Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 19:1 - 19:14
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
This Psalm has the same subject as Psalms 119. Both of them are full of praise of God’s Word. God has written two books for us to read,-the volume of the Creation and the volume of the Sacred Scriptures,-and these two are in complete harmony. Happy are they who can read both these books, and see the same vein of teaching running through every page.
Psa_19:1. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
The heavens are always declaring God’s glory; if we gaze up to them by day or by night, we always read in them the power, the wisdom, the goodness, the greatness, the immutability of God.
Psa_19:2. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
If we have but ears to hear, and hearts to understand, how much of God may we see in that vast volume of nature which is spread out above us both by day and by night!
Psa_19:3-4. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard, Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
All men must hear God’s voice in nature if they are only willing to do so.
Paul wrote to the Romans, “The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;” so that those who will not see “are without excuse.”
Psa_19:4-6. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a Strongman to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof:
The sun has his place, and keeps it, so let us keep ours. The sun is glorious in his goings forth,-“as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,”-glad himself, and making all things glad in his gladness; the whole world rejoices at the sight of the face of the sun. The sun is strong to go through his appointed orbit, and fulfill his ordained course. So may it be with us; may we not only have the gladness of our conversion, when we are “as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,” but may we have strength and grace to run the race set before us from the start to the finish The sun makes his influence felt wherever he goes: “there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” So also may it be with us; may our influence be felt wherever we go! The sun is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness; but he is also a type of what every Christian should be, for “the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day; “ and there should be nothing hid from the fervent heat of our Christian character. We ought so to serve God that our influence should be felt everywhere. May God give us more of his light and his heat that we may shine and burn to his glory!
Psa_19:7-9. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
Six sentences, according to the parallels of Hebrew poetry, all in praise of God’s Word. Let us always regard this holy Book as the Word of Jehovah; let us never look upon the Bible as being on a level with other books. The Word of the Lord is our ultimate Court of Appeal; we accept its teaching as infallible, we obey its commands, we desire to reflect its purity.
“The law of the Lord is perfect.” Nothing may be taken from it, and nothing added to it, for it is perfect as it is. It is without admixture of error, and without adulteration of falsehood; and it proves its supernatural power by converting men from the error of their ways. What other book can convert the soul of man except so far as it contains Biblical truth?
“The commandment of the Lord is pure.” There is no other code of morals so pure as that revealed in the Bible. The gospel reflects glory on all the perfection’s of God; and, therefore, it makes wise the simple. Poor simple-hearted folk, conscious of there own ignorance, come to this Book, and not only find wisdom in it, but are themselves made wise by it. It is also “sure” as well as “ pure.” There is no question about its teaching; it is certainly true. If we learn only what is sure, we may be sure that we shall not have to unlearn it.
“The statutes of the Lord are right,” and they will set us right if we obey them. They will also rejoice our heart, for unrighteousness brings sorrow, sooner or later; but rightness in the end brings joy.
“The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” There is a close connection between the eye and the heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Sin in the heart puts dust in the eye; we cannot see right unless we feel right.
“The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever.” When you come to know God, and the power of true religion in the form of holy, childlike fear, you never lose it, it is yours for ever. Time cannot destroy it, eternity will but develop it.
“The judgments of the Lord are true;” there is no alloy of falsehood here.
Whatever destructive criticism may be brought to bear upon it, no part of sacred Scripture will ever be destroyed:
“The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
Psa_19:10. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold:
Or, the very best gold. No riches can so enrich the mind and heart as the Word of God does. A man may have tons of gold, and yet be utterly miserable; but he who is pure in heart, he who hath God’s Word and the love of it in his heart, is truly rich, however poor he may be in temporal things.
Psa_19:10. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
As I read those six poetic lines in praise of the Word of God, I could not help thinking how the bees build their honeycombs in hexagons of six-sided combs, all full of honey. Such is this portion of the Word of God with its hexagons of commendation, every part of which is fall of sweetness to the true believer.
Psa_19:11-12. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. Who can understand his errors.
While David is speaking of the Book that has no errors in it, he is reminded of his own errors; and they strike him as being so many that he cannot understand them. Every sin is really an error, a mistake, a blunder, as well as something a great deal worse. It is never a wise thing to do wrong. At the end of a book, we sometimes find that the printers insert a list of “Errata,”-errors made in the printing of the volume. Ah, me! we shall need to have a long list of “Errata” at the end of the volume of our lives. How many mistakes we have made! Augustine, in his “Confessions,” amended what he had written amiss in his previous books. The best of men need continually to confess their errors, but God’s Book has no error in it from beginning to end.
Psa_19:12. Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
“Cleanse me from the faults which I cannot see, and which no mortal man has ever seen. Thou, Lord, seest them; be pleased, therefore, to cleanse me from them.” This view of the omniscience of God is very comforting to the believer; because he perceives that, even if he cannot see his sin, so as to own it, and confess it, yet God can see it so as to forgive it, and cleanse it.
Psa_19:13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;-
If we indulge in secret sins, we may gradually slide down an inclined plane until we come to presumptuous sins, sins committed willfully, sins known to be sins, daring. God-defying sins. Lord, keep me back from such sins as these! If others urge me to advance in this wrong direction, O Lord, do thou keep me back! “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
Psa_19:13. Let them not have dominion over me:
For, when a man once sins presumptuously, the tendency is for him to become a slave to that sin, it gets dominion over him. The worst slave-owner in the world is sin; and presumptuous sin is a tyrant with many a cruel whip in its hand.
Psa_19:13. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
“That greatest transgression of all, that sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven;-if I am kept from presumptuous sin, I shall never fall into that fatal pit.”
Psa_19:14. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
David does not hope to be accepted till he has first of all been pardoned; but when the Lord has forgiven him, and sanctified him, then he comes with both mouth and heart to serve his God; and his prayer is that he may be acceptable in the sight of God, to whom he owes the strength to worship, and through whom he hopes to be accepted because he has a Redeemer: “O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer.” May each one of us be thus acceptable in the sight of God, for Christ’s sake! Amen.
This Psalm teaches us the excellence of the two revelations which God has made to man. The first is the revelation which he has made in nature, and the second is that which he has made in his inspired Word. The psalmist first sings of God as he displays himself in his works in creation: —
Psa_19:1. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.
So much is this the case that it has been well said that “an undevout astronomer is mad.” There are such traces of the Infinite and the Omnipotent in the stars, and especially the more thoroughly they are studied, and the science of mathematics is brought to bear upon them, in order, in some degree, to guess at the incalculable distances and mighty weights of the starry orbs, that a man must perceive in them traces of the divine handiwork if he is only willing to do so: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.”
Psa_19:2. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
Every day speaks to the following one, even as the day that went before it spoke to it, and each day has its own message. Its history is an echo of the voice of God, and if man had but ears to hear, he would perceive that the things which happen from day to day proclaim the presence and power of God. And even night, with her impressive silence, reveals the Most High in the solemn hush and stillness. In the great primeval forests, the winds seem, with songs without words, to declare the presence of the Most High. There is something there, in the stillness of the night, as weird-like and so solemn, which has made unbelief retreat, and caused faith to lift up her eye, and see more in the heavens at night than she had seen by day: “Night unto night sheweth knowledge.”
Psa_19:3-4. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
Though nature does not speak, yet its words go to the ends of the earth; and, silently, they sing the- praises of God. To the inner ears of an enlightened man, there is a measure of spiritual teaching ever going on.
Psa_19:4-6. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
All this is emblematical of the spread of the gospel; so Paul tells us in the Epistle to the Romans: “Their souls went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” Our Lord Jesus, up-springing from the couch whereon he slept awhile, has sent his light even to the ends of the earth.
“
Till through the world his truth has run, —
Till Christ has all the nations blest,
That see the light, or feel the sun.”
Psa_19:7. The law of the LORD is perfect, —
“The doctrine of the Lord (as it may be read,) is perfect,” —
Psa_19:7. converting [or, restoring] the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure,
Oh, what a mercy that is! What could our souls do with ifs and buts and perhapses? But the teachings of God’s Word are certain, positive, infallible.
Psa_19:7. Making wise the simple.
No matter how foolish, how childlike, we may be to begin with, so long as our minds are free from gunning and craftiness, and as are simple and sincere, this Book will make us truly wise.
Psa_19:8. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart:
You know they do. Oftentimes has your heart leaped for joy when the statutes of the Lord have been made known to you.
Psa_19:8-11. The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned:
Do you not find it so, — that, oftentimes, a test of scripture comes to your mind just at the moment when you were about to suffer spiritual shipwreck? When you would have done something that would have caused you lifelong grief and vast damage, the Word of God has stepped before you with the flaming danger signal, and you have been stopped in time.
Psa_19:11. And in keeping of them there is great reward.
Not, for keeping of them, for it is not of debt; but, “in keeping of them.” It is always best to do as God bids you. You never forget a duty, or refuse to do it, without suffering loss, and every mistake you make, with regard to your Lord’s will, is a damage to yourselves. The keeping of his commands is most soul-enriching. The most profitable business that a child of God can carry on in the business of obedience to his Lord’s commands: “In keeping of them there is great reward.”
Psa_19:12. Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
The man who searches his heart most will yet leave some sin undiscovered;
and he who says, “I have no sin; I am living without sin,” has surely never seen into his own heart at all, he must be an utter stranger to the condition it is in. Let this be the prayer of each one of us: “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.”
Psa_19:13. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;
“Let me never dare to do what I know to be wrong. Let me not say, ‘I will go just so far, and then stop.’ Let me not tempt the Holy Spirit of God. Oh, let me never tempt the devil to tempt me, and put myself into a dangerous position under the notion that God will keep me if I am his child: ‘keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;’” —
Psa_19:13. Let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
You will never go into apostasy if you are watchful against presumption. Those men who, like Judas, commit the great transgression, and utterly perish, are men who knew nothing about watching their own hearts, but who presumed, and were sinfully bold and self-confident, and so came to an ill end. You know where John Bunyan says Heedless and Too Bold went to; and there are many like them.
Psa_19:14. Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight; O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.