The Heavens Declare and the Apostles Preach: A Voice Gone Out to the Ends of the World
Old Testament: Psalms 18:2-5
The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands. Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night sheweth knowledge. There are no speeches nor languages, where their voices are not heard. Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world.
Old Testament, also: Exodus 28:33-35
And beneath at the feet of the same tunick round about, thou shalt make as it were pomegranates, of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, with little bells set between: So that there shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and again another golden bell and a pomegranate. And Aaron shall be vested with it in the office of his ministry, that the sound may be heard, when he goeth in and cometh out of the sanctuary, in the sight of the Lord, and that he may not die.
New Testament: Romans 10:14-15, 17-18
How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things! ... Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say: Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the whole world.
The connection
The psalm opens with a preacher who has no tongue. "The heavens shew forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of his hands. Day to day uttereth speech"; there is no language "where their voices are not heard", and "their sound hath gone forth into all the earth: and their words unto the ends of the world" (Psalms 18:2-5). Paul takes that verse and gives it to the apostles, and he has just built a chain: no one calls on God without believing, no one believes without hearing, no one hears "without a preacher", no one preaches "unless they be sent", and "faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ" (Romans 10:14-17). Then he asks whether Israel has not heard, and answers with the psalm (Romans 10:18). The silent sermon of the sky has become the Gospel carried by men who were sent. Augustine reads the whole psalm this way: "The righteous Evangelists, in whom, as in the heavens, God dwelleth, set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ", and the voices are heard in every language "seeing that the Gospel was preached in every tongue" (Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 19, 2 and 4). Justin hears the same sound in the high priest's vestment, whose golden bells rang "that the sound may be heard" when Aaron went in before the Lord (Exodus 28:35). The bells were "a symbol of the twelve apostles, who depend on the power of Christ, the eternal Priest; and through their voice it is that all the earth has been filled with the glory and grace of God and of His Christ. Wherefore David also says: 'Their sound has gone forth into all the earth'" (Dialogue with Trypho 42). The bells hang at the hem of one Priest, and they sound only because he moves.
Moral sense
Paul's chain runs through every soul: faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Clement calls the preachers the Lord's feet: "Those, therefore, who travelled over the world and preached the Gospel, are figuratively called the feet of the Lord" (The Instructor II.8), and Paul has already called those feet beautiful (Romans 10:15; Isaias 52:7). The Catechism draws the same line from Paul's words: "No one can give himself the mandate and the mission to proclaim the Gospel" (CCC 875). The heavens also teach how to preach without speeches: they declare glory by being what God made them. A life set in order under God, like the firmament, tells of Him in a language every nation can hear, and it is heard before any word is spoken.
Anagogical sense
The next verse turns from the voices to the one they announce: the sun "as a bridegroom coming out of his bride chamber, hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way" (Psalms 18:6), which Augustine reads as Christ "coming forth out of the Virgin's womb, where God was united to man's nature as a bridegroom to a bride" (Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 19, 6). His circuit runs from one end of heaven to the other, "and there is no one that can hide himself from his heat" (Psalms 18:7). The sound gone out to the ends of the world goes before the Bridegroom's last coming, when John sees an angel "having the eternal gospel, to preach unto them that sit upon the earth, and over every nation, and tribe, and tongue, and people" (Apocalypse 14:6).
The Fathers
St Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 19, 2: "The righteous Evangelists, in whom, as in the heavens, God dwelleth, set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." St Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 42: "the prescription that twelve bells be attached to the [robe] of the high priest, which hung down to the feet, was a symbol of the twelve apostles, who depend on the power of Christ, the eternal Priest; and through their voice it is that all the earth has been filled with the glory and grace of God and of His Christ." Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor II.8: "Those, therefore, who travelled over the world and preached the Gospel, are figuratively called the feet of the Lord."
Warrant
Romans 10:18 quotes Psalms 18:5 word for word, in the Vulgate (In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum) and in the Greek, where Paul copies the Septuagint exactly, phthongos (sound), though the Hebrew has qavvam, their line. But Paul applies the verse to the preachers without calling the heavens a figure, so the badge is patristic: the heavens as the apostles is Augustine's reading through the whole psalm, and the bells of Exodus 28 are Justin's, who ties them to this verse. The Latin carries that second link as well: sonus in the psalm and in Romans, sonitus for Aaron's bells.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 875.
The verses
Psalms 18:2 · Psalms 18:3 · Psalms 18:4 · Psalms 18:5 · Exodus 28:33 · Exodus 28:34 · Exodus 28:35 · Romans 10:14 · Romans 10:15 · Romans 10:17 · Romans 10:18
