Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan KS, 15 Feb 2015
1 To the concertmaster , a psalm belonging to David.
The heavens are accountings of the glory of God,
and that expanse is a relating of His hands’ action.
2 Day to day it causes
speech to flow
and night to night it inspires knowledge.
3 There is no speech and
there are no words;
never is their voice heard.
4 Their line goes out
into all the earth,
and their messages into the end of the world.
In them He set a pavilion for the sun.
5 Now that is like a
bridegroom coming out from his bedroom.
It revels like a champion to run a course.
6 Its out-going is from
one end of the heavens, and its term is beyond their ends,
and there isn’t anything hidden from its sunlight .
Show photos from the Hubble space telescope.
· The first word of this psalm is “the heavens.” The parallel phrase “the firmament/sky” and the mention of the sun in subsequent verses define which part of the heavens is being considered, namely the physical space visible from the earth’s surface.
· The first verb is mesafriym, which has to do with counting or numbering things. The declaration made by the heavens is more like the declaration made by an accounting record than a declaration made by a king. Space itself contains a record of the glory of God. Now, the Glory of God is greater than can be fully contained in any recording medium, but just as there are more stars in the sky than can be counted, so Psalm 40:5 uses the same verb to say that God’s works and thoughts are more than can be contained in an accounting record. “Many, O LORD my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered.” (NKJV)
· The “work of God’s hands” (His handiwork) appears to be a reference to creation, and it appears to be poetic language, since God is a spirit and doesn’t have hands like ours, and since it is His words – rather than His hands – which are credited with creation in the book of Genesis. Nevertheless this poetic language is consistent in the rest of Scripture:
o Hebrews 1:10 “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” (NKJV)
o Job 34:19 mankind is “the work of His [God’s] hands,”
o Psalm 8:6ff God, You give mankind “dominion over the works of your hands... flocks and herds and beasts of the field, birds of the air and the fish of the sea...”
· Think of it. Each star is a souvenir of God having been active in that particular coordinate of space at one time. It is almost as if you could trace the movements of His hand flinging this star and that star into existence. He was there creating light that images His glory! Or maybe what we’re seeing is the result of God’s action subsequent to creation in which He “spread out the heavens” (Job 9:8; Isaiah 40:22; 42:5; 44:24), moving stars millions of light years away in such a way that the people of Genesis could still see those stars in the sky. Russell Humphries’ book on Starlight and Time is a fascinating look into the physics of light and how that might have happened.
· What a glorious God we have! “He who forms mountains, And creates the wind, Who declares to man what his thought is, And makes the morning darkness, Who treads the high places of the earth— The LORD God of hosts is His name.” (Amos 4:13 NKJV)
· Verse 2 speaks of the effect of the expanse of the heavens upon man, as God intended it. The sky obviously can’t talk to us in actual words, but it can cause us to think and start a flow of words in our minds and inspire us to know what we are supposed to know, and that is, as Paul the Apostle so eloquently states in Romans 1, “what may be known of God is manifest in them [sinful mankind], for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20, NKJV). When we see the sunshine or the moon hanging in the sky or the star-spangled heavens, it is God’s intention that we think about His “eternal power and divine nature.”
· Classic commentator William Plumer wrote of this, “So stupendous and glorious is the blazing universe above and around us that one of our poets has said, ‘An undevout astronomer is mad.’”
· This flow of sensory data designed to direct our thoughts to worship God is continuous (Day by day, night by night), it is expressive (evoking words, speech, and knowledge), and universal. (John Stott)
· Throughout history, there have been two interpretations to v.3.
1. The voice of the heavens is not a spoken voice; it is not heard. This is the position of early Jewish commentators on this verse (Soncino) as well as the ESV and NASB (and commentators Stott & Alexander)
2. Early Christians such as Augustine, however, followed the Septuagint which added the word “in which,” so that it is interpreted that the heavens do speak so ubiquitously that there is no place among men where they are not heard. The KJV and NIV follow this tradition by adding the word “where.” (cf. Commenaries by Plumer and Delitzsch)
Both interpretations fit the context. Nobody is getting secret messages from the sun, yet the sun shines on everybody and, in its own quiet, majestic way, holds everybody accountable to the inescapable reality that they are not God; there is a transcendent God out there big enough to create the earth, glorious enough to create the sun, and intelligent enough to create humans. The skies call every one to fall to our knees and worship the Lord of the Starfields, even though the skies themselves are unable to utter a word.
· The Septuagint translators rendered the first subject in v.4 with a Greek word which means “sound/tone/note,” and thus the NIV and ESV rendered it “voice[1],” but the Hebrew word qav presents a more poetic picture of a measuring-line. The visual image seems to be that of a sun-ray or moon-beam or the twinkling bars of the stars stretching in straight lines from heaven to earth into the eyes of every man, woman, and child.
o These lines are not pictured as random emissions of atomic energy, however, the qav is a standard of measurement. Throughout the Old Testament, the qav-line was the tool of a craftsman who had the power either to destroy and level a building or to build and construct a building[2].
o Is this not also the message of the heavens which is beamed down to earth? “Whatever power made the galaxies is also able to evaluate and unmake our planet if we fail to meet His criteria. Whatever the Maker wants out of His creation is the standard for our existence as creatures.” No wonder mankind has always felt awe when looking at the contents of the skies. They make us realize that we are not God, but rather are accountable to God.
· Now, we are not talking about astrology here. The messages derived from the stars by soothsayers and mediums are not the message of this psalm.
o Have you ever noticed that horoscopes are man-centered? “You will meet a significant person today. Avoid people born under the Pisces constellation.” It’s all about you and what is good or bad for you. The horoscope is a counterfeit message supposedly derived from the stars. The true message of the stars, however, speaks of God rather than man.
o When the wise men from the East saw from the stars that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, they read the true message from the stars, the message that points to the Maker of the Universe.
o I would not be surprised if there were other messages like that to be found in the stars, but it is not a field of knowledge that I have much experience with. However, to seek for messages – even true messages – in the stars without the complementary information about the Creator in the written word of God would be foolhardy. It is my opinion that the wise men themselves were disciples of the Biblical Daniel in Babylon and that they were only able to discern the message of the birth of the Messiah in the stars by supplementing their astronomy with the study of the book of Daniel. They studied the stars and they studied what they had of the Bible, and when they put the two sources of information together, the wise men became some of the privileged few who got to interact with Jesus as a child, knowing that he was God’s Messiah-King.
· In verses five and six the most prominent wonder in the heavens is focused on, and that, of course is the sun. In verses 5 & 6 there are parallel statements to the “line going out” from the heavens where the same Hebrew verb (yatza) is repeated with reference to the sun being “like a bridegroom going out of his bedroom” where he has slept with his bride (Joel 2:16) and facing the new day with enthusiasm[3]. A little racy perhaps, but it’s good poetry that connects with strong emotions and with the good things God created.
· Similarly, the sun is pictured in the second half of v.5 as a champion athlete parading around the field reveling in the rush of adrenaline and the cheers of the crowd and raring to go in his sporting event.
o David saw his share of mighty men entering into contests of strength in battle.
o When we wake up and see the brightness and energy of the morning sun, “the heavens are telling the glory of God.”
o You think that sunrise or that sunset was awesome? Well, it was, but wait ‘till you see the even greater awesomeness of the God who caused that sun to come into existence in the first place just by speaking a few words. What will it be like to meet Him face-to-face? Wow!
· V. 4. said that the message of the heavens reaches to the end of the world, and in v.6 it describes one way this happens, as the sun makes its circuit from one end of the heavens to the other.
o Relentlessly, day by day, the sun radiates heat and light from its vast nuclear furnace, and no living thing on the earth misses the experience of the sun shining on them. This activity of the sun is one way that the glory of God is on display.
· Now some people ask the question of whether this is an error in the Bible – a description of a geocentric solar system with a sun that goes around the earth and also a flat earth with “ends” to it. Does that prove the Bible unreliable? Well, only if you believe that the psalm is to be taken literally. David has already made claims that can’t be taken literally in this psalm, such as God having hands and the sun rejoicing. There is no problem with taking verse 6 as poetic language describing the experience of a person living on earth. The sun appears to come up over one horizon and go down over the other, at the point where there is an end of what we can see. This is not a scientific problem, this is poetic identification with human experience.
· Now here’s another question people ask: If there is somebody who never got a chance to hear about Jesus, will they go to hell? Would it be fair of God to send people to hell if they never even got a change to hear the Gospel? Well, this psalm teaches us that those remote tribes who have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ through human evangelists are nevertheless culpable before God if they do not worship Him, because of the message spread in the skies for all to see. Romans 10:17-18 puts it like this, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes indeed: ‘THEIR SOUND[4] HAS GONE OUT TO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD.’” (NKJV) The Apostle Paul used Psalm 19 as proof that at least some information about God has reached every human being through nature.
· For instance, mankind has always worshipped the sun, and yet, if they’d only stop and think, they’d realize that the universe is bigger than the sun, therefore the sun can’t have created the universe, therefore the sun can’t be the ultimate god. The sun is merely one of many grand objects in the skies. Every religion that has worshipped the sun has had to rebel against the plain logic that some power greater than the sun gave the sun its place in the sky, and so to worship the sun is to dishonor that greater power. The Bible, of course, gives us detailed information about who that greater power is. It is the Trinitarian God – the Father, Son-Jesus, and the Holy Spirit whose handiwork we see in the skies.
· Years ago, I had the opportunity of meeting a witchdoctor from a remote tribe in South America. His Yanamamo people had been touted as the one of the most pristine cultures in the world by National Geographic – so perfectly unsullied by civilization that they didn’t even wear clothes. Yet even they knew that there was a great creator God and that mankind had gotten crosswise with Him. Tribes living at the end of the earth already know that much from what they can see through nature. This witchdoctor, whose name was Shoefoot, used to communicate with evil spirits to try to find out how to bring peace with his tribe. When missionaries made contact with him and explained that the people’s sins had alienated them from this God and that Jesus died on the cross to pay the punishment for their sins and reconcile them with God, the evil spirits started telling Shoefoot that the missionaries were lying. The great Creator God was the people’s enemy, they said, and if you tried to make direct contact with this enemy God, you would get into big trouble! But God changed Shoefoot’s heart and brought him to the point where he was willing to abandon his alliances with evil spirits and trust in Jesus to make him right with the God who had previously been his enemy. You can see Shoefoot’s life story yourself in the movie, The Enemy God[5], but I’ll warn you, it is not family viewing. The witchdoctor wanted my friends who made the movie to expose the myths spread by National Geographic anthropologists and to show the reality that they were leading miserable, depraved lives before they became Christians, so the movie portrays a disturbing amount of the darkness of their sin.
· Charles Spurgeon wrote in his commentary on this psalm, “He who looks up to the firmament and then writes himself down an atheist, brands himself at the same moment as an idiot or a liar.” But then he went on to make a good observation that it is also foolish for Christians to turn their attention away from the created world and only focus on Biblical studies and theology. The sciences are all worthy of a lifetime of study because nature was created to point our thoughts to the Creator-God who commanded us to take dominion over His creation. Another commentator I read named Dr. M'Cosh put it eloquently: “We have often mourned over the attempts made to set the works of God against the Word of God... Let not science and religion be reckoned as opposing citadels, frowning defiance upon each other, and their troops brandishing their armour in hostile attitude. They have too many common foes, if they would but think of it, in ignorance and prejudice, in passion and vice, under all their forms, to admit of their lawfully wasting their strength in a useless warfare with each other. Science has a foundation, and so has religion; let them unite their foundations, and the basis will be broader, and they will be two compartments of one great fabric reared to the glory of God.” So, I say, don’t just study the Bible in school; study math and science too!
· But science, in proper perspective, points to a greater reality: “Jesus, like a sun, dwells in the midst of revelation, tabernacling among men in all his brightness; rejoicing, as the Bridegroom of his church, to reveal himself to men; and, like a champion, to win unto himself renown. He makes a circuit of mercy, blessing the remotest corners of the earth; and there are no seeking souls, however degraded and depraved, who shall be denied the comfortable warmth and benediction of his love – even death shall feel the power of his presence, and resign the bodies of the saints, and this fallen earth shall be restored to its pristine glory.” ~Charles Spurgeon
· Now verse seven seems to make an abrupt shift from the topic of verses 1-6. It’s as though it’s the most natural thing in the world for the psalmist to move from the splendour of the sun in the sky to the perfections of the Bible. Well, it should be the most natural thing in the world to see that the world of God’s creation and the law of God’s word are two pages of the same book – both expressions of the same God.
· In a sense, the holy scriptures are the message that the heavens are there to point us to. Just as surely as we see the sun is warm and bright so the law of the LORD is perfect and right. David extols the written word of God using six names and six attributes:
|
Psalm 19 |
NAW |
KJV |
NKJV |
ESV |
NASB |
NIV |
LXX (Psalm 18) |
Brenton |
|
א לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד. ב הַשָּׁמַיִם מְסַפְּרִים כְּבוֹד אֵל וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו מַגִּיד הָרָקִיעַ. |
1 To the concertmaster[6], a psalm belonging to David. The heavens are accountings of the glory of God, and that expanse is a relating of His hands’ action. |
1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. |
1 To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. |
1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. |
1 For the choir director. A Psalm of David. The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And the[ir] expanse is declaring the work of His hands. |
1 For the director of music. A psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. |
1 Εἰς τὸ τέλος· ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυιδ. (2) Οἱ οὐρανοὶ διηγοῦνται δόξαν θεοῦ, ποίησιν δὲ χειρῶν αὐτοῦ ἀναγγέλλει τὸ στερέωμα· |
1 For the end, a Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. |
|
ג יוֹם לְיוֹם יַבִּיעַ אֹמֶר וְלַיְלָה לְּלַיְלָה יְחַוֶּה[7] דָּעַת. |
2 Day to day it causes speech to flow and night to night it inspires knowledge. |
2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. |
2 Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge. |
2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. |
2 Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge. |
2 Day after day |
2 (3) ἡμέρα τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐρεύγεται ῥῆμα, καὶ νὺξ νυκτὶ ἀναγγέλλει γνῶσιν. |
2 Day to day utters speech, and night to night proclaims knowledge. |
|
ד אֵין אֹמֶר וְאֵין דְּבָרִים בְּלִי נִשְׁמָע קוֹלָם. |
3 There is no speech and there are no words; never is their voice heard. |
3 There is no speech nor
|
3 There is no speech nor
|
3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. |
3 There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. |
3 There is no speech or |
3 (4) οὐκ εἰσὶν λαλιαὶ οὐδὲ λόγοι, [ὧν] οὐχὶ ἀκούονται αἱ φωναὶ αὐτῶν· |
3 There are no speeches or words, in which their voices are not heard. |
|
ה בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ יָצָא קַוָּם וּבִקְצֵה תֵבֵל מִלֵּיהֶם לַשֶּׁמֶשׁ שָׂם אֹהֶל בָּהֶם. |
4 Their line goes[8] out into all the earth, and their messages into the end of the world. In them He set a pavilion for the sun. |
4 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, |
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, |
4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, |
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, |
4 Their voice goes out into all the
earth, their words to
the end |
4 (5) εἰς
πᾶσαν τὴν γῆν
ἐξῆλθεν ὁ φθόγγος
αὐτῶν καὶ εἰς
τὰ πέρατα τῆς
οἰκουμένης τὰ ῥήματα
αὐτῶν |
4 Their voice is gone out into all the
earth, and their words to the ends of the world. |
|
ו וְהוּא כְּחָתָן יֹצֵא מֵחֻפָּתוֹ יָשִׂישׂ כְּגִבּוֹר לָרוּץ אֹרַח. |
5 Now that is like a bridegroom coming out from his bedroom; he revels like a champion to run a course. |
5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. |
5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, And rejoices like a strong man to run [its] race. |
5 which comes out like a bridegroom
leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs [its] course |
5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run [his] course. |
5 which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run [his] course. |
5 (6) ·καὶ αὐτὸς ὡς νυμφίος ἐκπορευόμενος ἐκ παστοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἀγαλλιάσεται ὡς γίγας δραμεῖν ὁδὸν [αὐτοῦ]. |
5; and he comes forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber: he will exult as a giant to run [his] course. |
|
ז מִקְצֵה הַשָּׁמַיִם מוֹצָאוֹ וּתְקוּפָתוֹ עַל קְצוֹתָם וְאֵין נִסְתָּר מֵחַמָּתוֹ. |
6 Its out-going is from one end of the heavens and, its term[9] is beyond their ends, and there isn’t anything hidden from its sunlight[10]. |
6 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. |
6 Its |
6 Its |
6 Its |
6 It |
6 (7) ἀπ᾿ ἄκρου τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἡ ἔξοδος αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὸ κατάντημα αὐτοῦ ἕως ἄκρου τοῦ [οὐρανοῦ], καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν [ὃς] ἀποκρυβήσεται τὴν θέρμην αὐτοῦ. |
6 His going forth is from the extremity of heaven, and his circuit to the other end of [heaven]: and no one shall be hidden from his heat. |
|
ח תּוֹרַת יְהוָה תְּמִימָה מְשִׁיבַת נָפֶשׁ עֵדוּת יְהוָה נֶאֱמָנָה מַחְכִּימַת פֶּתִי. |
7 |
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. |
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; |
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; |
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. |
7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. |
7 (8) ὁ νόμος τοῦ κυρίου ἄμωμος, ἐπιστρέφων ψυχάς· ἡ μαρτυρία κυρίου πιστή, σοφίζουσα νήπια· |
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting souls: the testimony of the Lord is faithful, instructing babes. |
[1] The Hebrew word for “line” is קו and the Hebrew word for “voice” is קול – one extra letter.
[2] 2 Kings 21:13; 2 Chronicles 4:2; Job 38:5; Isaiah 28:17; 34:11,17; 44:13; Jeremiah 31:39; Lamentations 2:8; Ezekiel 47:3; Zechariah 1:16
[3] Some commentators (Barnes, Gill) say this is the groom coming out of his bedroom, others (Elias, Clark) that it is the canopy held by four poles over the heads of the bride and groom at their wedding. Delitzsch explains that the chuppah originally mean the former (cf. Joel 2:16 where it is the location of the bride) but later on came to mean the wedding canopy.
[4] Paul quotes the Septuagint here.
[5] http://www.TheEnemyGod.com
[6] See notes on Psalm 4:1
[7] This verb is only used here and in the book of Job in the O.T. The root meaning seems to be “to breathe,” and it always refers to an explanatory speech. Together with the Hiphil of the previous verb and the obvious inability of celestial objects to utter speech, I have interpreted this verse in terms of the expanse of the heavens prompting men to speak and to learn. I attribute the 3ms endings of the verbs in this verse to the masculine singular “firmament.”
[8] I see no reason why this imperfect verb should be translated in the past or perfect tense as it is in the NASB and KJV.
[9] The only other times this word is used in the O.T. is at the terminus of a process (Exodus 34:22; 1 Samuel 1:20; 2 Chronicles 24:23).
[10] In all the other times this word is used in the O.T. (Canticles 6:10; Isaiah 24:23; 30:26) all the English translations render it “sun” instead of “heat.” The LXX renders it “heat” here, though.