Today’s Passage: Psalm 19
This psalm falls into two halves, and at first they can seem to belong to two different worlds. The first half looks up at a sky that speaks without a single word, and the second half opens a book that is nothing but words, and then, at the very end, both of them turn into a prayer. Yet we must not split them into two gods, one who paints the heavens and another who writes the law. The heavens declare His glory and the law revives the soul, and it is one and the same God who does both. Two voices, and one God behind them.
Those written words are Scripture itself. They are not a second revelation set beside the Bible; they are the Bible, the very speech of God set down for us to keep. And on the question of whether such words could ever fail or mislead us, this house does not hesitate or hold the matter open: what God has spoken is true, all the way down.
As you read, hold this: The heavens declare and the law revives. Two voices, one God.
Context A psalm of David, meant to be sung
The psalm opens with a line we might be tempted to skip: “For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.” That superscription is part of the text this house receives, not a later note tacked on above it. David wrote these words, and the choir of Israel sang them. The first voice we will hear is the sky, the second is the written word of God, and the last three verses are a prayer that asks to be shaped by both of them together.
Psalm 19:1-4a (BSB)
¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. ² Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. ³ Without speech or language, without a sound to be heard, ⁴ their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
The sky never stops speaking. Day after day and night after night it keeps pouring out its message, and yet verse 3 tells us it does all this without speech, without language, without a single sound the ear can catch. It is a sermon that no ear has ever heard, and still there is no country on earth that has not seen it preached overhead.
Study notes Paul takes the silent voice
Paul reaches for this very line when he asks whether Israel had ever been given the chance to hear.
"But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”" Romans 10:18 (BSB)
He had already said much the same thing in another place.
"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse." Romans 1:20 (BSB)
The silent sky, then, is not mere decoration. It says enough about God to leave every person answerable to Him, though it does not say enough to save. For that, the second voice will have to speak, and it will say a great deal more.
Psalm 19:4b-6 (BSB)
In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun. ⁵ Like a bridegroom emerging from his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course, ⁶ it rises at one end of the heavens and runs its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.
Now the psalm draws close to the sun in particular, and it paints it not as a thing to be feared but as a picture of joy: a bridegroom stepping out of his chamber, a strong runner glad to run his race. It rises at one end of the sky and travels to the other, and nothing anywhere is left out of its warmth. The first voice reaches as far as the light itself can go.
Psalm 19:7-9 (BSB)
⁷ The Law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy, making wise the simple. ⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right, bringing joy to the heart; the commandments of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes. ⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure, enduring forever; the judgments of the LORD are true, being altogether righteous.
So the first voice has no words at all, and the second is nothing but words. Creation tells us that God is there and that He is great; Scripture goes further and does something to the one who receives it. These two are not rival witnesses competing to be believed. They are two voices raised by one God.
Psalm 19:10-11 (BSB)
¹⁰ They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. ¹¹ By them indeed Your servant is warned; in keeping them is great reward.
The psalm sets these words beside gold and honey, praising both their worth and their sweetness. Yet the same words that are so precious also warn, and the servant of God finds himself guarded and kept by the very thing he has learned to love.
Psalm 19:12-14 (BSB)
¹² Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. ¹³ Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed of great transgression. ¹⁴ May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Here the psalm turns inward at last, from the wide sky and the perfect tōrāh, pronounced toh-RAH. Strong's H8451, instruction, teaching, law. When English ears hear “law” they think at once of a code of rules, but the Hebrew root is wider and warmer than that: it means instruction, teaching, the whole of what God has spoken to guide His people. Six names for that word crowd into these three verses of Psalm 19, one after another: law, testimony, precepts, commandments, fear, and judgments. Each is given its own quality and its own effect, for they are perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure, and true, and they revive the soul, make the simple wise, bring joy to the heart, and give light to the eyes. The sky declares that God is glorious, but tōrāh does something more: it revives the very soul that receives it. to the one who has been gazing and reading. David prays to be cleansed of the hidden faults he cannot even see, and kept back from the willful sins that would master him, and then he makes his final request: that his own words might please the God whose words he has just spent the whole psalm praising. The sky has spoken, and the book has spoken, and now the mouth asks to be brought into tune with them both.
The heavens declare and the law revives. Two voices, one God.