Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 19:3

"There is no speech nor language; Their voice is not heard." — Psalms 19:3 (ASV)

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard – The margin reads, "Without these their voice is heard." The Hebrew is, “without their voice heard.” The idea in the margin, which is adopted by Prof. Alexander, is that when the heavens give expression to the majesty and glory of God, it is not by words – by the use of language such as people employ. That is, there is a silent but real testimony to the power and glory of their great Author. DeWette substantially adopts the same idea. So Rosenmuller renders it, “There is no speech to them, and no words, neither is their voice heard.”

High as these authorities are, yet it seems to me that the idea conveyed by our common version is probably the correct one. This is the idea in the Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate.

According to this interpretation, the meaning is: “There is no nation, there are no people, whatever their language may be, to whom the heavens do not speak, declaring the greatness and glory of God. The language they speak is universal; and however various the languages spoken by people, 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 that does not need to be expressed in the forms of human speech but conveys great truths alike to all humankind.”

That the passage cannot mean there is no speech, no words, or no language in the lessons conveyed by the heavens seems clear to me from the fact that both in the previous verse (Psalms 19:2) and in the following verse (Psalms 19:4), the psalmist says that they do use speech or language: Day unto day uttereth speech; their words unto the end of the world. The phrase “their voice” refers to the heavens (Psalms 19:1). They utter a clear and distinct voice to humankind; that is, they convey to people true and just notions of the greatness of the Creator.

The meaning, then, it seems to me, is that the same great lessons about God are conveyed by the heavens, in their glory and their revolutions, to all nations; that these lessons are conveyed to them day by day, and night by night; that however great the diversities of Speech among people may be, these convey lessons in a universal language understood by all humankind; and that thus God is constantly making Himself known to all the inhabitants of the earth.

All people 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.