The Ninetheenth Psalm:
A Commentary
By C. Leo Jordan
THE NINETEENTH PSALM OPENS with the familiar and beautiful passage,
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
Most readers assume this to refer to nothing more than the starry sky at night, the sun by day and the incredible wisdom of their almighty Creator. The next few verses seem to bear this out; the days tell us of his wisdom and the nights show us his knowledge. The blue sky is stretched out over the earth like a tabernacle or tent in which the sun makes his daily circuit. These are witnesses to God’s creative power that all me of all languages and nations can understand. The Psalm continues
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth 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.
But I wonder if there may not be a deeper meaning in this sublime Psalm. All great poetry exists on two or more levels of meaning and the surface meaning is seldom the important one. Would one expect any less of God than of man, the God who inspired that ancient worthy David, through His Holy Spirit, to compose these lines for our edification? Or would God waste space in his word, so important to salvation, just to point out something rather obvious?
I think not. Surely God has concealed a message for us in these lines. For Jesus once prayed . . .
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 (Matt. 11:15).
Paul also emphasizes this point:
But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things, which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:9-10).
David likened those truths which God has prepared for his people to a feast:
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies (Psa. 23:5).
We who have the Holy Spirit have the right, even the need, to look into those things which are concealed from the world. It is our food, set in the very presence of our unsuspecting enemies. We should not be content with obvious meanings but should dig deeper for the underlying message.
If we accept the standard interpretation of the Psalm as outlined, we are faced with some puzzling expressions:
Day unto day uttereth speech. . .
Or
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the endo of the world. . .
I am aware of several modern translations of the Bible which attempt to clarify many difficult passages of Scripture. But in striving for sense, many translators inadvertently destroy the perfect harmony of the Scriptures. BY their own admission, many obscure expressions are of double meaning and are subject to the translator’s personal bias.
For example, the Revised Standard Version renders verses three and four as follows:
There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
Not only does this directly contradict the sense of the King James Version, but I prefer the older version for reasons shortly to be stated.
One could dismiss the Psalm as simply poetic license, a farfetched metaphor of which poets are particularly fond. But I believe that it contains a marvelous prophecy of the coming of Jesus and his kingdom, and the ministry of the church.
A clue to the real significance of the nineteenth Psalm is found in the tenth chapter of Romans. Here Paul is explaining the necessity of preaching the word of God to men before they can believe and be saved. The he asks a question of Israel, “But I say, have they not heard?” and answers it by quoting from verse four of this Psalm:
Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world (Rom. 19-18).
(The slight discrepancy is due to his quoting from the Septuagint, rather from the original Hebrew.)
Apparently Paul has reference to the preaching of the gospel by someone. When Jesus was asked by his disciples what would be the signs of his coming and the end of the world, he answer, among other things, as follows:
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations: an then shall the end come (Matt. 24:14).
Doesn’t this sound like “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world”? IF this be the correct view, then the pronoun “their” must refer to the church, for it is the church that preaches the gospel, and it is her words that go out through all the earth. But the only antecedent in the Psalm to which it could refer is “day” in the phrase, “Day unto day uttereth speech.” Now Paul tells us,
Ye are all children of light, and the children of the day . . . (1 Thess. 5:5).
Evidently the psalmist is telling us that we, the church, have a task to do. We must declare the glory of God unto every creature under heaven. No race or language is to be exempt from our ministry.
The church began this ministry on the day of Pentecost, A.D. 30, when the children of the day “uttered speech” as they,
. . . began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:4).
Now there was gathered there a multitude of men, “out of every nation under heaven.” They were amazed because, as they said,
. . .we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:11).
What a fitting way for God to symbolize the ushering in of this age in which the gospel is to be preached unto all nations! And t his preaching is to continue right down to the very end of this world. David said in another place,
One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy might acts (Psa. 145:4).
Truly was it written,
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth 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. . .
Just as the plumbline judges the uprightness of a building, so has “their line gone out through all the earth.” The Lord said through Isaiah,
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet . . .(Isa. 28:17).
Or, as Peter said,
For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Pet. 4:17).
The church, then, is holding up a plumbline by which the world is to be judged—and that plumbline is the gospel of God.
But we are also the lights of the world, a city that is set on a hill and visible to all. The night cannot swallow up that light but serves by way of contrast to show the light even more vividly, as “night unto night sheweth knowledge.” We make manifest the knowledge of God in every place (2 Cor. 2:14). Daniel likewise spoke of us:
And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever,. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased (Dan. 12:3-4).
That is, the mystery of Christ and his gospel was hidden to Daniel and to the men of his age. But it was to be revealed—or, to use Daniel’s expression, knowledge was to be increased—at the time of the end. Paul made this clear in Ephesians 2:1-7, when he explained his calling and apostleship unto the Gentiles. He desired that we should understand his,
. . . knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs [with the Jews].
A few verses later, he exhorts us to walk as children of the light, for we are light in the Lord. Our light shall manifest those works of darkness that are to be reproved (Eph.5:8-13).
Compare the foregoing remarks with the Psalm under discussion: Daniel calls us stars and our shining as the brightness of the firmament; Psalm 19:1 says,
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
We are the people who declare the glory of God; and Paul says of us,
[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus . . .. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. . .(Eph. 2:6-10).
Paul thus echoes Isaiah who said, “we all are the work of thy hand” (Isa. 43:21).
The message the is this: not only do we declare God’s glory in word, as in preaching the gospel to every creature, or speaking his praises as his Spirit gives utterance, but we declare his glory by deed. Jesus commanded us,
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matt. 5:16).
If we follow this precept, not only shall we declare God’s glory, but we shall be the means for all men to glorify God. Peter rephrases his Master’s words as follows:
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. . .
Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation (1 Pet. 2:9-12).
Yes, we can most assuredly state that the psalmist not only was singing about the star-studded skies at night, but also about those stars that “turn many to righteousness.” Not only was he referring to the firmament with its spectacular display of God’s handywork, but equally of those who have been “made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” and who are also the work of his hands,
The Psalm speaks further of the heavens:
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 heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Just as the blue sky appears to be a mighty canopy, or tabernacle, for the sun to dwell in and make his daily circuit, so is the church a tabernacle for the Lord to dwell in:
We have such a high priest, who is set on the right had of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man (He. 8:1-2).
And,
For the Lord is a sun and shield (Psa. 84:11).
The Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2) is a bridgegroom who left his chamber and came out to seek a bride. The bride rejoices to run after him:
O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles (Psa. 84:11).
He is a strong man to run a race. He overcame the world alone, “and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Col.2: 15) He rejoiced to run the race—but let us read from Hebrews:
. . .let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right had of the throne of God (Heb. 12:1-2).
Can you not see that it was Jesus who left that chamber called heaven and the glory he had with the Father before the world was? Was I not he who rejoiced because of that same glory that was set before him? Did he not say,
What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? (John 6:62).
Just like the sun making his circuit of the heaven, so Jesus left the end of heaven, made his way among us, and now has returned to the ends of it, there to sit at the right hand of God., “until the times of restitution of all things” (Acts 3:32).
As the sun sets, the stars appear each night following the same heavenly path. Likewise, the children of the day follow the path charted for them by the day star Christ Jesus. He was the light of the world as long as he was in it. Now are his children the lights of the world and are patiently awaiting his return in the as foretold by the prophets:
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts (2 Pet. 1:19).
One day is determined when the sun and the stars have made one circuit around the heavens. Just so , the day of grace began at Pentecost, A.D.30, in Jerusalem and shall end there. For if the gospel began to be preached at Jerusalem (Luke 24:47) and is to be preached to all nations before the end comes (Matt. 24:14), and seeing that the earth is round, ought it not to end at Jerusalem?
When the Sun of Righteousness arises again, it shall usher in a new day and a new world. If we are his tabernacle, how ought we then to behave? For there is nothing hid from our Sun. When he shall come again, with countless myriads of his angels to bring fiery vengeance on those that obey not the truth, where will we be?
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (2 Pet. 11-12).
We ought to be the manner of persons that, by our good works, declare the glory of God to a world lying in darkness. For,
Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is (1 Cor. 3:13)
The nineteenth Psalm says it simply:
. . .there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
Leo Jordan
May, 1972, (revised June, 1976).