Psalm 19 Poetry

Back to Psalm 19.

Performed Readings

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Poetic Features

Like the Sun (00:05-03:16)

In Psalm 19, David proclaims that "nothing is hidden from" the sun's heat (v. 7). Immediately afterward, he begins to speak about the Torah, the instruction of YHWH, which is perfect, restoring life (v. 8-11). While some have argued that there is no connection between these two sections and even believe Psalm 19 could have been two psalms, it is this connection between the sun and the instruction of YHWH that is a key to unlock Psalm 19.

In verses 8-11, David uses several key words to describe YHWH's instruction, all of which strongly echo other descriptions in the Hebrew Bible of the sun.

• Source of life, joy and a giver of light (vv. 8a, 8b, 9b).

Mal 3:20 (4:2): "But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall" (ESV).

• Barah בָּרָה, which can mean either "flawless" or "bright" (v. 9b)

Songs 6:10: "Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright (בָּרָה) as the sun, awesome as an army with banners?" (ESV).

• Tehorah טְהוֹרָה, which can mean either "pure" or "bright" (v. 10a)

Exo 24:10b: "Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright (לָטֹהַר) blue as the sky" (NIV).

• Enduring forever (v. 10a)

Psa 89:37-38 (36-37): "'His offspring shall endure forever (לְעוֹלָם), his throne as long as the sun before me. Like the moon it shall be established forever (עוֹלָם), a faithful witness in the skies.' Selah" (ESV).

• Right and just (v. 9a, 10b)

Mal 3:20a (4:2a): "But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness (צְדָקָה) shall rise with healing in its wings." (ESV).

• Nizhar נִזְהָר, which can mean either "warned" or "illuminated" (v. 12a)

Dan 12:3: "And those who are wise shall shine (יַזְהִרוּ) like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever" (ESV).

Ezek 8:2: "Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness (זֹהַר), like gleaming metal" (ESV).

The message seems to be that the Torah, YHWH's instruction, is like the sun. Just as the sun is the source of all physical life on the earth, so YHWH's instruction is the source of all spiritual life for his people.

This connection between Torah and the sun is not just positive. David continues saying, “Furthermore, your servant is warned by them” (v. 12). After gazing at the brightness of the Torah’s light, and feeling its life giving heat, he becomes suddenly aware of all his hidden sins. He cries out, “Clear me from the guilt of hidden sins!” (v. 13). In verse 13, he uses the same word, נִסְתָּר "hidden," as he does in v. 7, when he is reflecting on the sun: "nothing is hidden from his heat." As David might have felt the sun’s heat and light searching him out in the heat of the desert, with nowhere to hide, so he feels the Torah searching out every hidden place in his heart. It is precisely this inescapable "heat" of YHWH's instruction that leads the psalmist to pray for blamelessness in vv. 12-15 (see Speech Act Analysis). C. S. Lewis, who called Ps 19 "the greatest poem in the Psalter" was right to claim that "the key phrase on which the whole poem depends is 'there is nothing hid from the heat thereof'... As [the psalmist] has felt the sun, perhaps in the desert, searching him out in every nook of shade where he attempted to hide from it, so he feels the Law searching out all the hiding-places of his soul" (Lewis 1958, 54-55).

For more details on the connections between vv. 2-7 and vv. 8-15, see The Unity of Ps 19.

In the Beginning (03:17-06:40)

The progression of this psalm, from sky and sun, to YHWH's instruction, to the psalmist's sin, tells a story that began back in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. This connection is shown through similar words and ideas which appear both in Genesis 1 and Psalm 19.

Creation (vv. 1-7)

The connection between Psalm 19 and the beginning of Genesis is clear from the first 7 verses. The psalm begins, “The sky is declaring God’s honor, and the firmament is telling about the workmanship of his hands” (v. 2). The words “workmanship of his hands” were a common way to speak about God’s creation of the world (cf. Pss. 8:7; 102:26; 103:22). The following verses (Ps 19:1-5) clearly name at least 6 things God created in Genesis 1:

• The sky (Psa. 19:2, Gen 1:1, 6-8)
• The firmament (Psa. 19:2, Gen 1:6-8)
• The day (Psa. 19:2, Gen 1:3-5)
• The night (Psa. 19:3, Gen 1:3-5)
• The earth (Psa. 19:5, Gen 1:1, 9-10)
• The sun (Psa. 19:5, Gen 1:16)

Creation and Commandment (vv. 8-11)

While the first part of the psalm (vv. 1-7) is about creation and Genesis 1, the second part (vv. 8-11) continues that focus on creation. The verses themselves are arranged in an abc//a'b'c' + d pattern, which is exactly the structure of the seven days in Genesis 1 (on the structure of Gen 1 see e.g., Wenham 1987, 6-7):

a//a' — feminine singular nouns (תּ֘וֹרַ֤ת // מִצְוַ֥ת); synonymous phrases (מְשִׁ֣יבַת נָ֑פֶשׁ // מְאִירַ֥ת עֵינָֽיִם)

b//b' — singular nouns ending in tav (עֵד֥וּת // יִרְאַ֤ת); description as "enduring" (נֶ֝אֱמָנָ֗ה // עוֹמֶ֪דֶת לָ֫עַ֥ד)

c//c' — masculine plural nouns (פִּקּ֘וּדֵ֤י // מִֽשְׁפְּטֵי); synonyms related to righteousness (יְ֭שָׁרִים // אֱמֶ֑ת צָֽדְק֥וּ)

d — v. 11.

This second section of Psalm 19 also adds a new focus on the command of YHWH, in Hebrew, מִצְוָה. The first time this Hebrew word is used in the Bible is in Genesis 2:16-17, which read, "And the LORD God commanded (וַיְצַו) the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat…." The description of YHWH's instruction in vv. 8-11 is also reminiscent of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Gen 2-3 (cf. Clines 1974; Quinn 2023, 45).

• Desirable (נחמד; Ps 19:11a; Gen 3:6)
• Makes wise (Ps 19:8b [החכים]; Gen 3:6 [השׂכיל])
• Able to open eyes (Ps 19:9b; Gen 3:7)
• Good for food (Gen 3:6; cf. "restore life" in Ps 19:8a and "sweet" in Ps 19:11b)

So this second section is all about the commandment, referencing YHWH’s very first commandment about the tree and also echoing the language of that tree.

Sin (vv. 12-15)

In the last part (vv. 12-15) about sin, David states, "Who can discern mistakes? Clear me from the guilt of hidden sins! Also, prevent your servant from committing presumptuous sins! Do not let them rule over me!" There is a struggle here over who will rule, David or his sin. There are three different descriptions of sin (mistakes, hidden sins, and presumptuous sins), followed by the words “Do not let them rule over me”, in Hebrew אַֽל־יִמְשְׁלוּ־בִ֣י. This combination of sin and ruling is very unusual, with only one other place where sin and ruling are combined: Gen 4:7. Just before Cain kills Abel, God warns him and says, "...sin is crouching at the door" (like a lion) "Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it (אַתָּה תִּמְשָׁל־בּוֹ)" (CSB). The Hebrew word there, משׁל, is the exact same as Psalm 19:14 and shows the exact same struggle between man and sin (cf. Clines 1974, 7-8).

Furthermore, it is possible that the following phrase "innocent of great crime (מִפֶּ֥שַֽׁע רָֽב)" is an allusion to Adam's sin in the garden (cf. Craigie 1983, 183). Job 31:33a states, "If I have covered my transgressions (פְּשָׁעָי) as Adam,..." (NKJV). The word for "transgressions" in Job 31 is the same word for "crime" in Psalm 19.

Psalm 19 then follows the same progression of Genesis 1-4. Creation → commandment → sin. Both begin by describing creation, the sun, the sky, and more, followed by the commandment, the perfect instruction of YHWH, followed by the struggle with sin and the question of who will rule.

Complete Revelation (06:41-09:30)

But there is also hope! In Genesis, we find the hope in the midst of Adam and Eve's great sin, and the struggle with sin. There is a promise of redemption: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen 3:15 ESV). In Psalm 19, the story of hope is found through the use of the names of God.

One of the techniques that Hebrew Poetry used to communicate its message was by being very intentional about using the name of God, for example by where it does or doesn’t appear, or how many times it appears.

Creator (vv. 1-7)

In the first creation part (vv. 1-7), God is only named once, as אֵל, the generic title for God. In the second commandment part (vv. 8-11), God is named six times, all with the holy name, יְהוָה. In the final sin part (vv. 12-15), God is again named only once, but this time as the seventh repetition of the holy name, יְהוָה.

These names of God speak of hope by showing God's roles in each of these sections.

David begins by knowing God as creator, as אֵל. It is real knowledge, but it is distant, not clear and not close. He is simply the one who made the sky and the sun.

Instructor (vv. 8-11)

But knowing God through his Torah, his instruction, in vv. 8-11 is completely different. Six times David uses the intimate, covenant, name of יְהוָה; six times in six lines (vv. 8-10). God has become not just the distant creator, but the intimate instructor.

But this name is only mentioned six times, not seven. In the Bible, numbers tell stories. The number seven tells the story of completion, like the seven days of Genesis 1. In fact, "Of the numbers that carry symbolic meaning in biblical usage, seven is the most important. It is used to signify completeness or totality" (Ryken et al. 1998, 774). The number six, on the other hand, falls short of completion, showing something is still missing. It is good, but not perfect. The number six leaves the reader looking for the final, missing piece, especially in a psalm that emphasizes completeness, through the use of the root תמם ('be complete'), which occurs in v. 8 (תְּמִימָה "perfect") and in v. 14 (אֵיתָם "I will be blameless"). These two occurrences create an inclusio around the second half of the psalm (vv. 8-15; see poetic structure). So where is the final, seventh mention of YHWH's name?

Rock and Redeemer (vv. 12-15)

Knowing God through his Torah is real and intimate, but it is incomplete. However, through the struggle with sin to the hope of the final, seventh naming completes this relationship: "YHWH, my rock and my redeemer (יְ֝הוָ֗ה צוּרִ֥י וְגֹאֲלִֽי)." Only when we know God as rock and redeemer, not just instructor, is our knowledge of him complete, as he redeems us from the rule of sin and helps the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable before him, our rock and our redeemer.

Bibliography

Clines, D. J. A. 1974. “The Tree of Knowledge and the Law of Yahweh (Psalm XIX).” Vetus Testamentum 24, no. 1: 8–14.

Craigie, Peter C. 1983. Psalms 1–50. WBC 19. Waco, TX: Word.

Eaton, J. H. 1968. “Some Questions of Philology and Exegesis in the Psalms.” The Journal of Theological Studies 19, no. 2: 603–609.

Lewis, C.S. 1958. Reflections on the Psalms. London: Geoffrey Bles.

Quinn, Carissa. 2023. The Arrival of the King: The Shape and Story of Psalms 15-24. Studies in Scripture and Biblical Theology. Bellingham: Lexham Academic.

Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid, eds. 1998. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press.

Wenham, Gordon J. 1987. Genesis 1–15. Vol. 1. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated.