Psalm 19 (part 1) — The Glory of Nature and the Law

As you wonder at the order of creation, the grace of providence and the sacred prescriptions of the Law, sing Psalm 19

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

This is my favorite psalm so I've got more to say than usual. Once upon a time, I thought I'd memorize some Scripture and when I flipped the Bible open I was at Psalm 19. I partially memorized it before I began looking at different translations and just falling in love with it. I'm a nature love so that spoke to me and I, too, love the Word (and God's law) so that spoke to me too. Linking them up was the sun — is it the law, is it Christ, or is it just a transition from nature to man and the Law? Obviously, I could go on and on.

That was years ago and I really need to get back to memorizing it. But I do read it all the time!

We'll look at it in three parts — and we still won't be saying everything that can be said about this beautiful psalm.

Today, we're going to let C.S. Lewis take center stage. It was one of his favorite psalms too! He says it all succinctly and much better than I do.

Harmony of the World (1806)
showing a heliocentric universe; Psalms 19:2 is one of four verses
quoted at bottom of the illustration

My other great favourite is XIX.  First, the mere glory of nature (between the Psalms and Wordsworth–a long gap in history–you get nothing equal to either on this theme). Then the disinfectant, inexorable sun beating down on the desert and ‘nothing hid from the heat thereof’.  Then–implied, not stated–the imaginative identification of that heat and light with the ‘undefiled’ law, the ‘clean’ fear of the Lord, searching every cranny. Then the characteristically Jewish feeling that the Law is not only obligatory but beautiful, ravishing: delighting the heart, better than gold, sweeter than honey. Only after that, the (more Christian like) self examination and humble petition. Nearly all that could be said before the Incarnation is said in this Psalm. It is so much better Paganism than the real Pagans ever did! And in one way more glorious, more soaring and triumphant, than Christian poetry. For as God humbled Himself to become Man, so religion humbled itself to become Christianity.

C.S. Lewis, Letter to Mary Van Deusen

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.