Tehillim 19 | “Like a Groom From His Marriage Chamber”

This psalm divides into two distinct sections that, at first glance, seem unrelated. The first section describes the heavens as declaring the glory of God, reflecting His greatness through the act of creation. The second extols the virtues of the Torah. Ibn Ezra (19:8) explains that the aim of the psalm is to teach us how one may encounter God’s greatness: One can come to know the majesty through the creation, and one can encounter God through the Torah.

We cannot meet God or grasp Him directly, but through the act of Creation and the act of Revelation on Mount Sinai (the giving of the Torah), we can encounter His will and sense His grandeur. In both, God interfered in the world, established laws, crafted a magnificent work, and in doing so, revealed something of His desire. Rambam writes that the path to loving God lies in observing His works and creation from the vantage of nature (Foundations of the Torah 2:2). But likewise, one who studies Torah, who unravels a 'sugya' and comes to a deeper understanding of how God governs His world through the laws of Torah can reach the same outcome – awe and wonder of God, a clearer perception of His will, and a yearning to draw near to Him.

Chazal incorporated both of these foundations into the daily prayers that praise God. The first blessing preceding the 'Shema' — 'Yotzer Or'  in the morning and 'Ma’ariv Aravim' at night — praises God and the way He governs His world. The second blessing — 'Ahavat Olam' — praises God for the Torah He gave to us. A closer look at these blessings highlights an important distinction between the two foundations – Creation reveals God as the Creator of the universe, who rules over all of existence ("המאיר לארץ ולדרים עליה"=“Who gives light to the earth and those who dwell upon it”), while Torah reveals the intimate relationship that God maintains specifically with us ("אהבת עולם אהבתנו"=“With an eternal love You have loved us”).

In an article from his book 'Studies in Sefer Tehillim', Rav Elchanan Samet proposes an additional link between the two sections of the psalm, one that reflects a deeper appreciation of its structure. Each of the psalm’s two halves can itself be divided into two parts. The first half opens with a description of how the heavens proclaim the glory of God, and then turns to describe in detail the sun’s daily journey from one end of the earth to the other, with precision, wholeness, and joy. The second half begins by describing the Torah, and then shifts to the poet’s personal prayer, how is yearning to be worthy of observing it properly. Rav Samet suggests that the two halves stand in contrast. In the celestial realm, it is the sun that acts “which emerges like a groom from his marriage chamber, glowing like a champion about  to run his course” (19:6) performing its task faithfully, “nothing can hide from its heat.” (19:7) But on earth, within the domain of Torah, it is the human being who must act, and there the story is far more complex. The individual 'takes caution', aware of the magnitude of the challenge: “Yet who can discern his errors?” (19:13) and prays: “Cleanse me of hidden faults.” (19:13) According to this reading, the psalm offers an educational call: it urges human beings to learn from the sun, and to fulfill the will of their Creator with the same completeness.