Psalm 19
Exposition
Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings
Hints to the Village Preacher
Other Works
SUBJECT. It would be idle to enquire into the particular period when this
delightful poem was composed, for their is nothing in its title or subject
to assist us in the enquiry. The heading, "To the Chief Musician, a Psalm
of David," informs us that David wrote it, and that it was committed to the
Master of the service of song in the sanctuary for the use of the assembled
worshippers. In his earliest days the psalmist, while keeping his father's
flock, had devoted himself to the study of God's two great books—nature
and Scripture; and he had so thoroughly entered into the spirit of these two
only volumes in his library that he was able with a devout criticism to
compare and contrast them, magnifying the excellency of the Author as seen
in both. How foolish and wicked are those who instead of accepting the two
sacred tomes, and delighting to behold the same divine hand in each, spend
all their wits in endeavouring to find discrepancies and contradictions. 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."
DIVISION. This song very distinctly divides itself into three parts, very
well described by the translators in the ordinary heading of our version.
The creatures show God's glory, 1-6. The word showeth his grace, 7-11.
David prayeth for grace, 12-14. Thus praise and prayer are mingled, and
he who here sings the work of God in the world without, pleads for a work of
grace in himself within.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. "The heavens declare the glory of God." The book of nature has
three leaves, heaven, earth, and sea, of which heaven is the first and the
most glorious, and by its aid we are able to see the beauties of the other
two. Any book without its first page would be sadly imperfect, and
especially the great Natural Bible, since its first pages, the sun, moon,
and stars, supply light to the rest of the volume, and are thus the keys,
without which the writing which follows would be dark and undiscerned. Man
walking erect was evidently made to scan the skies, and he who begins to
read creation by studying the stars begins the book at the right place.
The heavens are plural for their variety, comprising the watery
heavens with their clouds of countless forms, the aerial heavens with their
calms and tempests, the solar heavens with all the glories of the day, and
the starry heavens with all the marvels of the night; what the Heaven of
heavens must be hath not entered into the heart of man, but there in chief
all things are telling the glory of God. Any part of creation has more
instruction in it than human mind will ever exhaust, but the celestial realm
is peculiarly rich in spiritual lore. The heavens declare, or are
declaring, for the continuance of their testimony is intended by the
participles employed; every moment God's existence, power, wisdom and
goodness, are being sounded abroad by the heavenly heralds which shine upon
us from above. He who would guess at divine sublimity should gaze upward
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
conceptions 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. It is not merely glory that the heavens
declare, but the "glory of God," for they deliver to us such unanswerable
arguments for a conscious, intelligent, planning, controlling, and presiding
Creator, that no unpredjudiced person can remain unconvinced by them. The
testimony given by the heavens is no mere hint, but a plain, unmistakable
declaration; and it is a declaration of the most constant and abiding kind.
Yet for all this, to what avail is the loudest declaration to a deaf man, or
the clearest showing to one spiritually blind? God the Holy Ghost must
illuminate us, or all the suns in the milky way never will.
"The firmament sheweth his handy-work;" not handy in the vulgar use
of that term, but hand-work. The expanse is full of the works of the Lord's
skilful, creating hands; hands being attributed to the great creating Spirit
to set forth his care and workmanlike action, and to meet the poor
comprehension of mortals. It is humbling to find that even when the most
devout and elevated minds are desirous to express their loftiest thoughts of
God, they must use words and metaphors drawn from the earth. We are
children, and must each confess, "I think as a child, I speak as a child."
In the expanse above us God flies, as it were, his starry flag to show that
the King is at home, and hangs out his escutcheon that atheists may see how
he despises their denunciations of him. He who looks up to the firmament
and then writes himself down an atheist, brands himself at the same moment
as an idiot or a liar. Strange is it that some who love God are yet afraid
to study the God-declaring book of nature; the mock-spirituality of some
believers, who are too heavenly to consider the heavens, has given colour to
the vaunts of infidels that nature contradicts revelation. The wisest of
men are those who with pious eagerness trace the goings forth of Jehovah as
well in creation as in grace; only the foolish have any fears lest the
honest study of the one should injure our faith in the other. Dr. M'Cosh
has well said, "We have often mourned over the attempts made to set the
works of God against the Word of God, and thereby excite, propagate, and
perpetuate jealousies fitted to separate parties that ought to live in
closest union. In particular, we have always regretted that endeavours
should have been made to depreciate nature with a view of exalting
revelation; it has always appeared to us to be nothing else than the
degrading of one part of God's work in the hope thereby of exalting and
recommending another. Let not science and religion be reckoned as opposing
citadels, frowning defiance upon each other, and their troops brandishing
their armour in hostile attitude. They have too many common foes, if they
would but think of it, in ignorance and prejudice, in passion and vice,
under all their forms, to admit of their lawfully wasting their strength in
a useless warfare with each other. Science has a foundation, and so has
religion; let them unite their foundations, and the basis will be broader,
and they will be two compartments of one great fabric reared to the glory of
God. Let one be the outer and the other the inner court. In the one, let
all look, and admire and adore; and in the other, let those who have faith
kneel, and pray, and praise. Let the one be the sanctuary where human
learning may present its richest incense as an offering to God, and the
other the holiest of all, separated from it by a veil now rent in twain, and
in which, on a blood-sprinkled mercy-seat, we pour out the love of a
reconciled heart, and hear the oracles of the living God."
Verse 2. "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth
knowledge." As if one day took up the story where the other left it, and
each night passed over the wondrous tale to the next. The original has in
it the thought of pouring out or welling over, with speech; as though days
and nights were but as a fountain flowing evermore with Jehovah's praise.
Oh to drink often at the celestial well, and learn to utter the glory of
God! The witnesses above cannot be slain or silenced; from their elevated
seats they constantly preach the knowledge of God, unawed and unbiased by
the judgment of men. Even the changes of alternating night and day are
mutely eloquent, and light and shade equally reveal the Invisible One; let
the vicissitudes of our circumstances do the same, and while we bless the
God of our days of joy, let us also extol him who giveth "songs in the
night."
The lesson of day and night is one which it were well if all men
learned. It should be among our day-thoughts and night-thoughts, to
remember the flight of time, the changeful character of earthly things, the
brevity both of joy and sorrow, the preciousness of life, our utter
powerlessness to recall the hours once flown, and the irresistible approach
of eternity. Day bids us labour, night reminds us to prepare for our last
hime; day bids us work for God,and night invites us to rest in him; day bids
us look for endless day, and night warns us to escape from everlasting
night.
Verse 3. "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not
heard." Every man may hear the voices of the stars. Many are the
languages of terrestrials, to celestials there is but one, and that one may
be understood by every willing mind. The lowest heathen are without excuse,
if they do not discover the invisible things of God in the works which he
has made. Sun, moon, and stars are God's traveling preachers; they are
apostles upon their journey confirming those who regard the Lord, and judges
on circuit condemning those who worship idols.
The margin gives us another rendering, which is more literal, and
involves less repetition; "no speech, no words, their voice is not heard;"
that is to say, their teaching is not addressed to the ear, and is not
uttered in articulate sounds; it is pictorial, and directed to the eye and
heart; it touches not the sense by which faith comes, for faith cometh by
hearing. Jesus Christ is called the Word, for he is a far more distinct
display of Godhead than all the heavens can afford; they are, after all, but
dumb instructors; neither star nor sun can arrive at a word, but Jesus is
the express image of Jehovah's person, and his name is the Word of God.
Verse 4. "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to
the end of the world." Although the heavenly bodies move in solemn
silence, yet in reason's ear they utter precious teachings. They give forth
no literal words, but yet their instruction is clear enough to be so
described. Horne says that the phrase employed indicates a language of
signs, and thus we are told that the heavens speak by their significant
actions and operations. Nature's words are like those of the deaf and dumb,
but grace tells us plainly of the Father. By their line is probably meant
the measure of their domain which, together with their testimony, has gone
out to the utmost end of the habitable earth. No man living beneath the
copes of heaven dwells beyond the bounds of the diocese of God's Court-
preachers; it is easy to escape from the light of ministers, who are as
stars in the right hand of the Son of Man; but even then men, with a
conscience yet unseared, will find a Nathan to accuse them, a Jonah to warn
them, and an Elijah to threaten them in the silent stars of night. To
gracious souls the voices of the heavens are more influential far, they feel
the sweet influences of the Pleiades, and are drawn towards their Father God
by the bright bands of Orion.
"In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun." In the heavens the
sun encamps, and marches like a mighty monarch on his glorious way. He has
no fixed abode, but as a traveler pitches and removes his tent, a tent which
will soon be taken down and rolled together as a scroll. As the royal
pavilion stood in the centre of the host, so the sun in his place appears
like a king in the midst of attendant stars.
Verse 5. "Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber." A
bridegroom comes forth sumptuously apparelled, his face beaming with a joy
which he imparts to all around; such, but with a mighty emphasis, is the
rising Sun. "And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." As a champion
girt for running cheerfully addresses himself to the race, so does the sun
speed onward with matchless regularity and unwearying swiftness in his
appointed orbit. It is but mere play to him; there are no signs of effort,
flagging, or exhaustion. No other creature yields such joy to the earth as
her bridegroom the sun; and none, whether they be horse or eagle, can for an
instant compare in swiftness with that heavenly champion. But all his glory