Psalm 19

⁰⁴          Their lines are going out through all the earth,

their words to the end of the world.

            In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

⁰⁵                      which is like a bridegroom leaving his canopy,

 rejoicing like a strong man to run its race.

₀₆          Its rising is from one end of the heavens,

 its circuit to the other.

            There is nothing hidden from its heat.

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His Penetrating Gaze

For the Lord’s Day:  the 27^th of June 2004

 

Introduction:  There are some interesting possibilities for thinking about God’s management of all things within His providential plan in verse four.  The most obvious inference of the “lines” in that verse is that like the printed word on the scroll, so are the unspoken lines of the heavenly witness able to be read in every language and philosophy around the globe.  Delitzsch declares that “the measuring line of the heavens … has taken entire possession of the earth.”  Further, he describes the “hearaldship” nature of their purposeful providence.  “Their words reach to the end of the world; they fill it completely, from its extreme boundary inwards.”

 

Delitzsch also notes that “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.”  We find this report in Romans 10: 14-21 where Paul observes that all have heard the clarion call of nature’s only God in and through His creative works and management of them from the beginning of time to the present.  This legitimate proposition is clear whether or no we splice verse three closely to the fourth or, as I have proposed:  let the two verses stand separately.

 

Now, let me ask your patience while I explore another possibility?  I remember reading some years ago in an article on theoretical physics – which I barely understood.  However, the article in question raised a theory of “lines” of relationships between the minute particles of atoms and thereby a “manipulative string” that in my mind could support a scientific methodology whereby all of nature could more obviously, be contained and controlled in all its relationships.

 

I am also reminded of a passage in Ecclesiastes 12: 6 where Solomon warns of a necessary consideration of the Creator God “before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

 

I am not going to go any deeper or further with this, since I am only splashing my feet in the deep end of the theoretical physics pool!  After all, as I remember – there are related to this concept the probable meddling of any number of New Age Quantum cranks as well as respected scientists honestly thinking and seeking God’s thoughts after Him.  And yet I wonder if there is here a premise of how widely, thoughtfully and carefully the natural revelation may be unfolded by honest scientific men not hampered by secular-humanistic atheism?

 

Development:  With that supposition clearly unproven, let us return to our first thought that is better supported by Paul’s testimony in the New Covenant.  And that thought is the “testimony” of God written large on the canvass of nature.  However, even with the poetic beauty of that image clearly in our minds, we quickly learn in line three of verse four:  “In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun.”

 

All the“starry vault” as one translator describes the heavens: upon which the natural revelation is stated – they are nothing but a back drop, like a curtain on a stage for something more important taking place closer to the audience in God’s grand and majestic theater.  In their midst “He has set a tabernacle for the sun.”  If Shakespeare were our author here, we could almost sense a pun in the use of the word “sun” – that we should suppose what the image proposes: another “Son” is better in mind than the golden globe that transcends only the limited sky of this frail stage and planet where we reside.

 

In John’s Gospel, the text in chapter 1: 14 the Greek actually reads “And the Word became flesh and tabernacle] among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  But, please do remember – it is not the romantic symbolic rationalization that I have used that proves the poetic truth!  After all – everything that can be said through the ordinary “natural revelation” which is the theme of these first six verses, this is after all insufficient witness to transform the cold hearts of those who have not learned the spiritual language of heaven.  But, we will not go there to consider “special revelation” until another weekly portion of this Psalm is unfolded.  There is still much more to consider in the unveiling methodology of David the poet.  Calvin summarizes the passage in these words:  David “proposes to us three things to be considered in [this image of] the sun:

 

1.        the splendor and excellency of his forms

2.        the swiftness with which he runs his course

3.        the astonishing power of his heat.

 

The more forcibly to express and magnify his surpassing beauty and, as it were magnificent attire, he employs the similitude of a bridegroom.”

 

For anyone who has learned even a smattering of the romantic tendency in literature and art, the imagery here is rich fare indeed.  If we only focus on the concept of “the bridegroom” mentioned clearly in our text – we, as New Testament Pilgrims can only understand it to be:  the person of Christ, Himself.  And yet, the imagery in David’s mind is still primitive in its poetic license.  Delitzsch understands the imagery of “tabernacle” and “canopy” to be reminiscent of the Jewish wedding ceremony where the bride and bridegroom stand under a special canopy supported on four poles to symbolize the ultimate privacy of their ongoing publicly announced relationship.

 

“In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

which is like a bridegroom leaving his canopy,

rejoicing like a strong man to run its race.”

 

The imagery, like Solomon’s Song of Songs, is almost lusty in its celebration of the “bridegroom” in His “rejoicing” to accomplish the course of life laid out before Him on behalf of His pledged bride.  Once again, we are dealing with images that need no further investigation, after all – even the angels long to look into the matters of God’s grace to the Bride of Christ – the Old and New Covenant churches saved by grace and mercy through the love and deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ – who died for us as any bridegroom must for his bride if necessary.

 

Application:  But, we must move on to consider the testimony of the ending of this short poetic revelation.  And so, we come to the last verse in this section:  the sixth:

 

“Its rising is from one end of the heavens,

 its circuit to the other.

There is nothing hidden from its heat.”

 

There are two thoughts here in these three lines.  Once again, we can almost sense the “Alpha and Omega” completeness of the revelation implied, from the beginning of the heavens to the end, even across the complete wide spectrum of the sun’s daily course through the heavens.  No man, woman or child is left ignorant of the claims of creation written large in the heavens, by the Creator Himself – all specifically there to declare His glory in and through the heavens and earth.

 

In the last line, there is much for us to consider “There is nothing hidden from its heat.”  Calvin observes that “some think that the third clause, where he speaks of the heat of the sun, is to be understood of his vegetative heat, as it is called; in other words, that by which the vegetating bodies which are in the earth have their vigor, support, and growth.  But I do not think that this sense suits the passage.  It is, indeed, a wonderful work of God, and a signal evidence of his goodness, that the powerful influence of the sun penetrating the earth renders it fruitful.”

 

That thought, is a Calvin allows – a wonderful concept, but there is something more going on here.  Years ago, when I first came to this wonderful psalm, it was with the memory of the Ohio drought of 1988 in vivid memory.  The heat that is meant here is that which is common in the tropics.  I can still remember, the cloudless, blinding, tyrannous rays of the sun hammering the hills and houses searching out and warming every hidden cranny.  There was no escape in shade of tree, porch, basement or even in the ordinary cool of night.  That year the heat of the sun pierced everywhere we could have hidden, no matter how hard we might have tried.  Even air-conditioned places were only marginally better.

 

And so, this is the proper image to close the natural imagery revealed in and through this precious Psalm.  Spurgeon catches the meaning best:  “There is no doubt a parallel intended to be drawn between the heaven of grace and the heaven of nature.  God’s way of grace is sublime and broad, and full of his glory; in all its displays it is to be admired and studied with diligence; both it lights and its shades are instructive; it has been proclaimed, in a measure, to every people, and in due time shall be yet more completely published to the ends of the earth.”

 

Thus, we are meant to know from this passage that all the earth must one day know full well, who the God of earth and heaven is – in and through His only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Before Him shall every knee bow, and every heart will know that He has come to rule forever and ever.  May we be ready to welcome the Bridegroom when He comes to collect the bridal party, and may we even more be found in Him.  Amen.

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PREACHING RESOURCES

 

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.

Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament – Psalms.

Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.

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