observe what that glory is which they declare. The heavens preach to us
every day. . . . "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and
their words to the end of the world." Sun, moon, and stars are preachers;
they are universal, they are natural apostles. The world is their charge;
"their words," saith the Psalm, "go to the end of the world." We may
have good doctrine from them, especially this doctrine in the text, of the
wisdom and power of God. And it is very observable that the apostle alludes
to this text in the Psalm for a proof of gospel preaching to the whole
world. Romans 10:18. The gospel, like the sun, casts his beams over, and
sheds his light into all the world. David in the Psalm saith, "Their line
is gone out," etc. By which word he shows that the heavens, being so
curious a fabric, made, as it were, by a line and level, do clearly, though
silently, preach the skill and perfection of God. Or, that we may read
divine truths in them as a line formed by a pen into words and sentences
(the original signifies both a measuring line and a written line), letters
and words in writing being nothing but lines drawn into several forms or
figures. But the Septuagint, whose translation the apostle citeth, for
Kavam, their line , read Kolam, their sound ; either misreading the word
or studiously mollifying the sense into a nearer compliance with the latter
clause of the verse, "And their words to the end of the world."— Joseph Caryl.
Verses 1-4. Like as the sun with his light beneficially comforteth all
the world, so Christ, the Son of God, reacheth his benefits unto all men, so
that they will receive them thankfully, and not refuse them disobediently.— Robert Cawdray.
Verse 2. "Day unto day," etc. But what is the meaning of the next
word— One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another? Literally,
dies diem dicit, is nothing else but dies diem docet. One day telleth
another, is one day teacheth another. The day past is instructed by the day
present: every new day doth afford new doctrine. The day is a most apt time
to learn by reading and conference; the night a most fit time for invention
and meditation. Now that which thou canst not understand this day thou
mayest haply learn the next, and that which is not found out in one night
may be gotten in another. Mystically (saith Hierem), Christ is this
"day," who saith of himself, "I am the light of the world," and his twelve
apostles are the twelve hours of the day; for Christ's Spirit revealed by
the mouths of his apostles the mysteries of our salvation, in other ages not
so fully known unto the sons of men. One day telleth another, that is,
the spiritual utter this unto the spiritual; and one night certifieth
another, that is, Judas insinuates as much unto the Jews in the night of
ignorance, saying, "Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he, lay hold on him."
Matthew 26:28. Or, the Old Testament only shadowing Christ is the night,
and the New Testament plainly showing Christ is the day. — John Boys.
Verse 2. "Day unto day," or day after day; the vicissitude or continual
succession of day and night speaketh much divine knowledge. The assiduity
and constancy without any intermission by the heavens preaching is hereby
expressed.— John Richardson.
Verse 2. "Uttereth," poureth forth abundantly; "sheweth"
demonstrates clearly and effectively, without ambiguity. Job 36:2. Many in
the full light of gospel day, hear not that speech, who yet in the night of
affliction and trouble, or in the conviction of their natural darkness, have
that knowledge communicated to them which enables them to realise the joy
that cometh in the morning.— W. Wilson.
Verse 2. "Sheweth knowledge." We may illustrate the differing measures
in which natural objects convey knowledge to men of differing mental and
spiritual capacity by the story of our great English artist. He is said to
have been engaged upon one of his immortal works, and a lady of rank looking
on remarked, "But Mr. Turner, I do not see in nature all that you describe
there." "Ah, Madam," answered the painter, "do you not wish you could?"— C. H. S.
Verse 3. "There is no speech," etc. The sunset was one of the most
glorious I ever beheld, and the whole earth seemed so still that the voice
of neither God nor man was heard. There was not a ripple upon the waters,
not the leaf of a tree, nor even of a blade of grass moving, and the rocks
upon the opposite shore reflected the sun's "after-glow," and were again
themselves reflected from or in the river during the brief twilight, in a
way I do not remember ever to have beheld before. No! I will not say the
voice of God was not heard; it spoke in the very stillness as loud as in
roaring thunder, in the placid scene as in rocks and cliffs impassable, and
louder still in the heavens and in the firmament, and in the magnificent
prospect around me. His wondrous works declared him to be near, and I felt
as if the very ground upon which I was treading was holy.— John Gadsby.
Verse 4. "Their line is gone out," etc. "Their sound went," etc.
Romans 10:18. The relations which the gospel of Christ Jesus hath to the
Psalms of David I find to be more than to all the Bible besides, that seldom
anything is written in the New Testament, but we are sent to fetch our
proofs from these. The margin here sends me to the Psalm, and the Psalm
sends me back to this again; showing that they both speak one thing. How
comes it then that it is not one, for "line" and "sound" are not one
thing? Is there not some mistake here? Answer—To fetch a proof from a
place is one thing, an allusion is another. Sometimes the evangelists are
enforced to bring their proofs for what they write out of the Old Testament,
else we should never believe them, and then they must be very sure of the
terms, when they say, "This was done that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken," etc. But the apostle was not now upon that account; only showing
to the Romans the marvellous spreading of the gospel, alluding to this
passage of David discoursing of "the heavens," to which the prophet
compared the publication of the word; the sun and moon and stars not only
shining through, but round all the earth. The same subject Paul was now
upon, and for his purpose makes use of a term fitter to express the
preaching of the gospel, by the word "sound," than that other word
expressing the limitations of the law, by the word "line:" both of these
agreeing that there is no fitter comparison to be fetched from anything in
nature than from "the heavens," their motions, revolutions, influences
upon sublunary bodies; also in their eclipses, when one text seems to darken
another, as if it were put out altogether by crossing and opposing, which is
but seemingly so to the ignorant, they agree sweetly enough in themselves;
no bridegroom can agree better with his bride, nor rejoice more to run his
course. So they both conclude in this, that the sun never saw that nation
yet where the word of truth, in one degree or other (all the world, you must
think, cannot be right under the meridian) hath not shined.— William Streat, in "The Dividing of the Hoof," 1654.
Verse 4 "Unto the end of the world." Venantius Fortunatus eleven
hundred years ago witnesses to the peregrinations of Paul the apostle.
He passed the ocean's curled wave,
As far as islands harbours have;
As far as Brittain yields a bay,
Or Iceland's frozen shore a stay.
John Cragge, 1557.
Verse 4. "Their line is gone out through all the earth," etc. The
molten sea did stand upon twelve oxen, that is, as Paul doth interpret it,
upon twelve apostles (1 Corinthians 9:10); which in that they looked four
ways, east, west, north, and south, they did teach all nations. And in that
they looked three and three together, they did represent the blessed
Trinity. Not only teaching all nations, but also in that sea of water,
baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Wherefore, though the two kine which carried the ark wherein were
the tables of the law, went straight and kept one path, turning neither to
the right hand nor to the left; yet these twelve oxen which carried the
molten sea, signifying the doctrine of the gospel, went not straight,
neither kept one path, but turned into the way of the Gentiles; yea, they
looked all manner of ways, east, west, north, and south. And these two kine
stood still and lowed no more when they came to the field of Joshua,
dwelling in Bethshemesh, that is, the house of the sun. To note, that all
the kine, and calves, and sacrifices, and ceremonies of the old law were to
cease and stand still when they came to Jesus, who is the true Joshua,
dwelling in heaven, which is the true Bethshemesh. But these twelve oxen
were so far from leaving off, either to go, or to low, when they came to
Christ, that even then they went much faster and lowed much louder; so that
now "their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words to the end of
the world;" and "in them hath God set" Bethshemesh, that is, a house or
"tabernacle for the sun." Therefore, as the material sun, through the
twelve signs of the Zodiac, goeth forth from the uttermost parts of the
heaven, and runneth about to the end of it again: in like sort, the
spiritual Sun of Righteousness, by the twelve apostles, as by twelve
signs, hath been borne round about the world, that he might be not only "the
glory of his people Israel," but also "a light to lighten the Gentiles;" and
that all, " all the ends of the earth might see the salvation of our God."— Thomas Playfere.
Verses 4-6. It appears to me very likely that the Holy Ghost in these
expressions which he most immediately uses about the rising of the sun, has
an eye to the rising of the Sun of Righteousness from the grave, and that
the expressions that the Holy Ghost here uses are conformed to such a view.
The times of the Old Testament are times of night in comparison of the
gospel day, and are so represented in Scripture, and therefore the approach
of the day of the New Testament dispensation in the birth of Christ, is
called the day-spring from on high visiting the earth (Luke 1:78), "Through
the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited
us;" and the commencing of the gospel dispensation as it was introduced by
Christ, is called the Sun of Righteousness rising. Malachi 4:2. But this
gospel dispensation commences with the resurrection of Christ. Therein the
Sun of Righteousness rises from under the earth, as the sun appears to do in
the morning, and comes forth as a bridegroom. He rose as the joyful,
glorious bridegroom of his church; for Christ, especially as risen again, is
the proper bridegroom, or husband, of his church, as the apostle teaches
(Romans 7:4), "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by
the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is
raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." He that
was covered with contempt, and overwhelmed in a deluge of sorrow, has
purchased and won his spouse, for he loved the church, and gave himself for
it, that he might present it to himself; now he comes forth as a bridegroom
to bring home his purchased spouse to him in spiritual marriage, as he soon
after did in the conversion of such multitudes, making his people willing in
the day of his power, and hath also done many times since, and will do in a
yet more glorious degree. And as the sun when it rises comes forth like a
bridegroom gloriously adorned, so Christ in his resurrection entered on his
state of glory. After his state of sufferings, he rose to shine forth in
ineffable glory as the King of heaven and earth, that he might be a glorious
bridegroom, in whom his church might be unspeakably happy. Here the
psalmist says that God has placed a tabernacle for the sun in the heavens:
so God the Father had prepared an abode in heaven for Jesus Christ; he had
set a throne for him there, to which he ascended after he rose. The sun
after it is risen ascends up to the midst of heaven, and then at that end of
its race descends again to the earth; so Christ when he rose from the grave
ascended up to the height of heaven, and far above all heavens, but at the
end of the gospel day will descend again to the earth. It is here said that
the risen sun "rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." So Christ, when he
rose, rose as a man of war, as the Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty
in battle; he rose to conquer his enemies, and to show forth his glorious
power in subduing all things to himself, during that race which he had to
run, which is from his resurrection to the end of the world, when he will
return to the earth again. . . . That the Holy Ghost here has a mystical
meaning, and has respect to the light of the Sun of Righteousness, and not
merely the light of the natural sun, is confirmed by the verses that follow,
in which the psalmist himself seems to apply them to the word of God, which