Salmi 19:4 Commento

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.

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.

Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,.... His nuptial chamber, on which Elias writes (y), "we call the garment (or canopy) spread over the head of the bridegroom and bride, supported by four pillars, in the time of their espousals, '' who looks lovely and beautiful in his nuptial robes, cheerful and pleasant in his countenance, creating pleasure and delight in all his friends that see him and hear his voice: and this simile is expressive of the brightness and glory of the sun when it rises; and of the joy and pleasure which it produces in the minds of men when they behold it: all which sets forth the loveliness and beauty of Christ, as he is held forth in the ministration of the Gospel, and the joy unspeakable and full of glory which his presence yields, after a short departure from his people; see Isa 61:10; and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race; in which he shows his readiness, velocity, and strength; and this denotes the swiftness of the sun in running its course, and its indefatigableness in its constant motion; though it has been employed therein for so many thousands of years, yet every morning rises with the same cheerfulness, pursues its course, and is never weary: all which may point at the readiness of Gospel ministers, their swiftness to run to and fro, and their strength to fulfil the course of their ministry, in which Christ, the sun of righteousness, is held forth in so glorious a manner. (y) Elias, in his Tishbi, p. 119. The same word is used Isa. iv. 5. and translated "a defence".

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. [Psalms 19:4] But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.

Behold the Lord’s greatness. “The sound of his teaching has gone out into every land.” Our Lord Jesus has been spread out to the whole world, because he is God’s power.… The power of the Lord and Savior is with those who are in Britain, separated from our world, and with those who are in Mauretania and with everyone under the sun who has believed in his name. Behold the Savior’s greatness. It extends to all the world.

Yet, how can such declaring and showing forth be other than words, and how is it that no voice addresses itself to the ear? Is the prophet contradicting himself, or is he stating an impossibility, when he speaks of words without sound, and declaration without language and announcement without voice? Or, is there not rather the very perfection of truth in his teaching, which tells us, in the words that I have quoted, that the declaration of the heavens and the word shouted forth by the day, is no articulate voice or language of the lips but is a revelation of the power of God to those who are capable of hearing it, even though no voice is heard?… The very heavens, he says in displaying the wisdom of him who made them, all but shout aloud with a voice, and, though without voice, proclaim the wisdom of their Creator. For we can hear as it were words teaching us: “O mortals, when you gaze on us and behold our beauty and magnitude and this ceaseless revolution, with its well-ordered and harmonious motion, working in the same direction and in the same manner, turn your thoughts to him who presides over our system, and, by aid of the beauty that you see, imagine to yourselves the beauty of the invisible Archetype. For in us there is nothing without its Lord, nothing that moves of its own proper motion, but all that appears or that is conceivable in respect to us depends on a Power who is inscrutable and sublime.” This is not given in articulate speech but by the things which are seen, and it instills into our minds the knowledge of divine power more than if speech proclaimed it with a voice.

The providence of God is clearer than the sun and its rays. On every occasion and in every place you will see clear and abundant evidence of this providence—in the desert, on cultivated and uncultivated land, on land and sea, wherever you go. This evidence is old and new. Voices are raised from every side that sound more clearly than the voices of our reason, and they tell of God’s care to one who wishes to hear.… Our tongue is known only to those who share our language, not to those of other tongues; but the voice of creation is audible to all peoples who dwell in the inhabited world. Those of good judgment regard as sufficient God’s proclamation, without the demonstration of deeds. It reveals not only his providence but also his abundant love for us; for he does not merely take thought for us but is also our lover, and he loves us boundlessly with an inconceivable love. It is a love that knows no emotion, but it is most warm and intense, noble, insoluble, unquenchable.

The Scythian, barbarian, Indian, Egyptian and everyone who walks on the earth shall hear this voice; for not by means of the ears but through the sight, it reaches our understanding. And of the things that are seen, there is one uniform perception; and there is no difference, as is the case with respect to languages. On this volume the unlearned, as well as the wise, shall be alike able to look; the poor person as well as the rich person; and wherever anyone may chance to come, there looking upward toward the heavens, he will receive a sufficient lesson from the view of them.

"Their sound is gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" [Psalm 19:4].

The sun’s maker could only be seen by the sun’s light, because he “set his tabernacle in the sun.” He who was before the sun that he made, before the day star and all stars, before all angels, the true Creator (for all things were made by him, and without him was nothing made), that he might be seen by the eyes of flesh that see the sun, set his own tabernacle in the sun—showed his flesh in manifestation by this light.

The voices of visible creation … are equally clear to everyone, both Greeks and barbarians, giving everyone the one message, that they were made by someone and do not exist of themselves.

The Lord placed his own tabernacle in the sun. Not in that sun that, by arranging the days, directs the measure of the hours according to the seasons, but “the sun of righteousness,” which, having been brought forth from the virginal womb in the splendor of eternal life has shone the true light to minds, and he has stepped forth from the Virgin just like the bridegroom from the bridal chamber. He rejoiced as a strong man running his course, and in every way he walked blameless on the way in the law of the Lord, having stepped forth from the highest heaven. Not from the seed of people, but from the word of the Father, who is in the highest of the heavens, his course is also the highest, not from the rising in the east, or as from the highest to the lowest points, but from highest to the highest and from excellence to excellence, and from the highest to the highest there will not be one who may hide himself from his heat.

Likewise, an impediment to teaching is the diversity and remoteness of place, because teaching sometimes does not reach remote parts; but it is not so with this teaching, because "Their sound has gone forth into all the earth," namely of the heavens, or of the apostles, because everywhere is the teaching by which the heavens instruct. But it is better said of the apostles, because he says "has gone forth," not "they went forth" -- "the sound," that is, the fame, "and to the ends of the world their words." Is. 12: "Sing to the Lord, for he has done great things; announce this in all the earth": Mt. 28: "Going, teach all nations." And therefore he says, "To the ends of the world their words": because the sound reaches to remote places, and the words to nearby places. But it is not so with the apostles; rather, even the words, that is, the distinct sound, reached to the ends of the earth, whether by some prophecy or by the fame of miracles.

"In the sun." Above, the Psalmist made mention of the heavens; and here, to show the praise of the Creator, he treats of the sun. And just as by the heavens the apostles are understood, so by the sun Christ is understood: Mal. 4: "To you who fear my name, the sun of justice shall arise." And certain prophecies speak this of Christ under the figure of the sun; therefore he first sets forth the figure through which he begins to explain the truth about Christ. Concerning the figure he sets forth three things. First, the position of the sun. Second, its motion: "And he as a bridegroom." Third, its effect: "There is no one who can hide himself," and so on. First it should be known that Jerome's different text has: "He has set a tabernacle for the sun in them"; as if to say, thus the heavens declare, and so on. And for them, namely the heavens, he set a tabernacle for the sun, that is, he placed it in the heavens. The tabernacle is fittingly used because this world is a place of wayfarers, not of those dwelling in a fixed place, since they are in continual motion. But our text has, "In the sun he has placed his tabernacle." The house of a certain lord stands more beautifully in a city than in the country; so the tabernacle of God appears more beautifully in heaven. And therefore he says, "In the sun he has placed his tabernacle," as if to say: the sun is his tabernacle -- not that God is contained in a place, but because, as Dionysius says, in the sun the goodness and power of God, or divine goodness, is most represented. But according to the signified reality, the mysteries of Christ are designated. And first his conception is designated. Second, his nativity. Third, his progress. Fourth, his ascension. His conception is designated when it says, "In the sun he has placed his tabernacle." Now it is customary that by tabernacle the body is understood: 2 Pet. 1: "I know that the laying aside of my tabernacle is at hand, as our Lord Jesus Christ has signified to me": 2 Cor. 5: "We who are in this tabernacle groan." What therefore he says, "In the sun he has placed," and so on, that is, he placed his body in the sun, that is, in the Blessed Virgin, who had no obscurity of sin: Song 4: "You are all fair, my love, and there is no spot in you." Or, in the sun there are three things: it shines, it burns, and it distinguishes the turns of the seasons. "In the sun he has placed his tabernacle," that is, in the open, because though he was invisible, through the assumption of a body he was made visible: Jn. 1: "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." Likewise, "in the sun," that is, in burning heat, "he placed his tabernacle," that is, his body, because he assumed a passible body: Is. 53: "Surely he has borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows." Likewise, he subjected it to change; and he who according to his divinity was eternal, according to his humanity was made temporal: Ps. 30: "My times are in your hands." Or, "his tabernacle," that is, the Church: Rev. 21: "Behold the tabernacle of God with men." He placed it "in the sun," that is, in the open: Mt. 5: "A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden."

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."

Their line--or, "instruction"--the influence exerted by their tacit display of God's perfections. Paul (Rom 10:8), quoting from the Septuagint, uses "sound," which gives the same sense.

(Heb.: 19:5-7) Since אמר and דברים are the speech and words of the heavens, which form the ruling principal notion, comprehending within itself both יום and לילה, the suffixes of קוּם and מלּיהם must unmistakeably refer to השׁמים in spite of its being necessary to assign another reference to קולם in Psa 19:4. Jer 31:39 shows how we are to understand קו in connection with יצא. The measuring line of the heavens is gone forth into all the earth, i.e., has taken entire possession of the earth. Psa 19:5 tells us what kind of measuring line is intended, viz., that of their heraldship: their words (from מלּה, which is more Aramaic than Hebrew, and consequently more poetic) reach to the end of the world, they fill it completely, from its extreme boundary inwards. Isaiah's קו, Psa 28:1-9 :10, is inapplicable here, because it does not mean commandment, but rule, and is there used as a word of derision, rhyming with צו. The ὁ φθόγγος αὐτῶν of the lxx (ὁ ἦχος αὐτῶν Symm.) might more readily be justified, inasmuch as קו might mean a harpstring, as being a cord in tension, and then, like τόνος (cf. τοναία), a tone or sound (Gesenius in his Lex., and Ewald), if the reading קולם does not perhaps lie at the foundation of that rendering. But the usage of the language presents with signification of a measuring line for קו when used with יצא (Aq. κανών, cf. Co2 10:13); and this gives a new thought, whereas in the other case we should merely have a repetition of what has been already expressed in Psa 19:4. Paul makes use of these first two lines of the strophe in order, with its very words, to testify to the spread of the apostolic message over the whole earth. Hence most of the older expositors have taken the first half of the Psalm to be an allegorical prediction, the heavens being a figure of the church and the sun a figure of the gospel. The apostle does not, however, make a formal citation in the passage referred to, he merely gives a New Testament application to Old Testament language, by taking the all-penetrating praeconium coelorum as figure of the all-penetrating praeconium evangelii; and he is fully justified in so doing by the parallel which the psalmist himself draws between the revelation of God in nature and in the written word. The reference of בּהם to השׁמים is at once opposed by the tameness of the thought so obtained. The tent, viz., the retreat (אהל, according to its radical meaning a dwelling, from אהל, cogn. אול, to retire from the open country) of the sun is indeed in the sky, but it is more naturally at the spot where the sky and the קצה תבל meet. Accordingly בהם has the neuter signification "there" (cf. Isa 30:6); and there is so little ground for reading שׁם instead of שׂם, as Ewald does, that the poet on the contrary has written בהם and not שׁם, because he has just used שׂם (Hitzig). The name of the sun, which is always feminine in Arabic, is predominantly masculine in Hebrew and Aramaic (cf. on the other hand Gen 15:17, Nah 3:17, Isa 45:6, Mal 4:2); just as the Sabians and heathen Arabs had a sun-god (masc.). Accordingly in Psa 19:6 the sun is compared to a bridegroom, who comes forth in the morning out of his חפּה. Joe 2:16 shows that this word means a bride-chamber; properly (from חפף to cover) it means a canopy (Isa 4:5), whence in later Hebrew the bridal or portable canopy (Talmud. בּית גּננא), which is supported by four poles and borne by four boys, at the consecration of the bridal pair, and then also the marriage itself, is called chuppa. The morning light has in it a freshness and cheerfulness, as it were 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. And as at its rising it is like a bridegroom, so in its rapid course (Sir. 43:5) it is like a hero (vid., on Psa 18:34), inasmuch as it marches on its way ever anew, light-giving and triumphant, as often as it comes forth, with גּבוּרה (Jdg 5:31). From one end of heaven, the extreme east of the horizon, is its going forth, i.e., rising (cf. Hos 6:3; the opposite is מבוא going in = setting), and its circuit (תּקוּפה, from קוּף = נקף, Isa 29:1, to revolve) על־קצותם, to their (the heavens') end (= עד Deu 4:32), cf. 1 Esdr. 4:34: ταχὺς τῷ δρόμῳ ὁ ἥλιος, ὅτι στρέφεται ἐν τῷ κύκλῳ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ πάλιν ἀποτρέχει εἰς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τόπον ἐν μιᾷ ἡμέρᾳ. On this open way there is not נסתּר, anything hidden, i.e., anything that remains hidden, before its heat. חמּה is the enlightening and warming influence of the sun, which is also itself called חמּה in poetry.