Outline of Chapter 19:

Inscription

         vv.     1–6           God’s creation declares His glory

         vv.     7–11         God’s Word is perfect

         vv.    12–14         A plea for God to accept the psalmist

Charts and Maps

         Introduction         Bullinger’s Division of Psalm 19

         v.       9              Psalm 19:7–9

         v.      11              A Summary of God’s Word and Our Reaction to It

         v.      13              A False Analysis of Psalm 19:13/The Correct Analysis

         v.      13              Misquoted and/or Misinterpreted Scriptures

I ntroduction: In order to sprinkle the individual psalms throughout the Old Testament, I have place Psalm 19 at the end of the book of Exodus. My reason here is that David often exalted the Word of God. The reason that David was so beloved of God was his constant devotion to His Word. Most pastors and Christians, at best, give verbal ascent to God’s Word but do not realize its importance and they do not delve into it as they should. The good ones might set up a reading schedule or they might attend a Bible study wherein each person contributes what the passage in question meant to them. That’s exactly how I ought to run my math class. I ought to write a problem on the board and then ask each individual to give their personal opinion of it, or ask them to tell me how they feel about that problem and whatever new symbols might be up there. The best I could hope for is that someone who had studied it would do my job for me and teach how to do it. As I have said many times, God’s Word is not for amateurs. If you want to read your own Bible—fine. If you want to set up some schedule of self study—fine. However, you will never, ever—and I mean never—get out of God’s Word even one-tenth of what is there by some personal study session or some study with a group of other ignorant believers. God from very early on in the Church Age decreed that there would be pastor-teachers and that they would dedicate their lives to studying and teaching the Word of God. Now I am fully aware of the sad state of affairs of the church today. I know that you could walk into 50 random churches on 50 random Sundays of any given year and never once hear God’s Word carefully and properly exegeted. You usually get two approaches: the pastor has his sermon and periodically reaches into the sky, pulls out a Bible verse, reads it; and then goes on with his sermon. The second approach is that a pastor might start out with a Bible verse or a Bible passage and then let that inspire him to some sermon about crap. In cults and in churches which verge on being cultic, the pastor might make a theological point and back it up by quoting passages out of context (we call that proof-texting). All of these approaches are completely and totally wrong. There are a few great pastors in history who would start on v. 1 of chapter 1 of some book and teach it carefully from beginning to end. Now and again, the same pastor will need to cover a particular topic or subject, which he would, quoting verses in context which are pertinent. The two I always recommend are (1) J. Vernon McGee, who is on the radio several times a day on several stations in almost any area; and (2) R. B. Thieme, Jr., who has a tape ministry and whose tapes from the 60’s and 70’s are outstanding. Both teach God’s Word verse by verse, stopping periodically to teach a doctrine or a category of doctrine. Thieme, who has developed an original theological vocabulary based upon a foundation of orthodox teaching, calls this ICE teaching. Isagogics (the study of the history and customs pertaining to any passage of Scripture); Categories (the various doctrines of God’s Word broken down into separate topics); and Exegesis, (the verse-by-verse teaching of the Word of God). Apart from these two, there are maybe a handful of churches throughout the United States where God’s Word is carefully dealt with.

Since I wrote this, back in the year 2000, I have discovered nearly a half-dozen pastors who have wonderful ministries where the Word of God is taught carefully word-by-word, verse-by-verse, as well as by categories and taking into account the isagogics.

This psalm presents the character and essence of God as reveal first by nature and then by His Word. What nature tells us about God is important, but limited. His Word, however, is sufficient. We have a purpose and a place on this earth and careful observation of God’s creation does not give us the information which we need in order to ascertain that purpose. God’s Word, however, does. The importance and sufficiency of Scripture is clearly presented near the end of this psalm.

This psalm can be easily divided into three parts. Part one deals with that nature reveals God. His great power and wisdom is revealed by all that we see. The second part of this psalm deals with God’s revelation to man—His Word, His laws, His precepts. After salvation, nothing is more important to us than what God has revealed to us. At the end, David mentions his known and unknown sins, yet declares that he will be acquitted of great transgression. The basis of his redemption, as is the basis of ours, is Jesus Christ, our Rock and our Redeemer, so-called at the end of this psalm. All three parts of this psalm are relatively dissimilar from one another. Some have even thought that there were two psalms here mistakenly combined into one psalm (this disparity of material will be explained by the time we finish this psalm).

Barnes divides the psalm into the same three parts, calling the first, The revelation of God in his works; the second, The higher and more glorious revelation of himself in his law; and the third, The bearing of these truths on the present character and conduct of the author, and consequently their adaptedness to produce the same effect on others .

David was the author of this psalm, as the inscription tells us (we will discuss that further when we get to it). One of the very goofy theories of Old Testament authorship is that there were a variety of writers for the books of Moses. Even entire books are divided into pieces, and that, in part, is determined by the name for God that is used in that portion of the book. For instance, it is suggested that one writer wrote portions of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers and used the name Elohim for God. Anther writer did other portions of these same books, but he used Jehovah for the name of God. Then another writer came along, wove these two documents together, adding some of his own thoughts, and the result is the Pentateuch. And very serious and academically-oriented theologians hold to this theory of authorship. In this psalm, in the first half, we find the name of Elohim used with respect to the creation of all things; in the second half of this psalm, we find the name Jehovah used seven times—however, none of these scholars suggest that the Elohimist wrote the first half of this psalm and that the Jehovist wrote the second half. They would not suggest such a thing because (1) it would be stupid; and, (2) it would not advance their theory, because it is a stupid suggestion. However, the exact arguments used to promote the JEPD theory could be applied to this little psalm. The vocabulary of the first half and the second half are different; there are different names used for God in each half; and the writer expresses completely different thoughts in the first and second halves of this psalm. However, there is no real reason to assume that anyone other than David wrote the entirety of this psalm. I only mention this to indicate that the general JEPD arguments are only applied as it benefits them (that is, when said theory weakens the authority of the Word of God), but they do not apply these arguments uniformly and consistently to all Scripture. Applying their theory here would make them appear silly and weaken the arguments applied elsewhere. Therefore, psalms like this are conveniently ignored .

David held God’s Word in the highest esteem; he studied it, he wrote it, and he was instructed in it. In this psalm, among other things, he exalts God’s Word. Since we have just finished a book wherein the bulk of it was direct quotation from God (something which Moses very, very carefully does in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers), I thought this to be the ideal time to stop and examine this particular psalm.

Although this is an inscription, it is actually a part of the Hebrew text. In fact, in the Hebrew, it is v. 1.

This psalm is written to the Piel participle of nâtsach (ח ַצ ָנ) [pronounced naw-TZAHKH], a word which means pre-eminent, enduring. It refers to a person in a supervisory position (1Chron. 23:4 2Chron. 2:2, 18 34:13). Often, this position is related to music (1Chron. 15:21 Psalm 4:inscription 5:inscription 6:inscription etc.). This is why we have such varied renderings as overseer (Young), the music leader (CEV), choir director (NASB, NLT), choirmaster (Owens), leader (NRSV, NEB, NAB) and chief musician (Rotherham). In the psalms, this is reasonably rendered as the director [of music]. Strong’s #5329 BDB #663. The particular inscription is found at the beginning of no fewer than 53 psalms. My thinking is that this was a title, not unlike the director of public arts; and that he was the receptor for the bulk of the psalms perhaps over a particular time period. It would be reasonable to suppose that he may have written the music to accompany the psalm. He certainly was the person who did the arranging of the music and the performing of the psalm.

This is followed by the masculine singular noun miz^emôwr (רמז ̣מ) [pronounced mizê-MOHR], which means melody, song, poem, psalm. For a long time, I had assumed that there was one word for psalm; however, there are three; this is one of them which is found a little less than a third of the time. Strong’s #4210 BDB #274.

Generally speaking, the lâmed prefixed preposition means to or for and it is the same preposition as found prior to nâtsach above. The only difference is the intervening word miz^emôwr. In the psalm inscriptions, the lâmed preposition appears to mean of, belonging to, by. Quite simply put, the same preposition is used in two fairly different ways in the same inscription. This makes David the author. However, we have no idea as to when he composed this psalm. There is no internal or external evidence or mention of any particular incident which would help us to place this psalm into a particular time frame.

Barnes: If a conjecture may be allowed, it would seem not improbably that it was composed in those calm periods of his history when he led a shepherd-life; when he had abundant time to contemplate the movements of the heavenly bodies by day and by night, and to meditate on them in contrast with the higher truths which God had made known in his law.

God’s Creation Declares His Glory

The heavens is actually a metonym for all that is in the heavens—the stars, the sun and the moon—these things reveal God’s incredible glory. The verb used is the Piel participle of çâphar (ר ַפ ָס) [pronounced saw-FAHR], which means, in the Piel, to recount, to enumerate, to tell with praise, to celebrate, to recall, to declare, to narrate (Ex. 9:16 Judges 6:13 Job 15:17). Recount is a good Piel rendering, as it means to tell or declare something from memory, to declare the facts or particulars of, to tell in a specific order. Strong’s #5608 BDB #707. This is exactly the correct verb to be used here. When we look at the heavens, they do not simply tell us of God’s glory; they recount from memory, the tell in a specific order, they declare the facts and particulars of.

Barnes: The idea is, that these convey e the mind a true impression of the greatness and majesty of God. The reference here is to these heavens as they appear to the naked eye, and as they are observed by all men. It may be added that the impression is far more solemn and grand when we take into the estimate the disclosures of the modern astronomy, ans when we look at the heavens, not merely by the naked eye, but through the revelations of the telescope.

The Bible always presents the beauty and complexity of nature as a visible proof of God’s glory. Nowhere in Scripture is nature ever viewed for its own beauty alone apart from God. O Jehovah, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth; Who has placed Your splendor above the heavens (Psalm 8:1).

Unknown to the psalmist, when we look into the sky, it is like looking into the past. Because of the speed of light and the distance of the stars, we are viewing these stars as they were perhaps a million years ago. We see almost a history which we cannot yet fully appreciate, of God’s creation. One of the theories—and I do not know whether I subscribe to it or not—is that the constellations, when taken in order, give the story of the gospel (I first heard this as The Gospel of the Stars by Duane Spencer). In any case, it is the perfect verb to use with what the heavens.

The name used for God here is Elohim. This is the common masculine plural noun used for both God, the Creator of the Universe and for the false gods worshipped by the heathen nations. We use this word when dealing with the creation and restoration of the earth, as all three members of the Trinity took part in these events. For instance, Jesus is said to be the Creator of the Universe in Isa. 40:28 John 1:1–3, 14 Col. 1:16. However, the Holy Spirit is clearly spoken of with regards to warming the earth in Gen. 1:2. And we have the conference of the Trinity in creating man in Gen. 1:26. Therefore, with respect to the creation of the universe and the restoration of the earth, we should expect to find the plural title of God (Elohim) as opposed to the singular name of God (Jehovah).

The next noun is, in the KJV, is the firmament. Even after being a believer for 25 years, I don’t know what the hell that is. The NRSV suggests dome. The word is râqîya׳ (-עי.קָר) [pronounced raw-KEE-aģ], which means extended surface, expanse. It is that which has been beat down and spread out above the earth and refers to the earth’s atmosphere. The related verb is used to overlay something with a thin plate. The precision of this term is amazing. The earth itself is 3960 miles in radius. 99% of the atmosphere is within 100 miles of the surface of the earth. Now, if you go just a couple miles straight up, even then the atmosphere provides significantly less oxygen than we have become accustomed to needing. I, with the rudimentary understanding of the earth and its atmosphere, if I had to choose the best noun from the Hebrew for this word, I would have chosen râdîya׳ myself. It is amazing that the writer of Genesis and the psalmist David, not having the resources and background that I have, chose the same word. Strong’s #7549 BDB #956.

The verb is the Hiphil participle of nâgad (ד ַג ָנ) [pronounced naw-GAHD], which means to make conspicuous, to make known, to expound, to explain, to declare, to inform, to confess, to make it pitifully obvious that. This verb is found only in the Hiphil and the Hophal. Strong's #5046 BDB #616. Now, had I not had a rudimentary understanding of the earth’s atmosphere, just what it is, just exactly what it is composed of, etc., I would have little or no understanding of the second portion of this verse. The fact that I walk around in what appears to be this clear emptiness is a testimony to God’s great work. God has designed just the right proportion of gases. We could not live in the atmosphere of any of the other planets. Obviously their temperatures are way out of our range of comfort; but, even more importantly, their atmospheres would kill us. Not so with the atmosphere of the earth. Apart from our corruption of it, it provides us with exactly what we need. That God designed the atmosphere of the earth as He did makes conspicuous the work of His hands. Isaiah gives a similar description of the heavens in Isa. 40:22–23: It is He Who is enthroned above the sphere of the earth, and its inhabitants are as grasshoppers. [It is He] Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. For the language of poetry, that is a fairly apt description of the atmosphere.

Again, modern science, if anything, gives us a much greater appreciation for the creation of God. Ancient man gave little thought to the atmosphere around him—its contents and its design. However, science has examined our atmosphere and found it to be perfectly suited for man. Now, certainly, some evolutionists teach that man became adapted to the atmosphere, rather than the atmosphere being created for man; however, conversely, the environmentalists do not think that we should adapt to the atmosphere as it is altered by man’s pollution. The environmentalist, 99% of whom are evolutionists, would like the atmosphere of the earth to more closely approximate the atmosphere as God originally created it. Now that we have had a century or more of pollution, we don’t find man adapting and thriving on polluted air; we find a great deal of asthma and allergies and other respiratory disorders. We don’t even find those one or two mutations in the lungs, wherein some people change their lungs in birth to better enjoy pollution.

Paul, like the psalmist, also makes the argument that you can recognize God in His creation. For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes [or, essence], His eternal power and divine nature, having been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For, in fact, when they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened (Rom. 1:20–21).

Now, had you known nothing of the Bible and the history of the Jewish people, these documents would be quite interesting, particularly from a sociological standpoint. God is glorified and praised because of His creation; but His creation is not worshiped or deified anywhere in Scripture. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Moses, in Deut. 4:19, said: “And do not lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars—all the host of heaven—and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which Jehovah your God has allotted to all of the peoples under all of the heavens.” In fact, those guilty of such idolatry, under the economy of Israel, were sentenced to death (Deut. 17:2–7).

The Bible not only encourages the worship of God, the Creator, rather than His creation, it does not even speak kindly of those who try to make predictions of human events based upon the stars. “You are wearied with your many counselors. Let now the astrologers, those who prophesy by the stars, those who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from what will come upon you. Behold, they are like stubble—the fire burns them. They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame; there will be no coal to warm by nor a fire to sit before.” (Isa. 47:13–14). King Nebuchadnezzar had a vision, and the astrologers are mentioned among those who were unable to interpret his dream, whereas Daniel was able to (Dan. 4:4ff).

The first verb in this verse is the masculine singular, Hiphil imperfect of nâ^bva׳ (ע-בָנ) [pronounced naw^b-VAHĢ], which means to pour out, to gush out, to gush forth, to flow, to spring, to bubble up. It is used figuratively several times in Scripture to the gushing out of speech. Strong’s #5042 BDB #615. With each new day, there is more and more knowledge of God’s creation. It is not clear who or what the subject is.

Barnes: The day that is passing away proclaims the lesson which it had to convey from the movements of the heavens, about God; and thus the knowledge of God is accumulating as the time moves on. Each day has its own lesson in regard to the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of God, and that lesson is conveyed from one day to another. There is a perpetual testimony thus given to the wisdom and power of the Great Creator.

The second verb is the masculine singular, Piel imperfect of châvah (ה-וָח) [pronounced khaw-VAH], which means breathe out and therefore, to tell, to declare. Strong’s #2331 BDB #296. Again, it is not clear who the subject is. Therefore, let’s see how others have handled the translation of this verse:

God’s Word™                         One day tells a story to the next. One night shares knowledge with the next [without talking, without words, without their voices being heard].

NAB                                       One day to the next conveys that message; one night to the next imparts that knowledge.

NASB                                     Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.

NIV                                         Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.

NJB                                        day discourses of it to day, night to night hands on the knowledge.

NLT                                        Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.

TEV                                        Each day announces it to the following day; each night repeats it to the next.

Young's Lit. Translation         Day to day uttereth speech, And night tonight sheweth knowledge.

You would think that such a simple verse would be easy to translate. We don’t have any difficult words. Our problem is the subject. Whereas the NIV and the NLT give a hint as to how it could be rendered (using they), the subject has to be a masculine singular noun. Most reasonably, we would take the nearest masculine noun, which would be day (and night). However, it is not out of line to simply use the pronoun He, to refer to God. This is my first preference, which I have not found elsewhere. The verbs could also refer back to the heavens and the atmosphere (although, that is more of a stretch—that is more or less what the NLT and the NIV did). What I would lean toward secondly would be the rendering given by the NAB and (of all translations) the TEV. One day pours forth information to the next, each night conveys knowledge to the next.

If God is the subject, then He sees to it that the information of Him through His creation is revealed, more each day, more each evening. We have already discussed this insofar as our knowledge of astronomy and the earth’s atmosphere increases. Our understanding of the vastness and incredibleness of the universe increases with each day; our awareness of the firmament (or, atmosphere), as well as our appreciation for it, increases each day, along with our knowledge of same. With each passing night, our understanding and appreciation for God’s creation increases as well.

Barnes: Each successive night [reveals knowledge]...It is done by the stars in their courses; in their order; their numbers; their ranks; their changes of position; their rising and their setting. There are as many lessons conveyed to man about the greatness and majesty of God by the silent movements of each night as there are by the light of the successive days.

When this psalm was written, a man could look up into the sky and see perhaps 3000 stars on a clear night. From the other side of the earth, another 3000 stars could be seen. With a telescope that has a 3” lens, we can see about 600,000 stars. Recently, the most powerful telescopes can take in about 3,000,000,000 stars and a third as many galaxies. In my 1983 World Book, the number of stars is guesstimated to be 200 billion billion. The smallest star is much, much smaller than the earth. The largest would fill in the entire earth’s orbit about the sun. In fact, if my computations can be relied upon, the largest star would actually fill in all of the orbit of Mars and the asteroids and almost take in the entire orbit of Jupiter. Such a size is pretty much incomprehensible. Our own sun, if we hopped in a rocket traveling at 7 miles/second, is about a five month trip away. The same rocket would get us to the nearest star in 120,000 years. Just to get a feel for the distances involved here; if the sun were a basketball, the earth would be a bb at the opposite end of the basketball court (actually, a bb is a bit too large, but this is just a rough estimate). Now, if we were to travel to the nearest star, on this same scale, would be nearly 5,000 miles away, a distance greater than the diameter of the earth. This great vastness is, for all intents and purposes, virtually incomprehensible. Each successive night reveals even more knowledge.

Let me first give you some of the ways that this has been translated:

CEV                                       They don’t speak a word, and there is never the sound of a voice.

God’s Word™                         without talking, without words, without their voices being heard.

NASB                                     There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.

NLT (alternate trans.)             There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

REB                                       And this without speech or language or sound of any voice.

Young's Lit. Translation         There is no speech and there are no words, Their voice hath not been heard.

We begin this verse with the negative substantive ayin (ן ̣י-א) [pronounced AH-yin], which means naught, nothing. Here, it is in the construct and  I don’t know that there is a difference (my sources disagree here). It can mean in the condition of being not = without. Strong’s #369 BDB #34. This is followed by the masculine singular noun ômer (ר∵מֹא) [pronounced OH-mer]; which means utterance, speech, word. This word is mostly found in poetry. Strong’s #561 & #562 BDB #56. The negative substantive is repeated and followed by the very common masculine plural of dâ^bvâr (ר ָב ָ) [pronounced daw^b-VAWR], which means word, saying, doctrine, thing, matter. Strong's #1697 (or #1696) BDB #182. This is kind of an unusual thing. The psalmist is saying that these things don’t literally speak. They don’t have some sort of human speech; there are no words. This should be obvious to a reader of poetry, but David is making certain that we don’t read into this what is not here. A second understanding of this is that they speak to all men, regardless of their speech and their words.

In the second line (or third), we have the negative and the Niphal participle of shâma׳ (ע ַמ ָש) [pronounced shaw-MAHĢ], which means to listen, listen intently, to listen and obey. Strong's #8085 BDB #1033. The Niphal is the passive voice, meaning that the subject receives the action of the verb. The subject is their voice. David tells us that we do not hear the literal voice of these things. This is obviously to be filed under the category of duh! However, there is more to this verse than just the idea that the heavens and the stars are not speaking audibly to us. Our problem with rendering is that we tend to take these verses separately. By itself, this verse cries for a verb in the first line (actually, it cries for two verbs in the first line). However, the best rendering of this and the previous verse, when it comes to understanding this verse, is God’s Word™. The first line of this verse is simply a continuation of the previous.

Barnes: When the heavens give expression to the majesty and glory of God, it is not by words,—by the use of language such as is employed among men...there is a silent but real testimony to the power and glory of their great Author. But Barnes offers another sense in which this verse might be taken: There is no nation, there are no men, whatever may be their language, to whom the heavens do not speak, declaring the greatness and glory of God. The language which they speak is universal; and however various the languages spoken by men, however impossible it may be for them to understand each other, yet all can understand the language of the heavens, proclaiming the perfections of the Great Creator. That is a universal language which does not need to be expressed in the forms of human speech, but which conveys great truths alike to all mankind...these lessons are conveyed to them day by day, and night by night; that however great may be the diversities of speech among men, these convey lessons in a universal language understood by all mankind; and that thus God is making himself constantly known to all the dwellers of the earth. All men can understand the language of the heavens, though they may not be able to understand the language of each other. Of the truth of this no one can doubt; and its beauty is equal to its truth.

Bullinger: [they, the heavens, have]...”no speech nor language; their voice is not heard,” and yet they do utter speech, they do declare knowledge; and their words go forth through all the earth.

And this psalm was easy until this verse. We will initially split the verse up. Let’s first see what others have done:

JPS (Tanakh)                         Their voice carries throughout the earth, their words to the end of the world.

NASB                                     Their line [possibly, sound] has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world.

The Septuagint                      Their voice is gone out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the world.

Young's Lit. Translation         Into all the earth hath their line gone forth, And to the end of the world their sayings.

The disputed word in this first half of v. 4 could either be qôwl (לק) [pronounced kohl], which means sound, voice. Strong’s #6963 BDB #876; or, it is qav (ו-ק) [pronounced kahv], which means line. Strong’s #6957 BDB #876. Obviously, what has happened is that the lâmed at the end was either left off or it was not. The former is easiest to explain and is what is found in the Septuagint, Syriac and Vulgate codices. Throughout all the earth, the voice of the heavens and of the atmosphere speak to the glory of God.

The phrase, to the ends of the earth, is a nontechnical phrase. All that is conveyed is that the earth is finite and that it has limits.

With this line, the sense that Barnes conveys secondly seems to be the more apropos. The language of the stars goes out to the entire world and their wonderment transcends language barriers. Regardless of one’s native language, the more one knows of the universe, the more one is awed by God’s creation.

Paul, when dealing with the question of heathenism, quotes this verse. He uses it in a different sense. Whereas its use here is applied to a fundamental knowledge of God and His power, Paul applies it to the hearing of the gospel. So faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, certainly, they have never heard, have they? Where in fact, they have: Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Rom. 10:17–18 Psalm 19:4a).

Like a significant number of verses of Scripture, these were divided all wrong. The end of v. 4 belongs with v. 5. The he in v. 5, along with the bridegroom and the strong man, all refer to the sun. We have very poetic language here and we should not necessarily submit it to the rigors of precise science. It reads that God has set up a tent in the heavens (in them) for the sun, meaning that, at night, the sun goes into his tent to sleep. Quite obviously, just as the heavens do not speak forth with actual words, the sun does not retire into an actual tent. It is poetic language and we allow some poetic license here. All of us speak of the sun rising and setting, but that is absolutely incorrect, from a scientific viewpoint. An astronomer will use the same language, unless he is anal-retentive. The sun going into his tent is simply a reference to the apparent disappearance of the sun at night. We have the same kind of language in Eccles. 1:5: And the sun rises and the sun sets; and it hastens to its place where it rises.

Then we have an interesting analogy. The sun is compared to a bridegroom in his rising up. Although not an expert in the field of marriage, my thinking is that many women, early on in their marriage (perhaps throughout their marriage) are always wondering if they haven’t made the worst mistake of their lives and married the exact wrong person. Men, on the other hand, I believe are content with the fact that they fooled someone long enough to marry them. Therefore, when the recently married bridegroom leaves his bed chamber, it is with great vigor and confidence. This is the appearance of the sun on each and every day. The sun rejoices like an decathlon athlete running a course. At one time, early on when I began to run, I had to take some days off, just so I wouldn’t injure myself. However, on those days, I would look out my window and long to be out running. An athlete, who primes himself for a race, is like that. He is ready and anxious to run on the day of the race. He often rests the day before—perhaps even for two days—and he can hardly wait to get out there and pound the pavement. There is a great feeling of invigoration and accomplishment (for those who do not run, you have no idea what I am talking about here).

We have the masculine singular of qâtseh (ה ∵צ ָק) [pronounced kaw-TSEH], which means end, extremity. It is found twice in this verse. Strong’s #7097 BDB #892. At first we have the end of the heavens, which again, is poetic and not strictly scientific language. Then we have to their end or to an end of them. Essentially, from the standpoint of the earth, the sun begins in what appears to be on one end of the heavens and heads along a pathway to the other end of heavens. From the standpoint of standing on the earth and making this observation, the language is apt. From the standpoint of science, this is obviously not accurate (in fact, there could reasonably be a discussion as to what going from one end of the heavens to the other would actually mean from a scientific perspective). In the first line, we also have the feminine noun t^eqûwphâh (הָפק) [pronounced t^ekoo-FAW], which means a circuit, an orbit, a course, a revolution, a coming round. Barnes gives the meanings a coming about, a return, as the seasons or the year would be spoken of. Strong’s #8622 BDB #880.

That nothing is hidden from the heat of the sun certainly applies to the earth and the visible planets, as well as our moon. Bear in mind, this is not a scientific treatise, even though some of the language ends up being very accurate.

As has been mentioned before, the treatment of the sun in Scripture is wholly different than its treatment by the heathen. The heathen often worshiped the sun, deifying it. Scripture recognizes its awesome power, but not as some sort of a living being, but as a created thing. The sun was simply one of the things created by God.

The Open Bible: David singles out the sun as an example of nature’s testimony. Other nations might worship the sun, but God had shown the Hebrews that it only pointed to one infinitely greater than itself.

It was magnificent and it provided heat throughout the world—however, it was never to be an object of worship (Deut. 4:19 17:3 Jer. 8:2 Ezek. 8:16).

Barnes: ...all things,—vegetables, birds, beasts, men,—all that lives,—feel the effect of his vital warmth, and are animated by his quickening influence. Thus the sun in his goings illustrates the glory of God. The psalmist was fully alive to the spendour, the glory, and the value of this daily march over the heavens, and show that while, as in the remainder of the psalm, he dwells on the law of the Lord as having another sphere, and in its place more fully illustrating the Divine glory, he is not by any means insensible to the grandeur and beauty of the works of God as showing forth the Divine perfections.

God’s Word Is Perfect

With this verse, we will see a serious change of pace, so abrupt as to cause some expositors to think that this psalm was actually two psalms. However, we are still dealing with the same God, Who is over all. We have gone from His creation to His Word. Recall that He merely spoke and what He wanted came to pass. Similarly, the works of His hands are truth and justice; all His precepts are certain. They are upheld forever and ever; they are performed in truth and uprightness (Psalm 111:7–8).

We have gone from the creation of God testifying to His great essence to the Law of God, to what He has revealed to man—which is what we find in this verse. We have moved from general revelation to specific revelation. In fact, it is this movement which ties these two otherwise disparate halves of this psalm together. The Law of Jehovah is synonymous with the Word of God or with the term Scripture. At the time that David wrote this psalm, there was the Law of Moses, as well as the books of Job, Genesis, Joshua and probably Judges. Whether it was well-known as to which books were divinely-inspired is unclear; however, David recognized that some, if not all, of these books, were inspired by God. The word used is the feminine singular construct of tôwrah (ה ַר) [pronounced TOH-rah], and it means instruction, direction, law, protocol. The corresponding verb means to teach. Strong’s #8451 (and #8452). BDB #435. This is not a reference simply to the Ten Commandments nor even to Pentateuch, but to the entire teaching of God. It is revealed truth as contradistinguished from the truth made known by the works of creation .

There is no verb in this first line. The adjective applied to the Word of God is tâmîym (םי ̣מ ָ) [pronounced taw-MEEM] means complete, whole, entire, sufficient, without blemish. This adjective is used most often when referring to a sacrificial animal being without blemish (Ex. 12:5 29:1 Lev. 1:3, 10 3:1, 9 4:3). It is an adjective used of Noah (Gen. 6:9) and God ordered this of Abram (Gen. 17:1). This word refers to the completion of seven Sabbaths in Lev. 23:15. When spoken of a man, it means a man who operates on the basis of spiritual integrity; i.e., they are spiritually mature and in fellowship. When spoken of God, it is a reference to His character or His works being perfect integrity, which means perfect justice and perfect righteousness are key to what is being examined. Strong’s #8549 BDB #1071.

What the Word of God is capable of doing is the feminine construct, Hiphil participle of shûw^bv (בש) [pronounced shoo^bv]; which means to return, to turn, to turn back, to reminisce, to restore something, to bring back something, to revive, to recover something, to make restitution. In the Hiphil stem, it means to be caused to return, to bring, to be caused to turn back mentally, reminisce, to return something, to restore, to bring back, to regain, to recover, to make restitution, reconsider, think again, or to be caused to return. Strong's #7725 BDB #996. The idea is that the soul is worn out and dafrabeated and the study of God’s Word restores the soul’s strength and vigor. The soul is in opposition to God; His teaching turns the soul toward Him. He restores my soul; He guides me in the path of righteousness for His Name (Psalm 23:3). How happy is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor does he stand in the path of sinners, nor does he sit in the seat of the verbally derisive. His delight is in the Law of Jehovah and in His Law he meditates day and night (Psalm 1:1–2). The man looks intently at the perfect Law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does (James 1:25).

Barnes: The glory of the works of God—the heavens, the firmament, the sun, as described in the previous verse—is, that they convey the knowledge of God around the world, and that the world is filled with light and life under the genial warmth of the sun; the glory of the law, or the revealed truth of God, is, that it bears directly on the soul of man, turning him from the error of his ways and leading him to pursue a life of holiness.

Now it is important to recognize that it is not scientific truth which converts man. The wonders of the universe reveal God to man—just as observation of a watch implies that there was a watchmaker; observation of this universe, which is trillions of times more complex, implies that there is a Creator. The universe brings God into man’s consciousness. However, it is the revealed Word of God which converts man’s soul. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17).

The next item that David mentions is the feminine singular construct of ׳êdûwth (תד̤ע) [pronounced ģay-DOOTH], which means a precept, law, revelation, testimony. It is rendered testimony most of the time in the KJV, and occasionally, witness. This word properly means that which is borne witness to and is applied to revealed truth as that which God bears witness to. This refers to all that has been revealed as true, whether about man, God’s perfect righteousness, the way of salvation, the state of the fallen world—all these things have been revealed in His Word and His Laws. This term is used several times in reference to the decalogue (Ex. 31:18 32:15). This, when in conjunction with God’s Laws, appears to be a synonym for His Laws or His Word. Strong’s #5715 BDB #730.

The David tells what this testimony is: the feminine singular, Niphal participle of âman (ן ַמ ָא) [pronounced aw-MAHN], which means to stand firm, to believe, to trust. In the Niphal, or the passive voice, it means, among other things, to be well-founded, firm, stable, of long continuance, perennial, faithful, trustworthy, sure, certain; something that someone can lean upon. Strong's #539 BDB #52. The unfolding of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the stupid (Psalm 119:130). God’s testimony—His revealed truth—is reliable, true and dependable; it is not unsettled, vacillating or uncertain.

David has shown himself to be very different from the rulers of surrounding areas. Many of them worshipped the sun or encouraged the worship thereof; David worshipped the creator of t