Psalms 19:4

This proclamation is universal. The phrase Their line is gone out&c., is to be explained by Jeremiah 31:39; Zechariah 1:16. The measuring line marks the limits of possession. The whole earth is the sphere throughout which the heavens have to proclaim their message. The rendering of P.B.V. their soundfollows LXX, Vulg., Symm., Jer., Syr., but it is not justifiable as a rendering of the present text, though it may be got by an easy emendation.

A wider application is given to these words by St Paul in Romans 10:18. But his use of them is not merely the adoption of a convenient phrase. It implies a comparison of the universality of the proclamation of the Gospel with the universality of the proclamation of God's glory in Nature.

In them&c. How naturally the poet singles out the Sun as the chief witness to God's glory, and personifies it as though it were a king or hero, for whose abode the Creator has fixed a tent in the heavens.