Psalm 19 - The Heaven's Declare

For the director of music. A psalm of David. God in Creation 1 The heavens declare the glory of God;     the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech;     night after night they reveal knowledge. 3 They have no speech, they use no words;     no sound is heard from them. 4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,     their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,     like a champion rejoicing to run his course. 6 It rises at one end of the heavens     and makes its circuit to the other;     nothing is deprived of its warmth. God in His Word 7 The law of the Lord is perfect,     refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,     making wise the simple. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right,     giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant,     giving light to the eyes. 9 The fear of the Lord is pure,     enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm,     and all of them are righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold,     than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey,     than honey from the honeycomb. God in Me 11 By them your servant is warned;     in keeping them there is great reward. 12 But who can discern their own errors?     Forgive my hidden faults. 13 Keep your servant also from willful sins;     may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless,     innocent of great transgression. 14 May these words of my mouth  and the meditation of my heart     be pleasing in your sight,     Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Another one of David's 73 Psalms. God in Creation David starts with what C.S. Lewis says is 'one of the greatest lyrics in the world'. The heavens declare the glory of God;     the firmament proclaims the work of his hands. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a prominent Victorian poet had this to say about God in creation - 'Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes' Paul put's it like this in Roman's 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.  The firmament is how the hebrew word raqua is translated here. It means 'to beat or spread out', like the process of hammering a thin lump of metal into a dish. I think this gives a better picture than just translating it as 'skies'.  David would be sitting on a mountainside at night, looking after his sheep, no light pollution hiding the stars, and it would look like stars are all around him, like a dome. There are lots of parallelisms to slow the poem down and build on the meaning. The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaim the work of his hands  Day after day they pour forth speech;  night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech,  they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,      their words to the ends of the world David draws out an interesting paradox here. There is no speech, no words, no sound - but there is a voice that penetrates the furthest reaches of the earth.  He then draws a parallel with the Sun, rising and setting, and reaching everyone with it's light. nothing is deprived of its warmth In the first part, creation speaks silently and generally about a Creator God, but it speaks nonetheless to everyone. God in His Word In the 2nd part, David looks at God's other revelation, the Scriptures, which speaks with words, specifically and clearly. The law of the Lord is perfect, The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, The precepts of the Lord are right, The commands of the Lord are radiant, The fear of the Lord is pure, The decrees of the Lord are firm, Here God is replaced by Lord. Now we have the opportunity to get to know the God of creation personally, our response is to bow the knee and say Lord.  David uses different synonyms to describe God's scriptures; law, statues, precepts, commands, fear and decrees.  The scriptures bring blessings to the reader, refreshing the soul, making you wise, bringing you joy, lighting up the eyes.  It restores us and we return from the pig pens our sin has lead us to, into the arms of a loving Father. They are worth more than gold, they are sweeter than honey. God in Me With this knowledge of scripture we can be warned how not to offend God.  How to be pleasing to Him.  Not how to be sin-less because that is impossible for us, but how to be restored to Him and forgiven. Then I will be blameless,     innocent of great transgression. There is a nice link back in the final verse. May these words of my mouth  and the meditation of my heart     be pleasing in your sight, Just as the Lord speaks to us through both audible and inaudible ways, David asks that his audible words and inaudible thoughts should be pleasing to the Lord.