, we listen to tempting voices, we know that we have done the wrong. Yet sometimes thou dost bid us fear not, for we are in a place of darkness that leads to a place of light; if so be we cling to thee, and hope on, and live on, all this dense darkness shall be dissolved, and we shall stand in the white morning, beautiful with all heaven’s colour and rich with a thousand promises. We commend one another to thy care. This is the great blessing, this is the true friendship, that soul should pray for soul, and life should give life into the Eternal Hands. For all thy wealth of love we bless thee: we have seen it at home, we have seen it in the marketplace, we have seen it in the cemetery everywhere thy love is present, had we but eyes to see. Lord, open our eyes! Jesus, Son of David, that we may receive our sight is our heart’s cry to thy pity. Whilst we are here in this place of shadow and gloom and trial, help us to work steadily, bravely hopefully; may we not mourn as the pagans do, falling down with heathenish fear in the day of adversity: in that day make us strong, that in its darkness we may illustrate the infinitude of thy grace and the fulness of thy satisfactions. Direct all men who are in perplexity, comfort all who are in sorrow, give rest to those who are weary, too weary to pray; and give comfort of a special kind to those whose griefs are of the heart, of the spirit, which cannot well be spoken, and yet which tear the soul and wound it, and fill it with despair. The Lord be with our loved ones everywhere with the boy that left us yesterday, the child who faced the world for the first time recently, the friend who said good-bye that he might try the sea, and the traveller who has gone far away to make honest bread. Be with those from whom we are necessarily parted, and from whom we would never be parted a moment if we could help it. Be with those whom we shall never see upon the earth again; give them joy in sorrow, triumph in the hour and article of death, and may they have the promise and the hope of reunion, of fellowship eternal. The Lord bless the whole earth all its nationalities and peoples, its tongues and languages. The Lord look upon all men who are in high power on thrones, in primacies, leading the influence of the world; the Lord grant to such humbleness of mind, together with increasing insight, more religious reverence, and deeper interest in the common weal. The Lord hear us in all these things, and all the things which we ought to speak of, or think of, in our love; and send a plentiful answer from his sanctuary, and especially assure us, through our Lord Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace, Lord of Life, Saviour of the world, Priest of the universe, of the forgiveness of our sins, and our adoption into the spiritual family of God. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XIII
THE PSALM OF MOSES AND THE PSALMS OF DAVID’S EARLY LIFE
Psa 90
Some say that the author of Psa 19 was a pantheist, but he was not. He does not identify God and nature. The two books of revelation according to this psalm are Nature and the Scripture, but they are distinct revelations.
Dr. Sampey’s outline of Psa 19 is,
1. The glory of God in the material universe (Psa 19:1-6 )
2. The excellence of God’s revealed word (Psa 19:7-11 )
3. Plea for deliverance from every form of sin (Psa 19:12-14 )
This outline shows the progress of the thought, thus: The work of God reveals glory; the Word of God is excellent; prayer to God is the sinner’s privilege when he sees the glory of God in nature and also recognizes his imperfection as he is measured by the perfect Word of God.
A New Testament quotation from this psalm is found in Rom 10:18 , in that great discussion of Paul on the Jewish problem of unbelief, showing that the light of nature extended not only to the Jews, but to the whole inhabited earth. Note carefully these words: But I say. Did they not hear? Yea, verily, Their sound went out into all the earth, And their words unto the ends of the world.
There is also a New Testament reference to it in Rom 1:20 : “For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.”
There is a striking figure in this psalm found in Psa 19:5-6 , in which the rising sun is likened unto a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and running his course, thus: Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. His going forth is from the end of the heavens, And his circuit unto the ends of it; And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Thus we see that the time of day taken as a viewpoint in this psalm is the sunrise, the most exhilarating and invigorating point of the day.
Here we note six names of the Word of God with their attributes and divine effects, noting progress in the effect, thus:
1. The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul. “Law” is the name, “perfect” is the attribute and “restoring the soul” is the effect.
2. The testimony of Jehovah is sure, making wise the simple. “Testimony” is the name, “sure” is the attribute and “making wise the simple” is the effect.
3. The precepts of Jehovah are right, rejoicing the heart. “Precepts” is the name, “right” is the attribute and “rejoicing the heart” is the effect.
4. The commandment of Jehovah is pure, enlightening the eyes. “Commandment” is the name, “pure” is the attribute and “enlightening the eyes” is the effect.
5. The fear of Jehovah is clean, enduring forever. “Fear” is the name, “clean” is the attribute and “enduring forever” is the effect.
6. The ordinances of Jehovah are true and righteous altogether. “Ordinances” is the name, “true” is the attribute and “righteous altogether” suggests a righteous fruitage from the whole law.
Certain classes of sins are recognized in this psalm, viz:
1. The sin of ignorance, of which Paul is a fine example.
2. Secret sin, of which David is an example.
3. Presumptuous sin, of which Saul, son of Kish, is an example.
4. The sin of infirmity, of which Peter is one of the best examples.
QUESTIONS
26. Is the author of Psalm 19 a pantheist and why?
27. What are the two books of revelation according to this psalm?
28. What is Dr. Sampey’s outline of this psalm?
29. State this outline so as to show the progress of the thought.
30. What is the New Testament quotation from this psalm?
31. What is the New Testament reference to it?
32. What is the striking figure in this psalm? What time of day does this psalm take as a viewpoint?
34. Give six names of the word of God with their attributes and divine effects, noting the progress in the effect.
35. What classes of sins are recognized in this psalm, and what an illustration of each?
36. What is your favorite verse in this psalm?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XV
PSALM AFTER DAVID PRIOR TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
The superscriptions ascribed to Asaph twelve palms (Psa 50 ; 73-83) Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David. Their sons also directed the various bands of musicians (1Ch 25 ). It seems that the family of Asaph for many generations continued to preside over the service of song (Cf. Ezr 3:10 ).
The theme of Psa 50 is “Obedience is better than sacrifice,” or the language of Samuel to Saul when he had committed the awful sin in respect to the Amalekites. This teaching is paralleled in many Old Testament scriptures, for instance, Psa 51:16-17 . For thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it: Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
The problem of Psa 73 is the problem of why the wicked prosper (Psa 73:1-14 ), and its solution is found in the attitude of God toward the wicked (Psa 73:15-28 ). [For a fine exposition of the other psalms of this section see Kirkpatrick or Maclaren on the Psalms.]
The psalms attributed to the sons of Korah are Psa 42 ; Psa 44 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 ; Psa 49 ; Psa 84 ; Psa 85 ; Psa 87 . The evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem is internal. There are three stanzas, each closing with a refrain. The similarity of structure and thought indicates that they were formerly one psalm. A parallel to these two psalms we find in the escape of Christian from the Castle of Giant Despair in Pilgrim’s Progress .
Only two psalms were ascribed to Solomon, viz: Psa 72 and 127. However, the author believes that there is good reason to attribute Psa 72 to David. If he wrote it, then only one was written by Solomon.
The theme of Psa 72 is the reign of the righteous king, and the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold, is as follows: (1) righteous (Psa 72:1-4 ) ; (2) perpetual (Psa 72:5-7 ); (3) universal (Psa 72:8-11 ); (4) benign (Psa 72:12-14 ); (5) prosperous (Psa 72:15-17 ).
Psa 127 was written when Solomon built the Temple. It is the central psalm of the psalms of the Ascents, which refer to the Temple. It seems fitting that this psalm should occupy the central position in the group, because of the occasion which inspired it and its relation to the other psalms of the group. A brief interpretation of it is as follows: The house here means household. It is a brief lyric, setting forth the lessons of faith and trust. This together with Psa 128 is justly called “A Song of Home.” Once in speaking to Baylor Female College I used this psalm, illustrating the function of a school as a parent sending forth her children into the world as mighty arrows. Again I used this psalm in one of my addresses in our own Seminary in which I made the household to refer to the Seminary sending forth the preachers as her children.
The psalms assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah are Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 . The historical setting is found in the history of the reign of Hezekiel. Their application to Judah at this time is found in the historical connection, in which we have God’s great deliverances from the foreign powers, especially the deliverance from Sennacherib. We find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah and in Psa 74 ; Psa 79 .
The radical critics ascribe Psa 74 ; Psa 79 to the Maccabean period, and their argument is based upon the use of the word “synagogues,” in Psa 74:8 . The answer to their contention is found in the marginal rendering which gives “places of assembly” instead of “synagogues.” The word “synagogue” is a Greek word translated from the Hebrew, which has several meanings, and in this place means the “place of assembly” where God met his people.
The silence of the exile period is shown in Psa 137 , in which they respond that they cannot sing a song of Zion in a strange land. Their brightening of hope is seen in Psa 102 . In this we have the brightening of their hope on the eve of their return. In Psa 85:10 we have a great text:
Mercy and truth are met together;
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
The truth here is God’s law demanding justice; mercy is God’s grace meeting justice. This was gloriously fulfilled in Christ on the cross. He met the demands of the law and offers mercy and grace to all who accept them on the terms of repentance and faith.
Three characteristics of Psa 119 are, first, it is an alphabetical psalm; second, it is the longest chapter in the Bible, and third, it is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 . Psalms 146-150 were used for worship in the second temple. The expressions of innocence in the psalms do not refer to original sin, but to a course of conduct in contrast with wicked lives. The psalmists do not claim absolute, but relative sinlessness.
The imprecations in the psalms are real prayers, and are directed against real men who were enemies of David and the Jewish nation, but they are not expressions of personal resentment. They are vigorous expressions of righteous indignation against incorrigible enemies of God and his people and are to be interpreted in the light of progressive revelation. The New Testament contains many exultant expressions of the overthrow of the wicked. (Cf. 1Co 16:22 ; 2Ti 4:14 ; Gal 5:12 ; Rev 16:5-6 ; Rev 18:20 .) These imprecations do not teach that we, even in the worst circumstances, should bear personal malice, nor take vengeance on the enemies of righteousness, but that we should live so close to God that we may acquiesce in the destruction of the wicked and leave the matter of vengeance in the hands of a just God, to whom vengeance belongs (Rom 12:19-21 ).
The clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con, are found in these passages, as follows: Psa 16:10-11 ; Psa 17:15 ; Psa 23:6 ; Psa 49:15 ; Psa 73:23-26 . The passages that are construed to the contrary are found in Psa 6:5 ; Psa 30:9 ; Psa 39:13 ; Psa 88:10-12 ; Psa 115:17 . The student will compare these passages and note carefully their teachings. The first group speaks of the triumph over Sheol (the resurrection) ; about awaking in the likeness of God; about dwelling in the house of the Lord forever; about redemption from the power of Sheol; and God’s guiding counsel and final reception into glory, all of which is very clear and unmistakable teaching as to the future life.
The second group speaks of DO remembrance in death; about no profit to the one when he goes down to the pit; of going hence and being no more; about the dead not being able to praise God and about the grave as being the land of forgetfulness ; and about the dead not praising Jehovah, all of which are spoken from the standpoint of the grave and temporal death.
There is positively no contradiction nor discrepancy in the teaching of these scriptures. One group takes the spirit of man as the viewpoint and teaches the continuity of life, the immortality of the soul; the other group takes the physical being of man as the viewpoint and teaches the dissolution of the body and its absolute unconsciousness in the grave.
QUESTIONS
1. How many and what psalms were ascribed to Asaph?
2. Who presided over the Levitical singers in the time of David?
3. What is the theme of Psa 50 , and where do we find the same teaching in the Old Testament?
4. What is the problem of Psa 73 , and what its solution?
5. What psalms are attributed to the sons of Korah?
6. What is the evidence that Psalms 42-43 were one poem and what the characteristic of these two taken together?
7. What parallel to these two psalms do we find in modern literature?
8. What psalms were ascribed to Solomon?
9. What is the theme of Psa 72 ?
10. What is the outline according to DeWitt, which shows the kingdom as desired and foretold?
11. When was Psa 127 written and what the application as a part of the Pilgrim group?
12. Give a brief interpretation of it and the uses made of it by the author on two different occasions.
13. What psalms are assigned to the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah, and what their historical setting?
14. What is their application to Judah at this time?
15. Where may we find in poetry a description of the destruction and desolation of Jerusalem?
16. To what period do radical critics ascribe Psalms 74-79; what is their argument, and what is your answer?
17. Which psalm shows the silence of the exile period and why?
18. Which one shows their brightening of hope?
19. Explain Psa 85:10 .
20. Give three characteristics of Psa 119 .
21. What use was made of Psalms 146-150?
22. Explain the expression of innocence in the psalms in harmony with their teaching of sin.
23. Explain the imprecations in the psalms and show their harmony with New Testament teachings.
24. Cite the clearest teachings on the future life as found in the psalms, both pro and con.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 19:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
The heavens declare the glory of God ] The world, saitb Clement of Alexandria, is Dei Scriptura, the first Bible that God made for the institution of man. The heavens (here instanced as a chief part of that Mundi totius machina ) are compared to a scroll that is written, Rev 6:14 . As in a horn book, which little ones carry, there be letters in a paper within which appear through the same; so, under the blue sapphire of the firmament, is spread a sheet of royal paper written all over with the wisdom and power of God. This book was imprinted, saith one, at the New Jerusalem, by the finger of Jehovah, and is not to be sold, but to be seen, at the sign of glory, of every one that lifts up his eyes to heaven; where he may plainly perceive Deum esse mentem, architectricem, intelligentem, sapientem, potentem, &c. This lesson is fairly lined out unto us in the brows of the firmament, which, therefore, we are bidden to behold and discern; since therein God hath made himself visible, yea, legible, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that men are left without excuse, Rom 1:20 . But because this book of nature (with its three great leaves, heaven, earth, and sea), though never so diligently read over, cannot bring a man to the saving knowledge of God in Christ, nor make him perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works, behold another and better Book, even that of the Holy Scriptures, set forth, Psa 19:7-8 , &c., of this psalm, that like as where the philosopher endeth the physician beginneth; so, where nature faileth us, Scripture may inform and comfort us. In this excellent psalm, then, we have the sum of all true divinity, saith reverend Beza, the end whereof is to give us that knowledge of God, and of his holy worship, whereby we may be made partakers of eternal life. Here, then, in the six first verses the prophet showeth that God manifesteth his glory to mankind by his works; and, first, by the work of creation, Psa 19:1 ; next, of government, Psa 19:2-3 , &c., and that, 1. In the revolution of the starry sky, which revolution, first, causeth a perpetual vicissitude of days and nights, and so declareth the glory of God. 2. It bespeaketh all people at once, as a catholic preacher of God’s glory, Psa 19:4-5 . Secondly, in the constant course of the sun (that common servant, as his name importeth), Psa 19:4 , who, with his motion, Psa 19:5 , enlighteneth all things with his light, and pierceth all things with his heat, Psa 19:6 . Thus “the heavens declare the glory of God”; that is, they yield matter and occasion of glorifying him, according to that, Psa 145:10 , “All thy works praise thee, O Lord; but thy saints bless thee.” Some philosophers, and with them some Rabbis (Maimonides), have deemed, or rather doted, that the heaven was a living creature, and did actually praise and serve God. But this conceit is exploded by the wiser sort; and that axiom maintained, Formica coelos dignitate superat, An ant, because a living creature, is more excellent than the whole visible heavens. As for the saints and servants of God, it is truly affirmed by divines that there is not so much of the glory of God in all his works of creation and providence as in one gracious action that they perform.
And the firmament showeth his handywork
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It is inscribed “To the chief musician: a psalm of David.” It is the witness of creation, especially of what is heavenly, and therefore universal. The heavens, with the day, the night, and the sun, bear their testimony for God to all mankind. Here we may note the beautiful propriety of the apostle’s citation in Rom 10 for sovereign indiscriminate mercy in the gospel; as of our Lord in Mat 5:45 , when enjoining grace to the worst, independently of desert and in contradistinction from legal injunctions. Here therefore “God” only is spoken of. Man is in view.
But there is another testimony to the greater value and more restricted character of the law of Jehovah, which is set out in the rest of this striking psalm. Here not the work of God is in question, but His word Who has covenant with His people on earth. It is the godly man’s estimate of what was divinely given to act on the conscience. Its excellent powers are confessed, not only in its intrinsic qualities but as expressive of God’s nature and authority, and hence above all pleasant and prized. There is needed admonition, God’s people being what and where they are, and serving Him withal. Hence one cannot discern his wanderings, but desires cleansing, and entreats to be kept from what, is presumptuous, feeling that secret snares unjudged expose to great transgression, and that what is acceptable to God in word and heart is above all to be cultivated. But if He be rock and Redeemer, why distrust?
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 19:1-6
1The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
2Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
3There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.
4Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their utterances to the end of the world.
In them He has placed a tent for the sun,
5Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.
6Its rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Psa 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God This is known as natural revelation. Rom 1:19-20 expresses the same truth that everyone can know something about God from the physical creation. Also notice Rom 2:14-15 which asserts an inner moral witness in humans.
heavens Note Psa 8:1; Psa 50:6 and how they relate to the theology of Rom 1:19-20. See Special Topic: Heavens .
glory See BDB 458, #2, C, (2).
SPECIAL TOPIC: GLORY (OT)
NASBexpanse
NKJV, NRSV,
LXXfirmament
NRSV footnotedome
NJB, REBthe vault of heaven
JPSOAsky
The term (BDB 956) is used in Gen 1:6-7 (thrice),8,14,15,17. It denotes the Hebrew concept of the atmosphere as a solid dome or stretched skin (i.e., tent, cf. Psa 104:2; Isa 40:22). The windows of heaven must be opened to allow the rain to fall.
Notice that heavens in line 1 is parallel to expanse in line 2.
the work of His hands This phrase is asserting the personal involvement of YHWH in creation (cf. Isa 48:13; Isa 64:8). It specifically reflects His personal creation of Adam in Gen 2:7 (i.e., formed, not spoken into existence).
Psa 19:2-3 day to day Notice the personification of both the day and night. The point is that creation continuously, though silently (cf. Psa 19:3), is giving the revelation/message about God (i.e., a good modern proponent of this concept is the Intelligent Design movement).
Psa 19:2 pour forth This verb (BDB 615, KB 665, Hiphil imperfect) has the basic meaning of a bubbling spring (cf. Pro 18:4). It came to be used metaphorically of speaking
1. positively Psa 19:2; Psa 119:171; Psa 145:7; Pro 1:23
2. negatively Psa 59:7; Psa 94:4; Pro 15:28
night to night reveals knowledge Mankind has always looked in awe and sometimes idolatry at the starry heavens (cf. 2Ki 23:5; Psa 8:1; Psa 8:3).
Psa 19:3 There is no speech This refers to nature’s silent, but powerful, witness.
Psa 19:4
NASB, NKJVline
NRSV, JPSOAvoice
TEV, NJB,
NRSV, REBmessage
LXX, NASB
marginsound
NEBmusic
PESHITTAwords
The MT has (BDB 876 II, KB 1081 from ), which denotes a boundary line, musical melody (cf. NEB). The UBS Text Project gives it an A rating. However, the LXX and Jerome have (BDB 876, KB 1083 from ) which means speech, word, cry, which seems to fit the context best (same root in Psa 19:3, i.e., voice). The early church used (i.e., quoted from) the LXX.
through all the earth. . .to the ends of the world These first two lines of Psa 19:4 are synonymous parallelism. The theological thrust is the universal availability of God’s revelation to humans (cf. Isa 42:10; Isa 49:6; Isa 62:11). All are responsible for their knowledge of God (Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:18).
Natural revelation (i.e., through the physical creation and an inner moral witness) results in a spiritual responsibility on the part of all humans (cf. Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:18). Once a person is saved it then becomes a way of wonder, praise, and worship of the God of creation (cf. Psalms 8).
Psa 19:4-6 the sun This imagery using the sun is not a scientific description or mythological account but typical OT language using popular descriptive idioms for a natural phenomenon. Notice the imagery.
1. the sun has a tent (i.e., abode), Psa 19:4 c
2. the sun is a bridegroom, Psa 19:5 a
3. the sun runs a set course, Psa 19:5 b (i.e., described in Psa 19:6)
As the sun lights all the earth, so too, the revelation of God’s character, power, beauty, and design is universal (cf. Psa 19:4 a,b). Every human knows something about God. The only other place that natural revelation is used theologically to denote human responsibility is Rom 1:18 to Rom 3:18.
Paul also specifically used this verse in Rom 10:18 in a context that denotes the need of the world hearing/receiving the message of God in Christ (i.e., the gospel). The rabbis of Paul’s day often put several quotes together to make a point. Paul was trained in the procedure.
The psalmist possibly picked the sun as a servant of YHWH to critique the sun worship of the ANE. This Psalm, like Genesis 1, shows YHWH as creator and controller of the heavenly bodies (i.e., sun, moon, stars, planets, comets, etc.). They are not gods or angels that control, or even affect, the lives of humans!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
To the chief Musician. See App-64. The changes from 2Samuel 22 were made when David handed the Psalm over for general use in public worship. The position of this Psalm in the Structure (p. 721) shows that it corresponds with, Psa 29, with its two answering parts, the “Glory” and the “Voice” of Jehovah. The verbs in the first part (1-6) are literary, and in the second part astronomical, thus interlacing and uniting the two parts in one whole.
Title. A Psalm of David. One Psalm: one whole, not two odd scraps strung together by some late “redactor”. See App-65.
declare = rehearse (the Piel part, implying repetition. Compare Psa 71:15. Gen 24:66. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia. App-6.
GOD. Hebrew El. App-4.
firmament = expanse.
sheweth = is setting forth. Compare first occurrence (Gen 3:11. Psa 97:6; Psa 111:6).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 19:1-14
Chapter 19 is one of the beautiful favorite psalms where David does speak about how God does reveal Himself to man in nature.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard ( Psa 19:1-3 ).
God is speaking to you every day, every night, through the world, the universe that He has created. The heavens are declaring you the glory, the awesomeness, the magnitude of God, as the earth is showing to you His infinite wisdom. The life forms around the earth.
Now this last week I had a very interesting experience. We have a fellow in our church who is the president of a polygraph firm, and so he has been doing some experiments with his polygraph machines. By hooking the connections up to a plant leaf and then watching the responses on the polygraph as the electrodes are hooked up to a plant. And he had been doing these experiments and he wanted me to come over and observe some of the things that he had discovered. And I found them very interesting.
As we are thinking about the earth showing His handiwork and day unto day they’re uttering speech. And the question is, just how much understanding or knowledge is there in a plant? And so, as he hooked up the electrodes to the plant, and the needles started just moving up and down as it was measuring the responses within the leaf, he said, “Now move the needle upwards. Move in an upward position on the graph.” And as he commanded it to do so, the needle started moving upward. And he said, “Now show us the downward movement.” And the needle moved down on the graph. And then he said, “Now show us some violent motion,” and the needle began to swing all the way across. Then he said to me, “Now you choose a number in your mind.” And so he said, “Is the number one?” And of course I didn’t answer. But he was just measuring the graph. “Is the number two? Is the number three?” And the needle was just going up and down, and when he got to my number seven, the needle goes way up and then came back down again and leveled off, and then, “Eight? Nine? Ten?” And I looked at the thing and I thought, “I can’t believe it.” What kind of communication, you know.
Now I am certain that there are many things of God’s creation that we don’t understand. That there are vast facets within nature that we have only begun to scratch the surface. That God has coded in many things, wisdom that is phenomenal, things that are just amazing. And I think that there is much to be learned and much to be discovered. God says that day unto day they are uttering their speech. That it’s a universal language. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. You say, “Well, what do you make of it?” I don’t know what to make of it; it was weird. But it was interesting. And it just sort of opens up your mind to the fact that God’s creation is far vaster than what we ever dreamed. What kind of intelligence is just in a cell itself?
There was a gal who pinched the leaf, one of the leaves on the plant, not the one that the electrode was attached to, and the needle began to move violently. She went out of the room to get something and the needle settled down. When she came back in the room, the needle started moving violently again. The way this was all discovered is a fellow had attached the electrodes to a plant and he was just watching the movement of the needle, sort of fascinated with it. And he decided to water the plant, and as he picked up the water to water the plant, the needle started going crazy. So instead of watering it, he stopped and he put the water back down, and the needle settled back down again and so he picked it up as though he was going to water, deciding he wasn’t going to do it, but just see what the needle would do, and this time it didn’t do anything. And he made several gestures like he was going to water it, but not intending to do it, and the needle did nothing. And this guy started getting bugged. And so he finally decided, “Okay, I really will water it this time. I’ll go ahead and really water it.” And the needle started jumping again and he watered the thing. Now I don’t know the explanations of it. I have no explanation for it. But it’s interesting. “All nature,” we sing, “All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.” Who knows? The wisdom of God who has created life forms, the infinite variety of life forms. What kind of understanding has He put into some of these life forms? I don’t know. It is fascinating.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament shows His handiwork, and day unto day they utter their speech.” They are talking to us. “Night unto night their voice goeth forth. There is not a speech nor a language where there voice is not heard.” God speaks to man universally through nature. But though nature speaks to you of the existence of God, the testimony or the witness of nature then falls short because it cannot tell you of the love of God and the redemptive plan of God for your life. For that we needed the special revelation, and God has thus given us the special revelation that we might know His love and His plan for our lives. But the fact that God exists, we all know just by the fact of life around us and life forms around us.
Now David in this psalm, of course, speaks of the law of the Lord, and the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the judgments of the Lord. All of these are a part of God’s revelation to us in His Word.
The law of the LORD perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD ( Psa 19:7-9 )
God has revealed Himself in nature, but He has revealed Himself more specifically in His Word. And thus, His law, His testimony, His commandments, His statutes, His judgments.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb ( Psa 19:10 ).
Oh, how sweet the Word of God becomes to us as we get into it and as we begin to draw from its sweetness.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward ( Psa 19:11 ).
And so he closes the psalm with a prayer,
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not rule over me: then shall I be upright, I shall be innocent from the great transgression. O God, let the words of my mouth, the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer ( Psa 19:13-14 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
This Psalm has the same subject as Psalms 119. Both of them are full of praise of Gods Word. God has written two books for us to read,-the volume of the Creation and the volume of the Sacred Scriptures,-and these two are in complete harmony. Happy are they who can read both these books, and see the same vein of teaching running through every page.
Psa 19:1. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
The heavens are always declaring Gods glory; if we gaze up to them by day or by night, we always read in them the power, the wisdom, the goodness, the greatness, the immutability of God.
Psa 19:2. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
If we have but ears to hear, and hearts to understand, how much of God may we see in that vast volume of nature which is spread out above us both by day and by night!
Psa 19:3-4. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard, Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
All men must hear Gods voice in nature if they are only willing to do so.
Paul wrote to the Romans, The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that those who will not see are without excuse.
Psa 19:4-6. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a Strongman to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof:
The sun has his place, and keeps it, so let us keep ours. The sun is glorious in his goings forth,-as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,-glad himself, and making all things glad in his gladness; the whole world rejoices at the sight of the face of the sun. The sun is strong to go through his appointed orbit, and fulfill his ordained course. So may it be with us; may we not only have the gladness of our conversion, when we are as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, but may we have strength and grace to run the race set before us from the start to the finish The sun makes his influence felt wherever he goes: there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. So also may it be with us; may our influence be felt wherever we go! The sun is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness; but he is also a type of what every Christian should be, for the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day; and there should be nothing hid from the fervent heat of our Christian character. We ought so to serve God that our influence should be felt everywhere. May God give us more of his light and his heat that we may shine and burn to his glory!
Psa 19:7-9. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes 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 for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
Six sentences, according to the parallels of Hebrew poetry, all in praise of Gods Word. Let us always regard this holy Book as the Word of Jehovah; let us never look upon the Bible as being on a level with other books. The Word of the Lord is our ultimate Court of Appeal; we accept its teaching as infallible, we obey its commands, we desire to reflect its purity.
The law of the Lord is perfect. Nothing may be taken from it, and nothing added to it, for it is perfect as it is. It is without admixture of error, and without adulteration of falsehood; and it proves its supernatural power by converting men from the error of their ways. What other book can convert the soul of man except so far as it contains Biblical truth?
The commandment of the Lord is pure. There is no other code of morals so pure as that revealed in the Bible. The gospel reflects glory on all the perfections of God; and, therefore, it makes wise the simple. Poor simple-hearted folk, conscious of there own ignorance, come to this Book, and not only find wisdom in it, but are themselves made wise by it. It is also sure as well as pure. There is no question about its teaching; it is certainly true. If we learn only what is sure, we may be sure that we shall not have to unlearn it.
The statutes of the Lord are right, and they will set us right if we obey them. They will also rejoice our heart, for unrighteousness brings sorrow, sooner or later; but rightness in the end brings joy.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. There is a close connection between the eye and the heart. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Sin in the heart puts dust in the eye; we cannot see right unless we feel right.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever. When you come to know God, and the power of true religion in the form of holy, childlike fear, you never lose it, it is yours for ever. Time cannot destroy it, eternity will but develop it.
The judgments of the Lord are true; there is no alloy of falsehood here.
Whatever destructive criticism may be brought to bear upon it, no part of sacred Scripture will ever be destroyed:
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
Psa 19:10. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold:
Or, the very best gold. No riches can so enrich the mind and heart as the Word of God does. A man may have tons of gold, and yet be utterly miserable; but he who is pure in heart, he who hath Gods Word and the love of it in his heart, is truly rich, however poor he may be in temporal things.
Psa 19:10. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
As I read those six poetic lines in praise of the Word of God, I could not help thinking how the bees build their honeycombs in hexagons of six-sided combs, all full of honey. Such is this portion of the Word of God with its hexagons of commendation, every part of which is fall of sweetness to the true believer.
Psa 19:11-12. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors.
While David is speaking of the Book that has no errors in it, he is reminded of his own errors; and they strike him as being so many that he cannot understand them. Every sin is really an error, a mistake, a blunder, as well as something a great deal worse. It is never a wise thing to do wrong. At the end of a book, we sometimes find that the printers insert a list of Errata,-errors made in the printing of the volume. Ah, me! we shall need to have a long list of Errata at the end of the volume of our lives. How many mistakes we have made! Augustine, in his Confessions, amended what he had written amiss in his previous books. The best of men need continually to confess their errors, but Gods Book has no error in it from beginning to end.
Psa 19:12. Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Cleanse me from the faults which I cannot see, and which no mortal man has ever seen. Thou, Lord, seest them; be pleased, therefore, to cleanse me from them. This view of the omniscience of God is very comforting to the believer; because he perceives that, even if he cannot see his sin, so as to own it, and confess it, yet God can see it so as to forgive it, and cleanse it.
Psa 19:13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;-
If we indulge in secret sins, we may gradually slide down an inclined plane until we come to presumptuous sins, sins committed willfully, sins known to be sins, daring. God-defying sins. Lord, keep me back from such sins as these! If others urge me to advance in this wrong direction, O Lord, do thou keep me back! Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Psa 19:13. Let them not have dominion over me:
For, when a man once sins presumptuously, the tendency is for him to become a slave to that sin, it gets dominion over him. The worst slave-owner in the world is sin; and presumptuous sin is a tyrant with many a cruel whip in its hand.
Psa 19:13. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
That greatest transgression of all, that sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven;-if I am kept from presumptuous sin, I shall never fall into that fatal pit.
Psa 19:14. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
David does not hope to be accepted till he has first of all been pardoned; but when the Lord has forgiven him, and sanctified him, then he comes with both mouth and heart to serve his God; and his prayer is that he may be acceptable in the sight of God, to whom he owes the strength to worship, and through whom he hopes to be accepted because he has a Redeemer: O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer. May each one of us be thus acceptable in the sight of God, for Christs sake! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Psa 19:1-4
GOD’S WORKS AND GOD’S WORD DECLARE HIS GLORY THE WORLD BOOK; AND THE WORD BOOK
(FOR THE CHIEF MUSICIAN. A PSALM OF DAVID).
This magnificent psalm naturally falls into two divisions. “Psa 19:1-6 describe the glory of God as seen in the heavenly bodies, especially the sun … Psa 19:7-14 deal with the excellence of the revelation of God in the Law. Spurgeon called this psalm, “The World Book and the Word Book,” both of them having been written by The Father.
“Ordinarily a hymn begins with a summons to raise a song of praise to the Lord; but here it is omitted; because the hymn began aeons ago when, `The morning stars sang together,’ (Job 38:7) at the time of creation”; and the praise of God has continued without intermission throughout all ages and to the present time; nor shall it ever cease.
The Authorized Version is here superior to anything that has been offered in its place, as we shall observe in the following notes.
Psa 19:1-4
“The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament showeth his handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech,
And night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language;
Their voice is not heard
Their line is gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.”
We cannot accept this rendition of Psa 19:3, to the effect, as Rawlinson put it, that, “There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard.
The King James Version here has the following:
“There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” (Note that the word where is added).
What is taught here is not that the heavens are speechless, or that there are no words, or no sound; but that there are no human beings of whatever language which are beyond the reach of the glorious message thundering in the ears of all men from the starry heavens themselves. In other words, “There are no men anywhere on earth, regardless of what language they use, who are beyond the reach of what the heavens are continually saying in the ears of all men.”
If this observation is not correct, let someone explain what is meant in Psa 19:4, “Their line is gone out through all the earth; and their words to the end of the world.”
“Their line is gone out through all the earth” (Psa 19:4). The Anchor Bible renders the word “line” in this place as “call,” indicating some kind of a summons or declaration that would necessarily involve “sound” and “words.”
Oh yes, this writer is aware that no actual words or sounds are used; but that is simply not what the psalmist is saying here. He is declaring that the heavenly world is indeed delivering a message to mankind, regardless of where they live or what language they speak.
That our analysis here is correct is borne out by the fact that the Septuagint (LXX) renders the word “line” in Psa 19:4 as “sound,” and also agrees with the KJV in using “words” in the second line. The inspired apostle Paul quoted this place; and how did he render it?
“Their sound went out into all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.”
– Rom 10:18.
Yes indeed, the message of the sidereal heavens may easily be reduced to words (in whatever language); and what do they say?
The invisible things of Him (God) since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse (Rom 1:20).
The glory, power, and divinity of God are clearly taught by the marvel of Creation itself; and Paul declared that men are without excuse who refuse to see the “power and divinity of God” which is continually being shouted in their ears by the whole glorious Creation.
It must be pointed out, however, that there is no moral, ethical, or soul-saving revelation to be found in the World Book. The Word Book, namely the Bible, is the only source of that type of revelation.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 19:1. The original for heavens is defined by Strong as follows: “from an unused root meaning to be lofty; the sky (as aloft; the dual perhaps alluding to the visible arch in ‘which the clouds move, as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve.” From the definition it can be seen that the word is a descriptive one and the regions to which it is applied are so named because they partake of the description. Thus the sky (1st heaven), the region of the planets (2nd heaven), and the abode of God (3rd heaven) are so named because they all are especially characterized by the leading definition of the word, “to be lofty,” either materially or otherwise. With only 3 exceptions the word “heaven” in the Old Testament comes from the Hebrew words SHAMAYIM or SHEMAYIM whether singular or plural. The first is used 393 times and the second 38 times. Hence the context alone can determine whether the 1st, 2nd or 3rd heaven is meant in given cases. See Gen 1:20; Gen 22:17 and 1Ki 8:30 for instances, respectively, of these heavens. The connection in the present verse shows that the 1st and 2nd heavens are meant. Declare is from CAPHAR which Strong defines as follows: “to score with a mark as a tally or record, i.e. (by implication) to inscribe, and also to enumerate; intensively to recount, i.e. celebrate.” The clause means that the splendor of God is inscribed or written in the region of the planets. Firmament is from RAQIYA and Strong defines it, “an expanse, i.e. the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky.” This region is also a part of the 1st heaven but is noticed here by itself because of an additional characteristic, that of being expansive as well as lofty. One meaning of sheweth is to manifest or expose. Handywork is from two Hebrew words that combine to mean “the work of God’s hand.” The clause means that the work of God’s hand is made manifest by the appearances in the sky. Without doubt the 19th Psalm is a citation to one of the strongest, most unanswerable lines of evidence proving the existence of the Supreme Being. Let us study the entire chapter with profound respect.
Psa 19:2. The word for day is so rendered 1167 times and the definition in Strong’s lexicon includes all the phases of the period; whether that portion from sunset to sunset, or only from sunrise to sunset. So the connection in each case must determine the application of the word. In this verse it is used in contrast with night, therefore it means the time between sunrise and sunset. That is very significant because the sun is visible in the day while the stars are visible in the night. Unto has the sense of to or after; day after day, etc., not that one day shows something to another. The thought is that from day to day the declaration of God’s glory is known by the evidences in the heavens as mentioned in verse one.
Psa 19:3. There is and where are not in the original. The verse means that the declaration of the glory of God is made without audible speech or specific language. In other words, when a man looks up at the sun and stars he should be filled with awe by the silent tribute to the power and wisdom of the Creator. David had expressed this very thought in Psa 8:3-4. A group of atheists were overheard discussing the existence of God. A bystander interrupted to ask: “Gentlemen, do you say there is no God?” Upon receiving an affirmative reply he pointed up toward the myriad of stars twinkling overhead and asked: “Who made all of those?” Profound silence was their only response.
Psa 19:4. The antecedent of their is the declaration of evidences of the preceding verses. Line means the collection of evidences of the glory of God. That line or collection extends throughout the earth or the globe, and to the end of the world or inhabitants of the globe. In them, meaning in the collection of the evidences, hath he (God) set a tabernacle for the sun. A tabernacle is usually thought of as a portable structure. It does not necessarily mean that, and one part of Strong’s definition is, “dwelling place.” The idea is that the sun has a fixed position in the collection of the heavens; that agrees also with what men have learned about astronomy. The sun is stationary and other bodies move around it.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The burden of this psalm is the twofold revelation of Jehovah. He is revealed in Nature and in law. Yet in Nature Jehovah is revealed as God and not by those especial qualities suggested by the great name Jehovah. Moreover, it is in the law that God is revealed as Jehovah rather than by the facts of His wonder-working power. This differentiation is justified by the names as used. In the first six verses, which deal with the Nature revelation, the name ‘God” appears once and “Jehovah” not at all. In the last eight verses, which speak of the law revelation, the name “Jehovah” appears seven times and God not at all.
It is one Sovereign Ruler who is revealed and He is referred to by name eight times in all. Nature speaks to Nature. Day has its message to itself and night to itself. Without articulation the message is constantly delivered in the circuit of the sun. To man, higher than all Nature (see Psa 8:1-9), an articulate message is given. A word is spoken. It is the great law of Jehovah, “perfect,” “sure,” “right,” “pure,” ‘clean,” “true,” “righteous.” Mark well the sevenfold description and how perfectly all the needs of man are met. Great and wondrous, God is known in Nature by Nature through the speech of a great silence, and is revealed to man in messages which answer all his questioning and govern all his ways.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Works and the Word of God
Psa 19:1-14
This is the Psalm of the Two Books-Nature and Scripture. If Psa 8:1-9 were written at night, Psa 19:1-14 was surely written by day. In Psa 19:1, God is called El, strong; in Psa 19:7-9; Psa 19:14, the Hebrew Jehovah is translated Lord, as if His glory as Creator is the stepping-stone to loftier conceptions of the Redeemer.
Natures silence! No speech nor language! Psa 19:3. What a picture of the sacred stillness of dawn! Yet the witness-bearing is universal. Line, Psa 19:4, is compass or territory, but some translate it chord. Natures harp is strung to the glory of God. Jesus is our Sun, Mal 4:2.
Six synonyms for Scripture, and twelve qualities ascribed to it, Psa 19:7-9. How truly might our Lord have appropriated Psa 19:10! Let us end with confession and prayer. Errors, Psa 19:12; see Lev 4:2, r.v., margin, Psa 19:13. Dominion, Psa 19:13; Rom 6:14. For the seventh time Jehovah, Psa 19:14, with two loving epithets! Can we all say my, claiming all of God?
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
In this nineteenth Psalm the spirit of God celebrates two things, draws our attention to two testimonies. First, in verses 1 to 6 we have the testimony to the majesty and power of God in creation. Then from verses 7 to 11 we have the testimony of the Word of God setting forth the divine purpose and counsels, making known the mind of God in respect to man. In verses 12 to 14 we have that exercise of soul which should result from a thoughtful consideration of these two testimonies.
There is no conflict whatever between the testimony of nature and the testimony of the Word of God. Men have often tried to put nature and the Bible in opposition the one to the other; have insisted that the Bible is not scientific and that science is not biblical. But the fact scientific and the truth biblical never contradict one another. The theories scientific, these scientific hypotheses that have never been proven, are often opposed to the revelation that God has given in His Word and true science is often opposed to certain interpretations which men have given to parts of the Bible. But real science is never opposed to a right understanding or a correct interpretation of the Bible because science is simply an orderly presentation of the facts of the natural universe, whereas the Bible is an orderly presentation of the mind of God in connection with redemption.
In the fourth and fifth chapters of the book of The Revelation you have a very wonderful contrast or comparison. In chapter 4, verse 3, you look into heaven and there you see One on the throne whose features are not plainly discerned. He dwells in such brilliant light that John himself could not distinguish His features. He says, He that sat [on the throne] was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. That is interesting because the jasper and the sardine were two of the stones that were on the breastplate of the high priest of old. They were the first and last stones mentioned. There were twelve stones on the breastplate arranged in four rows of three each, and on those twelve stones were graven the names of the tribes of Israel, and every one of those names has a definite meaning. The striking thing is that on the jasper stone was engraven the name Reuben and Reuben means, Behold a son. On the sardius was engraven the name Benjamin and Benjamin means Son of my right hand. John says, as it were, I could not see Him plainly, the glory was too brilliant. I could not discern His features, but I could see that He was like a jasper and a sardius stone. And then the four and twenty elders are seen falling down on their faces before Him that sat upon the throne, and they worshiped Him, we are told, that made heaven and earth and the sea and all the things which are therein. They worshiped the Son of God as the Creator of the material universe.
When you come to chapter five things become plainer, and John who has become accustomed to that brilliant glory now says, I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the thronea Lamb as it had been slain (verse 6), or as Weymouths beautiful translation puts it, I saw a Lamb that looked as though it had once been offered in sacrifice. There were the marks of death still upon the Lamb, and John says that the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb and they worshiped the Lamb and cried, Thou art worthyfor Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God a kingdom of priests (verses 9, 10, 12). In chapter 4 you have the Lamb worshiped as Creator, and in chapter 5 He is worshiped as Redeemer. The poet has well said,
Twas great to call a world from naught,
Twas greater to redeem.
When we study the book of creation, when we look up into the heaven and look abroad over the earth, we find everywhere the evidences of divine power and might and wisdom. I cannot understand intelligent people questioning the reality or personality of God when they look out over this wonderful creation. If there were no mind behind this universe the suns and the starry systems would have long since crashed together and the universe would have gone to pieces; but the One who created the universe is upholding all things by the word of His power (Heb 1:3). How strikingly the Psalmist stresses the being of God and the folly of questioning that reality, when He says, He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? (Psa 94:9). Can you imagine any one with the ability to construct a human body, to bring a human body into existence and give it life, to construct an ear and make it possible for that ear to receive the sounds of the outside world, and yet that being know nothing about hearing himself? Can you imagine any one with wisdom enough to create an eye, that wonderful window of the soul, and yet not able to see himself? The very fact that we have such marvelous faculties is the proof that there must be a personal God behind this universe.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. What is meant by the heavens? Not simply the sky but all those myriads upon myriads of orbs of light, stars, suns, moons, solar systems, one after another reaching out into infinity. There are no limits of space. That is one thing that it is absolutely impossible to think of; try as hard as you may and you cannot think of limited space. At once your mind says, I wonder what is on the other side. That limitless space is crowded with universes, many of them millions of times larger than ours. And all of these, the starry heavens, declare the glory of God-
Forever singing as they shine
The hand that made us is divine.
The first chapter of Genesis says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Strange the stupid things that men will say. Only recently I ran up against the same old foolish statement that the first chapter of Genesis cannot be reliable because it tells of vegetation growing on the earth on the third day while the sun was not created until the fourth day, and you cannot have vegetation without sunlight; therefore it is absurd to think of trees growing before the sun was created. I grant that it is absurd, but the absurdity exists in the mind of the skeptic, not in the Word of God. The Word of God tells us that the sun was created before the days began. In the beginning God created the heavens-that takes in the sun-and the earth-these two terms take in all the orbs that roll through space. But when you come to the fourth day we read that the Lord God made the sun to give light upon the earth. It does not say that He created the sun then, but up to that time the rays of the sun had not been focused upon the earth as they are now. There is no contradiction: the contradiction is only in the mind of the unbeliever. God, in the beginning, created the heaven and the earth and the heavens declare the glory of God. Have you noticed how the different orbs of the heavens are used as pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ and His redemptive work? For instance, He is called the Sun of righteousness. He is called the bright and morning star, and on the other hand, those who follow Him and do His bidding are to shine as the stars for ever and ever. The moon is used as a picture of the people of God and the wonderful thing about the moon is that it has no light in itself, all its light is reflected glory. We, the people of God, have nothing in ourselves, we are darkness in ourselves but when brought to know the Sun of righteousness, we reflect His light. God uses these orbs of the heavens as pictures of His redemptive work.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. What does he mean by the firmament? This involves another objection that I often run across, even in books, and it amazes me to think how foolish some men, wise in other respects, can be. Some of the great authorities perpetuate this same stupid thing, that the Hebrew people believed, and their Bible taught that just above the earth was a solid firmament and the sun, moon, and stars were set in that solid firmament. They say that now we know, of course, that this is not true and so we must discard the book of Genesis. What stupidity, what a blatant display of ignorance! When you turn to the first chapter of Genesis we read that the Lord God made the fowl to fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven (verse 20). In a kind of crystal dome? No; the firmament is the atmosphere surrounding the earth. If the proportion of oxygen and nitrogen were changed, the whole universe would blow up. God has suspended this atmosphere around the earth and in the right proportions, so much oxygen and so much nitrogen, and therefore we are able to breathe, to exist, and if there were any marked change we would all die. And so The firmament sheweth His handiwork. The firmament says, there is a God, there is a mind behind the universe. The chemist goes into his laboratory and takes so much oxygen and so much nitrogen, mixes them together and produces certain gases. I read of a professor of chemistry in San Jose, California, who some years ago, was giving some work in the laboratory and the students were mixing certain compounds, but they got things a little bit out of proportion and off it went and the whole side of the high school blew out. We would have that all the time if we did not have a God of absolute wisdom controlling the universe.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. In the daytime as we see the sun passing through the heavens, who can help but see that there must be a mind behind this universe that guides that sun and controls its movements? And when night comes and you look into the starry heaven, how can you help believing that there is a God who created all these things? And this is Gods testimony to the heathen, who do not have any other witness, save that of conscience, to men who do not have the Bible.
There is no speech nor language; Their voice is not heard Notice how that should read. It says here in the A.V. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard, but the word where is in italics. What he is really saying is, if you want to hear the voice of God, if you want evidences of the reality of God, look up into the sky in the daytime and see the clouds, the sun, and the storms gathering, listen to the voice of the thunder, and then when night comes look upon the stars, those varied constellations, think how marvelously everything moves with exact mathematical precision. You will hear the voice of God, and yet there is no speech, their voice is not heard. But you cannot help, if you are thoughtful, but realize that there must be a divine mind behind the universe. And this testimony goes to all men everywhere.
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. And is not this, after all, a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ? He is the Sun of Righteousness who by and by is to be revealed as the Bridegroom of His own, when He comes forth in power and glory to bless the whole universe, when that Sun of Righteousness arises with healing in his wings (Mai. 4:2). His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. This is the testimony then of nature, and every man is responsible to heed that testimony. No honest man can look up into the heaven without the realization that there must be a God and without the realization that that God is a God of order, a God of righteousness. And what is righteousness? It is simply orderliness, and this universe is run in an orderly way, and therefore the testimony of the heavens is enough to convict a man of the need of repentance, of getting right with the God of the universe. But God has added more to that, He has given us His Word, and from verses 7 to 11 we have the testimony of the law.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. You will notice that the testimony of the law is given in a series of three couplets, three verses, and in each of these, two things are cited in order that we may consider them. Verse 7, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. By this term law is not meant, of course, just the Ten Commandments. We think of them as the law of God, but by the law is meant the whole revelation of Gods mind and will in His Word. In that sense the entire Word is the law of God, and this law is perfect. That is in accord with the New Testament revelation. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works (2Ti 3:16-17). God has given a perfect revelation in His Word, and what is the effect if heeded? Converting the soul, turning the soul to God. The Word of God, if received in the heart, if believed, turns the soul to God. Then note the second half of this couplet, The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The word testimony again covers the whole Book. Do you want the wisdom that really counts? Study your Bible. How is it that men of the world who are wise as to other things are so ignorant as to spiritual things? It is because they ignore the testimony of the Word. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. If you study your Bible in dependence upon the Holy Spirit you will find that it will give you an illumination, a knowledge, a wisdom that all the writings of men can never give you.
I have told elsewhere how, years ago when a young Salvation Army officer, I had come home for a brief furlough to southern California, where my folk had an olive ranch. I found an Irish preacher there, a poor man dying of tuberculosis, and he was too far gone for a change of climate to help him. He had asked to be allowed to live in a little tent away from the house and among the olive trees. There he had his bed and table and a chair, and when able to sit up, he sat there pondering over the Word of God and writing a few letters. When I came home my mother said, I want you to go out there and see James Fraser. I went, and he greeted me very kindly and said, Well, young man, you are trying to win souls, and he went on to give me a word of encouragement and then said, Sit down and let me tell you a few things my Father has been saying to me.
Oh, the things he began to give me from the Word of God as I sat there for perhaps two hours. And then I said, You must not talk any more, you will be exhausted.
He said, Take these things and pass them on to others.
I said, But how can I learn these things for myself? Can you tell me of some books I can read that will explain all these things?
My dear young man, he said, I learned these things on my knees on the mud floor of a little thatched cottage in the north of Ireland with my open Bible on the chair before me. The One who wrote the Bible came day by day and explained them to me, and you can learn more in a few weeks on your knees, with God, over His Word than you can in all the schools in a lifetime.
I was amazed and I have thanked God all my life since for that little Irishman, James Fraser. All through the years I have cherished the lesson he taught me. If you want the wisdom that cometh from above, if you want knowledge that is real, study your Bible for yourself, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God. Do not just depend upon what others can give you. I am afraid there are many Christians who hardly ever open their Bibles except when they come to meeting. If we could only learn to spend time over the Book we would find the wisdom of God unfolded there.
Notice the second couplet in verse 8, The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. This term statutes means, of course, the paths that God lays out for you, the instruction as to how you ought to walk. People are sometimes afraid of Gods statutes, but when you walk in them, instead of finding disappointment, your heart is filled with gladness. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. How different is Gods working from mans imaginings. Gods simple unencumbered plan, so plain, so clear, enlightening the eyes! I have known men who were altogether unlettered and yet through the study of this Book, because they had learned in the school of God and His Word, they were wiser far than many who have had lots of degrees attached to the end of their names.
Then consider the last couplet in verse 9, The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever. It is not fear in the sense of being afraid of God but fear in the sense of standing in awe of His infinite holiness. As you read the Word and are brought consciously into His presence, that sense of awe comes over your soul and you say, I do not want to grieve a God like that; I want to walk in obedience to Him, and the result is the cleansing of your life. The things that you contract from the world around are cleansed out of your life. The other half of this couplet, The judgments of the Lord [and it is not judgment in the sense of condemnatory judgment, but it is the deci- sions of the Lord] are true and righteous altogether. Do not ever believe anything else. Satan will try to make you think that the decisions of the Lord are often hard and cruel and will run contrary to your own best interests, but The judgments [decisions] of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. You begin to revel in this Word and you will say to yourself, I have never found anything so precious to my soul as this. Jeremiah said, Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and Thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart (Jer 15:16). You remember what Job said, I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food (Job 23:12). And here David adds his testimony and says, Thy truth is more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned. Study the Word of God not only for your own delight and upbuilding but also in order that you may be guarded from things contrary to the mind of God. John Bunyan wrote in the front of his Bible, This Book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this Book. If you are pondering over the Word of God day by day it will keep you from sin. If you are careless and cold of heart and out of fellowship with God, sin will keep you from the Book. Moreover by them is Thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. Keeping His Word unto the end.
From verses 12 to 14 we have the exercise of soul that is produced by pondering over the Word of God. The Psalm- ist asks, Who can understand his errors? I would have no way of testing myself if it were not for the Word. Cleanse Thou me from secret faults. There are things in my life, every one of us can say, that nobody else knows anything about. God alone knows. Now, Lord, apply Thy Word and cleanse me from these hidden things, from secret faults. And he adds, Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins. What are presumptuous sins? He is distinguishing here presumptuous sins from sins of ignorance. Under the law there were no sacrifices for presumptuous sins-The man that will do presumptuously,shall die (Deu 17:12). The sacrifices were for sins of ignorance. Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins. That is, wilful sins, direct violations of the revealed will of God. Let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression-of violating the revealed will of God. Now comes the closing prayer, and how aptly it fits the lips of every servant of Christ, yea, of every believer, but of every one in particular who seeks in any way to publicly serve God. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer. And if the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable to the Lord they must be in accordance with the Word. It is as one ministers the Word that he is acceptable to God.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Psa 19:1-6
Part First.
The praise of the Divine glory in the natural world of creation is first general (vers. 1-4) and then particular (vers. 4-6).
I. The whole visible expanse of sky is the theme or occasion of praise. Its teaching or testimony is (1) constant and continuous, (2) independent of language, and (3) universal.
II. The commission given generally to the heavens to declare God’s glory and to the firmament to show His handiwork is centred in the particular ascendency and sovereignty of the orb of day. (1) He has a position which implies supremacy. (2) The bright and radiant bravery of the sun is illustrated by significant comparisons. (3) The two leading features of his supremacy are clearly indicated: the wide sweep of his command and the penetrating, all-searching potency of his beams.
Part Second.
The transition from the natural world to the spiritual is made with startling abruptness. As in the stroke of a magic wand, the sun is gone. Another sun breaks forth from a higher heaven-the law of the Lord.
I. This sudden substitution implies similarity or analogy. (1) The law of the Lord has a fixed position; (2) a resplendent beauty and authoritative power; (3) a sweep and range to take in the uttermost bounds of human consciousness and experience, as well as a piercing, fiery energy to ransack every nook and cranny in the thoughts and intents of the human heart.
II. In this great analogy a difference is to be noted. The heavens are the result in time of what God, as the Almighty, is pleased from all eternity to determine fully to do; the law is the image from everlasting to everlasting of what God, as Jehovah, from everlasting to everlasting necessarily is. And as what God in His essential nature is transcends incalculably in glory what God, in the exercise of His discretionary choice, may think fit to do, so the law of Jehovah transcends the heavens which declare His glory, and in which He has set a tabernacle for the sun.
R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 113.
References: Psa 19:2.-A. Mursell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xix., p. 147. Psa 19:3.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 249. Psa 19:3, Psa 19:4.-V. Welby Gregory, Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iii., p. 315. Psa 19:4.-W. G. Harder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 398; H. R. Reynolds, Notes of the Christian Life, p. 146. Psa 19:4-6.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1020; A. P. Stanley, Sermons in the East, p. 71.
Psa 19:5
This rising sun is here a figure, token, or shadow of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I. Every one may understand that as the sun is beyond comparison the brightest object in these outward and visible heavens, so the great privilege of the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom and Church of Christ’s saints, is to have the Sun of Righteousness, God made Man, especially present, abiding, and reigning in it. It is the kingdom and Church of Christ; that is all its hope and glory.
II. As Christ is a Sun to His Church by His glorious abiding in it, so the manner in which He came to be so is likened by the Divine Psalmist to a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. He married the nature of God to the nature of man, by taking on Him our flesh, of the substance of His mother, and that without spot of sin, to make us clean from all sin.
III. The Psalmist goes on, next, to tell us that He is still in a certain sense running His course. Our Saviour, God made Man, born for us, and crucified, and risen again, fills the whole Church and the whole world. But His faithful and considerate people are more particularly made aware of His presence by the outward means of grace and the visible ordinances of the holy catholic Church. The doctrine is given in two words by the Apostle when he says concerning the Church that in it “Christ is all and in all.” Christ is in every person, and He is every person’s all. Consider these plain thoughts about our duty and practice. (1) According to our profession as Christians, we really regard the most holy Jesus as our all. Surely we shall never willingly miss an opportunity of coming to Him, of prevailing on Him to come more and more to us. (2) Taking that other half of St. Paul’s account of how Christ is the Sun of His Church-that He is in all-there is no Christian who is not partaker of Him. This will give us deep thoughts of our duty to our neighbour, as the other of our services paid to Almighty God. It is a remarkable saying of St. Peter, “Honour all men.” Do not only deal kindly with them, but respect and honour them. Why? Because they are made after the image of God. By the same rule, and more, the meanest Christian must be honoured, because he bears Christ about within him. In honouring Christians, we are honouring Christ; loving them, we are loving Him; in going out of our way to serve them, we are making a little sacrifice to Him, who thought not His life too dear to be parted with on the Cross for our salvation.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times” vol. i., p. 248 (see also J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Christmas to Epiphany, p. 12).
References: Psa 19:5, Psa 19:6.-J. C. Hare, Sermons in Herstmonceux Church, p. 227. Psa 19:7.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 147. Psa 19:7-9.-G. Matheson, Expositor, 1st series, vol. xii., p. 89.
Psa 19:7-9
There are here six different names by which the law of Jehovah is called, and six different statements regarding it, corresponding to these different names.
I. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Its very perfection fits it for being the instrument of the Spirit in effecting that result.
II. “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” The simple are the credulous ones who listen to any tale, the careless ones who will take no warning. The enmity of the sinner’s carnal mind against God disposes him simply to believe the devil’s lie. The soul must be converted. The simple must be made wise.
III. “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” By the statutes of Jehovah we may understand the separate and several precepts of the law, as it is broken up into particulars and brought to bear in detail upon the different realms of thought and affection, or of words and deeds, which it is designed to regulate and rule.
IV. “The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” The law, which is manifold in its details, is yet one in essence, one in principle. The statutes, which are many, have one centre, the commandment of Jehovah, or, as I would understand the phrase, what is called, and called rightly, the spirit of the law, its general ruling spirit, as distinguished from its special minute requirements and applications. This spirit of the law is clear as crystal, clear as noonday. Hence it has a wondrous efficacy to enlighten the eyes.
V. “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever.” It is a constant and consistent, a permanent and perennial, principle of thought and action. It implies a settled, serene frame of mind, always the same, reverential, conscientious, simple, and guileless, fixed in and on God. It is clean, purged from all sinister aims, all cherished lusts, and the whole miserable scheming of dead formality. And being thus clean, it endureth for ever.
VI. “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” The administration of the law, in the providence of God towards you, is in entire harmony with the establishment of the law in you, as Jehovah commanding and Jehovah feared. And now, as regards the enforcing of it on the part of God, it passes on into yet another formula, and becomes Jehovah judging.
R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 129.
Reference: Psa 19:8.-J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvii., p. 36.
Psa 19:10-11
I. The value of the law, as compared with gold, may be measured by the good it does; its honey sweetness by its manner of doing it.
II. The twofold commendation of the law in ver. 10 may be taken in connection with what follows as well as with what goes before (ver. 11). (1) “By them is Thy servant warned.” This makes them in my esteem more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold. If I am the servant of Jehovah, I desire to be continually warned, admonished at every step, reminded of duty, cautioned against danger. (2) “And in keeping of them there is great reward.” This explains their being sweeter than honey. The service is the reward begun; the reward is the service perfected. In serving now, amid whatever sufferings, I have a taste of heaven’s joy.
R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 153.
Psa 19:11
St. Paul says, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” Where then is the reward, the great present reward, in keeping God’s commandments? If an uninspired writer had affirmed that the most miserable being in creation would be a Christian supposing him without hopes for the future, there would have been uttered on all hands a vehement contradiction; the disciples of Christ would have pressed eagerly forward, attesting the possession of such a measure of gladness and peace that if deceived for hereafter, the advantage was on the side of the deception.
I. It were nothing to prove to the lukewarm professor that there should be no resurrection; he has never known the ecstasies of piety, and therefore he feels not the appalling declaration. But it is different with a man whose whole soul is in his religion, who upholds himself in every trial by the consolation which he draws from the future, and who finds a refuge from every grief and a deep fountain to cleanse in the conviction that Christ has abolished death and opened an eternal kingdom to His followers. It must be the extreme point of misery at which a righteous man would be placed who, having taken up Christianity as a charter of the future, should find it altogether limited to the present, and we can contend for it therefore as a literal truth that by bringing home to the true Christian a proof that there is no resurrection you would instantly make him “of all men most miserable.” But since you can find no such proof, there is nothing in the saying of St. Paul to invalidate this saying of the Psalmist in our text. U. Whilst we maintain that there are present enjoyments in religion which vastly more than counterpoise the disquietude it may cause, we are certain that if Christian hope were suddenly bounded by the horizon of time, then all this present enjoyment would be virtually destroyed. Each present enjoyment in religion anticipates the future. What would you leave the believer if you intercepted those flashings from the far-off country which struggle through the mist and cloud of this region of eclipse, and shed lustre round the path by which he toils on to glory? Who then shall rival the Christian in misery if, after setting out in the expectation of a blessed immortality, he discovers that only in this life is there hope in Christ? He loses the enjoyments of religion, he cannot relish the enjoyments of irreligion, stripped of the acquired, unfitted for the natural, knowing that he is doomed to be an outcast hereafter, and unable to cheat himself with forgetfulness here. It is nothing against the truth of our text that St. Paul applies the epithet “most miserable” to Christians if Christ had not opened to them eternity. Christ has opened to them eternity; and therefore we can confidently say, with the Psalmist, of the commandments of God, “Moreover by them is Thy servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward.”
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2625.
Psa 19:12
I. How is it that sin possesses the power of deceiving; that, being foul, it can often look so fair, or where it cannot conceal altogether, can yet conceal to so large an extent, its native hideousness? I need hardly answer that it derives this power altogether from ourselves. There is that in every one of us which is always ready to take the part of sin, to plead for sin, to be upon sin’s side, sin having a natural correspondence and affinity with everything which is corrupt and fallen within us. There is (1) our love of ease; (2) our love of pleasure; (3) our pride. All the pride as well as all the passions of man are enlisted on the side of sin.
II. How shall we deliver ourselves from these sorceries of sin? How shall we understand our errors, or at least understand that we can never understand them to the full, and thus seek of God that He would cleanse us from them? (1) Grasp with a full and firm faith the blessed truth of the one sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction made for your sins. (2) Remember that He who made that atonement for your sins, and so enabled you to look them in the face-for they are sins not imputed any more-is also the Giver of the Spirit, of that Spirit which convinces us of sin, of righteousness, of judgment to come. Ask of God, and ask earnestly, and ask continually, for this convincing Spirit.
R. C. Trench, Sermons Preached in Ireland, p. 36.
I. The most ready method of convincing ourselves of the existence in us of faults unknown to ourselves is to consider how plainly we see the secret faults of others.
II. Consider the actual disclosures of our hidden weakness which accidents occasion. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those which we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows who died for our sins.
III. What if we do not know ourselves even where we have been tried and found faithful? Faithful Abraham, through want of faith, denied his wife. Moses, the meekest of men, was excluded from the land of promise for a passionate word. The wisdom of Solomon was seduced to bow down to idols.
IV. No one begins to examine himself and to pray to know himself, like David in the text, but he finds within him an abundance of faults which before were either entirely or almost entirely unknown to him.
V. But let a man persevere in prayer and watchfulness to the day of his death, yet he will never get to the bottom of his heart. Doubtless we must all endure that fiery and terrifying vision of our real selves, that last fiery trial of the soul before its acceptance, a spiritual agony and second death to all who are not then supported by the strength of Him who died to bring them safe through it, and in whom on earth they have believed.
VI. Call to mind the impediments that are in the way of our knowing ourselves. (1) Self-knowledge requires an effort and a work. (2) Self-love answers for our safety. (3) This favourable judgment of ourselves will specially prevail if we have the misfortune to have uninterrupted health, and high spirits, and domestic comfort. (4) The force of habit makes sins once known become secret sins. (5) To the force of habit must be added that of custom. The most religious men, unless they are specially watchful, will feel the sway of the fashion of their age, and suffer from it, as Lot in wicked Sodom, though unconsciously. (6) Our chief guide amid the evil and seducing customs of the world is obviously the Bible. “The world passeth away; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever.” How much extended then, and strengthened, necessarily must be this secret dominion of sin over us when we consider how little we read Scripture! (7) To think of these things, and to be alarmed, is the first step towards acceptable obedience; to be at ease is to be unsafe. We must know what the evil of sin is hereafter if we do not learn it here.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. i., p. 41.
Psa 19:12-14
I. The first prayer, “Cleanse Thou me from secret faults,” springs naturally out of the complaint, “Who can understand his errors?” Germs of evil are in our nature that can never be estimated or counted. You may trace and track sin in its outward manifestations, you may reach it inwardly in its volitions or movements of voluntary choice, but still more deeply seated is the mystery of iniquity in the inner man.
II. In your spiritual exercise of soul upon Jehovah’s law, you find secret faults bordering on the region of presumptuous sins. These are acts of the will, as the former are faults of the nature. The prayer implies a keen and vivid apprehension of our liability to such sins.
III. “Let them not have dominion over me.” There is the possibility of a sad downward tendency indicated here. Any natural lust, if the will consents to it but a little and but for a little, becomes a tyrant whose yoke it is hard indeed to shake off. It acquires and wields the stern dominion of habit.
IV. “Then shall I be upright.” If you follow the course deprecated in the preceding petitions, you must cease to be upright.
V. There is still one more disaster which the spiritual man dreads. He is alive to the terrible risk and danger of the “great transgression.” I take this expression to denote the unpardonable sin, the sin against the Holy Ghost which can never be forgiven.
VI. In the closing words the Psalmist prays generally and universally that always and everywhere the words of his mouth and the meditation of his heart may be such as God may accept.
R. S. Candlish, The Gospel of Forgiveness, p. 164.
References: Psa 19:12.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 299; Ibid., vol. iii., No. 116; J. Jackson, Repentance: its Necessity, Nature, and Use, p. 78; H. Thompson, Concionalia: Outlines for Parochial Use, 1st series, vol. i., p. 111; J. Caird, Sermons, p. 40; J. M. Wilson, Sermons in Clifton College Chapel, p. 60. Psa 19:13.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 76. Psa 19:13, Psa 19:14.-J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Lent to Passiontide, p. 95. Psa 19:14.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 287. Psalm 19-A. Maclaren, Life of David, p. 24; J. Oswald Dykes, Expositor, 1st series, vol. ix., p. 42; P. Thompson, Ibid., 2nd series, vol. i., p. 170; I.Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 361.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Psalms 19
Christ in Creation and in Revelation
1 In creation (Psa 19:1-6)
2. In revelation (Psa 19:7-11)
Psa 19:1-6. This Psalm also bears witness to Christ as Creator and as revealing Himself through the Word. The two great books, Creation and Revelation, bear witness to Him. The Heavens which declare the glory of God were created by Him (Col 1:16; Joh 1:3). And there is a testimony to Him in creation which is continuous. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. (See Rom 1:20) The sun is especially mentioned, for the sun is the type of Christ. As a bridegroom coming out of His chamber he rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. His going forth is from the end of the heavens, and his circuits unto the end of it and nothing is hid from the heat thereof. He is the Sun of Righteousness, who will arise some day with healing beneath his wings.
Psa 19:7-11. The second witness to Him is the Law of Jehovah, the testimony and the precepts of the Lord. It is His written Word. This Word comes from Himself and speaks of Himself. What this Word is and what it produces and the practical use of the testimony of the Lord as well as prayer are mentioned in these verses.
The nineteenth Psalm is an introduction to the next five Psalms, which tells us more fully of the person of Christ, the Creator and Revealer, in His great work as Redeemer.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
The heavens: Psa 8:3, Psa 33:6, Psa 115:16, Psa 148:3, Psa 148:4, Isa 40:22-26, Jer 10:11, Jer 10:12, Rom 1:19, Rom 1:20
the firmament: Rakeea, from raka, to stretch out, the expanse, not only containing the celestial bodies, but also the air, light, rain, dews, etc., all of which display the infinite power and wisdom of their Almighty Creator. Psa 150:1, Psa 150:2, Gen 1:6-8, Gen 1:14, Gen 1:15, Dan 12:3
Reciprocal: Gen 1:31 – very good 1Ch 16:31 – Let the heavens Job 28:27 – he prepared it Job 36:24 – which Psa 28:5 – operation Psa 74:16 – prepared Psa 89:5 – heavens Psa 96:6 – Honour Psa 97:6 – The heavens Psa 111:3 – honourable Psa 145:10 – All thy Isa 6:3 – the whole earth Isa 40:21 – General Isa 40:26 – Lift Jer 31:35 – which giveth Act 14:17 – he left Act 17:27 – they Heb 1:10 – the works Jam 1:17 – from the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psalms 19
Proper Psalm for Christmas Day (Morning).
Psalms 19-21 = Day 4 (Morning).
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
The power of creation and of the law.
To the chief musician: a psalm of David.
The nineteenth psalm gives us, then, the prior witness before Christ came, but which faith realizes as what the apostle calls the law, -the “word of the beginning of Christ.” (Heb 6:1, marg.) If the knowledge of the new man is that “Christ is all,” (Col 3:10-11,) then He must be found in creation and law alike, or these must be thrown aside as unworthy of contemplation or regard.
And in fact with the many this seems to have been very much the case; the retribution having now come -who can wonder? -in the one falling into the hands of the higher critic for exposition, the other into those of the Darwinian evolutionist. Scripture has not the responsibility of this, we may be sure; and our only hope is in coming back to Scripture.
1. Even the creed, which has been long called the apostles’, and which, though not that, has expressed since the ninth century the faith of the western church, -nay, the Nicene, five centuries earlier, and put forth to maintain the divine glory of Christ, -both of these ascribe the work of creation only to the Father. The apostle Paul, on the other hand, declares of the Son, that “all things were created by Him, and for Him,” (Col 1:16); and the apostle John, that “by Him,” as the “Word of God,” the Revealer, “all things were made; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” (Joh 1:3.) Thus if “the expanse telleth the work of His hands,” we may well expect it not to be silent as to Him in whose Person only there has been full revelation made of God. And it is not silent: for the very orb that brings the day is, as we have long since learned, His symbol; and the night is constituted by the absence of this.
Creation is the earliest witness of God to man, though, as soon as man fell, he had need of, and in the mercy of God found, addition to it. If men turned their back on that, or corrupted it with their own folly, the witness of creation still remained, and they could not silence this. “For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead: so that they are without excuse.” (Rom 1:20.)
Here it is the heavens alone that are brought forward in testimony, -those heavens so suggestive of infinity and power, to which in their paths the stars move in orderly subjection. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” -El, “the Mighty”; “and the expanse telleth the work of His hands.”
The testimony is continuous and progressive. One day adds its tale to that of another, and one night likewise to that which is gone before it. Never exhausted, the story never ends. The day with its multitudinous voices, subdued each by the very multitude of them, is like a river of speech flowing on continuously: while the night, with its quiet breathing, speaks in the hush perhaps more intelligibly to the more attentive ear.
Speech, then, the psalmist ascribes to creation; and he is earnest about it: he would have us know that he means fully what he says. It is “speech” and it is “words,” he says, -really that: words, in spite of the sneer of the skeptic, -in spite of the dullness of the people of God themselves, -words really to be heard by those that listen for them. A poor, flat, unprofitable thing to say, affirms the higher critic of the day: out with it! what use in letting us know that words have meaning?* But, indeed, there is signal use in insisting upon that which, after all, is so feebly realized, or even understood. Granted there is something known as “natural theology” which students of divinity are supposed to study, and a few others know something about, -how much does the average Christian hear of this continual witness to God of the multitudinous voices of the day and night? How far are the natural sciences converted to God today? Still more must we ask, how far are they Christianized? What another thing would our lives be, if this were so!
{*So Cheyne, in his pretentious book upon the Psalms, in which the whole parade of modern learning, is turned out to assure the simple believer how impossible it is for him to understand them aright apart from this. This writer has a gift for scenting the air of a certain period -especially the Maccabean -about a psalm, and knows by an instinct that cannot deceive him how impossible it is for a writer to rise -or be raised -above his “period.” “Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis.” We will let him give us a specimen of his method and results, as we find it in his recent volume of Bampton Lectures (pp. 191,192):
“Let this lecturer then say for himself that he cannot divide sharply between the age of David, and that, say, of Isaiah. The latter is no Christian, nor is the former a heathen. It is possible, that if we had a sufficient number of the more religious psalms of David, we might detect in them some real affinities to the religion of Isaiah [?! ]. But it may be questioned whether these affinities would have struck an uncritical observer; and, above all, whether either David (who was not a church leader like Zoroaster) or even Isaiah could have dreamed of church hymns such as those contained in the Psalter. That David was a gifted musician is indeed attested, not only by the prophet (Amo 6:5, but not according to the Septuagint), but by one of the very earliest historical traditions (1Sa 16:14-23), and we may assume that he could also, like the Arab prince-poet, Imra al Kais, as a ‘sweet song-maker’ (2Sa 23:1) fascinate his half-primitive people. His poetry would, of course, be chiefly occasional in its character. The early races quickly fell into the moods of joy and grief, both of which required the services of the poet;” [for the services of the critic, now so essential, they could, it seems, somehow afford to wait!] “but, strange to say, passionately as the Israelites loved dancing (cf. 1Sa 20:11, Jer 30:19, Jer 31:4), the only two indubitably Davidic compositions are in the elegiac style. You know them full well: one is in 2Sa 1:19-27, the other in 2Sa 3:33-34. . . . But though these may be the only authentic specimens of David’s work, and his posthumous fame rested chiefly upon his secular poetry (Amo 6:5), we need not assume that all his compositions had a non-religious character.”!!
This is from an “Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture” at Oxford, and a Canon of Rochester. We do not propose to review it: it is a pyramid which will hardly stand upon its apex, as the audacious theorist imagines. It is solemn, indeed, to know that for a system which everywhere eliminates from Scripture that which makes it to be indeed “the word of God,” the writer claims “the continual guidance both of the Church and of each faithful Christian by the Holy Spirit.” (Bampton Lectures, p. 25.) This, and “the principle of the Kenosis [or, as it has been lately paraphrased, the self-limitation] of the Divine Son” seem to Prof. Cheyne “the only possible foundation for a reform of apologetics suited to our English orthodoxy.” One shrinks from putting this into the plain English necessary to convey it to any simple Christian. It means just this: that the only way of saving the mutilated Bible which may be left us by the critics from the contempt of infidelity, is to refer its mutilation to the Spirit of God acting in the critics, and leading them to a more advanced point of view than the Lord Himself, with the limitation of human ignorance to which He was pleased to condescend, ever attained!! This is, alas, to be now “our English orthodoxy”, and fearless criticism of the kind adduced is now to be urged as “fearless FAITH in the Paraclete.” Surely the enemy of truth is “coming in like a flood.” May the Spirit of the Lord lift up a standard against him!}
True, the language here is parabolic: as such the Lord used it; in this way He took up nature, without apology, -sometimes without explanation. And when on a certain occasion He had done this, and the disciples appealed to Him for explanation, He rebuked them for their need of it. “Know ye not this parable?” He asked: “and how, then, will ye know all parables?” (Mar 4:13.) Wonderful words, which show what He expects from us! -which show also what a wealth of understanding may be ours. If nature be in this way the very realm of parables, how then should nature lie open to us throughout its wide extent! How familiar, after all the centuries of acquaintance with it, should its voices sound to us! But, if we will not let Christ be the Teacher of natural things to us, it is not hard to prophesy who will slip into His seat, and teach us. For the strife between Christ and the devil allows of no neutrality: that which is not for Christ is against Him; the unoccupied ground grows weeds and thorns and briars. Nature itself may teach us things like these.
Let us take the shame, then, of needing so simple a thing to be enforced, as that nature’s speech is intended to be heard. As the universal witness, its doctrine is not intended to be esoteric, but for all. As a matter of fact, perverted though it be, the speech of all people is in nature’s words. The rudest and the simplest use most its picture-signs. “Their line is gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.”
{Verse 4, The Septuagint gives “sound” and this the apostle quotes in Rom 10:1-21.}
Across these heavens, from his chamber in the ends of them, goes forth the unfailing sun; in perpetual vigor, spreading around the joy which is associated with his presence: for “a pleasant thing it is to behold the sun.” His seems indeed the joy of strength, -the joy that springs out of realized competency. Always filling his place, -always full-orbed, -always the centre of light, though the clouds of earth may gather and shut him in, -always the centre of warmth, though the winter may build up its barrier of frost against him, -darkness and cold and death the sure result of his absence: if this be a parable then, is there any possible way but one in which to interpret it? Or does Scripture fail to reveal its meaning?
The Bridegroom coming forth of His chamber, who is at the same time the “Sun of righteousness” that “shall arise with healing in His wings,” source of light, of life, of fruitfulness, to the whole earth rejoicing in His beams: shall we look at this picture and yet find Theism indeed, but not Christology, in nature’s lessons? Or shall we speak slightingly of “parables” as after all merely the ingenious play of fancy, brilliant perhaps but unreal, not rooted in the nature of things? able to give, therefore, no deep, true, (if you will,) scientific glance into that nature? Nay: this is their real spiritual equivalent, and spirit is the essence of things, and gives the law of external nature. As it is said of Israel’s history, that “all these things happened unto them for types,” so it is true of nature that all these things are arranged and ordered so that it should be the true reflection of the glory of God; -so that its voices should tell Him forth. And instead of being unscientific, to follow this out would give us truest science, would relieve us of much that causes sorest perplexity, would bring the material and spiritual into perfect reconciliation, and God into everything that He has made. Is this to be desired? It is the one thing which gives all knowledge value. It is that which alone can establish science itself; nay, lift it up into the sphere of the eternal! It will be its immeasurable exaltation. Finally, it will make our Bible the unifier and key of every kind of knowledge, and Christ, in result, the sum of it. Is this, Christian reader, a thing desirable? Is it to you a thing credible? It is that of which the apostle assures us, that the knowledge of the “new man,” “renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him,” is that “Christ is ALL, and in all.” (Col 3:10-11.)
If this were apprehended, how would our minds be opened and enlarged to take in truth by every avenue open to us! What a guide should we have in those depths unexplorable by mere human intellect, -“the Spirit” that “searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” (1Co 2:10.) What a standard by which to judge of all the principles of science! What a confirmation of each by each as these two witnesses (His word and work) were brought into one harmonious testimony! What a satisfaction of the desires of the heart that pants after God!
Not in vain, then, has the psalmist put into his contemplation of the heavens this picture of the Ruler of the Day, this glorious source of energy for the earth, as the science of the time would not hesitate to speak of it. In doing this, he has but been preaching Christ to us from a text broad writ in the heavens. And it is sweet to turn back from this to the first chapter of Genesis, and to see how the books of nature and of Scripture begin together thus with the unfolding of Christ! The “light” of the first day, (which God is, in its spiritual significance,) put, on the fourth, upon its material candlestick, as the Old Testament revelation of God, becomes for us in the New the glory of the Only-begotten in the Man Christ Jesus. And here is what may assure us of the science of Moses, that it is sealed thus with the seal of the King of kings. Christ is in it, a living picture, a likeness speaking for itself as drawn by the Author of nature Himself, and so really still, day by day, pouring forth speech. Moses has only been the scribe recording this utterance; but a faithful one.
Service is blessed work when it is true, and Christ least of all disdains this character of Servant. In the fifth verse we see Him as this, keeping to His God-ordained course, His “circuit,” which brings Him back to be in His place in the morning, the earth’s timekeeper, as all else. Look but a little deeper, this may seem all upset: it is the earth that is turning upon itself, even while it circles around him; and this only establishes the true relation, after all, between the soul and Christ: to Him it owes its obedience, and revolves around Him, and fidelity to Him is the path in which we find Him, “faithful and true.” Yet after all, the first thought was not untrue, -in some sense it was the truest. The tie between the earth and sun is mutual, as the law of gravity assures us, strongest upon the sun’s side, which continually pours out upon the earth its fructifying light and heat, “nothing hid from the heat thereof.” The “less is blessed of the better.” Servant of God for us, Servant even to us in His love, this and His Lordship are not opposed or contrary in the Christ of God. While all our changes, (which, without due self-knowledge, may seem His,) all that they make known of us, do but approve His faithfulness to the ordained path of perfect wisdom and right government.
This is, of course, but an illustration, -a typical example of nature’s teaching. It is all we can expect in this place. We are now to listen to another testimony.
2. Creation bears witness to God,who as Creator knows no difference of nations or of classes. Jew and Gentile are equal in His eyes, and men as a whole “His offspring.” But they -not He -have got away from this. Hence, even in the interests of men at large, the call of Israel out from the nations, to be the conservator of truth from which on all sides they had departed, otherwise destined to be lost out of the world. Hence her necessary isolation, while yet in the centre of the great lines of the world’s traffic: like one of her own cities of refuge, with its roads kept open on every side, and its safe keeping for the man who fled to it.
Israel’s law was thus a testimony to Jehovah, Israel’s God; who is of course also the Creator, the God of all, but driven, as it were, by the unbelief of men, into this exceptional place. Thus it is that with Israel alone is found the pure record of creation itself; which we find in Assyria and Babylonia overlaid with the perversions of men turning from the truth, and given up to fables. Abundant evidence is there in the comparison of these, that in the beginning the account was one, and that thus the truth they had, which they had given up. “When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Israel were in themselves no better, and not because of any betterness in them did God take them up. Among them also, if the truth were found, it was found in continual strife with the evil and unbelief of man. If it were maintained, it was maintained with a strong hand which chastened for iniquity. Their history is, as Moses testified against them, that of a stiff-necked and disobedient people; and to our own day what else has been the history of the professing people of God?
But He had in His heart purposes of love to man that must be fulfilled, which the ages slowly, because everything should be written large and fully before the eyes of the universe, and fixed on the tablets of eternal remembrance, -slowly indeed, yet continuously, were to work out. Israel in those purposes were the elect of God; and Jehovah, His covenant name with them, throws up, as a rampart against the power of evil, the pledge of His immutability and truth. His law is thus inflexible, as founded upon the holiness of His nature, and yet wedded indissolubly to these purposes of His grace. If it condemned and humbled, it was yet a “ministration” -a ministry of love in doing this, -a ” ministration of death” and “of condemnation.” (2Co 3:7; 2Co 3:9.) In itself “holy, just, and good,” it was the delight of the renewed nature. But the effect was, on this very account, the humbling of man before God, the abasement of all self-righteousness, and thus in the end the preparation for the gospel of salvation.
The testimony of the law has then its right place just here in this nineteenth psalm, where it is found; and found in this double character also, as testimony to the holiness of God, and so searching the heart before God. In the next psalm we go on to the salvation for the reception of which the way is thus prepared.
“The law of Jehovah is perfect, restoring the soul”: converting,” in the broader sense of the word, would not be wrong, -that is, turning it from any wrong path. Torah, “the law,” means literally that which points out the way; and as “perfect” it is an infallible guide. Its certainty for guidance is therefore what is here declared. The soul as the impulsive part of man’s nature is that which needs to be turned or restrained from following its own inclinations, and so is named here. How blessed to have the certainty which is found in listening to God’s voice. It is the first point of all, clearly, for blessing. Apart from this, wisdom and folly, holiness and unholiness, are names, and nothing else. We seek to please God, and know not but we offend Him. The road we take to heaven may, after all, be the road to hell: for “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, and the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Pro 14:12.) When God has spoken, and we have heard His voice, our path then becomes that of simple obedience; we are not left to prove it by results, which come all too late for help as to what is before us. Results, so far as these can be depended on even, testify but of what, being past, is already beyond recall.
But in God’s path, -realizing that we are there, -results are in His hand. “The servant knoweth not what his lord doeth”; but the servant of God may be well assured that power is in His hand to carry out the purposes of unfailing wisdom. He may be at rest therefore. “Great peace have they that love Thy law, and nothing shall stumble them.” (Psa 119:165, marg.)
This is what, first of all, -priceless boon it is! -the law of the Lord secures: a heart at rest. One may not know the future; but he knows his present Guide: and the future can have no disappointment or surprise for Him who sees the end from the beginning.
And to this the second part of the verse here corresponds. “The testimony of Jehovah” takes quite different ground from that of the “law.” Its appeal is not, as that of the latter, to authority, but to fact and truth; and “the testimony of Jehovah is sure,” beyond possibility of overthrow. His are the lips of truth: to Him who is the Omnipotent it is yet an impossibility to lie; day to day, night to night, gather a constantly increasing experience which proclaims His faithfulness. So that His testimony “maketh wise the simple” or inexperienced, with the wisdom of experience. Faith, then, is not credulity. It is not necessary to it to shut one’s eyes. He who is Light leads in the light. Question, scrutinize, use every faculty that He has given: they shall not be put to shame; only o’erpassed, as finite by the Infinite, and blessed and drawn out by the very overpassing. Not a soul brought to God but the intellect expands as the heart does. Christ dwelling within must needs enlarge the place of His dwelling. His testimony received makes wise the simple.
The next couplet speaks of moral discernment, putting a difference; but the terms used are not exactly what we are accustomed to, and need to be put together according to the parallelism, in order to be clearly seen. We have here on the one hand, not the law as a whole, but its “precepts,” -the details in which, with “line upon line,” the application of its principles is made to all the circumstances of daily life. These concrete forms more clearly show us the principles they embody, and the “commandment of Jehovah,” though not a plural, is only meant in this way to individualize more thoroughly the single precept.
The precepts of Jehovah are right; the commandment of Jehovah is pure: thus we have now moral character. What connects itself with these respectively is that the right precepts “rejoice the heart,” the pure commandment “enlightens the eyes.” The parallelism is here thought to be maintained by the latter phrase being taken as indicating revival, refreshment, as when Jonathan tasted the honey in the wood, it is said that “his eyes were lightened.” The numerical structure seems to plead for a different meaning, and one more consonant perhaps with the parallelism itself, which should not be mere repetition but advance in significance. In Ephesians we find (Eph 1:18, R.V.) “having the eyes of your heart enlightened,” -an expression which connects the two parts of this together. The heart is indeed that which largely governs the eyes; and the joy of the heart in Jehovah’s precepts enables the eyes to discern aright. From the opposite of this all error, in fact, proceeds.
In the third parallel, in harmony with its numerical significance, we come to the principle which underlies all this, which is “the fear of Jehovah” Himself, and which is “clean,” -frees from the defilement which forbids approach to or communion with Him. Thus it has the real elements of endurance in it: for the favor of God has that; what is in harmony with His mind abides. So also the judgments of Jehovah, to which the fear of Him causes us to cling, are truth; and thus, according to the primary meaning of the word, firm and stable. “They are righteous altogether”: and the righteous is an everlasting foundation.” (Pro 10:25.)
From all this comes the value that experience sets upon these divine words,” more desirable than gold,” -much of it and refined; and for enjoyment, sweeter to the taste than the purest honey, that which drops and is not pressed out of the comb.
Conscience also is exercised by them: a thing which the true servant of God is able to appreciate. Happy is he who can invite the light of God’s word to search out all his heart, shunning no ray of it. The “reward” found is both one present and to come, -in that day when no reserve will be possible any longer.
3. The third and last section of the psalm is a prayer to God Himself, into whose presence the soul has thus been brought, to find itself naked and open to Eyes that see beyond all that the fullest self-consciousness can be aware of. And these inaccessible depths, what are they? What may appear in them, when the secrets of all hearts shall be exposed? Alas, it is not because of their profundity, but because of their tortuous labyrinths comes the difficulty -the impossibility -of exploration: “the heart is deceitful above all things . . . who can know it?”
Our comfort, then, must be in turning away from ourselves to Him in whom we can have a confidence that in ourselves we cannot; and in the knowledge that He fully knows us, yet turns not from us because of what He knows. We can understand the joy of the woman of Samaria, who had found the Christ in Him who had told her all things she had done. But He had first opened to her the heart of God, and assured her of her welcome to Him. Grace had heralded the truth to her, and made her glad to have it told her.
So here, with the conviction “who understandeth his errors?” the psalmist turns in confidence to God with the prayer, “Free me from things hidden from me.” Sins are not harmless because unknown. They are still sins, as witness the law of sacrifice. (Lev 4:2; Lev 4:13, etc.) The dust of a defiling world settles down on us silently, and the mirror of conscience is dulled ere we are aware. The basin and towel in the Lord’s hand (Joh 13:1-38) are requisite, not when we are conscious of evil merely, but because we are too little conscious. Hardening is not only by the open front of sin: for the Christian it is more generally through its deceitfulness. (Heb 3:13.) Satan does not in general present himself as Satan, nor sin as sin; but the dress changes nothing of its character.
Between sins of ignorance and presumptuous sins there is, of course, an immense difference. While all sin is, as already said, sin, and the want of knowledge can never justify us, with God’s word in our hand, and Himself so accessible for our enlightenment, yet a sin committed in real ignorance does not shut out God as a sin against conscience does. If it were so, communion would be impossible to any, short of practical perfection. But He is tender and merciful, and of infinite compassion. It would not be this to pass over that which argues a spirit of “revolt,” which trifles with His known will. Here, too, we must take care; for we may trifle with His will by refusing to seek the light, as well as by refusing to walk by it when we have it. And this, one must fear, is the cause of many blighted lives among the children of God. They do not know, indeed, the evil paths they are in, but they have, nevertheless, as it were instinctively, turned from and refused the knowledge. Not willing to be disturbed, or to abide the cost of truth, they give up seeking it, -at least, in the dreaded line. But they cannot so escape from the consequences, terrible as some day they will find them, of real disobedience.
We can find our safeguard only in the sanctuary. The Lord Himself is our constant necessity; and the self-distrust is wholesome that keeps us close to Him. So the cry here now: “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins: let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright; I shall be innocent of great revolt.” And the psalm ends with the longing desire for positive sanctification, -the acceptance of heart and mouth before God -this God, known in the power of His salvation ever (Joh 4:22), -“Jehovah, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Psa 19:1. The heavens, &c. To magnify the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator, the psalmist begins with the works of creation, and, amidst the immensity of them, singles out those which are most conspicuous, grand, and striking, and best adapted to impress the mind of his reader with a sense of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, and to beget in him a solemn awe of, and veneration for, his matchless glories. The heavens That is, the visible heavens, so vast and spacious, and richly adorned with stars and planets, so various and admirable in their courses or stations; so useful and powerful in their influences; declare the glory of God His glorious being or existence, his eternal power and Godhead, as it is expressed, Rom 1:20; his infinite wisdom and goodness; all which they demonstrate, and make so visible and evident to all men of reason and consideration, that it is ridiculous to deny or doubt of them, as it is ridiculous to think of far meaner works of art, as suppose of houses, clocks, or watches, that they were made without an artist, or without a hand. The Hebrew, , mesapperim, is literally, they tell, or, preach, the glory of God. And this language of the heavens is so plain, and their characters are so legible, that all, even the most barbarous nations, that have no skill either in languages or letters, are able to understand and read what they declare. The firmament Or, the expansion, all the vast space extending from the earth to the starry heavens, and especially the atmosphere, comprehending that fluid mixture of light, air, and vapours, which is everywhere diffused about us; and to the influences of which are owing all the beauty and fruitfulness of the earth, and all vegetable and animal life: all these by their manifold and beneficial operations, as well as by their beauty and magnificence, show his handiwork As Creator, Preserver, and Governor. The excellence of the work discovers who was the author of it, that it did not come by chance, nor spring of itself, but was made by a Being of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 19:4. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. The LXX, , phthoggos. Vulgate, sonus, their sound; the music of their voice. The elegant Tertullian, in his apology for the christian religion, applies the same idea to the spread of the gospel. After stating to the emperor that their cities, their camps and castles, were full of christians, he asks, In whom have all the nations of the earth believed, except in Christ? Not only the Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites; not only Phrygia and Pamphylia; not only Egypt, Lybia, and Cyrene; not only the boundaries of Spain, but Gaul, and those parts of Britain, inaccessible to the Roman arms, are become subject to Christ. Origen also asks, When before the time of Christ did the land of Britain agree in the worship of one God? When did Mauritania, [the country of the blacks] when did the whole globe at once agree in this? Whereas now, on account of the churches spread to the utmost boundaries of the world, the whole earth rejoices to invoke the God of Israel. As three bishops from England attended a council at Aries in the south of France, in the year 215, (Origen, hom. 4. apud Ezekiel) it is almost certain that the gospel was preached in this island in the apostolic age.
Psa 19:10. Much fine gold. Hebrews omippaz. The LXX, precious stones, for these were set in gold.
Psa 19:13. Keep back thy servant from presumptuous The LXX, from the worship of strange The word gods is omitted, lest it pollute the sacred page of both the Greek and the Hebrew text.
Psa 19:14. My Redeemer. Hebrews goali, my kinsman, whose right it was to redeem the inheritance. Surely the psalmist refers to Him who became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh; our kinsman, who redeemed us by the sacrifice of Himself.
REFLECTIONS.
How glorious is the contemplation of the starry heavens. It relieves the silence of the night by inspiring the sublime of devotion. Suns after suns, systems of suns and planets, moving in orbits without number, to illumine the vast expanse. Oh what wisdom to plan the whole, what power to uphold them, what goodness and love in all their designations of glory and beauty! They speak to the eye, they pour melody on the soul, and touch the heart in ever-changing concert from day to day, and from night to night. They sing through all climates, and publish praises in every language. How can the philosopher, who studies and teaches the laws of astronomy, and is rewarded with the highest of academical honours and revenues, be a violator of every law of heaven by following the wicked propensities of his heart. Ask the beasts, as in Job, and they will tell thee to lead a better life.
In addition to the laws of nature, we have those of revelation, that by grace we may attain ultimately to the original perfection of our nature. We have the law of the Lord, converting the soul, the law which is perfect, causing the heart to rejoice. These laws are pure; they enlighten the eyes, and refresh the soul; they are more to be desired than fine gold and brilliant gems. For when we cannot attain by nature to the perfection which creation discovers to exist in our Maker, grace comes to our aid with all her renovating powers, and blooming hopes of eternal joy.
This glorious revelation of the grace and mercy of God is to be connected with prayer, that God would keep us from the great transgression of base backslidings in heart and life; for in that case we fall below the pride of the boasting philosopher, who neither sees nor adores his Maker in all his works.
The best preservative against a relapse, is habitual devotion; to exercise ourselves in godly conversation, and in solitude where the meditations of our heart can profoundly enter into the truths of God. By these exercises the habitudes of piety and holiness are formed in the heart, and strength is imparted from the Lord our Redeemer.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
XIX. A. Psa 19:1-6. The Revelation of God in Nature.A fragment of a longer poem. Day and night are pictured as living beings who hand on the tradition of Gods creative act from age to age (see Job 3:3-10*).
Psa 19:3 is a prosaic gloss to guard against any idea that the heavenly bodies speak in the literal sense.
Psa 19:4. for line read voice.In them: i.e. in the heavens, but the text is probably corrupt.
XIX. B. Psa 19:7-13. An Independent Poem in Praise of the Law.In Psa 19:13 follow mg. The proud are bad Jews.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
PSALM 19
The testimony of the creation to all the world, with the special testimony of the law to Israel.
(vv. 1-6) The first portion of the psalm presents a testimony to the power and wisdom of God rendered to the whole world. Three parts of the creation are used in this testimony. First the heavens, with the vast expanse; second the continual testimony of day and night; third the rising and setting of the sun.
The Spirit of God has thus taken the parts of creation which man cannot corrupt. The earth has been given to man and, in as far as it has been corrupted, it ceases to give a true testimony to the glory of God. The heavens remain uncorrupted, and the three parts of creation brought before us give a universal testimony to the habitable parts of the earth. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and to the end of the world.
(vv. 7-11) The testimony of creation is followed by the testimony to God’s abhorrence of sin rendered by the law, especially appealing to the nation of Israel, and to the conscience of man. The testimony of the law is presented as that which is perfect – giving a perfect rule of life for man on earth. It is sure, right, pure, enduring; of priceless value, and carrying a great reward to those who are subject to its precepts.
(vv. 12-14) The prayer of the godly to profit by these testimonies that appeal to the conscience. The soul desires to be so searched by the Word that it may discover that which God alone sees to be sin; that it may be kept from presumptuous sins; and, thus cleansed and kept, be acceptable in words, and heart, to the One who is his Redeemer.
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
19:1 [To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.] The {a} heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
(a) He reproaches man for his ingratitude, seeing the heavens, which are dumb creatures, set forth God’s glory.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Psalms 19
David observed in this wisdom hymn that under the influence of the sun, the heavens make God’s handiwork in creation known to humanity. Likewise, people learn of God’s plan to bless humankind under the influence of God’s Law. In view of this dual revelation, in nature and in Scripture, David prayed that God would cleanse his life so he would be acceptable to God.
In the polytheistic ancient Near East, this psalm was a strong polemic against the pagan sun gods whom their worshippers credited with executing justice. The psalmist claimed that Israel’s God was the Creator of the heavens, including the sun, and He established justice on the earth.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. Revelation from nature 19:1-6
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
This verse is a summary statement. The "heavens" refers to what appears in the sky above us. The "firmament" or "sky" is the canopy that seems to cover the earth from our vantage point as we look up. It is a synonym for "heavens" (synonymous parallelism). The glory of God in this context points to the splendor of the Creator. As we look up, we see the amazing handiwork of God.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 19:1-14
Is this originally one psalm or bits of two, pieced together to suggest a comparison between the two sources of knowledge of God, which the authors did not dream of? The affirmative is strongly maintained, but, we may venture to say, not so strongly sustained. The two parts are said to differ in style, rhythm, and subject. Certainly they do, but the difference in style accounts for the difference in structure. It is not an unheard of phenomenon that cadence should change with theme; and if the very purpose of the song is to set forth the difference of the two witnesses to God, nothing can be more likely than such a change in measure. The two halves are said to be put together abruptly without anything to smooth the transition. So they are, and so is Psa 19:4 put by the side of Psa 19:3; and so does the last turn of thought (Psa 19:12-14) follow the second. Cyclopean architecture without mortar has a certain impressiveness. The abruptness is rather an argument for than against the original unity, for a compiler would have been likely to try to make some sort of glue to hold his two fragments together, while a poet, in the rush of his afflatus, would welcome the very abruptness which the manufacturer would avoid. Surely the thought that binds the whole into a unity-that Jehovah is El, and that nature and law witness to the same Divine Person, though with varying clearness-is not so strange as that we should have to find its author in some late editor unknown.
Psa 19:1-6 hymn the silent declaration by the heavens. The details of exposition must first be dealt with. “Declare” and “makes known” are participles, and thus express the continuity of the acts. The substance of the witness is set forth with distinct reference to its limitations, for “glory” has here no moral element, but simply means what Paul calls “eternal power and Godhead,” while the Divine name of God (“El”) is used in intended contrast to “Jehovah” in the second half, a nuance which must be obliterated if this is a conglomerate psalm. “His handiwork,” in like manner, limits the revelation. The heavens by day are so marvellously unlike the heavens by night that the psalmists imagination conjures up two long processions, each member of which passes on the word entrusted to him to his successor-the blazing days with heaven naked but for one great light, and the still nights with all their stars. Psa 19:3 has given commentators much trouble in attempting to smooth its paradox. Tastes are curiously different, for some critics think that the familiar interpretation gives a flat, prosaic meaning, while Cheyne takes the verse to be a gloss for dull readers, and exclaims, “How much the brilliant psalm fragment gains by its omission!” De gustibus, etc. Some of us may still feel that the psalmists contrast of the awful silence in the depths of the sky and of the voice that speaks to opened ears thrills us with something very like the electric touch of poetry. In Psa 19:4 the thought of the great voices returns.
Their hue is usually explained as meaning their sphere of influence, marked out, as it were, by a measuring cord. If that rendering is adopted Psa 19:4 b would in effect say, “Their words go as far as their realm.” Or the rendering “sound” may be deduced, though somewhat precariously, from that of line, since a line stretched is musical. But the word is not used as meaning the string of an instrument, and the very slight conjectural emendation which gives “voice” instead of “line” has much to recommend it. In any case the teaching of the verse is plain from the last clause, namely the universality of the revelation. It is singular that the mention of the sun should come in the close of the verse; and there may be some error in the text, though the introduction of the sun here may be explained as completing the picture of the heavens, of which it is the crowning glory. Then follows the fuller delineation of his joyous energy, of his swift strength in his course, of his penetrating beams, illuminating and warming all. Why should the glowing metaphors, so natural and vigorous, of the sun coming forth from his bridal chamber and, hero-like, running his race, be taken to be traces of ancient myths now innocently reclaimed from the service of superstition? To find in these two images a proof that the first part of the psalm belongs to the post-exilic “literary revival of Hebrew mythology” is surely to lay more on them than they can bear.
The scientific contemplation of nature is wholly absent from Scripture, and the picturesque is very rare. This psalmist knew nothing about solar spectra or stellar distances, but he heard a voice from out of the else waste heavens which sounded to him as if it named God. Comte ventured to say that the heavens declare the glory of the astronomer, not of God; but, if there be an order in them, which it is a mans glory to discover, must there not be a mind behind the order, and must not the Maker have more glory than the investigator? The psalmist is protesting against stellar worship, which some of his neighbours practised. The sun was a creature, not a god; his “race” was marked out by the same hand which in depths beyond the visible heavens had pitched a “tent” for his nightly rest. We smile at the simple astronomy; the religious depth is as deep as ever. Dull ears do not hear these voices; but whether they are stopped with the clay of earthly tastes and occupations, or stuffed with scientific wadding of the most modern kind, the ears that do not hear Gods name sounded from the abysses above, have failed to hear the only word which can make man feel at home in nature. Carlyle said that the sky was “a sad sight.” The sadness and awfulness are taken away when we hear the heavens telling the glory of God. The unscientific psalmist who did hear them was nearer the very heart of the mystery than the scientist who knows everything else about them but that.
With an abrupt transition which is full of poetical force, the singer turns to the praises of the better revelation of Jehovah. Nature speaks in eloquent silence of the strong God, but has no witness to His righteous will for men or His love to them which can compare with the clear utterances of His law. The rhythm changes, and in its cadence expresses the psalmists exuberant delight in that law. In Psa 19:7-11 the clauses are constructed on a uniform plan, each containing a name for the law, an attribute of it, and one of its effects. The abundance of synonyms indicates familiarity and clear views of the many sides of the subject. The psalmist had often brooded on the thought of what that law was, because, loving its Giver, he must needs love the gift. So he calls it “law,” or teaching, since there he found the best lessons for character and life. It was “testimony,” for in it God witnessed what lie is and what we should be, and so witnessed against sin; it was a body of “precepts” (statutes, A.V.) giving rich variety of directions: it was “commandment,” blessedly imperative; it was “fear of the Lord,” the effect being put for the cause; it was “judgments,” the decisions of infinite truth concerning duty.
These synonyms have each an attribute attached, which, together, give a grand aggregate of qualities discerned by a devout heart to inhere in that law which is to so many but a restraint and a foe. It is “perfect,” as containing: without flaw or defect the ideal of conduct; “sure” or reliable, as worthy of being absolutely followed and certain to be completely fulfilled; “right,” as prescribing the straight road to mans true goal; “pure” or bright, as being light like the sun, but of a higher quality than that material brilliance: “clean,” as contrasted with the foulness bedaubing false faiths and making idol worship unutterably loathsome: “true” and “wholly righteous” as corresponding accurately to the mind of Jehovah and the facts of humanity and as being in full accordance with the justice which has its seat in the bosom of God.
The effects are summed up in the latter clauses of these verses, which stand, as it were, a little apart, and by the slight pause are made more emphatic. The rhythm rises and falls like the up-springing and sinking of a fountain. The law “restores the soul,” or rather refreshes the life, as food does; it “makes the simple wise” by its sure testimony, giving practical guidance to narrow understandings and wills open to easy beguiling by sin; it “rejoices the heart,” since there is no gladness equal to that of knowing and doing the will of God; it “enlightens the eyes” with brightness beyond that of the created light which rules the day. Then the relation of clauses changes slightly in Psa 19:9 and a second attribute takes the place of the effect. It “endures forever,” and, as we have seen is “wholly righteous.” The Old Testament law was relatively imperfect and destined to be done away, but the moral core of it abides. Being more valuable than all other treasures, there is wealth in the very desire after it more than in possessing these. Loved, it yields sweetness in comparison with which the delights of sense are bitter; done, it automatically rewards the doer. If obedience had no results except its inward consequences, it would be abundantly repaid. Every true servant of Jehovah will be willing to be warned by that voice, even though it rebuke and threaten.
All this rapture of delight in the law contrasts with the impatience and dislike which some men entertain for it. To the disobedient that law spoils their coarse gratifications. It is as a prison in which life is wearisomely barred from delights; but they who dwell behind its fences know that these keep evils off, and that within are calm joys and pure pleasures.
The contemplation of the law cannot but lead to self-examination, and that to petition. So the psalmist passes into prayer. His shortcomings appal, for “by the law is the knowledge of sin,” and he feels that beyond the sin which he knows, there is a dark region in him where foul things nestle and breed fast. “Secret faults” are those hidden, not from men, but from himself. He discovers that he has hitherto undiscovered sins. Lurking evils are most dangerous because, like aphides on the underside of a rose leaf, they multiply so quickly unobserved; small deeds make up life, and small, unnoticed sins darken the soul. Mud in water, at the rate of a grain to a glassful, will make a lake opaque. “Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” Conscience needs educating; and we have to compare ourselves with the ideal of perfect life in Jesus, if we would know our faults, as young artists go over their copies in front of the masterpiece. But the psalmist knows that, servant of God though he is, he is in danger from another class of sins, and so prays to be held back from “presumptuous sins,” i.e. wilful conscious transgressions. Such deliberate contraventions of law tend to become habitual and despotic; so the prayer follows that they may not “have dominion.” But even that is not the lowest depth. Deliberate sin, which has gained the upper hand. is but too apt to end in apostacy: “Great transgression” is probably a designation for casting off the very pretence of worshipping Jehovah. That is the story of many a fall. First, some unsuspected evil habit gnaws away the substance of the life, as white ants do wood, leaving the shell apparently intact; then come sins open and palpable, and these enslave the will, becoming habits, and then follows entire abandonment of the profession of religion. It is a slippery, dark stairway, and the only safety is in not setting foot on the top step. God, and God only, can “keep us back.” He will, if we cling to Him, knowing our weakness. Thus clinging, we may unblamed cherish the daring hope that we shall be “upright and innocent,” since nothing less than entire deliverance from sin in all its forms and issues can correspond to the will of God concerning us and the power of God in us, nor satisfy our deepest desires.
The closing aspiration is that Jehovah would accept the song and prayer. There is an allusion to the acceptance of a sacrifice, for the phrase “be acceptable” is frequent in connection with the sacrificial ritual. When the words of the mouth coincide with the meditation of the heart, we may hope that prayers for cleansing from, and defence against, sin, offered to Him whom our faith recognises as our “strength” and our “Redeemer,” will be as a sacrifice of a sweet smell, well-pleasing to God. He best loves the law of Jehovah who lets it teach him his sin, and send him to his knees; he best appreciates the glories of the silent heavens who knows that their witness to God is but the prelude of the deeper music of the Scriptures declaration of the heart and will of Jehovah and who grasps Him as his “strength and his Redeemer” from all evil, whether evil of sin or evil of sorrow.