Berean BlueApp preview

Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 19:4

The Treasury of David. Browse this work.

Psalms19:4

"Their line is gone out," etc. "Their sound went," etc. Romans 10:18. The relations which the gospel of Christ Jesus hath to the Psalms of David I find to be more than to all the Bible besides, that seldom anything is written in the New Testament, but we are sent to fetch our proofs from these. The margin here sends me to the Psalm, and the Psalm sends me back to this again; showing that they both speak one thing. How comes it then that it is not one, for "line" and "sound" are not one thing? Is there not some mistake here? Answer —To fetch a proof from a place is one thing, an allusion is another. Sometimes the evangelists are enforced to bring their proofs for what they write out of the Old Testament, else we should never believe them, and then they must be very sure of the terms, when they say, "This was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken," etc. But the apostle was not now upon that account; only showing to the Romans the marvellous spreading of the gospel, alluding to this passage of David discoursing of "the heavens," to which the prophet compared the publication of the word; the sun and moon and stars not only shining through, but round all the earth. The same subject Paul was now upon, and for his purpose makes use of a term fitter to express the preaching of the gospel, by the word "sound," than that other word expressing the limitations of the law, by the word "line:" both of these agreeing that there is no fitter comparison to be fetched from anything in nature than from "the heavens," their motions, revolutions, influences upon sublunary bodies; also in their eclipses, when one text seems to darken another, as if it were put out altogether by crossing and opposing, which is but seemingly so to the ignorant, they agree sweetly enough in themselves; no bridegroom can agree better with his bride, nor rejoice more to run his course. So they both conclude in this, that the sun never saw that nation yet where the word of truth, in one degree or other (all the world, you must think, cannot be right under the meridian) hath not shined. —William Streat, in "The Dividing of the Hoof," 1654.

Verse 4 "Unto the end of the world." Venantius Fortunatus eleven hundred years ago witnesses to the peregrinations of Paul the apostle.

He passed the ocean's curled wave,

As far as islands harbours have;

As far as Brittain yields a bay,

Or Iceland's frozen shore a stay. John Cragge, 1557.

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Psalms 19:4. Public domain.

Permanent link. Source edition.

Read Psalms 19. Compare commentaries on this chapter.

Source and publication rights

Public domain. Public Domain. Source edition.

Berean Blue opens December 1, 2026. Explore this passage in the app preview.