Psalms 19:4,5 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Their line Their admirable structure, made with great exactness, and, as it were, by rule or line, as the word קו, kav, here used, generally signifies. Or, their lines, the singular number being put for the plural, that is, their writing, made up of several lines. In this sense, the very same word is taken, Isaiah 28:10. And thus understood here, the expression is peculiarly proper, because, as has just been intimated, the heavens and other works of God do not teach men with an audible voice, or by speaking to their ears, but visibly, by exhibiting things to their eyes, which is done in lines, or writing, or by draughts or delineations, as the Hebrew word may also be rendered. Their line, in this sense, is gone out Is spread abroad, through all the earth So as to be seen and read by all the inhabitants of it; and their words Their magnificent appearance, their exquisite order, their regular course, and their significant actions and operations, by which they declare their Author no less intelligibly than men make known their minds by their words; to the end of the world To the remotest parts of the globe. “The instruction which they disperse abroad is as universal as their substance, which extends itself over all the earth. And hereby they proclaim to all nations the power and wisdom, the mercy and loving-kindness, of the Lord. The apostle's commission was the same with that of the heavens; and St. Paul has applied the natural images of this verse to the manifestation of the light of life by the preaching of those who were sent forth for that purpose.” Horne. In them In the heavens, hath he set a tabernacle for the sun Which, being the most illustrious and useful of all the heavenly bodies, is here particularly mentioned. By the Creator's setting a tabernacle, or fixing a tent, for it, he seems to intend his collecting together, and condensing into one body, the solar light, which, it seems, from Genesis 1:3; Genesis 1:14-18, was at first diffused abroad, in equal portions, over and around the new-made world. Which is as a bridegroom Gloriously adorned with light, as with a beautiful garment, and smiling upon the world with a pleasant countenance; coming out of his chamber In which he is poetically supposed to have rested all night, and thence to break forth, as it were, on a sudden. And rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race Who, conscious of, and confiding in, his own strength, and promising himself victory, and the glory that attends it, starts for the prize with great vigour and alacrity. Dr. Dodd thinks the comparison is taken from the vehemence and force wherewith a warrior runs toward his enemy.