Psalm 19:1

The psalm is headed “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.” David wrote it and gave it to the leader of Israel’s music for use in public worship, so this praise of the sky was meant to be sung by God’s people together. David spent his youth keeping sheep under the open sky of Israel, and he knew the stars and the sunrise well.

The first verse names two speakers and one message. “The heavens declare the glory of God” is matched by “the firmament sheweth his handywork”, the second line saying the same truth again in other words, as Hebrew poetry often does. The heavens are the whole sky with the sun, moon and stars. The firmament, râqîyaʻ, is the expanse of the sky. The word comes from a root meaning to stamp or beat out, and so to spread out, and it is the expanse in which, in Genesis, God set the sun, moon and stars. “Handywork” is literally “the work of his hands”, a picture of God as a craftsman whose skill and purpose can be seen in what he has made, as he made the heaven and the earth in the beginning (Genesis 1:1).

The verb “declare” is çâphar. It is a verb of counting and numbering, and it also means to recount, tell or declare, which is its sense here. Its participle is the ordinary word for a scribe. The heavens recount God’s glory over and over, the way someone tells another’s deeds one after another.

What they tell is his glory, kâbôwd, a word for glory, honour, splendour and wealth. Used of God it means his majesty and worth as they are shown to us. The sky shows his greatness, his power and his wisdom on a scale anyone can see.

God is named here as ʼêl, “God”, and that is the only name for him in verses 1 to 6. “The LORD” first appears in verse 7, where David turns to praise the law (Psalm 19:7–14). The God whom all people can see at work in the sky is the same LORD who has made himself known to Israel by name in his word.

“Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.” The message passes from each day to the next and from each night to the next, like a word handed on, so that it goes on without a break. Day and night together take in all of time, and at every hour the sky is speaking about God.

The verb “uttereth” is nâbaʻ, which means to gush forth, and figuratively to pour out words. The picture is a spring that keeps flowing. The same verb stands in Psalm 145:7: “They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness.” The sky pours out its message freely and in full measure.

“Speech” is ʼômer, the same word as ʼêmer, meaning something said, a word or a speech. “Knowledge” is daʻath, which means knowledge, including skill and discernment. Each half of the day has its own lesson. The day has the dawn, the sun’s journey and the light by which life goes on. The night has the moon and the countless stars, and its darkness shows how vast the heavens are. David wrote of this in another psalm, when he considered the heavens, the work of God’s fingers, and marvelled that God is mindful of man (Psalm 8:3–4).

Verse 3 reads in the KJV, “There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” The word “where” was supplied by the translators, and with it the verse is universal: in every speech and language under heaven, the voice of the heavens is heard. People of every tongue look up at the same sun and stars and receive the same message, so it reaches them without translation.

The Hebrew can also be read without that word, and then it says that the heavens are wordless and their voice is silent. On that reading the verse is a paradox, because the sky that makes no sound has words that, as the next verse says, go out to the end of the world. Both readings have long been given, and both agree that creation’s witness reaches everyone.

Three words carry the verse. ʼômer, “speech”, is the word from verse 2. dâbâr, here “language”, means a word or speech, and in a separate sense a matter or thing. qôwl is a voice or sound, often of someone calling aloud. The voice of the heavens is heard in the order, beauty and power of the sky, and it reaches the mind and heart of everyone who looks up.

“Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” The word “line” is qav, a cord, and often a measuring line. On that sense the message of the heavens is stretched out over the whole earth like a measuring cord laid across it. Because “line” stands beside “their words”, many translations take it as a sound or voice, and Paul quotes the verse in that sense: “their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” (Romans 10:18). Either way, the witness reaches every land. “Words” is millâh, a word, and taken together a discourse or message, a word at home in poetry.

“In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.” From here to the end of verse 6, the sun takes centre stage among the lights of heaven. “Them” is the heavens, and “tabernacle” is ‘ohel, a tent or dwelling. God has pitched a tent for the sun in the sky, a picture of the place and course he has appointed for it. The sun, which the nations worshipped as a mighty god, lives in a tent God put up for it and goes where he sends it. That is how small the greatest light in the sky is beside its Maker.

The picture of a tent also calls to mind the sanctuary God told Israel to make, so that he might dwell among them (Exodus 25:8). There God made a dwelling for himself among his people. Here he gives a dwelling to one of his creatures.

Verse 5 gives the sun two likenesses. First it is “as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.” The bridegroom, châthân, is a man on his wedding day, and the word comes from a verb meaning to give a daughter in marriage, so it can also mean a son-in-law or a relative by marriage. His chamber, chuppâh, is a canopy or bridal chamber, and the same word is the bride’s “closet” in Joel 2:16: “let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.” A bridegroom stepping out in his finest clothes on his wedding day is radiant and glad, and everyone has been waiting for him. So the sun comes up at dawn, bright and welcome.

Then the sun “rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.” The strong man, gibbôwr, is a mighty man, a warrior or champion. The sun takes up its long course across the sky the way a champion runs, eager and tireless, and it finishes the course every day.

The sun’s order and faithfulness reflect the faithfulness of the God who set its course. In Genesis God made the greater light to rule the day (Genesis 1:14–18), and through Jeremiah the LORD points to his covenant of the day and of the night, which stands fast, as a pledge that his word to David will stand as well (Jeremiah 33:20–21).

“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.” “Going forth” is môwtsâʼ, a noun from the verb to go out, meaning a going forth, an exit or a source. Here it is the sunrise, the place where the sun comes out at one edge of the sky. “Circuit” is tᵉqûwphâh, a revolution or circuit, the completed round of its course to the far edge. The two lines together take in the whole sky from end to end.

The heat, chammâh, is the sun’s warmth, and the word can stand for the sun itself. Its warmth and light reach every place it passes over. In a land that lived by farming, that heat meant life for the crops and for all of daily living.

This last line closes the praise of creation with a picture that fits what Scripture says of God himself. The letter to the Hebrews says that “all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:13), and the LORD asks through Jeremiah, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” (Jeremiah 23:24). As every place feels the sun’s heat, every life lies open before God. That is a comfort to those whose troubles are hidden from everyone else, and a sober truth for anyone with something to hide.

The God whose handiwork fills the sky made all things through his Son. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1–3). Paul calls Christ “the image of the invisible God” and writes, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:15–16). So the heavens that declare God’s glory are the work of Christ’s hands.

The heavens tell of God’s power and wisdom, and in Christ God has shown us his heart. God, who spoke in time past by the prophets, “hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son”, who is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:1–3). Jesus said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9), and Paul speaks of “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). In him all fulness dwells (Colossians 1:19). God set a tent for the sun in the heavens, and the Word who made the heavens was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory (John 1:14).

The heavens have their part in his story too. A star led the wise men to the newborn King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1–2), and Jesus said that the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven when he comes with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30).

The pictures of this psalm meet in him as well. Malachi foretells the Sun of righteousness, rising with healing in his wings (Malachi 4:2). Jesus calls himself the light of the world (John 8:12), and John calls him the true Light, which lighteth every man (John 1:9). Jesus speaks of himself as the bridegroom (Matthew 9:15), and John the Baptist rejoiced greatly to hear the bridegroom’s voice (John 3:29). And he ran his course to the end as “the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:1–2). The sun’s daily glory points to the greater glory of God in Christ.

Every sunrise and every starry night is a word from God, spoken in a language every person understands. David looked at the sky and heard praise, and the same sky is over us. It tells us that God is great, wise and faithful, that he keeps the sun to its course day after day, and that all things lie open before him. The sun and stars that the nations worshipped are his servants, so the wonder they stir in us belongs to him.

The psalm goes on from the sky to the law of the LORD, and so it leads us from what all people see to what God has spoken. The heavens leave everyone knowing that God is there, and his word, and above all his Son, show us who he is and how he saves. Whenever we look up, David has already given us the words for what we see: “The heavens declare the glory of God.”