of the creature_; and this divines call a natural knowledge: there is
not any one creature, but it is a leaf written all over with the
description of God; his eternal power and Godhead may be understood by
the things that are seen, saith the apostle. Rom. i. 20. And, as every
creature, so especially “_the heavens_” do lead us to the knowledge of a
God: so verse 1 of this Psalm: “_The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the firmament sheweth his handywork_;” they are the theatres, as it
were, of his wisdom, and power, and glory. Another is _by the book of
Scripture_; and this knowledge is far more distinct and explicit: with
the other even the heathens do grope after a deity, but with this
Christians do behold God, as it were, with open face. The characters
here are now fresh, spiritual, complete, and lively. The word of God is
the singular means to know God aright. Look, as the light which comes
from the sun, so that word of God, which is light, is the clearest way
to know God who is light itself. Hence it is that the Psalmist stands
much upon this from verse 7 to verse 12, where he sets open the word in
its several encomiums and operations; namely, in its perfection, its
certainties and firmness; its righteousness, and purity, and truth; and
then in its efficacy—that it is a converting word, an enlightening word,
an instructing word, a rejoicing word, a desirable word, a warning word,
and a rewarding word.
2. _A singular and experimental knowledge of himself._—So it seemeth,
that that word which David did so much commend, he did commend it from
an experimental efficacy; he had found it to be a righteous, and holy,
and pure, and discovering word, laying open, not only visible and gross
transgressions, but also, like the light of the sun, those otherwise
unobserved and secret atoms of senses flying within the house; I mean in
the secret chambers of the soul.—_Obadiah Sedgwick, 1660._
_Verse 1.—“The heavens declare the glory of God,”_ etc.—The eminent
saints of ancient times were watchful observers of the objects and
operations of nature. In every event they saw the agency of God; and,
therefore, they took delight in its examination. For they could not but
receive pleasure from witnessing the manifestations of his wisdom and
beneficence, whom they adored and loved. They had not learned, as we
have in modern times, to interpose unbending laws between the Creator
and his works; and then, by giving inherent power to these laws,
virtually to remove God away from his creation into an ethereal
extramundane sphere of repose and happiness. I do not say that this is
the universal feeling of the present day. But it prevails extensively in
the church, and still more in the world. The ablest philosophers of
modern times do, indeed, maintain that a natural law is nothing more
than the uniform mode in which God acts; and that, after all, it is not
the efficiency of the law, but God’s own energy, that keeps all nature
in motion; that he operates immediately and directly, not remotely and
indirectly, in bringing about every event, and that every natural change
is as really the work of God as if the eye of sense could see his hand
turning round the wheels of nature. But, although the ablest philosophy
of modern times has reached this conclusion, the great mass of the
community, and even of Christians, are still groping in the darkness of
that mechanical system which ascribes the operations of the natural
world to nature’s laws instead of nature’s God. By a sort of figure,
indeed, it is proper, as the advocates of this system admit, to speak of
God as the author of natural events, because he originally ordained the
laws of nature. But they have no idea that he exerts any direct and
immediate agency in bringing them about; and, therefore, when they look
upon these events they feel no impression of the presence and active
agency of Jehovah.
But how different, as already remarked, were the feelings of ancient
saints. The Psalmist could not look up to heaven without exclaiming,
“_The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his
handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth
knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not
heard._” When he cast his eyes abroad upon the earth, his full heart
cried out, “O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made
them all; the earth is full of thy riches.” In his eye everything was
full of God. It was God who “sent springs into the valleys, which run
among the hills.” When the thunder-storm passed before him, it was
“God’s voice in the heavens, and his lightnings that lighted the world.”
When he heard the bellowings, and saw the smoke of the volcano, it was
“God who looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills,
and they smoke.”—_Edward Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., 1867._
_Verse 1.—“The heavens declare,”_ etc. Man has been endued by his
Creator with mental powers capable of cultivation. He has employed them
in the study of the wonderful works of God which the universe displays.
His own habitation has provided a base which has served him to measure
the heavens. He compares his own stature with the magnitude of the earth
on which he dwells; the earth, with the system in which it is placed;
the extent of the system, with the distance of the nearest fixed stars;
and that distance again serves as a unit of measurement for other
distances which observation points out. Still no approach is made to any
limit. How extended these wonderful works of the Almighty may be no man
can presume to say. The sphere of creation appears to extend around us
indefinitely on all sides; “to have its centre everywhere, its
circumference nowhere.” These are considerations which from their extent
almost bewilder our minds. But how should they raise our ideas toward
their great Creator, when we consider that all these were created from
nothing, by a word, by a mere volition of the Deity. “Let them be,” said
God, and they were. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and
all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.” “For he spake, and it
was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.” Psalm xxxiii. 6, 9. What
must be that power which so formed worlds on worlds; worlds in
comparison of which this earth which we inhabit sinks into utter
nothingness! Surely when we thus lift up our thoughts to the heavens,
the moon and the stars which he hath ordained, we must feel, if we can
ever feel, how stupendous and incomprehensible is that Being who formed
them all; that “_the heavens_” do indeed “_declare the glory of God; and
the firmament sheweth his handywork_.”—_Temple Chevallier, in “The
Hulsean Lectures for 1827.”_
_Verse 1._—I have often been charmed and awed at the sight of the
nocturnal heavens, even before I knew how to consider them in their
proper circumstances of majesty and beauty. Something like magic has
struck my mind, on transient and unthinking survey of the æthereal
vault, tinged throughout with the purest azure, and decorated with
innumerable starry lamps. I have felt, I know not what, powerful and
aggrandising impulse, which seemed to snatch me from the low
entanglements of vanity, and prompted an ardent sigh for sublimer
objects. Methought I heard, even from the silent spheres, a commanding
call to spurn the abject earth, and pant after unseen delights.
Henceforth I hope to imbibe more copiously this moral emanation of the
skies, when, in some such manner as the preceding, they are rationally
seen, and the sight is duly improved. The stars, I trust, will teach as
well as shine, and help to dispel both nature’s gloom and my
intellectual darkness. To some people they discharge no better a service
than that of holding a flambeau to their feet, and softening the horrors
of their night. To me and my friends may they act as ministers of a
superior order, as counsellors of wisdom, and guides to happiness! Nor
will they fail to execute this nobler office, if they gently light our
way into the knowledge of their adored Maker—if they point out with
their silver rays our path to his beatific presence.—_James Hervey,
A.M., 1713-1758._
_Verse 1._—Should a man live underground, and there converse with the
works of art and mechanism, and should afterwards be brought up into the
open day, and see the several glories of the heaven and earth, he would
immediately pronounce them the works of such a Being as we define God to
be.—_Aristotle._
_Verse 1._—When we behold “_the heavens_,” when we contemplate the
celestial bodies, can we fail of conviction? Must we not acknowledge
that there is a Divinity, a perfect Being, a ruling intelligence, which
governs; a God who is everywhere and directs all by his power? Anybody
who doubts this may as well deny there is a sun that lights us. Time
destroys all false opinions, but it confirms those which are formed by
nature. For this reason, with us as well as with other nations, the
worship of the gods and the holy exercises of religion, increase in
purity and extent every day.—_Cicero._
_Verse 1.—“The heavens declare the glory of God,”_ etc. They discover
his _wisdom_, his _power_, his _goodness_; and so there is not any one
creature, though never so little, but we are to admire the Creator in
it. As a chamber hung round about with looking-glasses represents the
face upon every turn, thus all the world doth the mercy and the bounty
of God; though that be visible, yet it discovers an invisible God and
his invisible properties.—_Anthony Burgess, 1656._
_Verse 1._—None of the elect are in that respect so unwise as to refuse
to hear and consider the works and words of God as not appertaining unto
him. God forbid. No man in the world doth with more fervency consider
the works of God, none more readily lift up their ears to hear God speak
than even they who have the inward revelation of the Holy
Spirit.—_Wolfgang Musculus._
_Verse 1._—During the French revolution Jean Bon St. André, the Vendean
revolutionist, said to a peasant, “I will have all your steeples pulled
down, that you may no longer have any object by which you may be
reminded of your old superstitions.” “But,” replied the peasant, “_you
cannot help leaving us the stars_.”—_John Bate’s “Cyclopædia of Moral
and Religious Truths,” 1865._
_Verse 1.—“The heavens declare the glory of God”_—
How beautiful this dome of sky,
And the vast hills in fluctuation fixed
At thy command, how awful! Shall the soul,
Human and rational, report of thee
Even less than these? Be mute who will, who can,
Yet I will praise thee with impassioned voice.
My lips, that may forget thee in the crowd,
Cannot forget thee here, where thou hast built
For thine own glory, in the wilderness!
_William Wordsworth, 1770-1850._
_Verse 1.—“The firmament sheweth his handywork”_—
The glittering stars
By the deep ear of meditation heard,
Still in their midnight watches sing of him.
He nods a calm. The tempest blows his wrath:
The thunder is his voice; and the red flash
His speedy sword of justice. At his touch
The mountains flame. He shakes the solid earth,
And rocks the nations. Nor in these alone—
In ev’ry common instance God is seen.
_James Thomson._
_Verse 1._—
These are thy glorious works, Parent of good,
Almighty! Thine this universal frame,
Thus wondrous fair. Thyself how wondrous, then
Unspeakable, who sitt’st above these heavens
To us invisible, or dimly seen
In these thy lowest works; yet these declare
Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.
_John Milton._
_Verses 1, 2._—In order more fully to illustrate the expressive richness
of the Hebrew, I would direct the attention of my reader to the
beautiful phraseology of the XIX. Psalm. The literal reading of the
first and second verses may be thus given:—
“The heavens are _telling_ the glory of God,
The firmament _displaying_ the work of his hands;
Day unto day _welleth forth_ speech,
Night unto night _breatheth out_ knowledge.”
Thus the four distinct terms in the original are preserved in the
translation; and the overflowing fulness with which day unto day pours
forth divine instruction, and the gentle whisperings of the silent
night, are contrasted as in the Hebrew.—_Henry Craik, 1860._
_Verses 1-4._—Though all preachers on earth should grow silent, and
every human mouth cease from publishing the glory of God, the heavens
above will never cease to declare and proclaim his majesty and glory.
They are for ever preaching; for, like an unbroken chain, their message
is delivered from day to day and from night to night. At the silence of
one herald another takes up his speech. One day, like the other,
discloses the same spectacles of his glory, and one night, like the
other, the same wonders of his majesty. Though nature be _hushed_ and
_quiet_ when the sun in his glory has reached the zenith on the azure
sky—though the world keep her _silent_ festival when the stars shine
brightest at night—yet, says the Psalmist, _they speak_; ay, holy
silence itself is a speech, provided there be the ear to hear
it.—_Augustus T. Tholuck._
_Verses 1-4.—“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
showeth his handywork.”_ If the heavens declare the glory of God, we
should observe what that glory is which they declare. The heavens preach
to us every day.... “_Their line is gone out through all the earth, and
their words to the end of the world._” Sun, moon, and stars are
preachers; they are universal, they are natural apostles. The world is
their charge; “_their words_,” saith the Psalm, “_go to the end of the
world_.” We may have good doctrine from them, especially this doctrine
in the text, of the wisdom and power of God. And it is very observable
that the apostle alludes to this text in the Psalm for a proof of gospel
preaching to the whole world. Rom. x. 18. The gospel, like the sun,
casts his beams over, and sheds his light into all the world. David in
the Psalm saith, “_Their line is gone out_,” etc. By which word he shows
that the heavens, being so curious a fabric, made, as it were, by a line
and level, do clearly, though silently, preach the skill and perfections
of God. Or, that we may read divine truths in them as a line formed by a
pen into words and sentences (the original signifies both a measuring
line and a written line), letters and words in writing being nothing but
lines drawn into several forms or figures. But the Septuagint, whose
translation the apostle citeth, for _Kavam, their line_, read _Kolam,
their sound_; either misreading the word or studiously mollifying the
sense into a nearer compliance with the latter clause of the verse,
“_And their words to the end of the world_.”—_Joseph Caryl._
_Verses 1-4._—Like as the sun with his light beneficially comforteth all
the world, so Christ, the Son of God, reacheth his benefits unto all
men, so that they will receive them thankfully, and not refuse them
disobediently.—_Robert Cawdray._
_Verse 2.—“Day unto day,”_ etc. But what is the meaning of the next
word—_One day telleth another, and one night certifieth another_?
Literally, _dies diem dicit_, is nothing else but _dies diem docet_. One
day telleth another, is one day teacheth another. The day past is
instructed by the day present: every new day doth afford new doctrine.
The day is a most apt time to learn by reading and conference; the night
a most fit time for invention and meditation. Now that which thou canst
not understand this day thou mayest haply learn the next, and that which
is not found out in one night may be gotten in another. Mystically
(saith Heirom), Christ is this “_day_,” who saith of himself, “I am the
light of the world,” and his twelve apostles are the twelve hours of the
day; for Christ’s Spirit revealed by the mouths of his apostles the
mysteries of our salvation, in other ages not so fully known unto the
sons of men. _One day telleth another_, that is, the spiritual utter
this unto the spiritual; and _one night certifieth another_, that is,
Judas insinuates as much unto the Jews in the night of ignorance,
saying, “Whomsoever I shall kiss, that is he, lay hold on him.” Matt.
xxvi. 28. Or, the Old Testament only shadowing Christ is _the night_,
and the New Testament plainly showing Christ, is the day.—_John Boys._
_Verse 2.—“Day unto day,”_ or day after day; the vicissitude or
continual succession of day and night speaketh much divine knowledge.
The assiduity and constancy without any intermission by the heavens
preaching is hereby expressed.—_John Richardson._
_Verse 2.—“Uttereth,”_ poureth forth abundantly; “_sheweth_,”
demonstrates clearly and effectively, without ambiguity. Job xxxvi. 2.
Many in the full light of gospel day, hear not that speech, who yet in
the night of affliction and trouble, or in the conviction of their
natural darkness, have that knowledge communicated to them which enables
them to realise the joy that cometh in the morning.—_W. Wilson._
_Verse 2.—“Sheweth knowledge.”_ We may illustrate the differing measures
in which natural objects convey knowledge to men of differing mental and
spiritual capacity by the story of our great English artist. He is said
to have been engaged upon one of his immortal works, and a lady of rank
looking on remarked, “But, Mr. Turner, I do not see in nature all that
you describe there.” “Ah, Madam,” answered the painter, “do you not wish
you could?”—_C. H. S._
_Verse 3.—“There is no speech,”_ etc. The sunset was one of the most
glorious I ever beheld, and the whole earth seemed so still that _the
voice of neither God nor man was heard_. There was not a ripple upon the
waters, not the leaf of a tree nor even of a blade of grass moving, and
the rocks upon the opposite shore reflected the sun’s “after-glow,” and
were again themselves reflected from or in the river during the brief
twilight, in a way I do not remember ever to have beheld before. No! I
will not say _the voice of God_ was not heard; it spoke in the very
stillness as loud as in roaring thunder, in the placid scene as in rocks
and cliffs impassable, and louder still in _the heavens and in the
firmament_, and in the magnificent prospect around me. His wondrous
works declared him to be near, and I felt as if the very ground upon
which I was treading was holy.—_John Gadsby._
_Verse 4.—“Their line is gone out,”_ etc. “Their _sound_ went,” etc.
Rom. x. 18. The relations which the gospel of Christ Jesus hath to the
Psalms of David I find to be more than to all the Bible besides, that
seldom anything is written in the New Testament, but we are sent to
fetch our proofs from these. The margin here sends me to the Psalm, and
the Psalm sends me back to this again; showing that they both speak one
thing. How comes it then that it is not one, for “_line_” and “_sound_”
are not one thing? Is there not some mistake here? Answer—To fetch a
proof from a place is one thing, an allusion is another. Sometimes the
evangelists are enforced to bring their proofs for what they write out
of the Old Testament, else we should never believe them, and then they
must be very sure of the terms, when they say, “This was done that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken,” etc. But the apostle was not now
upon that account; only showing to the Romans the marvellous spreading
of the gospel, alluding to this passage of David discoursing of “_the
heavens_,” to which the prophet compared the publication of the word;
the sun and moon and stars not only shining through, but round all the
earth. The same subject Paul was now upon, and for this purpose makes
use of a term fitter to express the preaching of the gospel, by the word
“_sound_,” than that other word expressing the limitations of the law,
by the word “_line_:” both of these agreeing that there is no fitter
comparison to be fetched from anything in nature than from “_the
heavens_,” their motions, revolutions, influences upon sublunary bodies;
also in their eclipses, when one text seems to darken another, as if it
were put out altogether by crossing and opposing, which is but seemingly
so to the ignorant, they agree sweetly enough in themselves; no
bridegroom can agree better with his bride, nor rejoice more to run his
course. So they both conclude in this, that the sun never saw that
nation yet where the world of truth, in one degree or other (all the
world, you must think, cannot be right under the meridian) hath not
shined.—_William Streat, in “The Dividing of the Hoof,” 1654._
_Verse 4.—“Unto the end of the world.”_ Venantius Fortunatus eleven
hundred years ago witnesses to the peregrinations of Paul the apostle.
He passed the ocean’s curled wave,
As far as islands harbours have;
As far as Brittain yields a bay,
Or Iceland’s frozen shore a stay.
_John Cragge, 1557._
_Verse 4.—“Their line is gone out through all the earth,”_ etc. The
molten sea did stand upon twelve oxen, that is, as Paul doth interpret
it, upon twelve apostles (1 Cor. ix. 10); which in that they looked four
ways, east, west, north, and south, they did teach all nations. And in
that they looked three and three together, they did represent the
blessed Trinity. Not only teaching all nations, but also in that sea of
water, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, though the two kine which carried the ark
wherein were the tables of the law, went straight and kept one path,
turning neither to the right hand nor to the left; yet these twelve oxen
which carried the molten sea, signifying the doctrine of the gospel,
went not straight, neither kept one path, but turned into the way of the
Gentiles; yea, they looked all manner of ways, east, west, north, and
south. And those two kine stood still and lowed no more when they came
to the field of Joshua, dwelling in Bethshemesh, that is, the house of
the sun. To note, that all the kine, and calves, and sacrifices, and
ceremonies of the old law were to cease and stand still when they came
to Jesus, who is the true Joshua, dwelling in heaven, which is the true
Bethshemesh. But these twelve oxen were so far from leaving off, either
to go, or to low, when they came to Christ, that even then they went
much faster and lowed much louder; so that now “_their sound is gone out
into all lands, and their words to the end of the world_;” and “_in them
hath God set_” Bethshemesh, that is, a house or “_tabernacle for the
sun_.” Therefore, as the material sun, through the twelve signs of the
Zodiac, goeth forth from the uttermost parts of the heaven, and runneth
about to the end of it again: in like sort, the spiritual _Sun of
Righteousness_, by the twelve apostles, as by twelve signs, hath been
borne round about the world, that he might be not only “the glory of his
people Israel,” but also “a light to lighten the Gentiles;” and that
all, “_all_ the ends of the earth might see the salvation of our
God.”—_Thomas Playfere._