Psalm 19:1 Komentář

There are two excellent books which the great God has published for the instruction and edification of the children of men; this psalm treats of them both, and recommends them both to our diligent study. I. The book of the creatures, in which we may easily read the power and godhead of the Creator (Psa 19:1-6). II. The book of the scriptures, which makes known to us the will of God concerning our duty. He shows the excellency and usefulness of that book (Psa 19:7-11) and then teaches us how to improve it (Psa 19:12-14). To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

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, Psa 19:1. 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 (Psa 8:3), 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 (Psa 19:2): 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 8:22), 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 45:7), 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, Psa 65:8. 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, Joh 3:29. (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, Psa 19:4. 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 10:18), 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.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 19 To the chief Musician, a Psalm of David. This psalm was penned by David, and inscribed to the chief musician, as others, to be used in public service, and was designed for Gospel times, as the subject of it shows; which is first, not an account of the light of nature, and then of the law of Moses, but of the Gospel of Christ; and especially as ministered in the times of the apostles, as a citation out of it in Rom 10:18, makes clear.

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 Rom 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, Dan 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.

If someone, hypothetically, should seem to believe in Jesus but should not believe that the God of the law and of the gospel is one, whose glory the heavens declare, since they were made by him, and the work of whose hands the firmament proclaims, since it is their work, this person would be deficient in the greatest article of faith.

Any who are perfect, who have been made heavenly or have become [part] of heaven, “declare the glory of God,” as it says in the psalm. For this reason in brief also the apostles who were of heaven were sent to declare the glory of God and received the name of Boanerges, “which is the sons of thunder,” that by the power of thunder we might believe them truly to be heavens.

This verse serves as a lesson on how the great work of God is declared. People who have been blinded in the eyes of their minds have expelled from the natural order the hidden and invisible divine essence, which is incorporeal and uncreated, and cannot be touched in any way or recognized with carnal eyes. With a godless and wicked mouth they say that there is no God, that nothing excellent of a corporeal nature exists beyond its temporary appearance, and that the whole universe came together in a certain momentary and accidental coalescence and gathering of parts that previously existed by chance and without purpose. Thus, it was necessary in the present work by means of a psalm that the writer should prove through plain demonstration God’s omniscience and creative power. The nature of mortals is insignificant and fragile, the thoughts of people, foolish, and our reasoning uncertain. Therefore, we are no match for declaring the divine glory. For these worthy words and reflections about God cannot be proclaimed with human voices or with tongues or lips of flesh. If one who has the facility of a strong mind could hear that powerful and most worthy teaching that comes from the heavens, he would direct his mind and mount up to attend to those things, embracing them completely in himself, celebrating his Creator and the Maker of the universe with hymns and songs. For those heavens above us and those elements present in the firmament attest to a nature capable of being understood by and realized through the senses. They ascribe glory to God, not through any human language but through their adornment, by their very creation, through their ordered movement they teach his immeasurable majesty.… Whoever, therefore, thinks that such beauty and magnitude adorned itself or that the heavens created themselves, and then ascribes their harmonious and ordered motions to some process devoid of any divine power, is foolish and wicked. Therefore, those of sound mind confess that the part is a unified whole, and not only do they hear the cry of the heavens but also the proclamation from that very work together announcing glory to God, their Maker and Creator.

Creation … points to God as its Maker and Artificer, who reigns over creation and over all things, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; whom would-be philosophers turn from to worship and deify the creation that proceeded from him, which yet itself worships and confesses the Lord whom they deny on its account. For if people are awestruck at the parts of creation and think that they are gods, they might well be rebuked by the mutual dependence of those parts; which moreover makes known and witnesses to the Father of the Word, who is the Lord and Maker of these parts also, by the unbroken law of their obedience to him, as the divine law also says [in this verse of the psalm].… The proof of all this is not obscure but is clear enough in all conscience to those the eyes of whose understanding are not wholly disabled.

As heaven is lighted with the splendor of the stars, so do people shine with the light of their good works, and their deeds shine before their Father in heaven. The one is the firmament of heaven on high; the other is a similar firmament of which it is said, “On this rock I will build my church.” The one is a firmament of the elements, the other of virtues, and this last is more excellent.

How … do they declare it? Voice they have none; mouth they possess not; no tongue is theirs! How then do they declare? By means of the spectacle itself. For when you see the beauty, the breadth, the height, the position, the form, the stability thereof during so long a period; hearing as it were a voice, and being instructed by the spectacle, you adore him who created a body so fair and strange! The heavens may be silent, but the sight of them emits a voice that is louder than a trumpet’s sound, instructing us not by the ear but through the medium of the eyes, for the latter is a sense which is more sure and more distinct than the former.

Nevertheless, many have stumbled at it and in contrary directions to one another. And some have admired it so much above its worth as to think it God, while others have been so insensible of its beauty as to assert it to be unworthy of God’s creating hand and to ascribe the greater share in it to a certain evil matter. And yet God provided for both points by making it beautiful and great that it might not be deemed alien from his wisdom, yet defective and not sufficient to itself that it might not be suspected to be God.

"The heavens tell out the glory of God" [Psalm 19:1]. The righteous Evangelists, in whom, as in the heavens, God dwells, set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the glory wherewith the Son glorified the Father upon earth. "And the firmament shows forth the works of His hands." And the firmament shows forth the deeds of the Lord's power, that now made heaven by the assurance of the Holy Ghost, which before was earth by fear.

This nineteenth psalm is doctrinal: just as the fourth, also being doctrinal, censures those claiming that existing things do not benefit from providence, so too the present psalm levels an accusation against those who claim … that existing things were made by no one, instead coming to be by themselves. Necessarily following on this is the view that these things also do not merit providence: with no admission of the Creator, the provider is also not acknowledged by them, either.

We learn three kinds of divine laws from blessed Paul. One unwritten kind he said was given to human beings in creation and nature: “From the creation of the world,” he says, “his invisible attributes have been understood and seen in created things”; and again, “For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, practice the obligations of the law instinctively, despite having no law they are a law to themselves.” … Another law was provided in writing through the mighty Moses: “The Law was added because of transgressions,” he says, “ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator.” He knew also a third one imposed after these, the law of grace: “For the law of the Spirit of life,” he says, “has set me free from the law of sin and death.” Blessed David in this psalm teaches human beings the harmony between these, following the same order: first, the one the Creator preaches in creation; then the one given through Moses, instilling a greater knowledge of the Creator to those willing to attend; after that, the law of grace, perfectly purifying souls and freeing them from the present destruction. This in fact is the reason the psalm also refers us “to the end,” naming the New Testament in the end.

If you observe a most mighty and magnificent building, you admire the builder; and if you see a skillfully and beautifully designed ship, you think of the shipwright; and at the sight of a painting the painter comes to mind. Much more, to be sure, does the sight of creation lead the viewers to the Creator.

All nature serves the Word of God for our instruction. Through all the turning points of the year, as if through the four Gospels, we learn from the unceasing trumpet both what we should preach and what we should do.… What is there through which the truth does not speak to us? Its voice is heard in the day, it is heard in the night, and the beauty of all things, established by the work of one God, does not cease to put into the ears of our hearts a ruling order, to let us see the “invisible things of God through those which have been made intelligible to us,” and it is subject not to the creatures but to the Creator of all things.

“The heavens show forth the glory of God” not by speaking in a voice audible to sensible ears but by manifesting to us through their own greatness the power of the Creator, and when we remark their beauty, we give glory to their Maker as the best of all artificers.

Above, the Psalmist gave thanks in many ways for benefits both given and hoped for; but here, from the consideration of those benefits, he rises to the praise of the Benefactor. The title is clear: "To the end, a Psalm of David." According to the letter it refers to David; but according to the mystery, to Christ, "to the end." This Psalm is divided into two parts. In the first, God is commended for his instruction by which he teaches us. And this in two ways. One is general, which applies equally to all, and this is manifested through his works: Rom. 1: "The invisible things of God are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made." The other is special, through the giving of the law, which pertains only to the faithful. The second part begins at "The law of the Lord is unspotted." This Psalm is truly expounded of Christ, because the Apostle brings forward the authority of this passage for the mystery of Christ in Rom. 10: "Their sound has gone forth into all the earth," and so on. Nevertheless, just as the mysteries of Christ are sometimes represented figuratively in the figures of the Old Testament, so too they are sometimes figuratively foreshadowed in the figures of the works of the saints. And therefore this Psalm will first be expounded according to the figure, and secondly according to the truth. First he speaks of the heavens, then of the sun. By the heavens the apostles are understood; by the sun, Christ is understood: "In the sun." Concerning this he does two things. First he sets forth the teaching by which God instructs us through the heavens, however understood. Second, he excludes impediments to this teaching, at "Day to day utters speech," and so on. Two things are necessary to know about God. One is the glory of God, in which he is glorious. The second is his works. If we consider the corporeal heavens, they announce to us the glory of God, because in them there is a wondrous and ordered distinction, which is a certain overflow of that firmness of glory: Eccl. 43: "The beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, the world on high shining forth, the Lord." And because "the sun giving light has looked upon all things, and the work of the Lord is full of his glory." And therefore these material heavens are understood to indicate to us the glory of God, not as living material things, as Rabbi Moses says, but in their beauty by which their Maker is much more clearly indicated. And the firmament shows us how magnificent God is. The firmament is called heaven, as it says in Gen. 1: "God called the firmament heaven." But according to the distinction, it is called heaven; and thus in the distinction of the heavens, divine wisdom appears. If the whole is taken together, it narrates his power. And therefore he says that the heavens declare, that is, manifest, the glory of God, and the firmament announces the works of his hands, through which works his power appears. But according to the truth, by the heavens the apostles are understood, in whom, as in heavens, God dwells. And they are called heavens because of the sublimity of their way of life: Phil. 3: "Our citizenship is in heaven." Likewise they are adorned with stars, because of the abundance of their many virtues: Eccl. 43: "The beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars": Is. 55: "As the heavens are exalted above the earth," and so on; because they are luminous through teaching and example: Mt. 5: "So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Because they revolve through obedience and the course of preaching: Sir. 24: "I alone have compassed the circuit of heaven, and I walked in the waves of the sea, and I penetrated the depths of the abyss, and I stood in every land, and in every people and in every nation I held the primacy." These declare the glory of God, namely of the Father, in which is Christ. And because Christ is equal to the Father, and that he is God, and that he freely forgives sins: Is. 52: "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money." Likewise the apostles are called the firmament, because they were strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit: Lk. 24: "Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." And they announce the works of his hands, that is, the wonderful things that Christ did, namely his nativity, passion, resurrection, and ascension: Eccl. 42: "Has not God made the saints declare all his wonders?" Is. 12: "Announce this in all the earth." Ps. 95: "Announce his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples." Or, the heavens declare, because the heavens sent a new star, announcing the birth of the Savior: Mt. 2: "We saw his star in the east."

After exhibiting the harmonious revelation of God's perfections made by His works and His word, the Psalmist prays for conformity to the Divine teaching. (Psa 19:1-14) the glory of God--is the sum of His perfections (Psa 24:7-10; Rom 1:20). firmament--another word for "heavens" (Gen 1:8). handywork--old English for "work of His hands."

(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 אל, 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 τάμα =ἔκταμα, from רקע, root רק, to stretch, τείνειν), 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. הבּיע (fr. נבע, Arab. nb‛, root נב, to gush forth, nearly allied to which, however, is also the root בע, 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 חוּה is an unpictorial, but poetic, word that is more Aramaic than Hebrew (= הגּיד). אמשׁ also belongs to the more elevated style; the γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ deposited in the creature, although not reflected, is here called דּעת. 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 אמר not meaning "Loud speech" and קוּם 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 יצא 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 אין לשׁון or אין שׂפה ro אין (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 בּלי נשׁמע (after the analogy of Gen 31:20), or rather בּלי ישּׁמע (as in Job 41:8; Hos 8:7). בּלי with the part. is a poetical expression for the Alpha privat. (Sa2 1:21), consequently כלי נשׁמע is "unheard" or "inaudible," and the opposite of נשׁמע, 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 φανερόν, Rom 1:19.