John Calvin Commentary Psalms 19

The heavens declare the glory of God. I have already said that this psalm consists of two parts: in the first, David celebrates the glory of God as manifested in His works; and in the other, he exalts and magnifies the knowledge of God, which shines forth more clearly in His word.

He only mentions the heavens; but, under this part of creation, which is the noblest and whose excellence is more conspicuous, he undoubtedly includes by synecdoche the whole fabric of the world. There is certainly nothing so obscure or contemptible, even in the smallest corners of the earth, where some marks of the power and wisdom of God may not be seen. However, as a more distinct image of Him is engraved on the heavens, David has particularly selected them for contemplation, so that their splendor might lead us to contemplate all parts of the world.

When a person, from beholding and contemplating the heavens, has been brought to acknowledge God, they will also learn to reflect upon and admire His wisdom and power as displayed on the face of the earth, not only in general but even in the minutest plants. In the first verse, the Psalmist repeats one thing twice, according to his usual manner.

He introduces the heavens as witnesses and preachers of the glory of God, attributing to mute creation a quality that, strictly speaking, does not belong to it, in order to more severely upbraid people for their ingratitude if they should pass over so clear a testimony with unheeding ears.

This manner of speaking more powerfully moves and affects us than if he had said, "The heavens show or manifest the glory of God." It is indeed a great thing that in the splendor of the heavens a lively image of God is presented to our view.

However, since the living voice has a greater effect in exciting our attention, or at least teaches us more surely and with greater profit than simple observation to which no oral instruction is added, we ought to note the force of the figure the Psalmist uses when he says that the heavens by their preaching declare the glory of God.

The repetition he makes in the second clause is merely an explanation of the first. David shows how the heavens proclaim to us the glory of God: namely, by openly bearing testimony that they were not put together by chance but were wonderfully created by the supreme Architect.

When we behold the heavens, we cannot help but be elevated by their contemplation to Him who is their great Creator. The beautiful arrangement and wonderful variety that distinguish the courses and positions of the heavenly bodies, along with the beauty and splendor manifest in them, also cannot help but furnish us with evident proof of His providence.

Scripture, indeed, makes known to us the time and manner of creation. However, the heavens themselves, even if God were to say nothing on the subject, proclaim loudly and distinctly enough that they have been fashioned by His hands. This in itself is abundantly sufficient to bear testimony to people of His glory.

As soon as we acknowledge God to be the supreme Architect who has erected the beautiful fabric of the universe, our minds must necessarily be overwhelmed with wonder at His infinite goodness, wisdom, and power.

Day unto day uttereth speech. Philosophers, who have more insight into those matters than others, understand how the stars are arranged in such beautiful order that, despite their immense number, there is no confusion; but to the ignorant and uneducated, the continual succession of days is a more certain proof of the providence of God.

David, therefore, having spoken of the heavens, does not here descend from them to other parts of the world; but, from an effect more perceptible and more easily grasped by us, he confirms what he has just said, namely, that the glory of God not only shines but also resounds in the heavens.

The words may be interpreted in various ways, but the different interpretations that have been given of them make little difference to the meaning. Some explain them in this way: that no day passes in which God does not show some striking evidence of His power. Others believe that they signify increases in instruction and knowledge—that every following day contributes something new as proof of the existence and perfections of God.

Others view them as meaning that the days and nights talk together and discuss the glory of their Creator, but this is a somewhat forced interpretation. David, I have no doubt, here teaches from the established alternations of days and nights that the course and revolutions of the sun, moon, and stars are regulated by the marvelous wisdom of God.

Whether we translate the words Day after day, or one day to another day, is of little consequence, for all that David means is the beautiful arrangement of time that the succession of days and nights brings about. If, indeed, we were as attentive as we ought to be, even one day would be enough to testify to us of the glory of God, and even one night would be sufficient to serve the same purpose for us.

But when we see the sun and the moon performing their daily revolutions—the sun by day appearing over our heads, and the moon following in its turn; the sun ascending by degrees, while at the same time approaching us more closely, and afterwards bending its course to depart from us gradually—and when we also see that in this way the length of the days and nights is regulated, and that the variation of their length is arranged according to such a uniform law that it invariably recurs at the same points of time in every following year, we then have in this a much clearer testimony to the glory of God.

David, therefore, with excellent reason, declares that even if God were not to speak a single word to humans, the orderly and useful succession of days and nights eloquently proclaims the glory of God, and that there is now left to humans no pretext for ignorance. For since the days and nights serve us so well and so carefully as teachers, we may acquire, if we are sufficiently attentive, a sufficient amount of knowledge from their teaching.

There is no language nor speech [where] their voice is not heard. This verse has two almost contrary interpretations, each of which, however, appears probable. As the words, when rendered literally, read as follows—No language, and no words, their voice is not heard—some connect the third and fourth verses, as if this sentence were incomplete without the clause that follows in the beginning of the fourth verse, Their writing has gone forth through all the earth, etc.

According to them, the meaning is this: The heavens, it is true, are mute and are not endowed with the faculty of speech; yet they still proclaim the glory of God with a voice sufficiently loud and distinct. But if this was David’s meaning, why was it necessary to repeat three times that they do not have articulate speech?

It would certainly be weak and redundant to insist so much on a thing so universally known. The other interpretation, therefore, as it is more widely accepted, also seems more suitable.

In the Hebrew language, which is concise, it is often necessary to supply a word. It is particularly common in that language for relative pronouns to be omitted (that is to say, the words which, in which, etc.), as here, There is no language, there is no speech, [where] their voice is not heard.

Furthermore, the third negation, בלי, beli, rather denotes an exception to what is stated in the preceding parts of the sentence, as if it had been said, The difference and variety of languages do not prevent the preaching of the heavens and their language from being heard and understood in every part of the world.

The difference of languages is a barrier that prevents different nations from maintaining mutual communication. It makes someone distinguished for eloquence in their own country become either mute or, if they attempt to speak, unintelligible when they go to a foreign country. And even if a person could speak all languages, they could not speak to a Greek and a Roman at the same time; for as soon as they began to address one, the other would cease to understand.

David, therefore, by making an implied comparison, highlights the effectiveness of the testimony that the heavens give to their Creator. The meaning of his language is, Different nations differ from each other in language; but the heavens have a common language to teach all people without distinction, nor is there anything but their own carelessness to prevent even those who are strangers to each other, and who live in the most distant parts of the world, from learning, so to speak, from the same teacher.

Their writing has gone forth, etc. Here the inspired writer declares how the heavens preach to all nations indiscriminately, namely, because men, in all countries and in all parts of the earth, may understand that the heavens are set before their eyes as witnesses to bear testimony to the glory of God.

As the Hebrew word קו, kav signifies sometimes a line, and sometimes a building, some deduce from it this meaning: that the fabric of the heavens, being framed in a regular manner and, as it were, by line, proclaims the glory of God in all parts of the world. But as David here metaphorically introduces the splendor and magnificence of the heavenly bodies as preaching the glory of God like a teacher in a seminary of learning, it would be a meager and unsuitable manner of speaking to say that the line of the heavens goes forth to the uttermost ends of the earth.

Besides, he immediately adds, in the following clause, that their words are everywhere heard; but what relation is there between words and the beauty of a building? If, however, we render קו, kav, writing, these two things will agree very well: first, that the glory of God is written and imprinted in the heavens, as in an open volume which all men may read; and, secondly, that, at the same time, they give forth a loud and distinct voice, which reaches the ears of all men and causes itself to be heard in all places.

Thus we are taught that the language mentioned before is, as I may term it, a visible language—in other words, language which addresses itself to the sight; for it is to the eyes of men that the heavens speak, not to their ears. And thus David justly compares the beautiful order and arrangement by which the heavenly bodies are distinguished to a writing. That the Hebrew word קו, kav, signifies a line in writing is sufficiently evident from Isaiah 28:10, where God, comparing the Jews to children who are not yet of sufficient age to make great proficiency, speaks thus:

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.”

In my judgment, therefore, the meaning is that the glory of God is not written in small, obscure letters, but richly engraved in large and bright characters, which all men may read, and read with the greatest ease. Until now, I have explained the true and proper meaning of the inspired writer.

Some have wrested this part of the psalm by putting an allegorical interpretation on it; but my readers will easily perceive that this has been done without reason. I have shown at the beginning, and it is also evident from the scope of the whole discourse, that David, before coming to the law, sets before us the fabric of the world, that in it we might behold the glory of God.

Now, if we understand the heavens as meaning the apostles, and the sun Christ, there will no longer be a place for the division of which we have spoken; and, besides, it would be an improper arrangement to place the gospel first and then the law. It is very evident that the inspired poet here treats of the knowledge of God, which is naturally presented to all men in this world as in a mirror; and, therefore, I will refrain from discussing that point further.

As, however, these allegorical interpreters have supported their views from the words of Paul, this difficulty must be removed. Paul, in discussing the calling of the Gentiles, lays down this as an established principle, that, “Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved;” and then he adds, that it is impossible for any to call upon him until they know him by the teaching of the gospel.

But as it seemed to the Jews to be a kind of sacrilege that Paul published the promise of salvation to the Gentiles, he asks whether the Gentiles themselves had not heard? And he answers, by quoting this passage, that there was a school open and accessible to them, in which they might learn to fear God and serve him, inasmuch as “the writing of the heavens has gone forth through all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world” (Romans 10:18).

But Paul could not at that time have said with truth that the voice of the gospel had been heard through the whole world from the mouth of the apostles, since it had scarcely yet reached even a few countries.

The preaching of the other apostles certainly had not then extended to far distant parts of the world but was confined within the boundaries of Judea. The apostle’s design is not difficult to comprehend. He intended to say that God, from ancient times, had manifested his glory to the Gentiles, and that this was a prelude to the more ample instruction which was one day to be published to them.

And although God’s chosen people for a time had been in a condition distinct and separate from that of the Gentiles, it ought not to be thought strange that God at length made himself known indiscriminately to both, seeing that he had previously united them to himself by certain means which addressed themselves in common to both; as Paul says in another passage, that when God, “in times past, suffered all nations to walk in their own ways, he nevertheless left not himself without a witness” (Acts 14:16–17).

From this we conclude that those who have imagined that Paul departed from the genuine and proper sense of David’s words are grossly mistaken. The reader will understand this still more clearly by reading my commentaries on the above passage of St. Paul.

He hath set in them a tabernacle [or pavilion] for the sun. As David, out of the whole fabric of the world, has especially chosen the heavens, in which he might exhibit to our view an image of God, because there it is more distinctly to be seen, even as a man is better seen when set on an elevated stage; so now he shows us the sun as placed in the highest rank, because in his wonderful brightness the majesty of God displays itself more magnificently than in all the rest.

The other planets, it is true, also have their motions and, as it were, the appointed places within which they run their race, and the firmament, by its own revolution, draws all the fixed stars with it. But it would have been lost time for David to have attempted to teach the secrets of astronomy to the rude and unlearned; and therefore he reckoned it sufficient to speak in a homely style, that he might reprove the whole world for ingratitude if, in beholding the sun, they are not taught the fear and the knowledge of God.

This, then, is the reason why he says that a tent or pavilion has been erected for the sun, and also why he says that he goes forth from one end of the heaven and quickly passes to the other and opposite end. He does not here discourse scientifically (as he might have done had he spoken among philosophers) concerning the entire revolution which the sun performs. Instead, accommodating himself to the rudest and dullest, he confines himself to the ordinary appearances presented to the eye. For this reason, he does not speak of the other half of the sun’s course, which does not appear in our hemisphere.

He proposes to us three things to be considered in the sun—the splendor and excellence of his forms, the swiftness with which he runs his course, and the astonishing power of his heat. To express and magnify his surpassing beauty and, as it were, magnificent attire more forcibly, he employs the similitude of a bridegroom.

He then adds another similitude: that of a valiant man who enters the lists as a racer to carry off the prize of the course. The swiftness of those who in ancient times contended in the stadium, whether on chariots or on foot, was wonderful; and although it was nothing when compared with the velocity with which the sun moves in his orbit, yet David, among all that he saw coming under the ordinary notice of men, could find nothing which came nearer to it.

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 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.

But as the Psalmist says that no man or nothing is hidden from his heat, I am rather inclined to understand it as the violent heat which scorches men and other living creatures, as well as plants and trees. With respect to the enlivening heat of the sun, by which we feel ourselves to be invigorated, no man desires to avoid it.

The law of the Lord. Here the second part of the psalm begins. After having shown that the creatures, although they do not speak, nevertheless serve as instructors to all humankind, and teach all people so clearly that there is a God as to make them inexcusable, the Psalmist now turns towards the Jews, to whom God had communicated a fuller knowledge of himself by means of his word.

While the heavens bear witness concerning God, their testimony does not lead people so far that by it they learn truly to fear him and acquire a well-grounded knowledge of him; it serves only to make them inexcusable. It is undoubtedly true that if we were not very dull and stupid, the signs and proofs of Deity which are to be found on the stage of the world are abundant enough to prompt us to acknowledge and reverence God. But as, although surrounded with so clear a light, we are nevertheless blind, this splendid representation of the glory of God, without the aid of the word, would be of no profit to us, even if it were to us as a loud and distinct proclamation sounding in our ears.

Accordingly, God grants special grace to those whom he has determined to call to salvation, just as in ancient times, while he gave to all people without exception evidences of his existence in his works, he communicated his Law to the children of Abraham alone, thereby to provide them with a more certain and intimate knowledge of his majesty.

From this it follows that the Jews are bound by a double tie to serve God. As the Gentiles, to whom God has spoken only by mute creatures, have no excuse for their ignorance, how much less is their stupidity to be endured—those who neglect to hear the voice that proceeds from his own sacred mouth?

The end, therefore, which David here has in view, is to encourage the Jews, whom God had bound to himself by a more sacred bond, to obey him with more prompt and cheerful affection. Furthermore, under the term law, he not only means the rule for living righteously, or the Ten Commandments, but he also includes the covenant by which God had set apart that people from the rest of the world, and the whole teaching of Moses, the parts of which he afterwards enumerates under the terms testimonies, statutes, and other names.

These titles and commendations by which he praises the dignity and excellence of the Law would not apply to the Ten Commandments alone, unless there were, at the same time, joined to them a gracious adoption and the promises which depend upon it; and, in short, the whole body of teaching of which true religion and godliness consists.

Regarding the Hebrew words which are used here, I will not spend much time trying to give the precise particular meaning of each of them, because it is easy to gather from other passages that they are sometimes confused or used interchangeably. עדות, eduth, which we translate as testimony, is generally understood as the covenant, in which God, on the one hand, promised the children of Abraham that he would be their God, and on the other, required faith and obedience on their part. It, therefore, signifies the mutual covenant entered into between God and his ancient people. The word פקודים, pikkudim, which I have followed others in translating as statutes, is restricted by some to ceremonies, but incorrectly, in my opinion; for I find that it is everywhere taken generally for ordinances and edicts. The word מצוה, mitsvah, which follows immediately after, and which we translate as commandment, has almost the same meaning. As to the other words, we shall consider them in their respective places.

The first commendation of the law of God is that it is perfect. By this word David means that if a person is duly instructed in the law of God, they lack nothing necessary for perfect wisdom. In the writings of pagan authors, there are undoubtedly to be found true and useful sayings scattered here and there; and it is also true that God has put into the minds of people some knowledge of justice and uprightness. But because of the corruption of our nature, the true light of truth is not to be found among people where revelation is not present, but only certain fragmented principles which are shrouded in much obscurity and doubt.

David, therefore, justly attributes this praise to the law of God: that it contains in it perfect and absolute wisdom. As the conversion of the soul, of which he speaks immediately after, is undoubtedly to be understood as its restoration, I have had no hesitation in translating it this way. There are some who reason with too much subtlety on this expression, by explaining it as referring to the repentance and regeneration of humankind.

I admit that the soul cannot be restored by the law of God without being at the same time renewed to righteousness; but we must consider what David’s actual meaning is, which is this: that as the soul gives vigor and strength to the body, so the law in the same way is the life of the soul.

In saying that the soul is restored, he makes a reference to the miserable state in which we are all born. There, undoubtedly, still remain in us some small remnants of the first creation; but as no part of our constitution is free from defilement and impurity, the condition of the soul thus corrupted and depraved is not much different from death, and leads entirely to death.

It is, therefore, necessary that God should use the law as a remedy for restoring us to purity; not that the letter of the law can do this of itself, as will be shown later more at length, but because God uses his word as an instrument for restoring our souls.

When the Psalmist declares, The testimony of Jehovah is faithful, it is a repetition of the previous sentence, so that the integrity or perfection of the law and the faithfulness or truth of his testimony signify the same thing; namely, that when we submit to be guided and governed by the word of God, we are not in danger of going astray, since this is the path by which he securely guides his own people to salvation.

Instruction in wisdom seems here to be added as the beginning of the restoration of the soul. Understanding is the most excellent endowment of the soul, and David teaches us that it is to be obtained from the law, for we are naturally lacking it. By the word babes, he is not to be understood as meaning any particular class of persons, as if others were sufficiently wise of themselves; but by it he teaches us, in the first place, that none are endowed with right understanding until they have progressed in studying the law.

In the second place, he shows by it what kind of scholars God requires: namely, those who are fools in their own estimation (1 Corinthians 3:18), and who come down to the rank of children, so that the pride of their own understanding may not prevent them from submitting themselves, with a spirit of complete teachableness, to the teaching of the word of God.