Psalm 19—The Word in the Wind
Re-release of Psalm 19 with audio files for the poem and the rendition.
Listen to the Psalm and the poem set to music.
Introduction to Psalm 19
Psalm 19 is a paean to God’s beauty, whether displayed in his creation, his law, or his works. The psalm divides neatly into three parts. In Seeing the Psalms, William P. Brown writes,
“Verses 1-6 depict creation as the cosmic medium of God’s glory, whereas verses 7-10 identify the moral and salutary contours of torah. The final verses, signaled by the language of direct address, offer a petition.”
So it goes Creation > Torah > Petition. What unites these three sections? The Sun (see the notes below). Here is my rendition.
Rendition of Psalm 19
The heavens declare the glory of God.
The dome of the sky displays the works of his hands.
The created world pours out speech by day,
And reveals wisdom by night.
Though there is no speech, nor are there words—
For their sound cannot be heard—
Yet their gospel goes out through all the earth,
And their voice to the end of the world.
He has made a home in the heavens for the sun.
It comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber
And runs its course with joy and strength
Like the men of renown of ancient days.
It springs from the mouth of the sky
And its circuit spans the whole of the heavens.
Nothing is hidden from its heat.
God’s torah is whole and unmarred,
Drawing back all people to life;
The word of the Lord is faithful,
Giving wisdom to fools;
The law of the Lord fits perfectly,
Bringing joy to the inmost place of human beings.
The commandments of God are pure,
Opening the eyes of those who hear them;
The fear of the Lord is clean,
It will remain forever;
The justice of the Lord is true,
And able to justify completely.
God’s ways are more to be desired than gold,
And are sweeter than honey.
There is great consequence in keeping them,
And by them God’s servants are enlightened.
Who can understand his own errors?
I want to be declared innocent of all my hidden faults.
Lord, hold me back from all my pride;
Do not let it rule over and devour me.
I long to be done with it,
And empty of all my rebellion.
Let my words and the music of my heart
Bring you delight
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Notes on Psalm 19
Note #1: God is like the sun.
Why does the psalmist include seven lines about the sun in the midst of the poem?
From God speaking light into existence in Genesis 1, to Jesus saying that he was the light in John 8, to the New Creation needing no sun nor moon because God himself is its light in Revelation 21-22, God as light is one of the most important images in the Bible.
Deuteronomy even compares him to the sun itself:
ESV Deuteronomy 33:2—“The Lord came from Sinai
and dawned from Seir upon us;
he shone forth from Mount Paran…”
But God is not the only thing that is like the sun in the Psalm.
Note #2: The Torah is like the Sun.
The Psalm uses double entendres to blend sun/torah imagery, so that the law itself becomes an enlightening force, able to give life, reveal impurity, and cast away shadows of sin.
See what I mean:
v. 7—The torah gives life, just like the sun.
v. 8—The torah gladdens the heart.
v. 8,9—The torah sheds light that is pure and clean.
v. 11, 12—The torah is enlightening, revealing hidden faults.
So, the sun ties all three parts of the Psalm together because (1) God is like the sun (v. 1-6), the torah is like the sun (v. 7-11), and the psalmist prays to be free of hidden fault and blameless, just like one who stands in the light (v. 12-14).
Notes on the Poem
Like the Psalm, the poem begins with a meditation on creation in the form of the stars, the earth, and the wind.
In creation, all God’s beauty is there for the taking. It is all there to be seen, as the poem says, “Every night the sidelong hip of the Milky Way/shows itself to you.”
“The wind behind you, now at your face
Blows from another land
Which you have never heard of,
Which you are unequal to.”
I heard a story once (perhaps apocryphal) that Schubert used to bend close to his piano and play only middle D over and over again. When asked what he was listening for, he said, “The air of a distant planet.”
That sense of the transcendent available inside the immanent is what I was trying to evoke in the poem as a whole. Schubert’s “air of a distant planet” blows everywhere if we can bend close enough to hear it.
“If you would see the glory of God,
Why are you always elsewhere?
If you would hear the word in the wind,
Face the stars and wait.”
The sheer abundance of the availability of God in his creation poses a question to us: “If you would see the glory of God/why are you always elsewhere?”
The middle section of the poem tries to make sense, from a human perspective, of what is to be done with, in Hopkin’s words “all this juice and all this joy” that we are surrounded with. Perhaps God is not hidden, but we are reluctant to see him.
Here is the poem.
Poem—The Word in the Wind
Every night the sidelong hip of the Milky Way
Shows itself to you. You see
Backward across miles and years
Along the light of the works of the Almighty.
The earth at your feet is fruitful, wild, and weary.
The wind behind you, now at your face
Blows from another land
Which you have never heard of,
Which you are unequal to.
The sky and the screaming birds
And all the fullness therein say:
Holy, holy, holy.
Why do you wander pathless
In the mountain range of your feelings?
Why do you tremble at all your hidden faults?
Why have you passed so much time afraid?
If you would have light and heat,
Why are you not more in the sunshine?
If you would see the glory of God,
Why are you always elsewhere?
If you would hear the word in the wind,
Face the stars and wait.
Even now your chest, your ribs,
These rafters, this cathedral,
Fills with the breath that made it.
Even now God’s ways wait whole and unmarred
Drawing you back—
You do not need to fill your hopes alone.
The birds at dawn are enough.
The way the leaves are green is enough.
The slim wafer of the present is enough.
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