Psalm 19 is the 19th psalm in the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "The heavens declare the almighty of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork." In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and Latin Vulgate translations of the Bible, this psalm is Psalm 18. The Latin version begins "Caeli enarrant gloriam Dei". The psalm is attributed to David. The psalm considers the glory of God in creation, and moves to reflect on the character and use of "the law of the ". Psalm 1, this psalm and Psalm 119 have been referred to as "the psalms of the Law". It forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox Church and Protestant liturgies. It has often been set to music, notably by Heinrich Schütz, by Johann Sebastian Bach who began a cantata with its beginning, by Joseph Haydn, who based a movement from Die Schöpfung on the psalm, and by Beethoven, who set a paraphrase by Gellert in "Die Himmel rühmen des Ewigen Ehre". Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville wrote a grand motet Caeli enarrant in 1750 and François Giroust in 1791.

Text

Hebrew

The following table shows the Hebrew text of the Psalm with vowels alongside an English translation based upon the JPS 1917 translation (now in the public domain).

King James Version

Commentary

The classical Jewish commentators all point to the connection the psalmist makes between the Sun and the Torah. These connections include: According to the Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon, this psalm compares and contrasts "the study of God's two great books—nature and Scripture". Explaining the emphasis on the heavens, Spurgeon explains, "The book of nature has three leaves, heaven, earth, and sea, of which heaven is the first and the most glorious…” Beginning in verse 7 (KJV), the psalmist then extols the perfection of the law of Moses and "the doctrine of God, the whole run and rule of sacred Writ". John Mason Good theorizes that this psalm was composed either in the morning or around noon, when the bright sun eclipses the other heavenly bodies; he contrasts this with Psalm 8, in which the psalmist contemplates the starry sky in the evening. Praising the poetry of this psalm, 20th-century British writer C. S. Lewis is quoted as saying: "I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world". On the matter of unity, Artur Weiser states that the first part (verses 1 to 7) are a completely distinct song from the second (verses 8 to 15). He upholds that not only the subjects, but also the metrics, the language and the tone are distinct and the two parts could not have been composed by the same author. Lewis, on the other hand, indicates nature as "an index, a symbol, a manifestation, of the Divine" and he points that here "the searching and cleansing sun becomes an image of the searching and cleansing Law", on which he suppresses the idea of these two subjects not being correlated. Rav Elchanan Samet identifies the same problems that Weiser did: "These two halves are strikingly different from one another in their content as well as in their style, to the point that it is difficult to point to verbal, stylistic, or conceptual connections between them." Nonetheless, he points that these two parts have been in unity since the Septuagint and agrees with it, "the inclination to adopt this [critical] solution is liable to stem from intellectual laziness." Concerning Psalm 19's place in the architectural arrangement of the Psalms, Psalm 18 precedes Psalm 19, wherein David's adversaries are vanquished. Following this triumph and following Psalm 19, a succession of five royal Psalms, Psalms 20 through 24, according to O. Palmer Robertson, seemingly accentuating the unequivocal establishment of the Davidic kingdom The centrality of Psalm 19 within a literary chiasm extending from Psalm 15 to Psalm 24 has been also expounded upon in Carissa Quinn's doctoral thesis.

Uses

The final verse in both the Hebrew and KJV versions, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my Redeemer," is used as a prayer in both the Jewish and Christian traditions. A version which refers to "the meditation of our hearts", i.e. those of the congregation, is often used at the start of a sermon.

Judaism

Psalm 19 is recited in its entirety during the Pesukei dezimra of Shabbat and Yom Tov. It is also recited as the psalm of the day on Shavuot in the Gra siddur. In Siddur Avodas Yisroel, it is recited as the psalm of the day on Hanukkah, and as the Shabbat psalm for the Torah portion of Yitro. Some say this psalm on a wedding day, and as a prayer for heavenly guidance. The verses of this psalm are recited before each hakafah on Simchat Torah. In the ancient Jewish text Perek Shirah, verse 2 (in the Hebrew) is said by the heavens and verse 3 is said by the day. Verses 8 and 9 (in the Hebrew) are recited in the synagogue after the first person is called up to the Torah. Verses 12 and 13 (in the Hebrew) are part of Selichos. Verse 15 (in the Hebrew) is recited in several parts of the Jewish prayer service, including: at the conclusion of the Amidah; and in some communities during the removal of the Torah scroll from the Ark on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Yom Tov; as part of Selichos; and at the conclusion of Tefillah Zakah, a prayer for Yom Kippur eve.

New Testament

Verse 4 is quoted in Romans.

Catholic Church

In the Rule of Saint Benedict of the Benedictine Order, the psalm is to be recited at Prime on Saturdays.

Book of Common Prayer

In the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, this psalm is appointed to be read on the morning of the fourth day of the month, as well as at Mattins on Christmas Day.

Musical settings

Psalm 19 has been set to music several times. Handel's Messiah features a setting of the fourth verse of the Psalm in the chorus "Their Sound is Gone Out." In France, Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville composed in 1749, le grand motet de type versaillais "Cæli enarrant gloriam Dei " and Camille Saint-Saëns composed in 1865 one "Cæli enarrant" (Psaume XVIII) op. 42. Notable settings to German texts include: In Protestant Christianity, various metrical settings of Psalm 19 have been published, including "The heav'ns and firmament on high do wondrously declare" in The Whole Booke of Psalmes (Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins, 1584) and "The heav’ns God’s glory do declare" in the Scottish Psalter (1650). The American composer Steve Reich set part of the Hebrew text in his 1981 work Tehillim. The Rastafarian song "Rivers of Babylon" (recorded 1970 by The Melodians) includes a reference to the Amidah through verse 14 of Psalm 19 in English together with a reference to Psalm 137 that was written in memory of the first destruction of Zion (Jerusalem) by the Babylonians in 586 BC (the city and the Second Temple were destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans). This song was also popularized as a cover recorded by Boney M. in 1978. "Torat Hashem Temimah" (The word of God is perfect), consisting of the first five words of verse 8 (in the Hebrew), is a popular Jewish song.

Other

"The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether", a phrase from Psalm 19:9, is inscribed on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

Sources