Their voice went out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. There He set a tent for the sun.
The testimony of creation reaches the whole earth. No people living under heaven are left outside this silent testimony of creation. Paul uses this language in the context of the spread of the Gospel (Romans 10:18), showing the figurative power of the word’s wide reach. The psalm’s immediate meaning, however, is the universal testimony of creation. Setting a “tent” for the sun is a poetic image, presenting the sky as the space of its course. David does not deify the sun, as many ancient religions did. On the contrary, the sun is a servant created by God, whose place and course the Lord has appointed. For the believer this is an important worldview: even the most powerful phenomenon of nature is not God. The sun is glorious, but the Creator is greater. We use the created good things with gratitude and worship only their Creator.