Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Ver. 4. Their line is gone out through all the earth] Or, their rule, or direction, or delineation, or Scripture, confer Isa 28:13 Quod in coelis tanquam in volumine omnibus conspicuo descripta sit Dei gloria, because that in the heavens, as in an open book, is written down the glory of the Creator. The like is done also in other less considerable creatures; every of which do after a sort write as well as speak, and have a pen as well as a tongue. The Chaldee word כבעא for a mint signifieth also a book of histories, because in that one herb large stories of God's wisdom, might, and love are described unto us. The same word also that signifieth an ear of grain signifieth a word, מלילח because every field of corn is a book of God's praise, every land a leaf, every sheaf a verse, every ear a word, every corn of wheat a letter, to express the glory of God by, Praesentem narrat quaelibet herba Deum. Antony, the hermit, being asked by a certain philosopher how he could contemplate high things having no help of books? answered, That the whole world was to him instead of a well furnished library; this he had ready by him at all times and in all places, and in this he could read when he pleased the great things of God (Aug. de Doct. Christ. 1. 1; Niceph. l. 8, c. 40). Bernard also saith that was the time when he had no other masters, nisi quercus et fagos, but the oaks and beech trees.
In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun] That prince of planets, but servant to the saints of the Most High, as his name importeth: so sweet a creature he is, that Eudoxus, the philosopher, professed that he would be content to be burnt up by the heat of it so he might be admitted to come so near it as to learn the nature of it. A tabernacle, or flitting tent, it is here said to have in the heavens; because it never stayeth in one place, but courseth about with incredible swiftness.