Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty.
He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.
He makes his messengers winds, and his servants flames of fire.
He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever.
You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you had assigned to them.
You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they don’t turn again to cover the earth.
He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains.
They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his rooms. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.
He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
wine that makes the heart of man glad, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
Yahweh’s trees are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted;
where the birds make their nests. The stork makes its home in the cypress trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.
You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl.
The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.
The sun rises, and they steal away, and lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening.
Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals.
There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season.
You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.
You hide your face; they are troubled. You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust.
You send out your Spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground.
Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.
He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.
Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.
Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh, my soul. Praise Yah!
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35 1 Bless Jehovah, O my soul! After having exhorted…
1 Bless Jehovah, O my soul! After having exhorted himself to praise God, the Psalmist adds, that there is abundant matter for such an exercise; thus indirectly condemning himself and others of ingratitude, if the praises of God, than which nothing ought to be better known, or more celebrated, are buried by silence. In comparing the light with which he represents God as arrayed to a garment, he intimates, that although God is invisible, yet his glory is conspicuous enough. In respect of his essence, God undoubtedly dwells in light that is inaccessible; but as he irradiates the whole world by his splendor, this is the garment in which He, who is hidden in himself, appears in a manner visible to us. The knowledge of this truth is of the greatest importance. If men attempt to reach the infinite height to which God is exalted, although they fly above the clouds, they must fail in the midst of their course. Those who seek to see him in his naked majesty are certainly very foolish. That we may enjoy the light of him, he must come forth to view with his clothing; that is to say, we must cast our eyes upon the very beautiful fabric of the world in which he wishes to be seen by us, and not be too curious and rash in searching into his secret essence. Now, since God presents himself to us clothed with light, those who are seeking pretexts for their living without the knowledge of him, cannot allege in excuse of their slothfulness, that he is hidden in profound darkness. When it is said that the heavens are a curtain, it is not meant that under them God hides himself, but that by them his majesty and glory are displayed; being, as it were, his royal pavilion.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 35 The Prophet showeth that we need not to enter…
The Prophet showeth that we need not to enter into the heavens to seek God, forasmuch as all the order of nature, with the propriety, and placing of the elements, are most lively mirrors to see his majesty in.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–35 Psa 104:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O…
Psa 104:1 Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Ver. 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul] This was much in David’s mouth, as Deo gratias was in Austin’s. See Psa 103:1; Psa 103:22, after which this psalm is fitly set. There he blesseth God for his benefits to himself and the whole Church; here, for his works of creation and government common to the whole world. The Greek and Latin translations prefix this title, David de generatione Mundi. υπερ του κοσμου συστασεως, Continet opera Bereshith, saith Kimchi. It is of the same subject with the first chapter of Genesis, the first five days’ works are here after a sort considered and celebrated, as a mirror wherein God’s majesty may be clearly discerned. This psalm is by some called David’s natural theology.
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Thou art very great] Non molis dimensione, sed virtutis et rerum gestarum gloria, Thou hast made thee a great name by thy works of wonder.
Thou art clothed with honour and majesty] i.e. With thy creatures, which are as a garment, both to hide thee in one respect, and to hold thee forth in another, to be seen.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–35 Thou art very great, as in thy own nature…
Thou art very great, as in thy own nature and perfections, so also in the glory of thy works.
Clothed; surrounded and adorned.
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With honour and majesty; with honourable majesty.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 19, 31 When we are addressing ourselves to any religious service…
When we are addressing ourselves to any religious service we must stir up ourselves to take hold on God in it (Isa 64:7); so David does here. "Come, my soul, where art thou? What art thou thinking of? Here is work to be done, good work, angels' work; set about it in good earnest; let all the powers and faculties be engaged and employed in it: Bless the Lord, O my soul!" In these verses,
I. The psalmist looks up to the divine glory shining in the upper world, of which, though it is one of the things not seen, faith is the evidence. With what reverence and holy awe does he begin his meditation with that acknowledgment: O Lord my God! thou art very great! It is the joy of the saints that he who is their God is a great God. The grandeur of the prince is the pride and pleasure of all his good subjects. The majesty of God is here set forth by various instances, alluding to the figure which great princes in their public appearances covet to make. Their equipage, compared with his (even of the eastern kings, who most affected pomp), is but as the light of a glow-worm compared with that of the sun, when he goes forth in his strength. Princes appear great, 1. In their robes; and what are God's robes? Thou art clothed with honour and majesty, Psa 104:1. God is seen in his works, and these proclaim him infinitely wise and good, and all that is great. Thou coverest thyself with light as with a garment, Psa 104:2. God is light (Jo1 1:5), the Father of lights (Jam 1:17); he dwells in light (Ti1 6:16); he clothes himself with it. The residence of his glory is in the highest heaven, that light which was created the first day, Gen 1:3. Of all visible beings light comes nearest to the nature of a spirit, and therefore with that God is pleased to cover himself, that is, to reveal himself under that similitude, as men are seen in the clothes with which they cover themselves; and so only, for his face cannot be seen. 2. In their palaces or pavilions, when they take the field; and what is God's palace and his pavilion? He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, Psa 104:2. So he did at first, when he made the firmament, which in the Hebrew has its name from its being expanded, or stretched out, Gen 1:7. He made it to divide the waters as a curtain divides between two apartments. So he does still: he now stretches out the heavens like a curtain, keeps them upon the stretch, and they continue to this day according to his ordinance. The regions of the air are stretched out about the earth, like a curtain about a bed, to keep it warm, and drawn between us and the upper world, to break its dazzling light; for, though God covers himself with light, yet, in compassion to us, he makes darkness his pavilion. Thick clouds are a covering to him. The vastness of this pavilion may lead us to consider how great, how very great, he is that fills heaven and earth. He has his chambers, his upper rooms (so the word signifies), the beams whereof he lays in the waters, the waters that are above the firmament (Psa 104:3), as he has founded the earth upon the seas and floods, the waters beneath the firmament. Though air and water are fluid bodies, yet, by the divine power, they are kept as tight and as firm in the place assigned them as a chamber is with beams and rafters. How great a God is he whose presence-chamber is thus reared, thus fixed! 3. In their coaches of state, with their stately horses, which add much to the magnificence of their entries; but God makes the clouds his chariots, in which he rides strongly, swiftly, and far above out of the reach of opposition, when at any time he will act by uncommon providences in the government of this world. He descended in a cloud, as in a chariot, to Mount Sinai, to give the law, and to Mount Tabor, to proclaim the gospel (Mat 17:5), and he walks (a gentle pace indeed, yet stately) upon the wings of the wind. See Psa 18:10, Psa 18:11. He commands the winds, directs them as he pleases, and serves his own purposes by them. 4. In their retinue or train of attendants; and here also God is very great, for (Psa 104:4) he makes his angels spirits. This is quoted by the apostle (Heb 1:7) to prove the pre-eminence of Christ above the angels. The angels are here said to be his angels and his ministers, for they are under his dominion and at his disposal; they are winds, and a flame of fire, that is, they appeared in wind and fire (so some), or they are as swift as winds, and pure as flames; or he makes them spirits, so the apostle quotes it. They are spiritual beings; and, whatever vehicles they may have proper to their nature, it is certain they have not bodies as we have. Being spirits, they are so much the further removed from the encumbrances of the human nature and so much the nearer allied to the glories of the divine nature. And they are bright, and quick, and ascending, as fire, as a flame of fire. In Ezekiel's vision they ran and returned like a flash of lightning, Eze 1:14. Thence they are called seraphim - burners. Whatever they are, they are what God made them, what he still makes them; they derive their being from him, having the being he gave them, are held in being by him, and he makes what use he pleases of them.
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II. He looks down, and looks about, to the power of God shining in this lower world. He is not so taken up with the glories of his court as to neglect even the remotest of his territories; no, not the sea and dry land.
1. He has founded the earth, Psa 104:5. Though he has hung it upon nothing (Job 26:2), ponderibus librata suis - balanced by its own weight, yet it is as immovable as if it had been laid upon the surest foundations. He has built the earth upon her basis, so that though it has received a dangerous shock by the sin of man, and the malice of hell strikes at it, yet it shall not be removed for ever, that is, not till the end of time, when it must give way to the new earth. Dr. Hammond's paraphrase of this is worth noting: "God has fixed so strange a place for the earth, that, being a heavy body, one would think it should fall every minute; and yet, which way soever we would imagine it to stir, it must, contrary to the nature of such a body, fall upwards, and so can have no possible ruin but by tumbling into heaven."
2. He has set bounds to the sea; for that also is his. (1.) He brought it within bounds in the creation. At first the earth, which, being the more ponderous body, would subside of course, was covered with the deep (Psa 104:6): The waters were above the mountains; and so it was unfit to be, as it was designed, a habitation for man; and therefore, on the third day, God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered to one place, and let the dry land appear, Gen 1:9. This command of God is here called his rebuke, as if he gave it because he was displeased that the earth was thus covered with water and not fit for man to dwell on. Power went along with this word, and therefore it is also called here the voice of his thunder, which is a mighty voice and produces strange effects, Psa 104:7. At thy rebuke, as if they were made sensible that they were out of their place, they fled; they hasted away (they called, and not in vain, to the rocks and mountains to cover them), as it is said on another occasion (Psa 77:16), The waters saw thee, O God! the waters saw thee; they were afraid. Even those fluid bodies received the impression of God's terror. But was the Lord displeased against the rivers? No; it was for the salvation of his people, Hab 3:8, Hab 3:13. So here; God rebuked the waters for man's sake, to prepare room for him; for men must not be made as the fishes of the sea (Hab 1:14); they must have air to breathe in. Immediately therefore, with all speed, the waters retired, Psa 104:8. They go over hill and dale (as we say), go up by the mountains and down by the valleys; they will neither stop at the former nor lodge in the latter, but make the best of their way to the place which thou hast founded for them, and there they make their bed. Let the obsequiousness even of the unstable waters teach us obedience to the word and will of God; for shall man alone of all the creatures be obstinate? Let their retiring to and resting in the place assigned them teach us to acquiesce in the disposals of that wise providence which appoints us the bounds of our habitation. (2.) He keeps it within bounds, Psa 104:9. The waters are forbidden to pass over the limits set them; they may not, and therefore they do not, turn again to cover the earth. Once they did, in Noah's flood, because God bade them, but never since, because he forbids them, having promised not to drown the world again. God himself glorifies in this instance of his power (Job 38:8, etc.) and uses it as an argument with us to fear him, Jer 5:22. This, if duly considered, would keep the world in awe of the Lord and his goodness, That the waters of the sea would soon cover the earth if God did not restrain them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–35 Bless the Lord, O my soul,.... As for the…
Bless the Lord, O my soul,.... As for the blessings of grace and mercy expressed in the preceding psalm, so on account of the works of creation and providence, enumerated in this; in which Christ has an equal concern, as in the former.
O Lord my God, thou art very great; the Messiah, who is Jehovah our righteousness, Lord of all, truly God, and the God of his people; see Joh 20:28 and who is great, and very great, in his divine Person, being the great God, and our Saviour; great in all his works of creation, providence, and redemption; great in all his offices of Prophet, Priest, and King; a Saviour, and a great one; the great Shepherd of the Sheep; the Man, Jehovah's Fellow.
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Thou art clothed with honour and majesty; being the brightness of his Father's glory, and having on him the glory of the only begotten of the Father, and a natural majesty in him as the Son of God and King of the whole universe; and, as Mediator, he has honour and majesty laid upon him by his Father, Psa 21:5, he has all the regalia and ensigns of royal majesty; he is on a throne, high and lifted up, even the same with his divine Father; he has a crown of glory on his head, he is crowned with glory and honour; he has a sceptre of righteousness in his hand, and is arrayed in robes of majesty; and, as thus situated, is to look upon like a jasper and sardine stone; or as if he was covered with sparkling gems and precious stones, Rev 4:2 and, having all power in heaven and earth, over angels and men, honour and glory given him by both.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 35 David in the foregoing psalm praises God for his…
David in the foregoing psalm praises God for his love to his people; in this, for his works of creation and providence. He gives God the glory of his majesty in the upper world, ver. 1-4. The creation of the sea and dry land, ver. 5-9. The provision he makes for all the creatures, ver. 10-18. The regular course of the sun and moon, ver. 19-24. The furniture of the sea, ver. 25, 26. God's care and sovereign power over all the creatures, ver. 27-32. Concludes with a resolution to continue praising God, ver. 33-35.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 35 The majesty and power of God manifested in the…
PSALM CIV
The majesty and power of God manifested in the creation of the
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heavens and the atmosphere, 1-3;
of the earth and sea, 4-9;
of the springs, fountains, and rivers, 10-13;
of vegetables and trees, 14-18;
of the sun and moon, 19;
of day and night, and their uses, 20-23;
of the riches of the earth, 24;
of the sea, its inhabitants, and its uses, 25, 26;
of God's general providence in providing food for all kinds of
animals, 27-31;
of earthquakes and volcanoes, 32.
God is praised for his majesty, and the instruction which his
works afford, 33, 34.
Sinners shall be destroyed, 35.
NOTES ON PSALM CIV
This Psalm has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee; but it is attributed to David by the Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, Arabic, and Syriac. It has the following title in the Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglot: Ψαλμος τῳ Δαυιδ ὑπερ της του κοσμου συστασεως "A Psalm of David concerning the formation of the world." The Syriac says it is "A Psalm of David when he went with the priests to adore the Lord before the ark." It seems a continuation of the preceding Psalm; and it is written as a part of it in nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. It is properly a poem on the works of God in the creation and government of the world; and some have considered it a sort of epitome of the history of the creation, as given in the book of Genesis.
Verse 1. O Lord my God, thou art very great] The works of God, which are the subject of this Psalm, particularly show the grandeur and majesty of God. The strongest proofs of the being of God, for common understandings, are derived from the works of creation, their magnitude, variety, number, economy, and use. And a proper consideration of those works presents a greater number of the attributes of the Divine nature than we can learn from any other source. Revelation alone is superior.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 27, 31, 32, 33, 35 Psa 104:1-2. O Lord my God, thou art very…
Psa 104:1-2. O Lord my God, thou art very great — As in thine own nature and perfections, so also in the glory of thy works; thou art clothed — Surrounded and adorned, with honour and majesty — With honourable majesty: who coverest, or clothest, thyself with light — Either, 1st, With that light which no man can approach unto, as it is described 1Ti 1:10: wherewith, therefore, he may well be said to be covered, or hid, from the eyes of mortal men. Or, 2d, He speaks of that first created light, mentioned Gen 1:3, which the psalmist properly treats of first, as being the first of all God’s visible works. Of all visible beings light comes nearest to the nature of a spirit, and therefore with that, God, who is a spirit, is pleased to clothe himself, and also to reveal himself under that similitude, as men are seen in the clothes with which they cover themselves. Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain — Forming “a magnificent canopy or pavilion, comprehending within it the earth, and all the inhabitants thereof; enlightened by the celestial orbs suspended in it, as the holy tabernacle was by the lamps of the golden candlestick.” Now God is said to stretch this out like a curtain, to intimate that it was “originally framed, erected, and furnished by its maker, with more ease than man can construct and pitch a tent for his own temporary abode. Yet must this noble pavilion also be taken down; these resplendent and beautiful heavens must pass away and come to an end. How glorious, then, shall be those new heavens which are to succeed them and endure for ever!” — Horne.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–35 Bless the Lord, O my soul - See Psa…
Bless the Lord, O my soul - See Psa 103:1.
O Lord my God, thou art very great - This is a reason why the psalmist calls on his soul to bless God; namely, for the fact that he is so exalted; so vast in his perfections; so powerful, so wise, so great.
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Thou art clothed with honor and majesty - That is, with the emblems of honor and majesty, as a king is arrayed in royal robes. Creation is the garment with which God has invested himself. Compare the notes at Psa 93:1.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 104
Psalms 104
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul.
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O Lord my God, thou art very great;
Thou art clothed with honor and majesty:
2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment:
Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters:
Who maketh the clouds his chariot:
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
4 Who maketh his angels spirits;
His ministers a flaming fire.
5 Who laid the foundations of the earth,
That it should not be removed for ever.
6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment:
The waters stood above the mountains.
7 At thy rebuke they fled;
At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
8 They go by the mountains;
They go down by the valleys
Unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over;
That they turn not again to cover the earth.
10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys,
Which run among the hills.
11 They give drink to every beast of the field:
The wild asses quench their thirst.
12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation,
Which sing among the branches.
13 He watereth the hills from his chambers:
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.
14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,
And herb for the service of man:
That he may bring forth food out of the earth;
15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man,
And oil to make his face to shine,
And bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.
16 The trees of the Lord are full of sap;
The cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;
17 Where the birds make their nests:
As for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats;
And the rocks for the conies.
19 He appointed the moon for seasons:
The sun knoweth his going down.
20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night:
Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.
21 The young lions roar after their prey,
And seek their meat from God.
22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together,
And lay them down in their dens.
23 Man goeth forth unto his work
And to his labour until the evening.
24 O Lord, how manifold are thy works;
In wisdom hast thou made them all:
The earth is full of thy riches.
25 So is this great and wide sea,
Wherein are things creeping innumerable,
Both small and great beasts.
26 There go the ships:
There is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
27 These wait all upon thee;
That thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
28 That thou givest them they gather:
Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled:
Thou takest away their breath; they die,
And return to their dust.
30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created:
And thou renewest the face of the earth.
31 The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever:
The Lord shall rejoice in his works.
32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth:
He toucheth the hills, and they smoke.
33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live:
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
34 My meditation of him shall be sweet:
I will be glad in the Lord.
35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth,
And let the wicked be no more.
Bless thou the Lord, O my soul.
Praise ye the Lord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Division. The subject of praise in this psalm is God’s working in the kingdom of nature, as that of the preceding was His working in the kingdom of grace. “The poet celebrates in his song the present continuance of the world ordained by God, having in mind His first creative work recorded in Gen_1:1 to Gen_2:3, and concludes with the desire that evil may be banished from this fair creation, which reveals universally, and in profusion, His power, wisdom, and goodness.” (Delitzsch). It is scarcely to be doubted that the Biblical account of the creation forms in general the guiding thread of this poem. The seven groups, it is true, in which the related thoughts areset forth and placed in their connection, do not correspond exactly to the seven days of the week of creation. But the progress, on the whole, is the same, and the several representations bear a striking resemblance in various expressions. It is impossible to limit this resemblance to the modes of conception presented in the first group, or to explain it as though the writer followed two independent authors, holding to the same tradition, or belonging to the same school, (De Wette). The differences are to be ascribed to the fact that the subject was viewed from different standpoints. There an account is given of the course of creation. Here a hymn is sung to the praise of the Creator and Lord of the world, based upon that account, and having in view the course of the world’s history. But we are not therefore to divide this hymn, so as to refer Psa_104:6 ff. to the Deluge, and the whole psalm to the Providence of God the heavenly King, who will at last confirm His kingdom in its full power under the Messiah (Venema). Nor is the leading thought to be found in the first verse, and the object of the psalm, the strengthening of the assurance of the Church that the righteous shall finally triumph over the wicked (Hengst.). The last verse has certainly “the earthy flavor of a special historical situation” (Hitzig), yet with such generality, that no inference can be deduced from it as to the time of composition. There is no trace of a feeling of joyfulness over the restoration of the Second Temple (Ruding., Ven.). The linguistic peculiarities point in the general to a late age. The poetic beauty has always been acknowledged and very frequently praised.
Psa_104:1-2. Clothed (Psa_104:1), as in Job_11:10; Isa_51:9; Psa_93:1. This expression, like the participle which follows in the next verse: veiling [E. V.: who coverest thyself], shows that there is here described, not the eternal glory of God’s being (Jude Psa_104:25), nor the light that is inaccessible as God’s dwelling (1Ti_6:16), but the royal splendor and majestic glory that are reflected in the created universe (Psa_96:6). The heavens as a tent-curtain stretched out (Isa_40:22; Isa_42:5; Isa_44:22; Isa_54:2), afford the conception of the רָקִיעַ, that is, hat is extended.
Psa_104:3. The contradictory expressions, in which it is said that the upper rooms are framed with beams, and that the latter consist, of water, serve at once to show the error of any sensuous conception, and to represent the exaltation and immaterial nature of the heavenly King. [Alexander comments as follows: “The first word means, laying beams or rafters. The next phrase may either mean in or with water. The first is more obvious, the last more striking, as it represents a solid building made of a liquid or a fluid material. In the other case, the waters meant are those of the firmament, see Gen_1:6-7; Psa_18:12, where the clouds and the wings of the wind are also mentioned in the same connection.” The rendering in E. V. has not only the advantage of being the “more obvious,” it is also the only one consistent with the poetic taste of the author. Indeed Dr. Moll in his version of the Psalm, renders: “Who frameth His upper room in the waters,” but does not notice this translation in the exposition.—J. F. M.]. There can be no allusion to the custom of erecting chambers upon the flat roofs of dwelling-houses (Amo_9:6; Jer_22:13), as places of privacy and withdrawing-rooms, for God is not viewed as concealing Himself, but as manifesting His glory.
Psa_104:4. The double accusative makes the true translation doubtful. According to the common construction we must render: He makes His messengers winds (Köster), and can then put angels in the place of messengers (Sept., Luther, Stier), as in Heb_1:7. But as there is no occasion to mention angels as heavenly ministers (Venema), in connection with the forces of nature, we are justified in approving the other construction, which is also admissible. [“Who maketh the winds His messengers,” as Dr Moll has it in his version.—J. F. M.].
Psa_104:5-8. The Pillars [Psa_104:5. E. V.: foundation; see remarks on Psa_97:2.–J. F. M.] of the earth are frequently mentioned as denoting, not literally, but by a poetic mode of expression, the stability of the earth as suspended freely in space (Job_26:7). The description which follows shows that the idea of a Chaos was not then entertained (Comp. Buttmann, Mythologus, I. p. 128). The mountains are as old as the earth, and the waters which originally covered it. According to this declaration in Psa_104:6, Psa_104:8 a is to be taken as uttered parenthetically, (Ewald, Hupf., Del.), and not to be connected immediately with Psa_104:8 b, (Hitzig and others). For though the rendering: the waters rose upon the mountains, sank into the valleys, agrees in sense with Psa_107:26, (Chald., Hengst.) yet it is incompatible with the statement in Psa_104:6, that the waters stood above the mountains. So also is the other explanation that the mountains and valleys, through upheavals and sinkings (Umbreit, Maurer, Hitzig), had adjusted themselves to the positions prepared for them by God. [Dr. Moll therefore renders Psa_104:7-8 :
Before Thy rebuke they fled,
Before Thy voice of thunder they trembled away—
Mountains rose up, valleys sank down—
To the place, which thou didst establish for them.—J. F. M.].
Psa_104:10-13. We are perhaps to understand by the brooks, the valleys, ravines or wadys in which they flow (Sept. and others), but this is not linguistically certain. The fruit of thy works, Psa_104:13, is probably the rain, as produced by the clouds (Kimchi and most), or it may refer specially to the chambers which God has built for Himself, according to the translation: fruit of thy labor (Hupfeld). If plants are understood (Del.), then the earth must be used metonymically (Aben Ezra) for the dwellers on the earth, which can hardly be supposed, if we regard the preceding context.
Psa_104:15. The connection of Psa_104:15 b with what precedes, by ל with the infinitive, appears to describe a further effect of the wine, that it makes the face shine as with oil. But, apart from the circumstance that it is not the face, but the head which is anointed, we must translate מִן in its comparative construction literally: than oil; and thus oil would be mentioned in a way strange to the context. But oil, together with bread-corn and wine, is one of the chief products of the soil in Palestine, and is employed more than anything else to give flavor and richness to food. Most therefore assume rightly a looser connection of the sentence, as the same thing occurs often throughout the strophe. [Alexander: “And wine gladdens the heart of man,—(so as) to make his face shine more than oil—and bread the heart of man sustains. The text of the English Bible makes oil a distinct item in the catalogue, and oil to make his face to shine. But this is an impossible construction of the Hebrew, in which the infinitive (to make shine) bears the same relation to what goes before as the infinitive (to bring forth) in the verse preceding, and is therefore expressive, not of a distinct cause and effect, but of a consequence resulting from the one just mentioned. The true construction is given in the margin in the English Bible, to make his face shine with oil, or, more than oil. To the first of these alternative translations it may be objected, that wine cannot make men’s faces shine with oil, unless there is allusion to the festive unctions of the ancients, which, however, were restricted to the head. The other therefore seems to be the true sense, in which oil is merely mentioned as a shining substance. The description of food as sustaining the heart is very ancient. See Gen_18:5; Jdg_19:8.”—J. F. M.].
Psa_104:16-18. It is uncertain whether the expression: trees of Jehovah, Psa_104:16, is intended to imply that they overtop all others, or that they grow wild as contrasted with those planted by men. The name חֲסִידָה (Psa_104:17) is applied to a bird with great wide-spreading wings, (Zec_5:9), which builds its nest upon the lofty cypresses (according to others: firs), which has regular seasons of arriving and migrating (Jer_8:7), and belongs to the unclean birds (Lev_11:19; Deu_14:18), and is perhaps mentioned in Job_38:13, along with the pelican. According to the etymology which is assumed, it may mean a bird of a curved neck, or of kind disposition, and is therefore supposed to be either the heron (Sept., Aquila, Symm., Theodotius), or the white dove-falcon (Chald., Kimchi), or the stork (Isaaki and most). יָעִל (Psa_104:18) cannot denote the stag (Sept.) nor the gazelle (Schegg),but (according to the etymology: the climber) the wild or the mountain goat (Job_39:1; 1Sa_24:3). שָּׁפָּן that is, gnawer, is mentioned in Lev_11:5, as an unclean ruminant, and in Pro_30:26 as a sagacious animal living in flocks in the clefts of the rooks, and in Deu_14:7 is distinguished from the hare. The coney(Rabbins) is scarcely meant, even if it be true that the Phoenicians gave the name Spain to the Iberian peninsula from the number of these little animals that were found there, still less the rough and spiny hedge-hog (Sept., Vulg.). The leaping-hare or leaping-mouse, (Chald.) has more in its favor. But the rock-badger is most probably meant, which resembles the marmot, and is common on Lebanon and the districts about the Jordan. [The Hyrax Syriacus, See the article Coney in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible. I cannot find any support for the explanation, gnawer, given above. The root is undoubtedly שּׁפּן, an obsolete form, but cognate in meaning with צפןto hide.—J. F. M.].
Psa_104:19-26. For time-measuring [E. V.: seasons), literally: for appointed times, or: for sacred seasons (Gen_1:14; Lev_23:4; Sir_43:7). Psa_104:21-23 allude to Job_24:5; Job_37:8; Job_38:40. The riches in Psa_104:24 are the sum of all that has been brought into being by the creative power of God. (Gen_14:19), The word is parallel to works before mentioned, and is therefore in sense=created things, yet this not simply as such, but as including also the accessory idea of divine ownership, by which they are indicated as all belonging to God and subject to His disposal. Hence the translation: property (Luther), which is not quite accurate, but throws light upon the word. The ancient translators also are divided between κτἰσις and κτῆσις. The singular is recommended by all the ancient versions, very many codices, and many good editions, among which are the latest of Heidenheim and Baer.—The leviathan is not the crocodile, as in Job 40, but, according to the etymology, a sea-monster of immense length. בֹּו does not mean in Psa_104:26 : with it (Isaaki, Ewald, Hitzig), as in Job 40:29, but in it, Psa_104:20 (Job_40:20 f.).—The names applied to ships hani and ana in ancient Egyptian, are worthy of note, as compared with the Hebrew אֲנִי
Psa_104:30. It is not the Holy Spirit that is referred to (Geier, J. H. Mich.), nor the resurrection (the Rabbins), nor the future renovation of the universe (Stier), nor the type and security of a perpetual renewing and finally perfect regeneration of the Church (Hengst.). It is the breath of God that is spoken of, which is the breath of life to all creatures (Gen_2:7; Gen_3:19; Job_33:4; Job_34:14 : Ecc_12:7;Psa_144:4). It is for the same reason that Jehovah is called the God of the spirits of all flesh (Num_16:22; Num_27:16; Heb_12:9). The perpetual renewing of created life in the mutations of time and races is alluded to.
Psa_104:35. Hallelujah. A cry of devotion found only in the Psalter, really consisting of two words (praise Jehovah) which, however, occur only in Psa_135:3, and are designated unicum by the Masora. The usual mode of writing according to the Masora (comp. Baer, Psalterium, p. 132) is הַלְּלוּיָהּ, but in the passage before us, where it occurs for the first time, the final letter s written not הּ but ח, that is, instead of the sign Mappik there is Raphe. Even in the Talmud the learned dispute whether the two words should be united or separated. If they are to be united, we must suppose the final syllable to have been considered not as a real name of God, but as an addition for the purpose of giving emphasis to the call for praise (Geiger, Urschrift, p. 275). [Comp. a similar instance in Psa_118:5. Delitzsch cites an observation in the Talmud, that this first hallelujah is coupled significantly with the prospect of the destruction of the wicked.—J. F. M.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The wonders which are exhibited to us in the heavens, and upon earth, and among our race, are all the work of God, and are, on the one hand, to serve as a manifestation of His glory, and on the other, to be the occasion of our admiring gratitude, adoring praise, and of the believing and obedient surrender of ourselves to Him. For the whole creation is formed to be a mirror of His glory, and all creatures are the objects of His care and witnesses to His power, wisdom, and goodness. But man is the only one of them all who can gain a knowledge of this, and give to God the glory which such knowledge demands.
2. What God has created He will also preserve. And therefore does He daily and richly provide for all creatures, and give to them according to their nature and needs, as long as they continue to exist by His will, and by the power of His creative breath. They all enjoy their existence, perform their different parts, and act as it was intended they should. But man alone, among all creatures, in distinction from the involuntary instruments of the Almighty, has a real daily work. He has a definite part to play in life, and can recognize it. And in undertaking it, he becomes a servant of God, does what he should do, and finds enjoyment in God, His works, and His service, and thus gives to his life in time an eternal significance.
3. The order of nature, the gradation of created being, the whole contents of the created universe, afford to men much to meditate upon and to be grateful for. And when they recognize in them God’s working and His disposing power, they are taught by the contemplation of His works many things which lead them beyond the sphere of the visible and sensible to another world. But even the light, by which the dividing of the elements began, and through which we are enabled to become acquainted with and understand the creation, is only the royal mantle of the Divine glory, the shining garment by which we come to know the Invisible, but which veils the Eternal from the eyes of mortals.
4. If any one has a sincere and lively joy in God’s works and, still more, in God Himself, he will also keep near his heart the thought that God can always take delight in the world which He has formed, as He took delight in its creation. But this feeling is disturbed by the reflection that everything in the world is not in accordance with God’s will and to His satisfaction. This justifies the wish that the wicked may disappear. For they not only interfere with the joy and work of God and His servants, but also contradict the design of the creation, and imperil the duration of the order of the world.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The glory of God in the vastness, beauty, and order of His works.—For the light, through which God makes Himself known, there is needed an eye to observe and a mind to interpret it.—All things must be disposed according to God’s will, but man must be a willing servant of the Highest, as he is the crown of creation.—As we live and continue in being only by the breath and will of God, so must we also work for Him and for His cause, and take delight in Him and His works.—God does not merely preserve the world which He has created: He governs it also, and therefore the wicked cannot endure before Him.—We are permitted to delight ourselves in the works of God, and enjoy His gifts, but only so that both should be well-pleasing to Him.—If we are at the head of the orders of created beings, we should also take the lead in God’s service.—The earth is full of the goodness and possessions of the Lord; it is our part to thank Him for this, and to use according to His will what He has bestowed.
Starke: It is to be lamented that the book of Nature is so little read and still less understood.—When faith lives and glows in the heart, nothing but praise to God flows from it.—To praise God for His own sake, because He is such a great and glorious God, is surely something greater than to praise Him only because of the benefits which He has conferred upon us.—The real pillar and foundation on which the world stands is the Omnipotence of God.—If God preserves that which is great, can and will He not also preserve thee, O thou of little faith?—If the earth stands by the almighty word of God without visible support (Heb_1:3), why should my faith demand visible pillars for its foundation? Why should it not ground itself surely upon the gracious word of truth?—The depth of the waters may well suggest to us the depth of our sins, and the great depth also of God’s compassion.—He who can place bounds to the raging sea, can still also all the waters and waves of affliction, yes, even check the burning sea of hell.—If meat and drink daily renew the vigor of thy life, let them also strengthen thee in the resolution to live to the glory of the Lord.—The wisdom and goodness of God are His comforting attributes, of which all creatures preach to men for the confirmation of their faith.—If the transitory earth is so full of the good things of God, what will we have when we come to the land of the living?—Fish, great and small, sport and play in their element, but as soon as they are brought out of it, they languish and die. Mark, O soul! what thy element is, if thou wouldst live joyful and blessed.—Creatures devoid of reason do not know who feeds them, but God knows their wants and their desires, and gives to them richly.—The chief design of the world’s creation was the glory of God. Let this be our highest aim in all our actions.—If God takes pleasure in His works, beware lest thou misuse any of His creatures for the purposes of sin against Him; and as thou art His noblest creature, aspire to be not displeasing to Him, but well-pleasing in Christ.—The desires and thoughts of all believers should ever be directed to the lessening of the number of the ungodly and to their conversion.
Menzel: We can give to God nothing but adoration and praise, that He may have the glory. For all we have is His before He gives it.—Renschel: God has created it by His power, His wisdom has assigned its order, His goodness has in it remembered us. Blessed is he who lays that to heart, who ascribes praise and glory to God.—Arndt: God acts like a wise father who calls his child to himself. He does not rest with calling us to Himself with such kind and gracious words as the prophets and apostles speak to us. He gives, yea, showers down upon us many good gifts in nature.—Tholuck: Food can come to all creatures from no other hand than that from which came their life.—Diedrich: He who has created all these things for us, and upholds them so mightily day by day, must have something good besides in store for us. He will give us yet to praise and adore Him without sin and with an overflowing heart.—Taube: The greatness of the Creator and Preserver of the world, in the manifestation of His omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness, in the greatest as well as in the least of His works, must be joyfully celebrated by human tongues that are formed for His praise, though a sigh must be uttered over the false notes of sin, which disturb the harmony of the order of creation.
[Matt. Henry: The roaring of the young lions, like the cry of the ravens is interpreted. Doth God put this construction upon the language of mere nature, and shall He not much more interpret favorably the language of grace in His own people, though it be weak and broken groaning which cannot be uttered?—There is the work of every day, which is to be done in its day, which man must apply to every morning; for the lights are set up for us to work by and not to play by; and which he must stick to till evening; it will be time enough to rest when the night comes, when no man can work.
Bishop Horne: Let the unruly and disobedient reflect upon the terrors of His power and the terrors of His vengeance, who with a look can shake the earth, and with a touch can fire the mountains, as when He once descended upon Sinai.
Scott: The less we can comprehend the manner in which the Creator retains the earth in its course and the seasons in their order, the more we should admire and adore His power, wisdom, and goodness.
Hengstenberg: In consequence of the numerous works of God which are made according to the necessities of His various creatures, the earth is full of the good things by which He supports them. How should Zion alone starve in the midst of these riches of her God?—J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35 1. Compare first clause with Psa_104:35, and Psa_103:1; Psa_103:22.
1. Compare first clause with Psa_104:35, and Psa_103:1; Psa_103:22.
Thou art very great—It is fit to open an ode on creation and providence with an address to their ever blessed Author, and in these ascriptions of honour and majesty the poet not only strikes at once into the sublimest part of his theme, (as Psa_104:31-32,) but shows an example of reverence and piety.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35 1. The verbs (not adjectives or participles as in…
1. The verbs (not adjectives or participles as in Psa_96:4) of the Heb. express an act rather than a state: thou hast made thyself very great … thou hast clothed thyself &c. It is not, so to speak, God’s eternal and immutable greatness which the poet celebrates, but the revelation of His greatness, the assumption, as it were, of a new robe of imperial majesty in the creation of the world. Honour and majesty are the attributes of a king. Cp. Psa_96:6; Psa_21:5; Psa_8:1. For the phrase of line 3 cp. Job_40:10; Psa_93:1.
1–4. The greatness and majesty of Jehovah exhibited in creation.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 35 (1) Clothed.—For the same metaphor see Psa_93:1.
(1) Clothed.—For the same metaphor see Psa_93:1.
(1-4) First and second days of Creation. Instead, however, of describing the creation of light, the poet makes a sublime approach to his theme by treating it as a symbol of the Divine majesty. It is the vesture of God, the tremulous curtain of His tent, whose supporting beams are based, not on the earth, but on those cloud-masses which form an upper ocean. This curtain is then, as it were, drawn aside for the exit of the Monarch attended by His throng of winged messengers.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 "THE psalmist, in a time of severe trouble, arising…
"THE psalmist, in a time of severe trouble, arising from the power of the heathen, seeks consolation in reflecting on the greatness of God in nature," So Hengstenberg, correctly. The main topic of the psalm (vers. 2-32) is thus the greatness of God as seen in his works. A direct ascription of praise precedes (ver. 1) and follows (vers. 33-35) the description of God"s wonders in nature.
Bless the Lord, O my soul. (see the comment on Psa_103:1) O Lord my God, thou art very great. The keynote is struck at once. All the rest will be nothing but a development of this vast theme God"s greatness. Thou art clothed with honour and majesty; or "thou hast robed thyself in glory and grandeur" (Cheyne).
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Vers. 1-35. The greatness of God.
This psalm, charged with the truest poetry, sings of the greatness of God (ver. 1) and of the heritage of man. The subjects are inseparably mingled. Of the former we have suggested to us
I HIS GLORY. (Vers. 1, 2, 31)
II HIS POWER. (Vers. 3-9) The winds are his messengers; the fire is his servant; the clouds are his chariot; the waters flee at his command; the ocean stays at the bound he has drawn.
III HIS WISDOM. (Vers. 5, 10) Nowhere is his wisdom more apparent than in:
1. Providing for the security of the earth. The diurnal and annual rotation (with which we are familiar), giving us our change of night and day, and also of our seasons, in no way interferes with the sense of our security, while it brings into view the wonderful wisdom of God (see ver. 24).
2. In the provision of water for his thirsting creatures. The beautiful circulatory system, by which the vapour is drawn up from the seas and the lakes, carried as clouds by the winds, drawn down by the hills and the trees, purified by the earth through which it passes, comes forth as the springs which flow down in the streams and rivers through the land, and end their course by replenishing the sea, this is another striking instance of those "manifold works" "made in Divine wisdom.
IV HIS PROVIDENTIAL GOODNESS.
1. In supplying water for man and beast (vers. 10-13).
2. In providing nourishment (vers. 14-16).
3. In giving shelter and protection to the weak to the bird, to the goat, to the cony (vers. 17, 18).
4. In dividing time into seasons; (ver. 19; see Gen_1:14) so that we can calculate with perfect accuracy the incoming and outgoing of the tides, as well as the return of summer and winter.
5. In the amplitude of the gift of life. Not only are the air and the earth full of happy life, but so is the "great and wide sea" (ver. 25). All these innumerable hosts of living things insects, birds, beasts, fishes are spending a happy life in their own element, and after their own instincts. Who can form any conception of the sum of sentient life and enjoyment at any moment upon this earth?
6. In providing the materials for locomotion. Those ships of ver. 26 are suggestive of all the forces at our command, every year becoming greater, for moving rapidly over land and sea, indefinitely promoting the circulation of produce and intercourse between man and man. All these instances of Divine beneficence are suggestive of
V HIS GRACE to his human children. For:
1. If God cares so much for bird and beast, he will care very much more for us, his children by faith in Jesus Christ.
2. if he provides so bountifully with the necessaries of mortal life, we can well believe that he has made ample provision for our spiritual and eternal good.
Vers. 1-35. The heritage of man.
The psalmist sings of the greatness of God (supra), and also of the fair heritage bestowed upon us. This includes
I SUFFICIENCY AND VARIETY OF FOOD. "These all the living creatures, including man, that have been specified wait on thee, that thou mayest give them their food," etc. (ver. 27); and the "herb" (ver. 14), for the service of man, stands for all the variety of fruits and vegetables with which our need is met and our taste is gratified. The constant supply of necessary and of palatable food is no small part of our heritage.
II STRENGTH AND HEALTH. The gift of bread which "strengtheneth man"s heart" is suggestive of all the bountiful provision God has made for building up our bodily frame, raising it from infantile helplessness to manly vigour, and frequently restoring from the weakness of disease to the wholeness and capacity of health. Strength is the normal condition, and if we conformed to the laws of nature, i.e. to the will of God, it would be the general and the lasting condition.
III HAPPINESS. The "wine that makes glad the heart of man" may well stand for all those gifts of God which stimulate and gladden the soul, which give sparkle and joyousness to human life; e.g. the good wine of human fellowship, and that of honourable enterprise, and that of generous helpfulness.
IV LABOUR. For while oppressive toil is an evil and a part of the penalty of sin, wholesome and regular activity, developing muscle and nerve, ministering to health, conducing to moral soundness, resulting in many kinds of wealth, is a true blessing to our race.
V REST. God makes the darkness, in which the wild beasts come forth for their prey (vers. 20, 21), but in which also man lies down to rest; and the sleep which comes with the night is as welcome as the labour which comes with the day (ver. 23). The invigoration which comes between the evening and the morning, fitting the body and the mind for new life, is one of God"s kindest gifts to man.
VI JOY IN GOD AND IN HIS SERVICE. (Vers. 33, 34) The act of contemplation when God (with his loving kindness) is the Object of our thought, and the service of praise, are specified; but these are suggestive of all the blessedness which springs from piety and devotion. All reverent thought, all worship, all sacred study and sacred song, all Christian service rendered "as unto God," all really religious offerings, all this is a large part of the human heritage. And it all demands of us the frequent utterance (vers. 1, 35) as well as the deeply cherished spirit, of gratitude and praise.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-35. God"s love for living creatures.
This psalm celebrates and proves it. For, see
I HE HAS PLACED THEM EVERYWHERE. The sea, the air, the land, all teem with it, as this psalm tells. And the lower life points to the higher, and proclaims that when God"s will is done, that, too, shall fill earth and heaven.
II HE HAS ABUNDANTLY PROVIDED FOR THEM. Food, habitation, refuge (vers. 16-18). And Christ came, that we might have life, and have it more abundantly. "He is able to save to the uttermost." Full provision for fulness of life is made.
III AND SUITABLY LIKEWISE. The trees for the birds" nests, the hills and rocks for those creatures that dwell there. And so his grace is according to our need. He has a niche for each of us to fill, which will suit none else so well, and he prepares us for the place in which he would have us be.
IV AND ALL HIS CREATURES BUT OURSELVES GLADLY ACCEPT HIS PROVISION. They never refuse his bounty, but depend on it always. Each makes its way to its own home. Christ is the soul"s home: shall we turn away from that? S.C.
Vers. 1, 2. The psalm of creation: the first day.
This psalm should he read in connection with the story of God"s creating the heaven and the earth.
I IT BEGINS BY THE PSALMIST SEEKING TO ATTUNE HIS SOUL FOR HIS STUDY OF THE WORKS OF GOD.
1. He would that the Lord should be praised, and by himself especially. "O my soul". (cf. Ps 103) If the study of nature were entered on with this desire, how far more fruitful it would be! None of the good that has resulted from that study would be lost, but much of the incidental ill that too often accompanies it would be avoided. Science would be transfigured into worship, with all the moral and spiritual advantages that worship brings.
2. Then there is the spirit of awe. "Thou art very great.
3. Of adoration. "Clothed with honour and majesty." It is not the mere power, skill, and ingenuity of the Creator that strike the psalmist"s soul, but the moral characteristics of God, which bring to him honour and majesty as they ought to do. A study so begun cannot but be fruitful of good.
II THEN HE SPEAKS OF THE WORK OF THE FIRST DAY THE CREATION OF THE LIGHT. He does not tell, as Genesis does, of what preceded that, but comes at once to the blessed and final result.
1. There had been a previous creation. "In the beginning God created," etc. Without doubt it had all been fair and beautiful, as in the moral creation; for there, too, man was made in the image of God, perfect, upright, without sin.
2. But ere the light was formed, a sad change had come. We find that "the earth was without form," etc. Chaos reigned. Moreover, the waters seem to have rushed in, and darkness brooded over all. What a true picture of the moral condition ere the spiritual light came! Disorder, subjection to sin, impenetrable ignorance, the darkness of the soul.
3. There must have been, ere this, some terrible shock which turned God"s far off original creation into the hideous deformity of which Gen_1:2 tells. Certainly it is so with man"s moral nature. God made him in his own image. He is, until regenerated, the victim of a moral chaos. There must have been some "fall," some terrible catastrophe, which changed man, made in God"s image, into what we know unregenerate human nature to be.
4. But, as with the earth and heavens, so with redeemed man, there has come a blessed change. God shed abroad the light, covered himself with it "as with a garment" (ver. 2). This is how God began the creation work. "Let there be light." There had been, indeed, the Spirit brooding over the face of the deep, but the first manifestation of the creating work was in the creation of the light. And is it not ever so? Does not God always begin thus his regenerating work? The man comes to see himself as he really is how wretched, miserable, apart from God; how hopeless, helpless, and every day getting worse; and then cometh the further light of God in Christ. (2Co_4:6) And then, as the forlorn earth yielded itself to the plastic hand of the Creator, to be formed and fashioned as he willed, so, under the power of the light of the soul, it yields itself in like manner. And the Spirit of God is the Author of all this. We know not how long he may have been brooding over the darkness in the one case or the other, only that the light was through him. This impartation of light is ever his work. When he comes he convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: that is the first and preparatory work. God says, "Let there be light," and there is light. The result is that when God comes into the soul he seems to be clothed with light, so widespread, so intense, is the illumination of the soul. The peril is lest any should quench that light, or, having seen it, should cease to walk in it. What wonder, when the light is seen and welcomed, there should be a quickened conscientiousness, a scrupulosity and carefulness, which hitherto the soul had never known!
III LET US PRAY THAT THAT FIRST DAY"S WORK MAY BE DONE IN US. So only can we truly know ourselves in God; so only can we enter on that career which all along shall have the favour of God and end in the eternal rest. S.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–35 It is now three years and a half since…
It is now three years and a half since we sent out the fourth portion of "The Treasury of David, "and many have been the enquiries as to when the fifth volume would appear. Our publishers have given hopeful replies to the outside public, but their own patience has been considerably strained as they have watched our slow progress and bemoaned our long intervals of inactivity. The book is ready at last, very much to the author's content though he cannot say that he is quite so well satisfied with it as with the former volumes. There is more work in it, but less to show for the labour. Equal diligence has been bestowed upon it, but upon many of the Psalms the materials have been extremely slender, and therefore research has had to go further afield to discover notes and expositions. Where there was much material there was more freedom of selection, and so the extracts were rich and suggestive, but now that the supply is scanty that which we discover after much hunting is not always of the very highest value.
As most of the commentators upon the Psalms proceed in their work they become slovenly, and appear to write hurriedly and think superficially, either because they grow weary of their huge enterprise, or else because they have said their best things already: this makes the compiler's labour the more severe. Another source of the increasing "famine in the land" is the unhappy fact that the lazy practice of referring to a passage in a former psalm is continually carried out by commentators; or, what is rather worse, the writers fall into the habit of repeating, with scarce a variation of language, that which they have said before.
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Our greatest trouble is occasioned by the fact that the expounders are not impartial, but spend all their love, or at least their energies, upon favourite portions of the sacred volume, passing by other passages with scarcely a remark, as if all Scripture were not equally inspired. Why should so much be written on Psalm 106 and so little upon CXVIII? Upon here and there a passage everybody seems to have written or spoken, but having passed through these few frequented places we have had to travel along an untrodden road. Of many a text we have had to sigh, "Few there be that find it." We are writing of the Psalms, the best read portion of the Old Testament, and therefore the fact is the more singular. We have thousands of writers, of one kind or another, but they go in flocks, like sheep, traversing only the same texts and passages. For want of a conscientious effort to expound the whole of Scripture, much of it lies as little considered as if it had never been written for our instruction.
Nor is this the only reason for the time which this volume has occupied, though we judge it to be quite sufficient, but we have desired to complete this work at our best, and not to allow the close of it to exhibit signs of fatigue and decline. We have often sat down to write our comment upon a psalm, and have risen from the task because we did not feel at home at it. It is of no use compelling the mind, its productions in such a case are like forced fruits, disappointing and devoid of flavour. We like to write after the manner of John Bunyan, who said, "As I pulled, it came, "and we prefer that the pulling should be as gentle as possible. So it has happened that we have lingered for months over a psalm, feeling quite unfit to enter upon it. Especially was this the case over the hundred and ninth psalm, which we sometimes think we never should have been able to handle at all if it had not been for the Bulgarian massacres, which threw us into such a state of righteous indignation that while we were musing the fire burned, and we melted the sentences, and wished that we could pour them boiling hot upon the monsters. Later tidings make us feel that the other side might well be favoured with similar visitations. Other psalms have had their difficulties, though none to be compared with CIX. The grand Cosmos of Psalm 114 was not to be dismissed in a few days; even now, after laying our best efforts at its feet, we feel dissatisfied with the poor result. However, we have done our best, and have grappled honestly with all hard places. We are so far through our labour and look for a full deliverance. If some of our friends have had to Wait, we hope they will be gainers by obtaining fruit all the riper and better from coming in due season.
This volume is shorter than those which preceded it, on account of the interposition of the hundred and nineteenth psalm, which is far too long to be incorporated in this volume. Being also too long to be embodied in the next, it will be attempted by itself, if health and strength permit. Then we may reckon that from the hundred and twentieth to the hundred and fiftieth will make another volume of about the usual size, and so "The Treasury" will be completed, if the Lord will, in seven portions. Innumerable thanks which we have received render the continuance of this work a very happy engagement, and feeling ourselves free to take as much time as we please, it will never degenerate into task work, nor will it be executed "by the piece, "as too much literary work is evidently done. If we die before it is completed, it will be better to leave an unfinished work executed with care than to make a hurried close with inferior workmanship.
In this volume, as in all the rest, we have had the indefatigable assistance of Mr. J.L. Keys, who, in addition to a vast amount of copying, has visited various libraries and museums to select from rare works which could not be found in any other places. Our venerable friend, the Rev. George Rogers, has all along contributed his invaluable sermon outlines, for which we are deeply grateful. Mr. Gracey, the classical tutor of the Pastors' College, assisted us through the earlier psalms of this volume in making selections from the Latin authors, and when he was obliged to decline, owing to the pressure of his engagements, his place was ably filled by the Rev. E.T. Gibson, late of Crayford, to whom we also owe certain notes from German authors. The immense mass of work which has been done in translating does not appear in the volume, for only here and there an extract has been selected out of the immense area of Latinity which has had to be traversed. To begin with, many of the voluminous authors are so fanciful as to be frequently ridiculous in their interpretations, and amid acres of words one can hardly find a grain of reasonable comment. Worse still, if worse can be, their translations are not to be relied upon, and they generally throw the most weight upon the slenderest threads, hanging ponderous teachings upon very doubtful renderings. In addition to all this, the Latin authors, like the English, greatly degenerate as they proceed, and the quotable portions become more and more rare. We have somewhat enlarged upon this point that our readers may see that this smaller volume represents far more labour than any of its predecessors. Driven to the Latin authors by the poverty of the English, we have not used a tenth part of what has been selected.
It has hardly been encouraging to do more work with less apparent result, and yet it must be more useful to give hints for the interpretation of passages which have, been neglected than merely to present our readers with what they could easily have found for themselves. Reflecting upon this, we thank God and take courage.
Though frequently interrupted by ill health, we hope to proceed with our work with all possible diligence, indulging the hope that when the author and compiler shall sleep with his fathers, the libraries of his brethren will remain enriched, and other minds will be assisted in setting forth the infinite fulness of this incomparable portion of the word of God. We cannot but express our sense of the superficiality of the best and most laborious of comments when compared with the bottomless depths of the Sacred Word, nor can we refrain from uttering our growing conviction that the Scriptures possess a verbal as well as a plenary inspiration; indeed, we are quite unable to see how they could have the one without the other. So much of meaning dwells in the turn of an expression, the tense of a verb, or the number of a noun, that we believe in the inspiration of the words themselves; certainly the words are the things written, and the only things that can be writtenfor the refined spirit of a passage is not the creature of pen and ink. Our Lord's favourite sentence, "It is written, "must of necessity apply to words, for only words are written. Those words which the Holy Ghost teacheth are, however, by no means to be regarded as mere words, for besides their office of conserving the inner meaning, as the shell preserves the mystic germ within the egg, they are themselves spirit and life. From all of them we gather quickening, and they breathe fire into our souls.
May the enlightening Spirit rest upon all students of the Psalms, and grant them to see far more deeply into the hidden meaning of these sacred hymns than we have been enabled to do. We rise from our perusal of each holy passage abashed at our own short sightedness, and almost overwhelmed at our temerity in having dared to undertake such a work as we have brought to the present stage. May He who accepteth us according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not, bless our unworthy labours to His own glory, for Christ's sake.
Yours very heartily,
C.H. Spurgeon
CLAPHAM,
August, 1878.
Here we have one of the loftiest and longest sustained flights of the inspired muse. The psalm gives an interpretation to the many voices of nature, and sings sweetly both of creation and providence. The poem contains a complete cosmos sea and land, cloud and sunlight, plant and animal, light and darkness, life and death, are all proved to be expressive of the presence of the Lord. Traces of the six days of creation are very evident, and though the creation of man, which was the crowning work of the sixth day, is not mentioned, this is accounted for from the fact that man is himself the singer: some have ever, discerned marks of the divine rest upon the seventh day in Ps 104:31. It is a poet's version of Genesis. Nor is it alone the present condition of the earth which is here the subject of song; but a hint is given of those holier times when we shall see "a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, "out of which the sinner shall be consumed, Ps 104:35. The spirit of ardent praise to God runs through the whole, and with it a distinct realization of the divine Being as a personal existence, loved and trusted as well as adored.
We have no information as to the author, but the Septuagint assigns it to David, and we see no reason for ascribing it to any one else. His spirit, style, and manner of writing are very manifest therein, and if the psalm must be ascribed to another, it must be to a mind remarkably similar, and we could only suggest the wise son of DavidSolomon, the poet preacher, to whose notes upon natural history in the Proverbs some of the verses bear a striking likeness. Whoever the human penman may have been, the exceeding glory and perfection of the Holy Spirit's own divine authorship are plain to every spiritual mind.
After ascribing blessedness to the Lord the devout psalmist sings of the light and the firmament, which were the work of the first and second days Ps 104:1-6. By an easy transition he describes the separation of the waters from the dry land, the formation of rain, brooks and rivers, and the uprising of green herbs, which were the produce of the third day Ps 104:7-18. Then the appointment of the sun and moon to be the guardians of day and night commands the poet's admiration Ps 104:19-23, and so he sings the work of the fourth day. Having already alluded to many varieties of living creatures, the psalmist proceeds from Ps 104:24-30 to sing of the life with which the Lord was pleased to fill the air, the sea, and the land; these forms of existence were the peculiar produce of the fifth and sixth days. We may regard the closing verses Ps 104:31-35 as a Sabbath meditation, hymn, and prayer. The whole lies before us as a panorama of the universe viewed by the eye of devotion. O for grace to render due praise unto the Lord while reading it.
Ver. 1. Bless the LORD, O my soul. This psalm begins and ends like the Hundred and Third, and it could not do better: when the model is perfect it deserves to exist in duplicate. True praise begins at home. It is idle to stir up others to praise if we are ungratefully silent ourselves. We should call upon our inmost hearts to awake and bestir themselves, for we are apt to be sluggish, and if we are so when called upon to bless God, we shall have great cause to be ashamed. When we magnify the Lord, let us do it heartily: our best is far beneath his worthiness, let us not dishonour him by rendering to him half hearted worship.
O LORD my God, thou art very great. This ascription has in it a remarkable blending of the boldness of faith, and the awe of holy fear: for the psalmist calls the infinite Jehovah "my God, "and at the same time, prostrate in amazement at the divine greatness, he cries out in utter astonishment, "Thou art very great." God was great on Sinai, yet the opening words of his law were, "I am the Lord thy God; " his greatness is no reason why faith should not put in her claim, and call him all her own. The declaration of Jehovah's greatness here given would have been very much in place at the end of the psalm, for it is a natural inference and deduction from a survey of the universe: its position at the very commencement of the poem is an indication that the whole psalm was well considered and digested in the mind before it was actually put into words; only on this supposition can we account for the emotion preceding the contemplation. Observe also, that the wonder expressed does not refer to the creation and its greatness, but to Jehovah himself. It is not "the universe is very great!" but "THOU art very great." Many stay at the creature, and so become idolatrous in spirit; to pass onward to the Creator himself is true wisdom.
Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Thou thyself art not to be seen, but thy works, which may be called thy garments, are full of beauties and marvels which redound to thine honour. Garments both conceal and reveal a man, and so do the creatures of God. The Lord is seen in his works as worthy of honour for his skill, his goodness, and his power, and as claiming majesty, for he has fashioned all things in sovereignty, doing as he wills, and asking no man's permit. He must be blind indeed who does not see that nature is the work of a king. These are solemn strokes of God's severer mind, terrible touches of his sterner attributes, broad lines of inscrutable mystery, and deep shadings of overwhelming power, and these make creation's picture a problem never to be solved, except by admitting that he who drew it giveth no account of his matters, but ruleth all things according to the good pleasure of his will. His majesty is, however, always so displayed as to reflect honour upon his whole character; he does as lie wills, but he wills only that which is thrice holy, like himself. The very robes of the unseen Spirit teach us this, and it is ours to recognize it with humble adoration.
Whole Psalm. This psalm is an inspired "Oratorio of Creation." Christopher Wordsworth.
Whole Psalm. The Psalm is delightful, sweet, and instructive as teaching us the soundest views of nature (la mas sans fisica), and the best method of pursuing the study of it, viz., by admiring with one eye the works of God, and with the other God himself, their Creator and Preserver. Sanchez, quoted by Perowne.
Whole Psalm. It might almost be said that this one psalm represents the image of the whole Cosmos. We are astonished to find in a lyrical poem of such a limited compass, the whole universethe heavens and the earthsketched with a few bold touches. The calm and toilsome labour of man, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, when his daily work is done, is here contrasted with the moving life of the elements of nature. This contrast and generalisation in the conception of the mutual action of natural phenomena, and this retrospection of an omnipresent invisible power, which can renew the earth or crumble it to dust, constitute a solemn rather than a glowing and gentle form of poetic creation. A. Vonl Hurnboldt's Cosmos.
Whole Psalm. Its touches are indeed few, rapidbut how comprehensive and sublime! Is it God? "He is clothed with light as with a garment, "and when he walks abroad, it is on the "wings of the wind." The winds or lightnings? They are his messengers or angels: "Stop us not, "they seem to say; "the King's business requireth haste." The waters? The poet shows them in flood, covering the face of the earth, and then as they now lie, enclosed within their embankments, to break forth no more for ever. The springs? He traces them, by one inspired glance, as they run among the hills, as they give drink to the wild and lonely creatures of the wilderness, as they nourish the boughs, on which sing the birds, the grass, on which feed the cattle, the herb, the corn, the olive tree, the vine, which fill man's mouth, cheer his heart, and make his face to shine. Then he skims with bold wing all lofty objectsthe trees of the Lord on Lebanon, "full of sap, "the fir trees, and the storks which are upon themthe high hills, with their wild goatsand the rocks with their conics. Then he soars up to the heavenly bodiesthe sun and the moon. Then he spreads abroad his wings in the darkness of the night, which "hideth not from Him, "and hears the beasts of the forest creeping abroad to seek their prey, and the roar of the lions to God for meat, coming up upon the wings of midnight. Then as he sees the shades and the wild beasts fleeing together, in emulous haste, from the presence of the morning sun, and man, strong and calm in its light as in the smile of God, hieing to his labour, he exclaims, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all!" He casts, next, one look at the oceana look glancing at the ships which go there, at the leviathan which plays there; and then piercing down to the innumerable creatures, small and great, which are found below its unlifted veil of waters. He sees, then, all the beings, peopling alike earth and sea, waiting for life and food around the table of their Divine Masternor waiting in vaintill, lo! he hides his face, and they are troubled, die, and disappear in chaos and night. A gleam, next, of the great resurrection of nature and of man comes across his eye. "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth." But a greater truth still succeeds, and forms the climax of the psalm(a truth Humboldt, with all his admiration of it, notices not, and which gives a Christian tone to the whole) "The Lord shall rejoice in his works." He contemplates a yet more perfect Cosmos. He is "to consume Sinners" and sin "out of" this fair universe: and then, when man is wholly worthy of his dwelling, shall God say of both it and him, with a yet deeper emphasis than when he said it at first, and smiling at the same time a yet warmer and softer smile, "It is very good." And with an ascription of blessing to the Lord does the poet close this almost angelic descant upon the works of nature, the glory of God, and the prospects of man. It is not merely the unity of the Cosmos that he had displayed in it, but its progression, as connected with the parallel progress of manits thorough dependence on one Infinite Mindthe "increasing purpose" which runs along itand its final purification, when it shall blossom into "the bright consummate flower" of the new heavens and the new earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness; "this is the real burden and the peculiar glory of the 104th Psalm. George Gilfillan, in "The Bards of the Bible".
Whole Psalm. It is a singular circumstance in the composition of this psalm, that each of the parts of the First Semichorus, after the first, begins with a participle. And these participles are accusatives, agreeing with hwhy, the object of the verb ygdb, at the beginning of the whole psalm. Bless the Jehovahputting on extendinglayingconstitutingtravellingmaking settingsendingwateringmakingmaking. Thus, this transitive verb, in the opening of the psalm, extending its government through the successive parts of the same semichorus, except the last, unites them all in one long period. Samuel Horsley.
Whole Psalm. As to the details, the sections intervening between verses 2 and 31, they may be read as a meditation upon creation and the first "ordering of the world, "as itself the counterpart and foreshadowing of the new and restored order in the great Sabbath or Millenary period, or, it may be, they are actually descriptive of thisbeginning with the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven (verse 3 with Ps 18:9-11), attended with "the angels of his power" (verse 4 with 2Th 1:7 Gr.): followed by the "establishing" of the earth, no more to be "moved" or "agitated" by the convulsions and disturbances which sin has caused: after which Nature is exhibited in the perfection of her beautyall things answering the end of their creation: all the orders of the animal world in harmony with each other, and all at peace with man; all provided for by the varied produce of the earth, no longer cursed, bug blessed, and again made fruitful by God, "on whom all wait...who openeth his hand and fills them with good"; and all his goodness meeting with its due acknowledgment from his creatures, who join in chorus to praise him, and say"O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. Hallelujah." William De Burgh.
Ver. 1. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." A good man's work lieth most within doors, he is more taken up with his own soul, than with all the world besides; neither can he ever be alone so long as he hath God and his own heart to converse with. John Trapp.
Ver. 1. With what reverence and holy awe doth the psalmist begin his meditation with that acknowledgment! "O Lord, my God, thou art very great; "and it is the joy of the saints that he who is their God is a great God: the grandeur of the prince is the pride and pleasure of all his good subjects. Matthew Henry.
Ver. 1. Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. That is, as Jerome says, Thou art arrayed and adorned with magnificence and splendour; Thou art acknowledged to be glorious and illustrious by thy works, as a man by his garment. Whence it is clear that the greatness celebrated here is not the intrinsic but the exterior or revealed greatness of God. Lorinus.
Ver. 1. Each created, redeemed, regenerated soul is bound to praise the Lord, the Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier; for that God the Son, who in the beginning made the worlds, and whose grace is ever carrying on his work to its perfect end by the operation of the Holy Ghost, has been revealed before us in his exceeding glory. He, as the eternal High priest, hath put on the Urim and Thummim of majesty and honour, and hath clothed himself with light, as a priest clothes himself with his holy vestments: his brightness on the mount of transfiguration was but a passing glimpse of what he is now, ever hath been, and ever shall be. He is the true Light, therefore his angels are the angels of light, his children the children of light, this doctrine the doctrine of light. The universe is his tabernacle; the heavens visible and invisible are the curtains which shroud his holy place. He hath laid the beams and foundations of his holy of holies very high, even above the waters which are above the firmament. The clouds and the winds of the lower heaven are his chariot, upon which he stood when he ascended from Olivet, upon which he will sit when he cometh again. "Plain Commentary".
Ver. 1. (first clause) An exhortation to one's own heart.
1. To remember the Lord as the first cause of all good. Bless not man, or fate, but the Lord.
2. To do this in a loving, grateful, hearty, praising manner. Bless the Lord.
3. To do it truly and intensely. O my soul.
4. To do it nowfor various reasons and in all possible ways.
Ver. 1 (second clause). He is all this essentially, and in nature, providence, grace, and judgment.
Psalms 104:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 10, 14, 16, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35 O Lord my God, Thou art very great.
Psa_104:1-35
O Lord my God, Thou art very great.
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A hymn of praise to God in Nature
I. The universality of Gods workings in Nature.
1. In the domain of dead matter. He is operating in the waters as they sail in the clouds, come down in the showers, etc. He is operating on the crusted earth, laying its foundations, touching its soil into verdure, and shaking it by volcanic fires. He looketh on the earth and it trembleth, etc.
2. In the domain of living matter,
(1) He works in all vegetable life--in the smallest blade as well as in the mightiest monarchs of the forest.
(2) He works in all sentient life--feeds every beast of the field, etc.
3. In the domain of rational existence. God works in all moral minds, from the highest angel to the humblest soul on earth.
II. The personality of Gods workings in Nature.
1. He works sublimely. If we take the telescope, we are struck with mute amazement at the vastness and splendour of the stellar systems; if we take the microscope and look at the wing of the smallest insect, or even at an atom of metallic dust, what brilliancy and perfection we discover. He paints His beauty on an insects wing, and wheels His throne upon the rolling worlds.
2. He works incessantly. There is no pause in His exertions; He neither slumbers nor sleeps, always at work, and at work everywhere and in everything. It takes as much life, says Emerson, to conserve as to create the universe.
3. He works benevolently. His desire to communicate His blessedness to other beings is the philosophy of the universe.
4. He works wisely. The Great Author never revises His books, the Great Architect never alters His plans.
5. He works in nature morally.
(1) The inspiring of the human soul with rapturous worship (verse 34). There is no true happiness without true worship; and God so appears in Nature as to awaken all souls into an anthem of praise.
(2) To clear from the soul all moral wrong (verse 35). Gods purpose, in all His operations on the earth as well as in the truths of His Gospel, is to make this world morally better and happier. (Homilist.)
A psalm of Providence
This and the psalm immediately foregoing are closely connected. The one sings of God in salvation, the other of God in creation. The first is a hymn; the second, a poem. The first is the peculiar song of the Church; the second, of all His manifold works. The opening of the psalm conveys a sense of being bowed down with the greatness of the Divine Majesty. No description of God is attempted. Only His robe is seen. Light is the robe of God, with which He has covered Himself. And water is the robe of earth, with which God has covered it. This thought governs the chief part of the poem. It might be called the water psalm. For physical life, as we know it, water is essential. God may have creatures formed of fire and living in the fierce stars. God has, we believe, beings of a spiritual nature. But in the natural universe it is only in that small region where water can exist that vegetable, animal, and human life are found. We can but live in earths water robe. And grandly the psalmist describes it. In clouds the waters gather above the mountains, and await the Divine bidding. Then they hasten to their appointed work. Some roll up the hill sides in mists, some stream down in rivulets; all go to the place God has appointed them. In the deep seas they dance in waves, and roar on the beach, but keep their bounds. With splendid vivacity the poet then describes the water at work in sustaining life. The wild ass drinks, and his strength is renewed. The cedars of Lebanon have their draughts. The great trees, water sustained, provide homes for the singing birds. In them the stork has her house. Grass for cattle, bread and wine and oil for men, supplying varied needs, are produced. In the far-stretching sea there is vigorous life in many and varied forms. And as thus the waters are seen to obey their first command, to bring forth abundantly, there comes the beautiful remark, These all wait upon Thee, O God, etc. The 104th psalm is very evidently a paraphrase of the 1st chapter of the Book of Genesis. There is this great difference, the psalm before us is rather a song of Providence than of creation. It does not speak of God as completing the machinery of earth and then setting it in motion and retiring for rest. It is God ever living, ever watching, ever at work. This psalm is the necessary supplement to Genesis. In the panorama at the opening of Holy Scripture there is calm and restfulness, but in the picture here all is movement. In the one God looks, and again and again pronounces all to be good. But here there are signs of the entrance of some element of restlessness and disorder. The mountain streams suffer rebuke--they are chased by thunder to their appointed place. When night comes the young lions are heard roaring after their prey. When the sun leads in the dawn man has to go to his toil and labour until the evening. There is something wrong. Signs of manifold wisdom are apparent, but there are darkness, want, toil, trouble, and death. A discord has evidently entered, and the perfect harmony is gone. Here then is a great mystery. Looking abroad upon nature, the prospect is that of a glorious creation, but with something wrong. It has been compared to a perfect chronometer into the works of which a pin has fallen. Science cannot but see much that is mysterious, and at times seem baffled. Creation tells of marvellous wisdom, but all is not right. It shows vast arrangements for happiness which something has marred. This world is a vase of exceeding loveliness, but it has fallen and lies shattered with jagged edges and points. The study of nature ever leads to the conclusion that it is the work of infinite wisdom, but spoiled in some mysterious manner. Everywhere are there signs of the handiwork of One who wrought for purity and peace and love, and everywhere is foulness and disorder and war. Fact or poem, Genesis gives the only solution. Sin has entered, and the splendid work is shattered. With a truer science than many of those who profess to study nature, the psalmist recognizes this and breathes the prayer, May sinners pass away from the earth and evil-doers be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Hallelujah. St. Augustine of Hippo, in his very remarkable series of sermons on this psalm, comes to the conclusion that a spiritual meaning must be sought. He will have water here to allude to the love of God which is shed abroad on our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us. By the world which He hath so founded that it shall not be moved for ever and ever, he says I understand the Church. As light is the garment of God, and water the garment of earth, so is love the garment of the Church. It is only as she is robed in this that she is attired with beauty. It is her wedding garment, for he that loveth not is not in Christ. It is in love that God lays the beams of the chambers of His home where there are many mansions. It is love that flows up over the lofty mountains and down in cascades to the humble valleys, sometimes in rushing torrents, and sometimes in hidden springs. It is love that gives verdure and refreshment, and through which souls find a home. Love which is like a mighty sea wherein live creatures innumerable. In Gods works in nature are seen His glory and majesty. In the Church is manifest His love. And it is as we consider this, that with sweetest notes we sing, My meditations of Him shall be sweet, I will be glad in the Lord. (J. H. Cooke.)
The greatness of God
I. In comparison with the kings of the earth. We read of Alexander the Great, of Constantine the Great, and Frederick the Great, but, verily, in comparison with the God of heaven, their greatness dwindles into insignificance--dwindles into nothing! Have they thrones? Their thrones are upon the earth; Gods throne is in the heavens, high above all height. Have they robes? Gods robes are robes of light and majesty. Have they pavilions? He stretcheth forth the heavens as His pavilion, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Have they chariots? He maketh the clouds His chariot--He walketh upon the wings of the wind. Have they kingdoms? The whole universe is Gods kingdom, and literally He ruleth over all.
II. In certain passages of Scripture which speak sublimely of Him (Hab_3:3-6; Psa_18:6-15; Isa_40:12; Isa_40:15-17; Rev_20:11-12).
III. In certain attributes ascribed to Him.
1. He is uncreated and eternal.
2. Omniscient.
3. Omnipotent.
4. Omnipresent.
IV. In the mighty work of creation. We have spoken of His omnipotence as an attribute; here we have its sublime demonstration. How vast is this creation, and how wonderful in all its parts!
V. In the world of redemption. This exhibits His moral grandeur; and it is this which makes Him emphatically and supremely great indeed. Infinitely great in goodness as He is infinitely great in power; infinitely great in all His moral as in all His natural perfections; so that, in the sublimest sense, it may be said of Him that He is a God, all oer consummate, absolute, full orbed, in His whole round of rays complete. Inferences.
1. How reasonable it is that we should worship and serve this only living and true God.
2. How dreadful a thing it must be to have this great God for an enemy.
3. How blessed it is to have God upon our side. (D. Baker, D.D.)
Nature
Nature has two great revelations,--that of use and that of beauty; and the first thing we observe about these two characteristics of her is, that they are bound together, and tied to each other. The beauty of nature is not, as it were, a fortunate accident, which can be separated from her use; there is no difference in the tenure upon which these two characteristics stand; the beauty is just as much a part of nature as the use; they are only different aspects of the self-same facts. It is worth observing, in the history of the mind of this country, the formation of a kind of passion for scenery and natural beauty. Though it might sometimes appear that there is nothing particularly serious in the current fashion, still the general sentiment shows a serious passion existing in the poetry and thought of the age, which it follows and copies. What is the religious bearing, then, of this modern passion for nature in its pictorial aspect? First, then, with respect to the place which the beauty of nature has in the argument of Design from nature. When the materialist has exhausted himself in efforts to explain utility in nature, it would appear to be the peculiar office of beauty to rise up suddenly as a confounding and baffling extra, which was not even formally provided for in his scheme. Nature goes off at a tangent which carries her farther than ever from the head under which he places her, and shows the utter inadequacy of that head to include all that has to be included in it. The secret of nature is farther off than ever from what he thinks of it. Physical science goes back and back into nature, but it is the aspect and front of nature which gives the challenge; and it is a challenge which no backward train of physical causes can meet. But again, nature is partly a curtain and partly a disclosure, partly a veil and partly a revelation; and here we come to her faculty of symbolism, which is so strong an aid to, and has so immensely affected, the principles of worship. It is natural for us to regard the beauty and grandeur of nature as not stopping with itself, but bearing a relation to something moral, of which it is the similitude and type. Certainly no person has a right to fasten his own fancies upon the visible creation, and say that its various features mean this and that, resemble this or that in the moral world; but if the association is universal, if we cannot even describe nature without the help of moral terms--solemn, tender, awful, and the like--it is evidence of a natural and real similitude of physical things to moral. Nature is sometimes spoken of in a pantheistic corporeal manner; as if it were a kind of bodily manifestation of the Divine Being, analogous to that garment of the flesh which encircles the human soul, and is the instrument of expression to it. But the manifestation of the Deity which takes place in the beauty of nature rests upon the ground and the principle of language. It is the revelation of the character of God in the way a material type or similitude can be. But a type is a kind of distinct language--the language of oblique and indirect expression, as contrasted with direct. While we do not worship the material created sign, for that would be idolatry, we still repose on it as the true language of the Deity. In this peculiar view of nature there are two points in striking concurrence with the vision-language of Scripture. First, Scripture has specially consecrated the faculty of sight, and has partly put forth, and has promised in a still more complete form, a manifestation of the Deity to mankind, through the medium of a great sight. This view only breaks out in fragments in the Old Testament. It emerges into light when nature is spoken of as the garment and robe of the Deity, when the glory of the Lord covers the tabernacle; when Moses is permitted to behold from the cleft in the rock the skirts of the Divine glory. Especially does the idea of a visible manifestation come out in the prophetic visions, where the splendid gleams and colours of nature, sapphire and amber, rainbow and flame, are collected together, and combined in an emblematic figure and shape, in order to make the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw, says the Prophet, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one that spake. But the scattered rays of pictorial representation which only occasionally pierce through the clouds of the Old Testament, are gathered into one focus in the New, they converge and are absorbed into an ineffable, eternal appearance, in which God will ever be seen as He is, and they issue in the doctrine of the Visio Dei. Secondly, it must be remarked, as another principle in the Scriptural representation, that the act of seeing a perfectly glorious sight or object is what constitutes the spectators and beholders own glory. The future life is called a state of glory in Scripture, and it is called such not only in reference to the world in which it will be enjoyed, which is a glorious world, but also with regard to those who enjoy it; who attain to glory as a personal state. This personal state is enjoyed by them on this principle, that they are glorified as spectators of glory, that beholding Majesty is their own exaltation, and adoration their own ascent. But this latter is certainly the principle of nature and it is inculcated by all who vindicate the place and office of nature as a spectacle. No one was ever struck with wonder and admiration in beholding the works of God, no one was ever impressed strongly by the beauty and majesty of the visible creation, without at the same time feeling an accession of rank and elevation to himself from the act. (J. B. Mozley, D.D.)
Natures teaching
Nothing is more obvious than that the writers of the Psalms were attracted by the beauty, influence, and fecundity of the earth. Now beauty, apart from all else, is something which must for ever attract us. Beauty is something so subtle, so incomprehensible, that there is no language we can employ or discover which can in any way enable us to understand what is the common root and ground out of which all the beauty springs. And this particular view of nature is very highly important in this materialistic age, when men are so disposed to teach that there is nothing beyond what we see; and so lead our minds to the contemplation of what is material, to give an explanation of all the wonders of nature, the causes of their wonderful operations, and the secret of their power. Wherever you travel with a man of science, and you draw his attention to something in the universe, he will have ready to hand an explanation of what you have pointed out, and a ready answer to the difficulties in your mind. If you are travelling, for instance, in Switzerland, and you point out the grandeur and glory of the mountain range, he will at once begin to explain to you how they arose and got their present configuration, and be extremely learned with regard to the properties of which they consist. After he has dilated at great length, with all learning and profundity, on these aspects of nature, you suddenly turn to him and say, All you tell me may be very true; your explanation may be very profound, and your science may be very subtle, but I would like to ask you one question. Can you tell me what the beauty of the mountains is? Is it the height, or the depth; is it the light or the shade? Is it the cloud above, or the earth beneath, which constitutes its beauty? He looks at you and says, That is beyond me. For what is beauty? No man can describe it, or tell us what it is. It has no real existence apart from intelligence; for you must recollect that the beauty of nature is as much open and exposed to the brute as it is to you and to me. I am, therefore, left to draw a single inference, and that is this--The beauty of nature is not a mere accident; the beauty of nature is not something painted on the surface of nature. The beauty of nature is some integral part of its whole working; and while it is working as a machine it is sleeping as a picture. In the Bible you always find the writer draws the attention of the reader to the soul. The psalmist, after contemplating the glory of God, and that spectacle of light, felt there was a mystery beyond all explanation; and he called on his higher nature to rejoice. (Canon Barker.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 104
Psalms 104
LIKE the preceding psalm, this one begins and ends with the psalmists call to his soul to bless Jehovah. The inference has been drawn that both psalms have the same author, but that is much too large a conclusion from such a fact. The true lesson from it is that Nature, when looked at by an eye that sees it to be full of God. yields material for devout gratitude no less than do His fatherly "mercies to them that fear Him." The keynote of the psalm is struck in Psa_104:24, which breaks into an exclamation concerning the manifoldness of Gods works and the wisdom that has shaped them all. The psalm is a gallery of vivid Nature pictures, touched with Wonderful grace and sureness of hand. Clearness of vision and sympathy with every living thing make the swift outlines inimitably firm and lovely. The poets mind is like a crystal mirror, in which the Cosmos is reflected. He is true to the uniform Old Testament point of view, and regards Nature neither from the scientific nor aesthetic standpoint. To him it is the garment of God, the apocalypse of a present Deity, whose sustaining energy is but the prolongation of His creative act. All creatures depend on Him; His continuous action is their life. He rejoices in His works. The Creation narrative in Genesis underlies the psalm, and is in the main followed, though not slavishly.
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Psa_104:1 would be normal in structure if the initial invocation were omitted, and as Psa_104:35 would also be complete without it, the suggestion that it is, in both verses, a liturgical addition is plausible. The verse sums up the whole of the creative act in one grand thought. In that act the invisible God has arrayed Himself in splendour and glory, making visible these inherent attributes. That is the deepest meaning of Creation. The Universe is the garment of God.
This general idea lays the foundation for the following picture of the process of creation which is coloured by reminiscences of Genesis. Here, as there, Light is the firstborn of Heaven; but the influence of the preceding thought shapes the language, and Light is regarded as Gods vesture. The Uncreated Light, who is darkness to our eyes, arrays Himself in created light, which reveals while it veils Him. Everywhere diffused, all-penetrating, all-gladdening, it tells of the Presence in which all creatures live. This clause is the poetic rendering of the work of the first creative day. The next clause in like manner deals with that of the second. The mighty arch of heaven is lifted and expanded over earth as easily as a man draws the cloth or skin sides and canopy of his circular tent over its framework. But our roof is His floor; and, according to Genesis, the firmament (lit. expanse) separates the waters above from those beneath. So the psalm pictures the Divine Architect as laying the beams of His upper chambers (for so the word means) in these waters, above the tent roof. The fluid is solid at His will, and the most mobile becomes fixed enough to be the foundation of His royal abode. The custom of having chambers on the roof, for privacy and freshness, suggests the image.
In these introductory verses the poet is dealing with the grander instances of creative power, especially as realised in the heavens. Not till Psa_104:5 does he drop to earth. His first theme is Gods dominion over the elemental forces, and so he goes on to represent the clouds as His chariot, the wind as bearing Him on its swift pinions, and, as the parallelism requires, the winds as His messengers, and devouring fire as His servants. The rendering of Psa_104:4 adopted in Hebrews from the LXX is less relevant to the psalmists purpose of gathering all the forces which sweep through the wide heavens into one company of obedient servants of God, than that adopted above, and now generally recognised. It is to be observed that the verbs in Psa_104:2-4 are participles, which express continuous action. These creative acts were not done once for all, but are going on still and always. Preservation is continued creation.
With Psa_104:6 we pass to the work of the third of the Genesis days, and the verb is in the form which describes a historical fact. The earth is conceived of as formed, and already moulded into mountains and valleys, but all covered with "the deep" like a vesture-a sadly different one from the robe of Light which He wears. That weltering deep is bidden back to its future appointed bounds; and the process is grandly described, as if the waters were sentient, and, panic struck at Gods voice took to flight. Psa_104:8 a throws in a vivid touch, to the disturbance of grammatical smoothness. The poet has the scene before his eye, and as the waters flee he sees the earth emerging, the mountains soaring, and the vales sinking, and he breaks his sentence, as if in wonder at the lovely apparition, but returns, in Psa_104:8 b, to tell whither the fugitive waters fled-namely, to the ocean depths. There they are hemmed in by Gods will, and, as was promised to Noah, shall not again run wasting over a drowned world.
The picture of the emerging earth, with its variations of valleys and mountains, remains before the psalmists eye throughout Psa_104:10-18, which describe how it is clothed and peopled. These effects are due to the beneficent ministry of the same element, when guided and restrained by God, which swathed the world with desolation. Water runs through the vales, and rain falls on the mountains. Therefore the former bear herbs and corn, vines and olives, and the latter are clothed with trees not planted by human hand, the mighty cedars which spread their broad shelves of steadfast green high up among the clouds. "Everything lives whithersoever water cometh," as Easterns know. Therefore round the drinking places in the vales thirsty creatures gather, birds flit and sing; up among the cedars are peaceful nests, and inaccessible cliffs have their sure-footed inhabitants. All depend on water, and water is Gods gift. The psalmists view of Nature is characteristic in the direct ascription of all its processes to God. He makes the springs flow, and sends rain on the peaks. Equally characteristic is the absence of any expression of a sense of beauty in the sparkling streams tinkling down the gloomy wadies, or in the rainstorms darkening the hills, or in the green mantle of earth, or in the bright creatures. The psalmist is thinking of use, not of beauty. And yet it is a poets clear and kindly eye which looks upon all, and sees the central characteristic of each, -the eager drinking of the wild ass; the music of the birds blending with the brawling, of the stream, and sweeter because the singers are hidden among the branches; the freshly watered earth, "satisfied" with "the fruit of Thy works" (i.e., the rain which God has sent from His "upper chambers"), the manifold gifts which by His wondrous alchemy are produced from the ground by help of one agency, water; the forest trees with their foliage glistening, as if glad for the rain; the stork on her nest; the goats on the mountains; the "conies" (for which we have no popular name) hurrying to their holes in the cliffs. Man appears as depending, like the lower creatures, on the fruit of the ground; but he has more varied supplies, bread and wine and oil, and these not only satisfy material wants, but "gladden" and "strengthen" the heart. According to some. the word rendered "service" in Psa_104:14 means "tillage," a meaning which is supported by Psa_104:23, where the same word is rendered "labour," and which fits in well with the next clause of Psa_104:14, "to bring forth bread from the earth," which would describe the purpose of the tillage. His prerogative of labour is mans special differentia in creation. It is a token of his superiority to the happy, careless creatures who toil not nor spin. Earth does not yield him its best products without his cooperation. There would thus be an allusion to him as the only worker in creation similar to that in Psa_104:23, and to the reference to the "ships" in Psa_104:26. But probably the meaning of "service," which is suggested by the parallelism, and does not introduce the new thought of cooperation with Nature or God, is to be preferred. The construction is somewhat difficult, but the rendering of Psa_104:14-15 given above seems best. The two clauses with infinitive verbs (to bring forth and to cause to shine) are each followed by a clause in which the construction is varied into that with a finite verb, the meaning remaining the same; and all four clauses express the Divine purpose in causing vegetation to spring. Then the psalmist looks up, once more to the hills. "The trees of Jehovah" are so called, not so much because they are great, as because, unlike vines and olives, they have not been planted or tended by man, nor belong to him. Far above the valleys, where men and the cattle dependent on him live on earths cultivated bounties, the unowned woods stand and drink Gods sift of rain, while wild creatures lead free lives amid mountains and rocks.
With Psa_104:19 the psalmist passes to the fourth day, but thinks of moon and sun only in relation to the alternation of day and night as affecting creatural life on earth. The moon is named first, because the Hebrew day began with the evening. It is the measurer, by whose phases seasons (or, according to some, festivals) are reckoned. The sun is a punctual servant, knowing the hour to set and duly keeping it. "Thou appointest darkness and it is night." God wills, and His will effects material changes. He says to His servant Night, "Come," and she "comes." The psalmist had peopled the vales and mountains of his picture. Everywhere he had seen life fitted to its environment; and night is populous too. He had outlined swift sketches of tame and wild creatures, and now he half shows us beasts of prey stealing through the gloom. He puts his finger on two characteristics-their stealthy motions, and their cries which made night hideous. Even their roar was a kind of prayer, though they knew it not; it was God from whom they sought their food. It would not have answered the purpose to have spoken of "all the loves, Now sleeping in those quiet groves." The poet desired to show how there were creatures that found possibilities of happy life in all the variety of conditions fashioned by the creative Hand, which was thus shown to be moved by Wisdom and Love. The sunrise sends these nocturnal animals back to their dens. and the world is ready for man. "The sun looked over the mountains rim," and the beasts of prey slunk to their lairs, and mans day of toil began-the mark of his preeminence, Gods gift for his good, by which he uses creation for its highest end and fulfils Gods purpose. Grateful is the evening rest when the day has been filled with strenuous toil.
The picture of earth and its inhabitants is now complete, and the dominant thought which it leaves on the psalmists heart is cast into the exultant and wondering exclamation of Psa_104:24. The variety as well as multitude of the forms in which Gods creative idea is embodied, the Wisdom which shapes all, His ownership of all, are the impressions made by the devout contemplation of Nature. The scientist and the artist are left free to pursue their respective lines of investigation and impression, but scientist and artist must rise to the psalmists point of view, if they are to learn the deepest lesson from the ordered kingdoms of Nature and from the beauty which floods the world.
With the exclamation in Psa_104:24 the psalmist has finished his picture of the earth, which he had seen as if emerging from the abyss, and watched as it was gradually clothed "with fertility and peopled with happy life. He turns, in Psa_104:25-26, to the other half of his Vision of Creation, and portrays the gathered and curbed waters which he now calls the "sea." As always in Scripture, it is described as it looks to a landsman, gazing out on it from the safe shore. The characteristics specified betray unfamiliarity with maritime pursuits. The far-stretching roll of the waters away out to the horizon, the mystery veiling the strange lives swarming in its depths, the extreme contrasts in the magnitude of its inhabitants, strike the poet. He sees "the stately ships go on." The introduction of these into the picture is unexpected. We should have looked for an instance of the "small" creatures, to pair off with the "great" one, Leviathan, in the next words. "A modern poet," says Cheyne, in loc., " would have joined the mighty whale to the fairy nautilus." It has been suggested that "ship" here is a name for the nautilus, which is common in the Eastern Mediterranean. The suggestion is a tempting one, as fitting in more smoothly with the antithesis of small and great in the previous clause. But, in the absence of any proof that the word has any other meaning than "ship," the suggestion cannot be taken as more than a probable conjecture. The introduction of "ships" into the picture is quite in harmony with the allusions to mans works in the former parts of the psalm, such as Psa_104:23, and possibly Psa_104:14. The psalmist seems to intend to insert such reference to man, the only toiler, in all his pictures. "Leviathan" is probably here the whale. Ewald, Hitzig, Baethgen, Kay, and Cheyne follow the LXX and Vulgate in reading "Leviathan whom Thou hast formed to sport with him," and take the words to refer to Job_41:5. The thought would then be that Gods power can control the mightiest creatures plunges; but "the two preceding theres are in favour of the usual interpretation, therein" (Hupfeld), and consequently of taking the "sporting" to be that of the unwieldy gambols of the sea monster.
Psa_104:27-30 mass all creatures of earth and sea, including man, as alike dependent on God for sustenance and for life. Dumbly these look expectant to Him, though man only knows to whom all living eyes are directed. The swift clauses in Psa_104:28-30, without connecting particles, vividly represent the Divine acts as immediately followed by the creatural consequences. To this psalmist the links in the chain were of little consequence. His thoughts were fixed on its two ends-the Hand that sent its power thrilling through the links, and the result realised in the creatures life. All natural phenomena are issues of Gods present will. Preservation is as much His act, as inexplicable without Him, as creation. There would be nothing to "gather" unless He "gave." All sorts of supplies, which make the "good" of physical life, are in His hand, whether they be the food of the wild asses by the streams, or of the conies among the cliffs, or of the young lions in the night, or of Leviathan tumbling amidst the waves, or of toiling man. Nor is it only the nourishment of life which comes straight from God to all, but life itself depends on His continual inbreathing. His face is creations light; breath from Him is its life. The withdrawal of it is death. Every change in creatural condition is wrought by Him. He is the only Fountain of Life, and the reservoir of all the forces that minister to life or to inanimate being. But the psalmist will not end his contemplations with the thought of the fair creation returning to nothingness. Therefore he adds another verse (Psa_104:30); which tells of "life reorient out of dust." Individuals pass; the type remains. New generations spring. The yearly miracle of Spring brings greenness over the snow-covered or brown pastures and green shoots from stiffened boughs. Many of last years birds are dead, but there are nests in the cypresses, and twitterings among the branches in the wadies. Life, not, death, prevails in Gods world.
So the psalmist gathers all up into a burst of praise. He desires that the glory of God, which accrues to Him from His works, may ever be rendered through devout recognition of Him as working them all by man, the only creature who can be the spokesman of creation. He further desires that, as God at first saw that all was "very good," He may ever continue thus to rejoice in His works, or, in other words, that these may fulfil His purpose. Possibly His rejoicing in His works is regarded as following upon mans giving glory to Him for them. That rejoicing, which is the manifestation both of His love and of His satisfaction, is all the more desired, because, if His works do not please Him, there lies in Him a dread abyss of destructive power, which could sweep them into nothingness. Superficial readers may feel that the tone of Psa_104:32 strikes a discord, but it is a discord which can be resolved into deeper harmony. One frown from God, and the solid earth trembles, as conscious to its depths of His displeasure. One touch of the hand that is filled with good, and the mountains smoke. Creation perishes if He is displeased. Well then may the psalmist pray that He may forever rejoice in His works, and make them live by His smile.
Very beautifully and profoundly does the psalmist ask, in Psa_104:33-34, that some echo of the Divine joy may gladden his own heart, and that his praise may be coeval with Gods glory and his own life. This is the Divine purpose in creation-that God may rejoice in it and chiefly in man its crown, and that man may rejoice in Him. Such sweet commerce is possible between heaven and earth; and they have learned the lesson of creative power and love aright who by it have been led to share in the joy of God. The psalm has been shaped in part by reminiscences of the creative days of creation. It ends with the Divine Sabbath, and with the prayer, which is also a hope, that man may enter into Gods rest.
But there is one discordant note in creations full-toned hymn, "the fair music that all creatures made." There are sinners on earth: and the last prayer of the psalmist is that that blot may be removed, and so nothing may mar the realisation of Gods ideal, nor be left to lessen the completeness of His delight in His work. And so the psalm ends, as it began, with the singers call to his own soul to bless Jehovah.
This is the first psalm which closes with Hallelujah (Praise Jehovah). It is appended to the two following psalms, which close Book 4, and is again found in Book 5, in Psalms 111-113, 115-117, and in the final group, Psalms 146-150. It is probably a liturgical addition.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “This Psalm,” says Calvin, “differs from the last, in…
INTRODUCTION
“This Psalm,” says Calvin, “differs from the last, in that it neither treats of God’s special mercies bestowed on His Church, nor lifts us to the hope of a heavenly life; but painting for us in the frame of the world, and the order of nature, the living image of God’s wisdom, power, and goodness, exhorts us to praise Him, because in this our frail mortal life He manifests Himself to us as a Father.” In the former Psalm God is praised as the God of grace, in this as the God of nature—the Creator and Sustainer of the universe.
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“In its main outline the poem follows the story of creation contained in the first chapter of Genesis. There manifestly is the source whence the Psalmist drew. Meditating on that sublime description, itself a poem, he finds in it his subject and his inspiration. And yet the Psalm is not a mere copy of the original. Breathing the same lofty spirit, it has a force and an originality of its own. In some respects the Psalm, even more strikingly than the early record, exhibits the infinite greatness, the order, the life of the universe. But the creation of Genesis is a creation of the past; the creation of the Psalm is a creation of the present. The one portrays the beginning of the eternal order, the other its perpetual, living spectacle. Hence, too, the Ode has far more animation than the Record. The latter is a picture of still life; the former is crowded with figures full of stir and movement.” … In the Psalm “we have a picture which for truth and depth of colouring, for animation, tenderness, and beauty, has never been surpassed.”—Perowne.
In the Hebrew the Psalm has no superscription; and there are no means for determining by whom or when the Psalm was composed.
THE MAJESTY OF GOD IN CREATION
(Psa_104:1-5)
The Psalmist expresses his thoughts and feelings in a strain of poetry of unsurpassed sublimity. Underlying the glorious imagery of these verses is the brilliant display in which Eastern princes delighted, in their robes and equipages and attendants. The majesty of the appearance of the Divine King, Jehovah, far exceeds their most gorgeous displays. The Poet sets before us—
I. The glorious vesture of the Lord. “Thou coverest Thyself with light as with a garment.” St. Paul represents the Lord as “dwelling in the light.” And Milton—
“Hail, holy light, offspring of heaven first-born;
Or of th’ Eternal co-eternal beam,
May I express thee, unblamed? Since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light,
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.”
But the reference in the text is not to the unapproachable, the concealing light, but to the revealing light. In the light which daily shines upon us God unfolds to us glimpses of His glory. He apparels Himself with light. There is nothing in the universe so fitted to be the robe of God as light.
1. Light is an emblem of His own nature. “God is light.” “Light unites in itself purity and clearness, and beauty and glory, as no other material object does: it is the condition of all material life, and growth, and joy; and the application to God of such a predicative requires no transference. He is Light, and the Fountain of light material and light ethical. In the one world, darkness is the absence of light; in the other, darkness, untruthfulness, deceit, falsehood, is the absence of God.”—Alford.
2. Light is essential to life and growth. Without it the earth would speedily become one vast sepulchre.
3. Light is pure and purifying. Milton: “Light ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure.”
4. Light is joy-inspiring.
“Prime cheerer, light!
Of all material beings, first and best!”
—Thomson.
How fitting, then, for to be the robe of Deity.
II. The splendid palace of the Lord.
“Thou spreadest out the heavens like a curtain,” &c. (Psa_104:2-3). The heavens are the expanse or firmament which God has spread to divide the waters which are under it from the waters which are above it. And in the waters which are above it God is represented as laying the beams of His chambers, the floor of His palace. His palace He has built above the expanse in the lofty and glorious heavens. He has fixed His abode in the most exalted and brilliant place in the universe. The most stately and magnificent of earthly palaces is mean in comparison of this.
III. The sublime chariot of the Lord. “Who maketh the clouds His chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind.” “The clouds appear as the chariot of God, because He drives them about at His pleasure, as a king his car.”—Hengstenberg. Jehovah came “in a thick cloud” at Sinai. God appeared in “a bright cloud” upon Hermon at the Transfiguration. In the last day He will “come with clouds.” On the sublime aspects of clouds, and their fitness to inspire reverence towards God, see a fine passage in Ruskin’s “Modern Painters” (1 Peter 2 sec. 3, ch. 4 § 35–38). He “walketh upon the wings of the wind,” controlling and directing them as He will, and they obey Him as horses do an earthly king, except that the winds never contest His authority or deviate from His will.
IV. The wonderful messengers of the Lord. Verse four is of disputed interpretation. Some of the ablest commentators renders it: “Who maketh the winds His messengers, the flaming fire His ministers.” But in this rendering the order of the words is inverted. Perowne: “The natural order in Hebrew, as in English, is verb, object, predicate, and no instance has as yet been alleged in which the predicate stands after the verb before the object. Unless the grammatical difficulty can be removed, we must render, ‘He maketh His messengers winds, His ministers a flaming fire;’ i.e., ‘He clothes His messengers with the might, the swiftness, the all-pervading subtilty of wind and fire.’ ” Alford advocates this view. See Perowne’s “Critical Note” in loco, and Alford on Heb_1:7. The Lord has countless messengers. He can use any of His creatures as His servants; and He can clothe His messengers with the attributes of wind and fire. His attendants are characterised by power and celerity, like the “wind;” by purity, like the “fire;” and by pervasiveness, like both “wind” and “fire.” The most numerous and splendid retinue of earthly princes, or all their retinues combined, are as nothing when compared with the countless and wonderful messengers of the Lord.
V. The firm footstool of the Lord. “He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.” Margin: “He hath founded the earth upon her bases.” “The earth is held as firm by the omnipotence of God, without a foundation, as if it had one; He has given to the earth, which is propped up by nothing, a firm existence, like a building which rests on a solid foundation.”—Hengstenberg. Job: “He hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Milton: “And earth self-balanced from her centre hung.” Ovid: “Ponderibus librata suis,”—poised by its own weight. Yet it is immovably firm and secure. How unsearchable is His wisdom, and how unlimited His power, who thus wonderfully sustains the world! And how glorious is His majesty as manifested in the heavens and the earth!
Our text warrants the following remarks:—
First: The universe is a Divine creation. It is not eternal, not self-originated, not the product of chance or fate; but it is the creation of the Almighty.
Second: The creative energy of the Lord is in continual exercise. The participles denote continued action, and teach us to regard the exercise of the creative energy of the Lord as a present thing. Every morning God, as it were, arrays Himself anew in His robe of light, &c. The Supreme Worker is ever working. Creation is a continuous process.
Third: That the Divine creations are effected with consummate ease. With the same ease with which a man spreads out a tent curtain, God spreads the expanse of heaven—nay, with far greater ease: “He spake, and it was done,” &c.
Fourth: The universe is invested with profound significance. To the devout student it is a revelation of infinite wisdom, almighty power, Divine beneficence, &c.
Fifth: The universe is invested with Divine sanctity. It is the garment of the great God—a scene of Divine manifestation. Rightly understood the earth is a temple, instinct with the presence and resounding with the voice of God. Therefore, “Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord, my God, Thou art very great; Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.”
THE PRAISE OF THE LORD
(Psa_104:1)
I. The Lord should be praised with the soul. “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” “The Lord looketh at the heart.”
II. The Lord should be praised because of His attributes. “O Lord, my God, Thou art very great.” We should honour Him not only from motives of gratitude, but from motives of esteem. In Himself He is worthy of all homage.
III. The Lord should be praised because of His work in creation. This is a great hymn of creation. His works in nature are worthy of praise. We should regard them with admiration and reverence for the Great Worker. We do well to celebrate the glories of redemption, but not to the exclusion of the glories of creation.
IV. The Lord should be praised both for what He reveals and what He conceals of Himself. “Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.” Creation is the vesture of Deity. “Nature half reveals and half conceals the SOUL within.” We should be thankful for both the hiding and the disclosing. Both are merciful.
V. That man is best qualified for this service “whose God is the Lord.” “O Lord, my God.” He who trusts in and communes with God will find praise a natural and joyous service.
CREATION A REVELATION OF THE LORD
(Psa_104:6-18)
These verses suggest the following observations:—
I. The work of the Lord in creation displays His absolute power. This is manifest—
1. Over the waters. “At Thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away,” &c. (Psa_104:7-10). His control over the waters is seen
(1) in setting boundaries for them. The Psalmist represents the earth as completely enveloped in water. “Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.” And Milton—
“The earth was formed, but in the womb as yet
Of waters, embryon immature involved,
Appeared not: over all the face of earth
Main ocean flowed.”
At the command of God the water finds its appointed place and is confined there. This is very poetically represented as “the effect of the Divine rebuke and thunder: thrown into a state of tumultuous excitement, the waters quickly again ascend the mountains, their high abode, from which the rebuke of God had brought them down; but unable to keep themselves there they go down to the valley’s, until they find themselves in their proper situation, and enter into the place where God designs them to be.”—Hengstenberg. And there God imprisons them. “Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth.” Though the waters of the sea are higher than the earth, yet is it confined in its “decreed place” by the command of God. He says, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” The Lord’s control over the waters is seen
(2) in distributing them. “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. God has wisely and wonderfully distributed the waters, and in so doing has provided for the watering of the earth and the creatures that dwell thereon.” The way in which this is done is among the most wonderful and most benevolent in nature,—by that power derived from heat, by which the waters of the ocean, contrary to the natural law of gravitation, are lifted up in small particles—in vapour—and carried by the clouds where they are needed, and let fall upon the earth to water the plants, and to form fountains, rivulets, and streams—and borne thus to the highest mountains, to be filtered through the ground to form springs and streams below.”—Barnes.
2. Over the earth. “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man.” The fruitfulness of the earth is an effect of the Divine power. The earth, with its mountains and valleys, barren rocks and fruitful fields; the seas and lakes, the rivers and streams; and the heavens, with its wind-driven clouds and its glorious orbs, all display the almighty power of the Creator.
II. The work of the Lord in creation displays His delight in beauty. In this poem of creation the Psalmist brings into view the mountains and valleys, the seas and rivers, the fountains and streams, the herbs and trees, the beasts and birds; and all these contribute to the beauty of the world. That God delights in the beautiful in form and in colour is clearly manifested in His works. It is possible to conceive a world in which utility alone was aimed at, and beauty entirely ignored. But such a world would form a complete contrast to the creations of God. To take only one feature, think of the wonderful beauty and sublimity of the mountains. “Loveliness of colour, perfectness of form, endlessness of change, wonderfulness of structure, are precious to all undiseased human minds; and the superiority of the mountains in all these things to the lowlands is as measurable as the riches of a painted window matched with a white one, or the wealth of a museum compared with that of a simply furnished chamber. They seem to have been built for the human race, as at once their schools and cathedrals; full of treasures of illuminated manuscript for the scholar, kindly in simple lessons to the worker, quiet in pale cloisters for the thinker, glorious in holiness for the worshipper. These great cathedrals of the earth, with their gates of rock, pavement of cloud, choirs of stream and stone, altars of snow, and vaults of purple, traversed by the continual stars!” (See the whole passage, of which the foregoing is only a fragment, in Ruskin’s “Modern Painters,” IV. pt. V. ch. XX. § 3, 4, 5, 9). The beauty of creation
(1) increases our obligations to the Creator;
(2) should incite to holiness, which is spiritual beauty. God’s delight in spiritual beauty is greater than His delight in material beauty.
III. The work of the Lord in creation displays His great law of service. Everything which He has made has its uses. Everything has relations, is dependent, and is designed to be ministrant. The sea is made to serve man by supplying the air with ozone, man with food, &c. Fountains and streams water the earth, and quench the thirst of men and animals. The earth produces food in abundance for man and beast, and wine for the rejoicing of man’s heart. And birds, trees, mountains, rocks, all have their uses. Usefulness as well as beauty characterises all the creations of the Divine Hand.
“Oh! not in vain doth He create
Aught from His affluent love proceeding;
The meanest hath appointed state,
If only for the mightiest’s needing.
The meteor and the thunder-stone
Have use and mission of their own.”
—Punshon.
Man is no exception to this rule. We are created by God to serve others. A useless man is a self-perversion of the idea of the Creator. He frustrates the Divine idea of his life. Are we fulfilling our part in the universal law of service?
IV. The work of the Lord in creation displays His regard for all His creatures. Psa_104:11-18. There is no uncared-for creature. The wild asses, the fowls of the heaven, the cattle, the wild goats, the conies, all are provided for by God. The earth produces the endless varieties and the immense quantities of food required for the creatures that dwell upon it. And in trees, rocks, mountains, &c. they find suitable homes. “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not,” &c. (Mat_6:26.)
V. The work of the Lord in creation displays His supreme regard for man. “And wine that maketh glad,” &c. God gives to man not only the necessaries but the luxuries of life. Here is “bread” for his sustenance. Here is “wine” for his enjoyment. “Here is wine,” says Matthew Henry, “that makes glad the heart, refreshes the spirits, and exhilarates them, when it is soberly and moderately used, that we may not only go through our business, but go through it cheerfully. It is a pity that that should be abused to overcharge the heart, and unfit men for their duty, which was given to revive their heart and quicken them in their duty.” Here is “oil” expressive of gladness. On festive occasions they were accustomed to anoint their heads with oil. The face is said to shine because the radiancy of joy is seen there. The face shines not because of the “oil,” but because the heart is glad. God gives to man not only support in life, but joy. He manifests special regard for man’s interests. At the Creation He gave him dominion over the earth with all its tenants and all its productions. In Christ He has displayed His interest in human well-being in a still clearer and more conclusive manner.
CONCLUSION.—The subject supplies—
1. An argument for humility. We are dependent creatures. We have no resources but such as are in God.
2. An argument for obedience. We are parts of a great and orderly system, having intimate relations and dependencies, and designed for mutual service. Let us not violate the order and harmony; let us fulfil our service, &c.
3. An argument for gratitude. The Divine regards claim suitable and proportionate acknowledgment.
4. An argument for trust. The Lord cares for “the wild asses”; will He not much more care for man who was made in His own image?—for man, redeemed by the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ?
THE USES OF THE SEASONS
(Psa_104:19-23)
The Psalmist here refers to the work of creation on the fourth day, as stated in the Mosaic record. The sun and moon were appointed not only to give light, but for the measurement and division of time, and the indication of seasons. Of these, two—night and day—are mentioned, and their uses pointed out.
I. The uses of day.
1. The day is the season of work for man. “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour.” Labour is a Divine institution, and the day is the fitting time for engaging in it.
(1) Man is urged to work by his necessities. He needs food, raiment, a dwelling; and to obtain these he must work. He has to encounter difficulties, he requires knowledge and skill; and to acquire these he must work. He needs pardon, moral purity, and power; and for these also he must work.
(2.) Man is fitted for work by his faculties. He has arms and hands admirably adapted for labour, brain for mental exertion, and the soul with its wondrous faculties for spiritual effort.
(3) Man is commanded to work by his Maker. Unfallen man was placed in a garden “to dress it and to keep it.” “Six days shalt thou labour” is a Divine command. “This we commanded you, that if any man would not work neither should he eat.” God Himself is the Supreme Worker. “MY FATHER worketh hitherto and I work.” “The law of nature is,” says Ruskin, “that a certain quantity of work is necessary to produce a certain quantity of good, of any kind whatever. If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. But men do not acknowledge this law, or strive to evade it, hoping to get their knowledge, and food, and pleasure for nothing; and in this effort they either fail of getting them, and remain ignorant and miserable, or they obtain them by making other men work for their benefit; and then they are tyrants and robbers.” And Carlyle: “All true work is sacred; in all true work, were it but true hand-labour, there is something of divineness. Labour, wide as the earth, has its summit in heaven.” Again—“The modern majesty consists in work. What a man can do is his greatest ornament, and he always consults his dignity by doing it.” The day is the season for work. Our Lord recognised this fact in His pregnant utterance, “I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
2. The day is the season of retirement for wild beasts. “The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.” We see in this
(1) An evidence of man’s original sovereignty “over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” The wild beasts still have some dread of him, and hide themselves in their dens during the hours of the day when he is most abroad.
(2) An arrangement for man’s safety. The sluggard cannot excuse himself from daily labour by saying, “There is a lion in the way.”
II. The uses of night.
1. Night is the season of rest for man. “Labour until the evening.” Man was not fitted for incessant toil. He needs frequent rest. And night is the season marked out by God for this. Its shade is a relief after the brightness, and its cool after the heat of the day. These conduce to sleep; and so man is invigorated for further toil.
“Night is the time for rest;
How sweet when labours close.
To gather round an aching heart
The curtain of repose,
Stretch the tired limbs, and lay the head
Upon our own delightful bed.”
—J. Montgomery.
2. Night is the season of activity for wild beasts. “It is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.” Observe:
(1) Their dependence upon God. They seek their food from Him. “The roaring of the young lions, like the crying of the young ravens, is interpreted asking their meat of God.” “The natural cries of the distressed creatures are in substance nature’s prayer to its Maker for relief and help.” Here we have a hint on prayer. If God so interprets the cries of the young lions, shall He not much more regard favourably the broken cries of His children?
(2) God’s provision for them. He makes the darkness in which they go forth in quest of food, and He provides the food for them; otherwise they would go forth in vain. Here is a hint on Providence. Shall the Lord provide for the beasts of the forest, and shall He not much more supply all the needs of His people who trust in Him?
III. The moral uses of the seasons. By them He teaches us—
1. The measurement of time. “He has made the very universe to be the clock of the universe, and admonish every mortal heart of the sure and constant passage of time. We are not left to our inward judgments. Time has its measures without, in the most palpable and impressive visitations of the senses. Every twilight tells us that a day is gone, and that by a sign as impressive as the blotting out of the sun!… One season tells us that another is gone; and, when the whole circle of seasons is completed and returned into itself, the new year tells us that the old is gone. And a certain number of these years, we know, is the utmost bound of life.”
2. The preciousness of time. He appointed the sun and moon for signs and for seasons to “declare to every creature, in every world, the certain flight of time, and signify its sacred value. The gems He has buried in the sands of His rivers; on the gold He has piled His mountains of rock; the pearls He has hid in the depth of the sea; but time,—time is out on the front of all created magnificence.” Thus He silently proclaims to us constantly “that time is the most precious of His gifts.”
3. The fitness of certain times for certain duties. “The tradesman observes the seasons. The husbandman watches them for his life. Whatever we do, must be done in its time. You cannot plant in the winter, nor gather fruit in the spring. God’s times are set, and the seasons of His mercy all ordained from the beginning. There is no time of salvation but the time of God.’ ” [2]
[2] See a very suggestive and striking Sermon by Dr. Bushnell on “The Great Time-Keeper.” Gen_1:14
THE LORD AND HIS UNIVERSE
(Psa_104:24-30)
In these verses there is allusion to the work of the fifth day of creation; and an expression of devout admiration of the number of the works of the Lord, and the wisdom displayed therein. The Poet very clearly sets forth certain aspects of the relation of the Lord to the universe.
I. The Lord as the Creator of all things. “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works!” &c. The Divine creations are here represented as characterised by—
1. Their multitudinousness. “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works!… This great and wide sea wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.” The earth, the air, and the sea all teem with life, in endless variety. The sea with its life is specially mentioned here. In its depths there is abundant life “of things small and great, a life of the coral insect, as well as of the whale, and also a life on its surface, where ‘go the ships’ carrying the thoughts and the passions, the skill and the enterprise of human hearts.”
2. Their wisdom. “In wisdom hast Thou made them all.” Every creature which God has made, in its adaptations to the ends of its existence, presents the most admirable indications of the wisdom of its Creator. How immeasurably great the wisdom represented in the whole of His countless and infinitely varied productions!
3. Their greatness. “This great and wide sea.” To us the earth seems vast, the sea vaster. But when the astronomer discourses to us, we are overwhelmed with the vastness of the heavens, and the earth and sea shrink into comparative littleness and obscurity.
4. Their usefulness. To some persons the sea seems a great waste. It is really far otherwise. It is the great highway of the world, and from its waters man draws a great portion of his food. In all the creations of God there is no useless creature, no useless thing.
5. Their continuity. “Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created; and Thou renewest the face of the earth.” The miracle of creation is constantly going on in the world. Men die, but man remains. “Generation passeth away, and generation cometh.” Life succeeds death. Out of the grave of winter ariseth the bright and blooming spring.
II. The Lord as the Proprietor of all things. “The earth is full of Thy riches”—literally, “Thy possessions.” All things in earth, air, and sea belong unto the Lord. The fact of creatorship establishes the most indefeasible claim to proprietorship. The fact of the Lord’s proprietorship of all things should—
1. Inspire us with gratitude. How bountifully has He enriched us out of His storehouse!
2. Teach us humility. Our utter dependence upon the Divine resources should strip us of every vestige of pride.
3. Encourage our confidence. The resources of the Lord are inexhaustible. Depending upon Him we can never lack support.
III. The Lord as the Sustainer of all things. “These wait all upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season.” All creatures are dependent upon His bounty. He supplieth the wants of all creatures. The Divine support of the universe is marked by three things:
1. Regularity. “He gives them their meat in due season.” As want returns the Divine provision is bestowed.
2. Ease. “Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good.” The sustenance of the entire universe imposes not the slightest strain upon His resources. He has but to “open His hand,” and the needy millions are satisfied.
3. Plenteousness. “They are filled with good.” In the dispensation of His gifts the Lord is bounteous. He giveth to all His creatures liberally, and they are satisfied.
IV. The Lord is the absolute Sovereign of all things.
1. In His hand are joy and trouble. He opens His hand, and His creatures are satisfied. “In His favour is life,” and joy. He hides His “face, they are troubled.” Let Him avert His face and withdraw the tokens of His favour, and His creatures are terrified; they are filled with consternation, as of one in the presence of inevitable and utter ruin. His smile is the joy and beauty of the universe; His frown would blast and terrify it into death.
2. In His hand are life and death. “Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created.” When God withdraws His support from any of His creatures, death instantly supervenes. He is “the God of the spirits of all flesh.” All life has its origin in Him, and is in His hand. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” Over the birth and death of individuals, over the coming and going of generations, He presides in infinite wisdom and goodness.
CONCLUSION.—What is our acquaintance with this great Being? To know Him simply as Creator, Sustainer, and Sovereign, is not enough for us. We have violated the order of the Creator, abused the bounty of the Sustainer, and defied the authority of the Sovereign. But blessed be His name, He who is the Creator of all things is also the Saviour of men. Do we know Him as such? Our most urgent necessity and imperative duty is first to approach the Redeemer by faith; and then, without any faltering of the tongue or misgiving of the heart, we may join in this Hymn of Creation.
VOICES OF CREATION
(Psa_104:24; Psa_104:27-28)
There are three preliminary points—First: That this world is not unfavour able to moral culture. The Psalmist is holy on a planet which has been cursed, and even through the darkness of the Divine frown can see gleamings and blazings of true glory.
Second: That all agencies are under the control of an Infinite Intelligence. All forces are under the management of Divine wisdom and paternal love. Our Father knows every tempest that sweeps through the air—notes every dew-drop that quivers on the opening flower—and is acquainted with every breeze that stirs the atmosphere.
Third: That the Divine resources are equal to every exigency. The necessities of nature are endless. In all parts of the universe there are mouths opened, eyes upturned, and hands outstretched to a central Being. And what is His reply to this million-tongued appeal? “Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good.” Note the sublime ease which is here indicated. Compare it with the anxiety and fretfulness of man when besieged with numerous appeals. The Divine Benefactor simply “opens His hand,” and the universe is satisfied.
The Psalm suggests—
I. That the Divine existence is to constitute the central fact in all our contemplations of the universe. GOD was the central fact in the Psalmist’s contemplations. This fact serves three purposes—
First: It disproves the speculations of Pantheism. Pantheism teaches the identity of God and nature; but in this Psalm we have more than fifty references, by noun or pronoun, to the existence and attributes of a personal agent. The Psalmist distinctly teaches the existence of a Being who is infinitely above the powers and glories of nature, and for whose pleasure they are and were created.
Second: It undermines the materialistic theory. This theory teaches the non-existence of mind. What we call mind, it denominates a refinement of matter. The entire Psalm, however, proclaims and celebrates the presence of Infinite Mind.
Third: It invests the universe with a mystic sanctity. Everywhere we behold the Divine handiwork. As the architect embodies his genius in the stupendous temple or noble mansion, so has God materialised His wisdom and power in the physical creation. To me the wind becomes sacred, as I remember that it is written, “HE WALKETH UPON THE WINGS OF THE WIND.”
II. That the principle of dependence is everywhere developed in the universe. “These all wait upon Thee,” &c. The Psalmist ignores the presence of “chance,” or “accident;” in his view GOD is enthroned, and the Divine dominion is over all! We infer, then—
First: The existence of an absolutely self-dependent power. Finite conception is totally unequal to the comprehension of such an existence. Our want of comprehension, however, does not affect the sublime doctrine of God’s infinite independence.
Second: The special mission of each part of the universe. The Psalmist in his wide excursion and minute observation detects nothing that is wanting in purpose.
Third: The profound humility by which every intelligence should be characterised. Seeing that we are dependent on God for “life, and breath, and all things,” it becometh us to dwell in the dust of humility. Men of genius! Men of money! What have you that ye have not received?
III. That a devout contemplation of the universe is calculated to increase man’s hatred of sin. Having beheld the symmetry, the adaptation, and the unity of the Divine works, the Psalmist directs his gaze to the moral world, and, beholding its hideous deformity and loathsomeness, he exclaims, “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more;” as though he had said, “There is one foul blot on this glorious picture; one discordant note in this enrapturing anthem. Let this spot be removed, and the picture will be perfect; bring this note into harmony, and the melody will be soul-enthralling” … I would consume the sinner by consuming his wickedness. Christ came to consume the sinner by taking away the sin of the world.
CONCLUSION.—First: God must be the central fact in your being. Second: What is the highest relationship you sustain to the Creator? You must sustain one relationship to God, viz., that of a dependant. The worm beneath your feet, if gifted with utterance, would say, “I, too, am a dependant.” I call you to be the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Third: This beneficent Creator also reveals Himself as man’s Saviour. You revere the God of nature; I ask you to accept Him as the God of salvation. Fourth: The extinction of sin should be the good man’s supreme object. “He who converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save,” &c. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.”—Joseph Parker, D.D.—Abridged from “The Cavendish Pulpit.”
THE RENEWAL OF THE FACE OF THE EARTH AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE RENEWAL OF THE SOUL
(Psa_104:30. “Thou renewest the face of the earth.”)
The renewal of the face of the earth which takes place every spring speaks to us
(1) Of the presence of God. He effects the great and beautiful change. “Thou renewest.”
(2) Of the faithfulness of God. (Gen_8:22.) Every returning spring is an additional witness to the Divine constancy.
(3) Of the tenderness of God. How tender are the young leaf, the primrose, and the violet! Faintly, yet truly, they mirror forth the tenderness of God. “The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.” “Thy gentleness hath made me great.”
(4) Of the Divine delight in beauty. All the beauty of the season is an outflow of the Divine beauty; it tells us that God loves beauty, that “God is beauty and love itself.” We regard the renewal of the face of the earth as an illustration of the renewal of the soul.
I. The renewal of the face of the earth succeeds to the dreary and seemingly dead state of nature in winter. Black, bleak, barren, and lifeless is the aspect of the earth in winter. The unrenewed soul is “dead in trespasses and sins.” Apart from the renewing influence of the Divine Spirit there is no beauty, no love, no life in the human soul.
II. The renewal of the face of the earth is marked by life and freshness. Buds, leaves, blossoms, grass, all are fresh and new in spring. The man who has passed from the winter of sin and death into the spring of life and grace is “a new creation, old things have passed away, all things have become new.” He is “created in Christ Jesus unto good works;” he enters upon a new career, having new sympathies, new purposes, new delights, new fellowships, new conduct.
III. The renewal of the face of the earth is very gradual. Only by slow degrees does spring vanquish winter, and cover the earth with the proofs of her gracious reign. So is it with the renewal of the soul. Though the soul is quickened into divine life, yet the full beauty and promise of the spiritual spring will not be manifest until many a battle has been waged with the sinful tendencies and habits that formerly ruled in us. The work of God both in nature and in grace is very gradual.
IV. The renewal of the face of the earth is irresistible. However reluctant winter may be to relinquish his reign in favour of spring, relinquish it he must. So with the renewed soul. Its progress may be very gradual, but it is certain. If the life of grace is in the soul, it will produce the flowers and fruits of grace.
V. The renewal of the face of the earth is initiatory to a glorious season of maturity. Spring prepares the way for the bright and beauteous summer, and the bounteous and beneficent autumn. This is the spring-time of our spiritual life. And God will lead us on into the summer and autumn, into the beauty and perfection of our life. Only we must use the spring-time and its opportunities well. If we would reap bountifully we must sow bountifully.
The most glorious of all renewals is yet in the future. The spring-time of the world is not yet, but it comes on apace. (Isa_61:11; Psa_85:11.) The whole world shall be arrayed in the freshness and beauty of spiritual and divine life.
THE HARMONY OF CREATION RESTORED
(Psa_104:31-35)
The poet brings the Psalm to a close with the expression of the desire that the glory of God may be universal and perpetual. In so doing he presents for our consideration—
I. The glory of the Lord in His works. “The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever,” &c.
1. He manifests His great power in His works. “He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; He toucheth the hills, and they smoke.” When the Lord came down upon Sinai “the smoke ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.” So great are His majesty and power that He has, as it were, merely to look upon the earth, and it is awed and fearful before Him; He has but to touch the mountains, and they smoke as with His wrath. By His omnipotence He sustains the universe, and in a moment He could blot it out of existence.
2. He realises joy in His works. “The Lord shall rejoice in His works.” When He created the world, He looked upon His works with complacency, and pronounced them “very good.” He still rejoices in the order, beneficence, and beauty of His creations. In His redemptive works also He realises great joy.
3. He is praised by His intelligent and loyal creatures. “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” With joy the godly man resolves—
“I’ll praise Him while He lends me breath;
And when my voice is lost in death,
Praise shall employ my nobler powers:
My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life and thought and being last,
And immortality endures.”—Watts.
4. This glory is perpetual. “The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever.” The glory of man and of his works passeth away, but the glory of the Lord shall continue and increase for ever.
II. The joy of the righteous in the Lord. “My meditation of Him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord.” Hengstenberg: “May my meditation be acceptable unto Him.” Perowne: “Let my meditation be sweet unto Him.” The desire of the Psalmist is that his meditation on the works of the Lord may be an acceptable offering unto Him. He rejoiced in the Lord. All his joys centred in the Lord. Such joys are pure. They are one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. (Gal_5:22.) Strengthening. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Constant. “That My joy might remain in you, and your joy might be full.” “Your joy no man taketh from you.” Perpetual. “In Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” “This is the truest, highest harmony of creation; God finding pleasure in His creatures, His reasonable creatures finding their joy in Him.”
III. The desire of the righteous concerning the wicked. “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.” The glorious harmony of creation “has been rudely broken; the sweet notes of the vast instrument of the universe are ‘jangled out of tune.’ Sin is the discord of the world. Sin has changed the order (κόσμος) into disorder. Hence the prophetic hope that sinners shall be consumed, that the wicked shall be no more, that thus the earth shall be purified, the harmony be restored, and God once more, as at the first, pronounce His creation ‘very good.’ ”—Perowne. The eradication of evil should be the earnest desire of every good man. (See the remarks of Dr. Parker on this point in his sermon on “Voices of Creation,” on a preceding page.)
CONCLUSION. Here is a glorious prospect. The broken harmonies of creation shall be restored. The “Very good” of ancient time shall again be heard; and heard over a world never more to be marred by sin. For the realisation of this prospect let us pray and labour.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Greatness, if you look at it as something separate…
Psa 104:1.
Greatness, if you look at it as something separate from you, and away, still more if you have a consciousness that it may be against you, is a matter of awe and terror. If you mingle it with yourself, as a part of yourself, and yourself a part of it, greatness, becoming a possession, is a grand thought and a pleasant one. So we unite the two clauses of the text. David could not have said the second with gladness unless he could have said the first with confidence: "O Lord my God, Thou art very great."
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I. If it is great to be at one and the same time infinitely comprehensive and exquisitely minute, to fill the widest and yet to be occupied by the narrowest, then what a God is ours! The unspeakably large and the invisibly small are alike to Him; and we stand, and we marvel not at the one or at the other, but at the combination of the telescopic glance and the microscopic care; and we confess, "O Lord my God, Thou art very great."
II. It is a great thing to stoop. He inhabiteth equally, at this very moment, eternity and that little heart of yours. The whole Gospel is only a tale of immense stooping—how the purest demeaned Himself to the vilest, and how, "though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich."
III. Some one has said that continuity is the secret of the sublime; the eye goes on and on, and finds no break, and calls it sublimity. Then what a sublimity there is in Him who century after century, year by year, without the shadow of a turning, has continued the same, "yesterday, today, and for ever"!
IV. Look at the wonderful greatness of His plan of redemption. The length, and the breadth, and the depth, and the height are all passing knowledge; and we have nothing to do but to humble ourselves in the dust and say, "O Lord my God, Thou art very great."
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 9th series, p. 257.
Psa 104:1-2
Nature has two great revelations: that of use and that of beauty; and the first thing we observe about these two characteristics of hers is that they are bound together and tied to each other. The beauty of nature is not, as it were, a fortunate accident, which can be separated from her use; there is no difference in the tenure upon which these two characteristics stand: the beauty is just as much a part of nature as the use; they are only different aspects of the selfsame facts. (2) But if the first thing we observe respecting use and beauty is that they are united in their source, the next thing we observe is that in themselves they are totally separate. We have not the slightest conception of the common root in which these enormous diversities unite, the unity to which they mount up, the ultimate heading out of which both branch, the secret of their identity. It is worth observing, in the history of the mind of this country, the formation of a kind of passion for scenery and natural beauty. This fact cannot well be without some consequences bearing on religion.
I. First, with respect to the place which the beauty of nature has in the argument of design from nature. When the materialist has exhausted himself in efforts to explain utility in nature, it would appear to be the peculiar office of beauty to rise up suddenly as a confounding and baffling extra, which was not even formally provided for in his scheme. There is this remarkable difference between useful contrivance and beauty as evidence of an intelligent cause, that contrivance has a complete end and account of itself, without any reference to the understanding of man; but it is essential to the very sense and meaning of beauty that it should be seen: and inasmuch as it is visible to reason alone, we have thus in the very structure of nature a recognition of reason and a distinct address to reason, wholly unaccountable unless there is a higher reason or mind to which to make it.
II. The beauty of nature is necessary for the perfection of praise; the praise of the Creator must be essentially weakened without it: it must be roused and excited by sight. (1) Beauty stands upon the threshold of the mystical world, and excites a curiosity about God. This curiosity is a strong part of worship and of praise. So long as a man is probing nature, and in the thick of its causes and operations, he is too busy about his own inquiries to receive this impress from her; but place the picture before him, and he becomes conscious of a veil and curtain which has the secrets of a moral existence behind it: interest is inspired, curiosity is awakened, and worship is raised. (2) Nature is partly a curtain and partly a disclosure, partly a veil and partly a revelation; and here we come to her faculty of symbolism, which is so strong an aid to, and has so immensely affected, the principles of worship. The Great Spirit, speaking by dumb representation to other spirits, intimates and signifies to them something about Himself, for if nature is symbolical, what it is symbolical about must be its Author. The Deity over and above our inward conscience wants His external world to tell us He is moral; He therefore creates in nature a universal language about Himself: its features convey signals from a distant country, and man is placed in communication with a great correspondent whose tablet He interprets. And thus is formed that which is akin to worship in the poetical view of nature. While we do not worship the material created sign—for that would be idolatry—we still repose on it as the true language of the Deity.
III. In this peculiar view of nature, the mind fastening upon it as a spectacle or a picture, it is to be observed that there are two points in striking concurrence with the vision language of Scripture. (1) Scripture has specially consecrated the faculty of sight, and has partly put forth, and has promised in a still more complete form, a manifestation of the Deity to mankind, through the medium of a great sight. (2) It must be remarked, as another principle in the Scriptural representation, that the act of seeing a perfectly glorious sight or object is what constitutes the spectator’s and beholder’s own glory.
IV. But though the outward face of nature is a religious communication to those who come to it with the religious element already in them, no man can get a religion out of the beauty of nature. There must be for the base of a religion the internal view, the inner sense, the look into ourselves, and recognition of an inward state: sin, helplessness, misery. If there is not this, outward nature cannot of itself enlighten man’s conscience and give him a knowledge of God. It will be a picture to him, and nothing more.
J. B. Mozley, University Sermons, p. 122.
Psa 104:2
I. There are two kinds of mystery: a mystery of darkness and a mystery of light. With the mystery of darkness we are familiar. Of the mystery of light we have not thought, perhaps, so much. With all deep things the deeper light brings new mysteriousness. The mystery of light is the privilege and prerogative of the profoundest things. The shallow things are capable only of the mystery of darkness. Of that all things are capable. Nothing is so thin, so light, so small, that if you cover it with clouds or hide it in half-lights, it will not seem mysterious. But the most genuine and profound things you may bring forth into the fullest light and let the sunshine bathe them through and through, and in them there will open ever-new wonders of mysteriousness. Surely of God it must be supremely true that the more we know of Him, the more He shows Himself to us, the more mysterious He must for ever be. The mystery of light must be complete in Him. Revelation is not the unveiling of God, but a changing of the veil that covers Him, not the dissipation of mystery, but the transformation of the mystery of darkness into the mystery of light. To the pagan God is mysterious because He is hidden in clouds, mysterious like the storm. To the Christian God is mysterious because He is radiant with infinite truth, mysterious like the sun.
II. The doctrine of the Trinity is not an easy, ready-made, satisfactory explanation of God, in which the inmost chambers of His life are unlocked and thrown wide open, that whoso will may walk there and understand Him through and through. There is a mystery concerning God to him who sees the richness of the Divine life in the threefold unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost which no man feels to whom God does not seem to stand forth from the pages of his Testament in that completeness. Not as the answer to a riddle which leaves all things clear, but as the deeper sight of God, prolific with a thousand novel questions which were never known before, clothed in a wonder which only in that larger light displayed itself, offering new worlds for faith and reverence to wander in, so must the New Testament revelation, the truth of Father, Son, and Spirit, one perfect God, offer itself to man.
Phillips Brooks, The Candle of the Lord, p. 305.
Reference: Psa 104:3.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 8.
Psa 104:4
Consider what is implied in the text.
I. What a number of beautiful and wonderful objects does nature present on every side of us, and how little we know concerning them! Why do rivers flow? Why does rain fall? Why does the sun warm us? And the wind—why does it blow? Here our natural reason is at fault; we know that it is the spirit in man and in beast that makes man and beast move, but reason tells us of no spirit abiding in what is called the natural world, to make it perform its ordinary duties. Now here Scripture interposes, and seems to tell us that all this wonderful harmony is the work of angels. Those events which we ascribe to chance, as the weather, or to nature, as the seasons, are duties done to that God who maketh His angels to be winds, and His ministers a flame of fire. Nature is not inanimate; its daily toil is intelligent; its works are duties. Every breath of air and ray of light and heat, every beautiful prospect, is, as it were, the skirts of their garments, the waving of the robes of those whose faces see God in heaven.
II. While this doctrine raises the mind and gives it a matter of thought, it is also profitable as a humbling doctrine. Theories of science are useful, as classifying, and so assisting us to recollect, the works and ways of God and of His ministering angels. And again, they are ever most useful in enabling us to apply the course of His providence and the ordinances of His will to the benefit of man. Thus we are enabled to enjoy God’s gifts; and let us thank Him for the knowledge which enables us to do so, and honour those who are His instruments in communicating it. But if such a one proceeds to imagine that, because he knows something of this world’s wonderful order, he therefore knows how things really go on; if he treats the miracles of nature as mere mechanical processes, continuing their course by themselves; if in consequence he is what may be called irreverent in his conduct towards nature, thinking (if I may so speak) that it does not hear him, and see how he is bearing himself towards it; and if, moreover, he conceives that the order of nature, which he partially discerns, will stand in the place of the God who made it, and that all things continue and move on not by His will and power and the agency of the thousands and ten thousands of His unseen servants, but by fixed laws, self-caused and self-sustained, what a poor weak worm and miserable sinner he becomes! When we converse on subjects of nature scientifically, repeating the names of plants and earths and describing their properties, we should do so religiously, as in the hearing of the great servants of God, with the sort of diffidence which we always feel when speaking before the learned and wise of our own mortal race, as poor beginners in intellectual knowledge as well as in moral attainments.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. ii., p. 358.
Psa 104:4
In the present day a large number of scientific men maintain that the appearance of design in nature is an appearance only, not a reality. This view is supposed to be established in two ways: first, by the general doctrine of the universal reign of law; and secondly, by the particular theory of evolution.
I. Look, first, at the argument drawn from the universality of law. Law is a very misleading word. Law only means invariable sequence. You will sometimes hear it said, the universe is governed by laws. The universe is not governed by laws. It is governed according to laws, but no one can suppose that the laws make themselves; no one can imagine, for example, that water determines of its own accord always to freeze at one temperature and to boil at another, that snowflakes make up their minds to assume certain definite and regular shapes, or that fire burns of malice aforethought. The sequences of nature do not explain themselves. The regularity of nature, then, needs to be explained. It cannot explain itself, nor can it disprove the existence of a controlling will. The only reign of law incompatible with volition would be the reign of the law of chaos.
II. Look at the bearing of the theory of evolution upon theology. We will suppose, for argument’s sake, that even in its most comprehensive shape the doctrine has been proved true; what is the effect upon our theology? Why, simply that a certain mode of statement of a certain argument of Paley’s is seen to be unsound. And this unsoundness has been already recognised on other grounds. Paley maintained that every definite organ and portion of an organ throughout the world is specially, by a particular creative fiat, adapted to a certain end, just as every portion of a watch implies a special contrivance on the part of the watchmaker. But this, as every one now knows, is completely disproved by the existence in most animals of rudimentary and abortive organs, which are evidently not adapted to any end, as, for example, the rudiments of fingers in a horse’s hoof, the teeth in a whale’s mouth, or the eyes in an unborn mole. But though we no longer profess to trace Divine design in every minute fraction of an organism, this does not hinder us from seeing it in organisms regarded in their entirety and in nature considered as a whole.
The doctrine of the survival of the fittest does not account for the fact that there are fittest to survive. Evolution does not disprove a Designer; it only proves that He works in a different way from what had been supposed. There is no reason why things may not be made for their circumstances, though they are partly made by them. The fact that natural forces work together regularly and methodically does not prove that they have no master; it suggests rather His absolute control. The eternal evolution of the more desirable from the less cannot be logically accounted for except on the ground that it is effected by infinite power, and wisdom, and skill.
A. W. Momerie, The Origin of Evil, and Other Sermons, p. 271.
References: Psa 104:4.—J. J. S. Perowne, Expositor, 1st series, vol. viii., p. 461.
Psa 104:10
I. The incessant murmur of the mountain spring in the solitude speaks to the ear of the thoughtful of the wonderful rhythm of the universe. That spring seems the wayward child of uncertain parents; and yet it wells up with every beat of the pulse of nature, as it has welled up for thousands of years. As the blood circulates in the body continually, so does the water circulate on the earth. Not more certainly would life terminate in the body if the pulse ceased to beat than would the world be locked in everlasting sleep if the mountain spring ceased to throb. Calm and grand as when the morning stars sang together in the morning of creation, nature moves in her appointed orbit; and her blades of grass, and grains of sand, and drops of water tell us that we must be brought into concord with the beneficent law which they all obey so steadfastly and harmoniously or else perish. What nature does unconsciously and will-lessly let us do consciously and willingly; and learning a lesson even from the humble voice of the mountain spring, let us make the statutes of the Lord our song in the house of our pilgrimage.
II. Very mysterious seems the origin of a spring as it sparkles up from the bosom of the mountain, from the heart of the rock, into the sunshine. It stimulates our imagination. It seems like a new creation in the place. Through what dark fissures, through what fine veins and pores of the earth, have its waters trickled up to the central reservoir whose overflowing comes up to view, crystal-clear and crowned with light! The Hebrew name of a prophet was derived from the bubbling forth of the waters of a spring, implying that his utterances were the irresistible overflowings of the Divine fountain of inspiration in his soul. Beside the well of Sychar, incarnate in human form, in visible manifestation to the eyes of men, was the great Reality to whom all myths and symbols pointed, who thirsted Himself that He might give us to drink. And if our eyes be purged with spiritual eyesalve, we too shall see beside every spring the true Oracle, the great Prophet, the Divinity of the waters, who "sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills." As the natural spring stands between the living and the dead, between the sterility of desert plains and the bright verdure which it creates along its course, so He stands between our souls and spiritual death, between the desolation of sin and the peaceable fruits of righteousness which He enables us to produce.
H. Macmillan, Two Worlds are Ours, p. 117.
Psa 104:13-15
The Bible tells us not to be religious, but to be godly. Because we think that people ought to be religious, we talk a great deal about religion; because we hardly think at all that a man ought to be godly, we talk very little about God: and that good old Bible word "godliness" does not pass our lips once a month. A man may be very religious and yet very ungodly.
I. What is the difference between religion and godliness? Just the difference that there is between always thinking of self and always forgetting self, between the terror of a slave and the affection of a child, between the fear of hell and the love of God. Men are religious for fear of hell; but they are not godly, for they do not love God or see God’s hand in everything. They forget that they have a Father in heaven; that He sends rain, and sunshine, and fruitful seasons; that He gives them all things richly to enjoy in spite of all their sins. They talk of the visitation of God as if it was something that was very extraordinary, and happened very seldom, and when it came, only brought evil, harm, and sorrow. Every blade of grass grows by the "visitation of God." Every healthy breath you draw, every cheerful hour you ever spent, every good crop you ever housed safely, came to you by the visitation of God.
II. The text teaches us to look at God as He who gives to all freely and upbraideth not. If we would but believe that God knows our necessities before we ask, that He gives us daily more than we ever get by working for it, if we would but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things would be added to us; and we should find that he who loses his life should save it.
C. Kingsley, Village Sermons, p. 10.
References: Psa 104:14.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii., No. 757. Psa 104:15.—F. Delitzsch, Expositor, 3rd series, p. 64. Psa 104:16.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 529; C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 179; H. Macmillan, Bible Teachings in Nature, p. 65; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, pp. 226, 298.
Psa 104:17
I. Nature, in all her departments, is a system of mutual accommodation. Every object affords hospitality to every other object. Nature places before us, in the kind shelter which the larger and more richly endowed objects afford to the smaller and poorer, a silent picture of what should be our own conduct in the intercourse of human life; and in the added beauty and charm which the exercise of this grace of hospitality imparts to the objects that bestow it, she teaches us that by receiving strangers we too may be entertaining angels unawares. As nature is ever defeating the plans of selfishness by making all her objects mutually dependent, none being allowed to live entirely for itself, so God, by the arrangements of His providence, is breaking down all human monopolies and enforcing a wide hospitality, allowing no man to live for himself alone.
II. In the plan of religion His intention is still more manifest. The growth of His kingdom on earth is like that of a mustard tree, which, springing from the smallest seed, develops into the grandest form, covering the earth with its shadow and lodging the birds of the air among its boughs, protecting the poorest and feeblest things which men may despise.
III. From every lonely, hungry soul Jesus seeks hospitality, standing at the door without, patiently waiting for the opening of it; and when He is welcomed in, there is a mutual feeling of love, and the Guest becomes a generous Host. And what His thoughts of hospitality to the race whom He has come to seek and redeem are is strikingly seen in that beautiful parable where the feast is spread, and the servants are sent first to individuals favoured by fortune and then to the poor and the outcast, to bid them all come, for all things are ready.
H. Macmillan, The Olive Leaf, p. 39.
Reference: Psa 104:17, Psa 104:18.— Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1005.
Psa 104:20-21
I. Consider, with respect and admiration, the manful, cheerful view of pain and death, and indeed of the whole creation, which the psalmist has, because he has faith. There is in him no sentimentalism, no complaining of God, no impious, or at least weak and peevish, cry of "Why hast Thou made all things thus?" He sees the mystery of pain and death. He does not attempt to explain it, but he faces it—faces it cheerfully and manfully, in the strength of his faith, saying, This, too, mysterious, painful, terrible, as it may seem, is as it should be, for it is of the law and will of God, from whom come all good things, of the God in whom is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. Therefore to the psalmist the earth is a noble sight, filled to his eyes with the fruit of God’s works. What impresses his mind is just what would impress the mind of a modern poet, a modern man of science; namely, the wonderful variety, richness, and strangeness of its living things. He perceives, with the instinct of a true poet and a true philosopher, "These all wait upon Thee, O God, that Thou mayest give them meat in due season."
II. Then he goes further still. He has looked into the face of life innumerable. Now he looks into the face of innumerable death, and sees there too the spirit and the work of God. "Thou hidest Thy face; they are troubled. Thou takest away their breath; they die, and are turned again to their dust." The psalmist’s God was not merely a strong God or a wise God, but a good God, and a gracious God, and a just God, likewise a God who not only made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is, but who keepeth His promise for ever, who helpeth them to right who suffer wrong, and feedeth the hungry. It is this magnificent conception of God’s living and actual goodness and justice which the psalmist had which made him trust God about all the strange and painful things which he saw in the world.
C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 205.
Psa 104:20-23
I. "Thou makest darkness." Darkness is a part of Divine order; at least, in the physical universe it is so: and I suppose in this respect, as in all other respects, the material universe represents the spiritual. Universal darkness is a house for light. Darkness is that upon which or through which the light shines. It is an essential part of God’s work.
II. "It is night, wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth." (1) Darkness, as well as light, serves its own purposes. Light is good for flowers, but it is not so good for their roots. There would be no flowers long if the roots did not abide in darkness. (2) The beasts of the forest "creep" forth. For about the creatures whose element is darkness there is always something subtle and stealthy, as though they had no absolute authority for their existence. By slinking away before the light, they seem to confess, "We belong only to the strife and twilight of the universe. When the great day comes, we shall be no more."
III. "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." The young lions know not God; but God knows them, and understands the roar of their desire. God expects no meeker prayers from His wild beasts.
IV. "The sun ariseth," etc. There are children of the day, and there are children of darkness. While the beasts had their sport man slept. Now the beasts sleep, and man rises and "goeth forth unto his work."
V. Nature is a great darkness, in which the kingdom of God appears not. The true Light is not to be seen in nature’s skies. Nature is a huge organisation of night.
VI. The violent eagerness of our sensual instincts and passions may well be called "lions." There is ever something ravenous about the desires of the natural man.
VII. So long as the appetites and passions are permitted to rule, it is night with the human spirit. "The sun ariseth." Christ is man’s Sun.
VIII. "Man goeth forth," etc. He is wakened out of sleep; he is risen from the dead. Christ has given him life. Man’s work is to work his way back out of fallen life, to work in unity with Christ his Saviour "until evening," that he may then go home to the dear interior life and eternity.
J. Pulsford, Quiet Hours, p. 12.
Psa 104:23
It has been pretended by some teachers that works were only required under the Law, and grace comes instead under the Gospel; but the true account of the matter is this, that the Law enjoined works, and the grace of the Gospel fulfils them. The Law commanded, but gave no power; the Gospel bestows the power. Thus the Gospel is the counterpart of the Law. The Gospel does not abrogate works, but provides for them. "Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour" from the morning of the world to its evening.
I. But here an objection may be drawn from the parable of the labourers, which requires notice. It may be said that the labourers, who represent the Jews, complain that those who were called in the evening—that is, Christians—had worked but a short time, and in the cool of the day. Hence it may be argued that Christians have no irksome or continued toil, but are saved, without their trouble, by grace. What is meant by the "burden and heat of the day "? It means that religion pressed heavily on the Jews as a burden, because they were unequal to it; and it was as the midday heat, overpowering them with its intensity, because they had no protection against it. But for us, Christ hath redeemed us from the burden and heat, and the curse of the Law, by being made a curse for us.
II. Nor, secondly, can we argue that our work is shorter from the labourer’s complaint, "These have wrought but one hour." For we are called in the world’s evening, not in our own. By the eleventh hour is not meant that Christians have little to do, but that the time is short. Earth and sky are ever failing, Christ is ever coming, Christians are ever lifting up their heads and looking out; and therefore it is the evening.
III. "Until the evening." Not in the daytime only, lest we begin to run well, but fall away before our course is ended. The end is the proof of the matter. When the sun shines, this earth pleases; but let us look towards that eventide and the cool of the day when the Lord of the vineyard will walk amid the trees of the garden, and say unto His steward, "Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first." That evening will be the trial, when the heat, and fever, and noise of the noontide are over, and the light fades, and the prospect saddens, and the shades lengthen, and the busy world is still. May that day and that hour ever be in our thoughts.
J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 1.
I. Man goeth forth. Without any doubt, we wake up in a world of work. Work is a Divine sacrament. It is a sacrament of life, or it should be. (1) We are cultivated by work. Very plainly has God put us into such a universe that He can only shape us by work. All that reduces us to experience, all that stirs within us the sense of knowledge, partakes of the nature of work. (2) Work never ends with the act; it has a great beyond. (3) In the kingdom of grace there is still the kingdom of labour. Go forth; watch for Christ; work, labour, for Him: and when He comes, you may win His smile.
II. I turn from the thought of the work as a fact to the spirit in which it should be engaged in. (1) A nobleness of soul looks out from the words, Go forth. Man goeth forth; it means that he calls to patience, courage, perseverance, and good-temper to wait upon him. Toil, pain, doubt, terror, difficulty—these retreat before the recognition of a great life purpose. (2) Life may be purposeful; and there are comfortable views, most comfortable perspectives. Thou art a thought of God; thou art a man; thou art a soul with Divine intuitions and intentions—Divine forces working in thee: from them we gather the spirit which overlooks failure, for "what is failure here but a triumph’s evidence for the fulness of the days? "Hasten on, then, to the evening; to the sharpest pain there comes a close, to the roughest voyage an end.
E. Paxton Hood, Dark Sayings on a Harp, p. 69.
References: Psa 104:23.—H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Waterside Mission Sermons, 1st series, p. 19.
Psa 104:24
I. Surely the man who wrote this Psalm must have thought very differently about this world, with its fields and woods, its beasts and birds, from what we think. David looked on the earth as God’s earth. We look on it as man’s earth, or nobody’s earth. To David the earth spoke of God, who made it; by seeing what this earth is like, he saw what God, who made it, is like. We see no such thing. David knew that this earth was his lesson-book; this earth was his work-field: and yet those same thoughts which showed him how he was made for the land round him, and the land round him was made for him, showed him also that he belonged to another world—a spirit-world; showed him that though his home and business were here on earth, yet that, for that very reason, his home and business were in heaven, with God, who made the earth.
II. "All things are God’s garment," says the wise man—outward and visible signs of His unseen and unapproachable glory; and when they are worn out, He changes them, as a garment: and they shall be changed. But He is the same. He is there all the time. All things are His work. In all things we may see Him, if our souls have eyes. The man who is no scholar in letters may read of God as he follows the plough, for the earth he ploughs is his Father’s; there is God’s mark and seal on it, His name, which, though it be written in the dust, yet neither man nor fiend can wipe out. It would keep us from many a sin, and stir us up to many a holy thought and deed, if we could learn to find in everything around us, however small or mean, the work of God’s hand, the likeness of God’s countenance, the shadow of God’s glory.
C. Kingsley, Village Sermons, p. 1.
References: Psa 104:24.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 47; A. Jessopp, Norwich School Sermons, p. 64. Psa 104:24, Psa 104:28-30.—C. Kingsley, Village Sermons, p. 18, and Westminster Sermons, p. 193. Psa 104:25.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 325. Psa 104:26.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1259. Psa 104:28.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 282.
Psa 104:30
I. The first voice we hear speaks directly for God—for the Divine existence and presence with us in His works. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Nature says in her heart, and in every colour and feature of her flushing face, "There is a God, and He is here!"
II. The spring sings a clear song of the Divine faithfulness. Every spring is with God the keeping of covenant. He is, as it were, conducting an argument as to His own fidelity. The argument began when Noah came out of the ark, and it will end only at the judgment day.
III. Spring tells us of God’s great goodness. It is not merely that He made a certain promise four thousand years ago, and must keep it. It is that He made the promise and loves to keep it. The chief joy of God’s existence is goodness. The Divine occupation for ever is to give.
IV. The season tells us softly and melodiously of Divine tenderness. God takes this season of the year to tell us especially what tenderness, what delicacy, what colourings of exquisite beauty, there are in His nature. In Him are all the archetypes of beauty and all the fountains of tenderness; we may therefore commit ourselves and all we have to His keeping.
V. Spring has a voice of good cheer to all who are serving God faithfully and seeking good ends for themselves or for others, although as yet with little apparent result. For when does it come? Immediately after the winter. This tells us never to despair, never to despond. God needs the winter for souls to prepare for the spring; but He never forgets to bring the spring when the time has come.
VI. The spring has another voice—a voice which sounds away into the far future, and foretells "the time of the restitution of all things." God, in renewing the face of the earth, seems to give us a visible picture and bright image of that blessed moral renovation which is coming in the fulness of the time.
VII. Spring gives announcement of the general resurrection from the dead.
VIII. Spring tells us that all our earthly time is the spring season of our existence.
A. Raleigh, Quiet Resting-places, p. 347.
I. Spring is an awakening. We say, The year awakes from its winter sleep; nature opens its eyes. So is the turning of the soul to God. It was a soul asleep; it is a soul awake. It has heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Awake, thou that sleepest;" and it is opening its eyes on a new world, a new time, new thoughts, new possibilities, a blessed new life. Christ is the Prince whose touch awakens the soul from its winter sleep. The joy of the awakening soul is a new creation, by the word of Him who went near to lost souls to bring them to God.
II. Spring is the manifestation of life. It is life which sings among the branches. It is life which prattles in the brook. It is life which clothes the trees with verdure, and the furrows with the tender shoots of corn. It is life which stirs in the converted soul. Conversion itself is but a manifestation of life. The soul has been born again, has been revived, quickened, raised from the dead to newness of life. The life we are invited to live is nothing other, is nothing lower, than God’s own life. And this life has been given to us in Jesus Christ. In Him is the fountain of life.
III. Spring is also a gateway. It is the gateway to the harvest—seedtime first, then harvest. At the gateway of the year, a promise; at the end, fulfilment. In conversion the gateway is opened for the soul to go in and seek its fruit from God. The harvest of a single soul—can the worth of that be summed up?
A. Macleod, Days of Heaven upon Earth, p. 45.
I. The vast importance to us that this season should regularly and infallibly return in its time is obvious the instant it is mentioned. But it is not so instantly recollected how entirely we are at the mercy of the God of nature for its return.
II. Consider, next, this beautiful vernal season. What a gloomy and unpromising scene and season it rises out of! Might we not take instruction from this to correct the judgments we are prone to form of the Divine government?
III. How welcome are the early signs and precursory appearances of the spring! The operation of the Divine Spirit in renovating the human soul, effecting its conversion from the natural state, is sometimes displayed in this gentle and gradual manner, especially in youth.
IV. The next observation on the spring season is, How reluctantly the worse gives place to the better. It is too obvious to need pointing out how much resembling this there is in the moral state of things.
V. We may contemplate the lavish, boundless diffusion, riches, and variety of beauty in the spring. Reflect what a display is here of the boundless resources of the great Author. Such unlimited profusion may well assure us that He who can afford thus to lavish treasures so far beyond what is simply necessary can never fail of resources for all that is, or ever shall be, necessary.
VI. This pleasant season has always been regarded as obviously presenting an image of youthful life. The newness, liveliness, fair appearance, exuberance, of the vital principle, rapid growth—such are the fair points of likeness. But there are also less pleasing circumstances of resemblance: the frailty and susceptibility, so peculiarly liable to fatal injury from inauspicious influences, blights, and diseases.
VII. To a person in the latter stages of life, if destitute of the sentiments and expectations of religion, this world of beauty must lose its captivations; it must even take a melancholy aspect, for what should strike him so directly and forcibly as the thought that he is soon to leave it? On the contrary, and by the same rule, this fair display of the Creator’s works and resources will be gratifying the most and the latest to the soul animated with the love of God and the confidence of soon entering on a nobler scene.
J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 128.
Psa 104:30
The breath of the Most High, mentioned in the text, is the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son, the Third Person in the Trinity, proceeding from the Father and the Son to give life, and order, and harmony to His creatures, especially to make His reasonable creatures, angels and men, partakers of His unspeakable holiness.
I. If this parable of breath be well considered, it may seem to account for other like parables, so to call them, by which Holy Scripture teaches us to think of this our most holy Comforter. For instance, the Holy Spirit is sometimes compared to the wind, as in the discourse of our Saviour to Nicodemus. Thus the wind, when we hear or feel it, may remind us of the breath of Almighty God; and the effects of the wind—the clouds which it brings over the earth, the moisture which the air takes up, the dews which descend, the rains which pour down, the springs which gush out, the waters which flow over the earth—all these are in Scripture tokens of the same Spirit, showing Himself in gifts and sanctifying graces and communicating spiritual life to His people.
II. We are hereby taught to think of our own spiritual and hidden life, the life which we have concealed and laid up for us with Christ in God, the life which is altogether of faith, not at all of sight. Whatever puts us in mind of the Holy Spirit puts us in mind of that life, for He is "the Lord and Giver of life." The natural life of the first Adam was a gift of the Spirit, a token of His Divine presence, but much more so the spiritual life which Christians have by union with the second Adam.
III. Whatever else we do, then, or refrain from doing, let us at least endeavour to open our eyes and contemplate our real condition. The outward world indeed is to us the same as if we were no Christians; the breath of heaven is around us, the dew falls, the winds blow, the rain descends, the waters gush out, and all the other works of nature go on as if we had never been taken out of this wicked world and placed in the kingdom of God: but in reality we know that there is a meaning and power in all these common things which they can have to none but Christians. The good Spirit is around us on every side; He is within us; we are His temples: only let us so live, that we force Him not to depart from us at last.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. vii., p. 144.
References: Psa 104:30.—J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 4th series, p. 52; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 164; A. J. Griffith, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 8; H. Wonnacott, Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 314; G. Avery, Ibid., vol. xxvii., p. 269; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Ibid., vol. xxx., p. 172; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. i., p. 382.
Psa 104:31-33
I. In God, in the ever-blessed Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—we and every living thing live, and move, and have our being. He is the Infinite, whom nothing, however huge, and vast, and strong, can comprehend; that is, take in and limit. He takes in and limits all things, giving to each thing form according to its own kind, and life and growth according to its own law. Therefore everything which we see is a thought of God’s, an action of God’s, a message to us from God. We can look neither at the sun in the sky nor at the grass beneath our feet without being brought face to face with God, the ever-blessed Trinity.
II. If God be so awful in the material world, of which our five senses tell us, how much more awful is He in that spiritual and moral world of which our senses tell us nought! How awful is God in that eternal world of right and wrong, wherein cherubim, seraphim, angel, and archangel cry to Him for ever, not merely "Mighty! mighty! mighty!" but "Holy! holy! holy!" so awful that we might well be overwhelmed with dread and horror at the sight of God’s righteousness and our sinfulness were it not for the gracious message of revelation that tells us that God the Father of heaven is our Father likewise, who so loved us that He gave for us His only-begotten, God the Son, that for His sake our sins might be freely forgiven us; that God the Son is our Atonement, our Redeemer, our King, our Intercessor, our Example, our Saviour in life and death, and God the Holy Ghost our Comforter, our Guide, our Inspirer, who will give to our souls the eternal life which will never perish, even as He gives to our bodies the mortal life which must perish.
C. Kingsley, All Saints’ Day, and Other Sermons, p. 142.
References: Psa 104:33.—Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 273. Psa 104:33-35.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xxi., p. 338.
Psa 104:34
Meditation is the calm and quiet dwelling of the mind upon a great fact till that fact has time to get into the mind and pervade it with its influence. Meditation is the quiet thinking on single truths, the steady setting of attentive thought drawn away from other things and concentrated on this alone.
I. The words of the text imply a personal relationship; that is, the relation of the human person who thinks towards a Divine Person on whom he meditates. All through it is the personal, living God whom the psalmist saw, the God who thought, and felt, and schemed, and ruled, and loved, and with whom the psalmist himself was brought into relation. Not an abstract or distant Deity is He who calls out the adoration of His human creatures, but One in whom we live, and move, and have our being, round about our path and about our bed, and searching out all our ways.
II. Consider whence comes the sweetness of this exercise of the head and heart. (1) It is sweet to think of the love of Christ, and especially to realise that we, with all our conscious unworthiness, are the objects of it. (2) It is sweet to dwell on the love-tokens of our absent Saviour. (3) It is sweet to anticipate the time when we shall meet Him, "whom, having not seen, we love; in whom, though now we see Him not, yet believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."
E. Garbett, Experiences of the Inner Life, p. 191.
References: Psalm 104—P. Thomson, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 174; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 60.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Nature’s tribute to Jehovah.
Nature’s tribute to Jehovah.
We are now in a position to realize as never before what creation is. Redemption is the key, and the only key, that will fully unlock its treasures; for redemption alone can remove the shadow which, after all, invests its brightest scenes, and lift the sadness which will intrude itself upon every contemplation of it. Nor only so: unbelieving suspicions find their lurking-places amid these shadows, and give bitterness to this sadness. Nature, pervaded by law, as the science of the day more and more assures us, seems cast in a rigid mould from which we shrink inevitably. The more perfect as a machine, the less we find heart in it; and the smiles with which it decks itself seem often but very cruelty and hypocrisy, as we realize it to be the monster that without remorse consumes day by day its own offspring. The more we grow in knowledge, the more impossible it seems to escape the conviction that this is no effect of moral ruin introduced by Adam into what was before a deathless paradise. Death seems wrought into the constitution of things from the beginning. We have in the geological strata a history of the earth stretching long ages back of Adam; and far down as we may pierce, nothing but convulsion and ruin can be discerned. We dwell upon the accumulated dust of multitudinous generations, which sometimes constitute in fact the very substance of the strata themselves. Not merely individuals but countless types of form have passed away; and the "fittest" that "survive" -if they do survive -have been (according to the theory) produced at the cost of a prodigal waste of life on the part of the less perfect which have yielded them only temporarily the place which in a brief time they too must yield to others.
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Is it possible then to have any more a "psalm of creation"? is it possible any more to sing with the understanding these songs of another age? Yes, surely, if we have learned, and not unless we have learned, redemption as the key to the mysteries of creation. If we realize God to be a Saviour, and can write Jehovah-Saviour in brief as "Jesus," we have a light bright enough to dispel all shadow from the soul and bathe it in eternal glory. A record of conflict and of ruin as connected with the creature will no more be strange or stumbling, but familiar truth; while the up-rise of a higher form of life out of what has perished and passed away will be but as a prophecy of a better resurrection and the final victory of God over the evil, the Son of God being glorified thereby.
[FWG here gives credence to ’death before the fall’ and evolution (see elsewhere that he does not believe this), and is on extremely shaky ground. This interpretation owes everything to ’science’ and not to the revelation FWG believes. The geological record, if read as before Adam, would leave no evidence of the catastrophic worldwide flood of Noah, as well as introducing more problems than it appears to solve. The reader is invited to visit www.answersingenesis.org for another understanding. Ed. STEM]
1. Jehovah the Redeemer is what the last psalm has proclaimed to us. Divine Love could not give to another the glory of this salvation; nor find one capable of the stupendous sacrifice that it involved. In the psalm before us Jehovah is the Creator also, and Nature brings its tribute of praise to swell the anthem of redemption. Only thus can we realize its glorious harmony.
The psalm begins with celebrating the greatness of Jehovah: He is clothed with honor and majesty. Inaccessible in His own essential glory, He covers Himself with light as with a garment, and stretches out the heavens like the curtain (of a tent). The visible is thus the robe of the Invisible. He indwells it, and through it we may discern, if dimly, His glorious Form.
Yet this dimness itself is Light; and there is no hiding, save the better to make known; just as when; because of the feebleness of our sight, through a darkened glass we behold the sun. The tremulous curtain of the heavens stretched out is, as it were, interwoven with its iris-rays. In the waters of the expanse He frames His upper chambers; the dark clouds moving on the wings of the wind being the chariot in which He rides.
It is plain that the psalmist refuses mere matter and motion as a sufficient account of heavenly phenomena, and that to him all these are instinct with the Presence and Will of a Divine Being, whom they in some sense disclose. Nor has the discovery of some of the mechanics involved in them done one whit to disprove the psalmist’s belief. Certainly the description given may be allowed to be poetical, but its meaning is not difficult to understand, nor can it be proved superstitious. Superstition thrives in the dark, is incongruous, fantastic, irrational. To claim as manifestations of Mind what has been proved to be so perfectly rational, or of a Divine Governor what is so plainly authoritative as to be owned as "law," -this has no character of superstition at all. Divine action, identified with such phenomena, is God thus far in the light, and appealing to the rational nature of His creatures for recognition.
The acceptance and use of the Septuagint translation of the next verse by the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 1:7) would quite preclude the adoption of any other. "He maketh His angels spirits" is, according to the apostle, a fact affirmed of the nature of angels; and of course a much higher fact than "making the winds His messengers." As it might be translated either way, the meaning must be decided otherwise than by the language. Nor is it a disproportion in thought, that while the material instrument is contemplated as directly in the hands of God, the spiritual beings should be His messengers. This shows, on the one hand, that no part of His creation is to be conceived as separate from Him; no physical agency that is not the embodiment of His will, while, on the other hand, the "spirits" with a responsibility of their own represent Him and are subject to Him, receiving their character and endowment from Him, according to His will. There would be indeed a lack in the representation of Jehovah the Creator, were only physical forces -clouds, winds, etc -spoken of, and not His creative power in the domain of spirit.
2. The psalmist now recites the story of the preparation of the earth for man. Divine delight in man, and so His "rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth" are evidently the theme, while the rebuke and bounding of the overflowing waters may be read as a parable of the strife of which the world has ever been the scene, and which receives its final rebuke when the Prince of peace shall come. The first verse declares the absolute security of the dry land for ever, in the strongest expression for eternity that the Old Testament knows (le-olam va-ed). The deluge (of which we are beginning to have some knowledge geologically*) altered nothing essentially as to the structure of the earth in this way; and the purification by fire which awaits it before the eternal condition of the "new earth" can be reached, need not do so either although there will then be "no more sea" (Rev 21:1). Whatever may be the changes, God adheres to His first plan all through, and builds for eternity.
{*See an exceedingly interesting volume by Sir J. W. Dawson, which gives in brief the evidence: "The Meeting-place of Geology and History." (Religious Tract Society, England.)}
But at first, as we read in Genesis, the reign of water had been universal: "Thou hadst covered it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains." Geology knows well this condition; which Moses somehow knew before geology. The earth man lives upon; like man from the womb, was born out of water; and the structure of the earth was there "mountains," and by implication valleys -before it was thus born.
The third verse implies (what the number seems to indicate) the resurrection of the earth; but the psalmist speaks of the rebuke of the waters; which I suppose is continued in the following verse. It is objected that we cannot say, "They ascended the mountains," which (while in itself unnatural) is forbidden by the fact that they already stood above them. Most, therefore, read "The mountains rose; the valleys sank," and suppose it parenthetical: for the rest of the verse, as well as the following one, speaks again of the waters. The "place appointed" is evidently the "one place" into which the waters are gathered on the third day, and does not refer to either mountains or valleys; on the other hand, it is awkward to take the first half of the verse as a parenthesis. But there seems no reason why we should not translate, "Mountains ascended: they went down the valleys"; which preserves the connection; and makes the language vividly pictorial.
The next verse speaks then of the bound assigned by God to the retreating waters, so as to prevent their return again. Thus man’s earth has been recovered and is preserved for him: the typical aspect of it has been pointed out elsewhere (Gen 1:1-31: notes). The more we study this, the more we shall be satisfied that the typical meaning is no arbitrary accommodation of the facts to spiritual illustration; but one deeply grounded in the nature of things: in short, we shall realize what the psalm before us emphasizes, that the Redeemer and the Creator are One.
3. But it is not enough that man’s abode should be separated from the waters. Merely separated, the dry land would be for him but indeed a barren possession; upon which he could not sustain himself a few brief days. Earth (and therefore man) is dependent on heaven; a deeply spiritual truth, of which all nature is full; and to this now we come, the springs of refreshing which, though they are ministered from the earth, are not of earth. "He sendeth the springs into the valleys: they run among the mountains." The well-known type of the Spirit is the "living water" -water that has in it the power which is first of all derived from its descent from heaven; though it come by whatever underground channels to the place in which we find it. "They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst." How free are all God’s gifts; and the most absolutely necessary are just the freest. Fresh air, sunshine, the streams that water the earth: these are as generally distributed, as they are everywhere needful. The "wild asses" are the very type of rebellious intractability; but "He maketh His sun to shine upon the evil and upon the good; and sendeth rain upon the just and on the unjust." And He who has ascended up on high and received gifts for men; has done so "for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them."
And beside these springs the birds of the heavens dwell; and give voice among the branches. Natural worshipers as we may say, no song-bird was by the law of Leviticus ever unclean; and their notes, however various are ever harmonious. Attracted by the water, they dwell above our heads, and sustain themselves upon their wings in unobstructed flight through paths in which no beast of earth can follow them.
Next, we have God’s irrigation-system for the earth, in which the hills have their part in turning hither or thither the rain of God’s "upper chambers," so that the rivers spread abroad to water the land. That which is nearest to heaven attracts most the rain of heaven; while by the law of its nature it cannot keep it, but must pass it on to others. Thus "the earth is satisfied," -that which receives and is made fruitful by it being just that which, not as rock or sand, resists the force that would disintegrate, but the contrary: that which yields and crumbles as the humble and contrite heart yields to the divine Husbandman.
So the grass grows for cattle and herb for the service of man; God bent upon maintaining the creature, whom He has set in dignity upon the earth as His image and likeness, to know Him and to be for Him; and made him thus of all most thoroughly dependent, even because master of all. Where is there a creature ordained to frailty and long helplessness like a human babe? Where is there one so defenceless naturally, with neither tooth nor claw nor strength nor speed and with his very skin denuded to the blast, as is man in his prime? It is spirit in him that is to manifest itself and does, but by the recognition of his dependence and his careful use of all God’s gifts.
Truly he is "frail man" (enosh); but now, alas! called to know a frailty to which not creation but his sin destines him. Now there is discipline for him in it, which he needs, and in which still divine love acts. While that additional need has brought out as never before God’s tenderness in it: the wine that gladeneth frail man’s heart, the bread that strengtheneth frail man’s heart, -how the words, and the repetition of the words, breathe of God’s thoughtful care in upholding one who may so easily give way in discouragement! Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter in soul: let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more." (Pro 31:6-7.)
Bread and wine: may we not find symbol here? And with these, "oil to make his face to shine!" Christ and the Spirit! we do no violence to the work of the Redeemer-Creator when we find these here.
4. The fourth section -of but three verses -seems to add, to what we have just had, a brief lesson of experience as to this care of God for the creatures He has made. It is briefer, I suppose because it is so much in the general line of thought in this creation-psalm. Beyond it there are problems that must be faced, and which will occupy much more time; and for which we will do well to be well furnished.
The lessons -for there are more than one -are all the more such and suited for refreshment by their simplicity. It is good to see how all around us are the assurances of divine loving-kindness. In the buoyant happiness of childhood, in the fragrance and delicate tints of a common flower, in the hues of sunset, in every direction; in short, that we may look, apart from effects of sin; we find abundant evidence of One who has thought, not merely of the preservation but of the enjoyment of His creatures: pleasures of sense, pleasures for the mind, pleasures for the heart, quite beyond any need of theirs, if we think merely of what is implied in the necessity of things going on (if that in fact should be a necessity). The eye, the ear, the man in his whole being, finds without seeking, without soliloquizing about it, constant sources of enjoyment. Something of this sort, though objectively considered, we have here. "The trees of Jehovah are full:" strength, beauty, delicacy of workmanship, are in those "cedars of Lebanon which He has planted." And then they do not grow for themselves simply, but minister to the birds that rejoicingly flock to and nest in their covert; while the gloomy fir gives hospitable shelter to the home-loving stork. The high hills, too, furnish a refuge for feet like those of the wild goat, specially prepared for them; and the very clefts of the rock provide one for the timid and feeble hyrax. Thus the earth is a house of many chambers, in which her various inhabitants find various provision God is the great host of multitudinous tenantry.
5. But we come now to consider His government; in which there are difficulties that give room and exercise for faith. His appointed times contemplate darkness as well as light. This is plainly the point in question; and thus the moon is mentioned before the sun; and as to the latter simply his going down. Yet the moon shows darkness not unrelieved; and not relieved by haphazard. Darkness, however, is of His appointment; which is comfort and yet mystery: and at His appointment, too, the night brings the wild beasts from their lairs. The young lions are cared for, as the innocent sheep, and roaring after prey, seek it and find it from God. Thus the devourer is provided for, as all else: there is no shirking that; and nature witnesses plainly as to it: tooth, claws, and tongue bear witness for the lion. Who gave them to him? The Same who gave to the lion’s prey the agility for escape. An equal hand has been at work for both, as it if were designed to have the world a battlefield of not very unequal forces, each cared for and sustained. If the fittest do survive, as some say, it is hard enough to tell who are the fittest. The giants perish, and the pigmies live. "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong." If there be design; then strife seems designed: as if the good and the evil, with the inevitable conflict arising from their co-existence, must have its counterpart and reflection in the whole frame of things amid which man is found; as it must, if nature at large be in any sense a parable of spiritual things -if the analogies between them be otherwise than mere deceptions.
The rein is kept upon this strife, even in the ordinances of day and night, with all that these imply: "the sun ariseth, they gather together and lay them down in their dens." And under this same subjection man is, with the addition of the toil which marks him as the responsible creature under the discipline of God: he "goeth forth unto his work and unto his labor, until the evening." His work is to be in the light, and not in darkness; and yet the darkness limits and controls him also in its measure. But it has its measure.
6. The next section, in its seven verses, emphasizes the full mastery of all things possessed by God. It opens with a declaration of the Creator’s wisdom in all His works: manifold works, and every one showing His wisdom. Can anyone produce one that does not? But this wisdom itself implies control of material: the mind must be sustained by the hand that it may be shown. Truly "the earth is full of Thy riches."
And so, too, is the at first sight barren sea, full of life in innumerable forms; where, above, the ships tossed upon its surface yet make it the highway of man, God’s noblest workmanship; while beneath, the sea-monster sports in its depths. All these must be fed at His table, gather from His hand, be filled with what He gives; or, if He hide His face, suffer; if He take away their breath, go back to the dust from which they came. Yet is He the fountain of life, from which, if He send forth His Spirit, a new creation replaces these vanished forms, and the earth is renewed.
7. From all this the soul justifies its confidence in God, who is Jehovah the Eternal. His glory then shall last forever; and His works are not the playthings of His might, but He rejoices in them. Eternity will be thus the seal upon that final condition with which He at last shall be well pleased.
For thus even now does creation depend on Him; and sympathize with His every thought. If He look upon the earth it trembles; if He touch the mountains they are asmoke. How dreadful this almightiness of His, if He be unknown! If He be realized as what He is, how good that He should be sovereign absolutely! So the psalmist breaks out in a praise which can end but with his being. Nor is it a mere unreasoning emotion: his meditation upon Him shall be sweet, the knowledge of Jehovah shall make glad his heart. The one blot upon God’s works shall disappear: "sinners shall be consumed out of the earth, and the wicked shall be no more." Then shall His works glorify Him indeed; and in the anticipation of it the heart praises Him.
Thus the song of creation ends. We may perhaps be disappointed after all, that there is no further attempt to lift the curtain of mystery that must be confessed to hang so thickly over much of God’s governmental ways. But here Scripture always declares that "clouds and darkness are round about Him." Nor, though Christianity reveals Him as in the light, is this essentially altered. Still we are called to walk by faith, and to glorify Him by submission where we cannot penetrate His meaning. The difference that Christianity makes is that God is in the light -not all His acts or ways: which faith knows to be worthy of Him; even where it knows not how they are. Here the cross is indeed the bow in the cloud; and redemption shows the relation of God to sin itself, in perfect holiness and yet in love; and this is found here in the hundred and second psalm; Jehovah seen in the Man cut off in the midst of His days, yet the Creator of all, whose years shall have no end. This then throws its light over the darkest mysteries; and even the conflict of opposites which we discern in nature begins to be intelligible, as bringing it into accordance with earth’s fallen head, and making it the symbolic utterance of spiritual things. True it is we know but little of nature in this character of it: we have mere glimpses of what the glorious vision should be. But what wonder when we have allowed Scripture itself to be practically so much hidden as it still must be confessed to be? Alas, we have not yet the key that shall completely open the door, and set us face to face with the unveiled mysteries. Thank God for what we know; but shall we not press on to what yet we know not?
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This is a Ps. of Nature, celebrating God's glory…
This is a Ps. of Nature, celebrating God's glory as seen in His works both inanimate and animate. It is an expansion of the closing vv. of Psalms 103, and like that Ps. begins and ends with the phrase, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul!' The two Pss. are probably the work of the same author. Psalms 104 follows to some extent the order of the creation-poem in Genesis 1, and may be compared also with Job 38-41. Psa_104:5-9, Psa_104:19 speak of the creation of the world, but the greater part of the Ps. describes its present condition and arrangements, which need not be analysed in detail. The closing vv. consist of an ascription of praise (Psa_104:31-34), and a prayer for the destruction of the wicked (Psa_104:35).
3. Chambers] lit. 'upper chambers': see Amo_9:6. The waters referred to are those above the firmament (Gen_1:7; Psa_148:4), which are the source of rain: see Psa_104:13. Wings of the wind] see Psa_18:10.
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4. His angels spirits] read either, 'his angels winds,' or 'winds his messengers' (RV). The former rendering is the more natural, is parallel to that of the next clause, and is adopted in Heb_1:7, where the v. is quoted. The latter reading seems to give a simpler sense, but the other is quite intelligible also. As God manifests His own glory in the universe, so He manifests the power of His angels in the winds and the lightning.
7-9. These vv. are parallel to Gen_1:9, Gen_1:10. God's command to the waters is conceived as having been uttered in thunder (Psa_104:7).
16. Full of sap] RV 'satisfied,' as in Psa_104:13.
19. See Gen_1:14-18.
22. Gather themselves together] RV 'get them away.'
25. So is this great and wide sea] RV 'Yonder is the sea, great and wide.' Things creeping, etc.] or, 'things moving,' etc.: see Gen_1:21.
26. Leviathan] see Job 41, where the crocodile is referred to. Here a sea-monster is meant.
31. The glory.. shall endure.. the Lord shall rejoice] RV 'Let the glory.. endure.. let the Lord rejoice.'
34. My meditation of him shall be sweet] RV 'Let my meditation be sweet unto him': see Psa_19:14.
35. The point of the Psalmist's prayer is that evil may be banished from the world, though he identifies sin with sinners, and seems to include their destruction in his wish. Praise ye the Lord] This sentence should probably be read as the beginning of the next Ps.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v4 (See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
angels
(See Scofield "Heb 1:4").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 104
Psalm 104
Creation’s Praise
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1. The Creator (Psa 104:1-4)
2. The foundations of the earth (Psa 104:5-9)
3. His works manifesting His kindness (Psa 104:10-23)
4. How manifold are Thy works (Psa 104:24-30)
5. Rejoicing in His works: Hallelujah! (Psa 104:31-35)
He is now praised as the Creator by creation. He is seen in His creator-glory. When the kingdom is established that glory will then be manifested. Psa 104:4 is quoted in Heb 1:1-14 showing that the glory of the risen Christ is here likewise revealed. The angels of God will ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. Then creation will be in its rightful place and man will see His glory there. The earth will be filled with His Riches (Psa 104:24). Then too sinners will be consumed out of the earth and the wicked be no more for He is King. The Psalm ends with hallelujah. His people and all creation will praise Him.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Praise of God for His Work in the Kingdom…
Praise of God for His Work in the Kingdom of Nature.
The psalmist, probably David, as in the preceding psalm, celebrates the glory of God in the works of His creation and providence.
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v. 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, a powerful self-encouragement, like in the preceding psalm. O Lord, my God, Thou art very great, full of royal splendor and majestic glory; Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, these constituting the royal garment visible in all parts of the created universe;
v. 2. who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment, shining forth in the light of His creation with His eternal power and Godhead. Gen 1:3-5; who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain, the firmament of the visible heavens being considered a tent-curtain reflecting His glory, Gen 1:6-8; Gen 40:22;
v. 3. who layest the beams of His chambers in the waters, the upper rooms of God’s dwelling being regarded as founded on the waters beyond the firmament; who maketh the clouds His chariot, when He comes forth to bless with His rain and to threaten and destroy with His thunder and lightning, Isa 19:1; who walketh upon the wings of the wind, in a glorious manifestation of His power;
v. 4. who maketh His angels spirits, His own messengers being present in the blessing and destroying power of the winds; His ministers a flaming fire, for they are active in and through the forces of nature, they are vehicles of God’s creative energy;
v. 5. who laid the foundations of the earth, establishing its pillars, a poetic mode of expression, to denote the stability of the earth as suspended freely in space, Job 26:7; Job 38:4, that it should not be removed forever, until the Lord Himself would choose to make the change toward a new heaven and a new earth.
v. 6. Thou coveredst it with the deep, with the waters of the original chaos, over which the Spirit of God moved at the time of creation, Gen 1:2, as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
v. 7. At Thy rebuke they fled, when His command separated the sea from the dry land; at the voice of Thy thunder they hasted away.
v. 8. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which Thou hast founded for them, literally, "Up rose mountains, down sank valleys to the place which Thou didst establish for them," all this being done on that great third day of creation, Gen 1:9; for the mountains are as old as the earth and the waters, which originally covered it.
v. 9. Thou hast set a bound, fixed them a definite boundary, that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth, Job 38:8-11; Jer 5:22.
v. 10. He sended the springs into the valleys, their source being in the mountains above, which run, have their regular course, among the hills, in the brooks and rivers.
v. 11. They give drink to every beast of the field; the wild asses quench their thirst.
v. 12. By them, that is, along their course, shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches, literally, "out from between the branches they give their voice. "
v. 13. He watered the hills from His chambers, from His habitation above the firmament, in abundant rains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Thy works, the rain causing every form of vegetation to grow and mature in its season.
v. 14. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle and herb, food plants of every kind, for the service of man, so that they may cultivate them and enjoy their fruits; that He may bring forth food out of the earth, by the blessings of His rain,
v. 15. And wine, that maketh glad the heart of man, its proper use always being spoken of with approval in Holy Writ, and oil to make his face to shine, on account of the increased nutritive value which it gives to foods, and bread which strengthened man’s heart, giving vigor and energy to man, these three, grain for bread, wine, and oil, being considered the chief articles of food in the Orient.
v. 16. The trees of the Lord, the poet probably having in mind especially the cedars of Lebanon, are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon, which He hath planted;
v. 17. where the birds make their nests; as for the stork, or the heron, the fir-trees, or the cypresses, are her house.
v. 18. The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, called, for that reason, the mountain-goats, and the rocks for the conies, probably the rock-badger, a marmotlike animal, which has its home in rocky places.
v. 19. He appointed the moon for seasons, to measure the seasons of the year; the sun knoweth his going down, as originally established by the Lord, Gen 1:14.
v. 20. Thou makest darkness, and it is night, the night following upon day by His providential rule; wherein all the beasts of the forest, the beasts of prey, which spend the day in their dens, do creep forth.
v. 21. The young lions roar after their prey, as they seek their food, and seek their meat from God, who gave them the instinct to hunt for their food in this manner.
v. 22. The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, withdrawing from the open spaces where they are in danger of meeting men, and lay them down in their dens.
v. 23. Man goeth forth unto his work, the day being allotted to him, and to his labor until the evening. Cf Job 24:5; Job 37:8; Job 38:40. In the next section of the psalm the poet summarizes the miracles of God in the sea.
v. 24. O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all, being guided in His creative activity by His infinite all-wisdom; the earth is full of Thy riches, of His creatures.
v. 25. So is this great and wide sea, spreading out so far, to the distant horizon, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
v. 26. There go the ships, man venturing out on the ocean depths in pursuing his commercial activities; there is that leviathan, some sea-monster, probably the whale, whom Thou hast made to play therein.
v. 27. These, all the millions of creatures, wait all upon Thee, looking to the providence of God, that Thou mayest give them their meat, the food which they need, in due season, at the proper time.
v. 28. That Thou givest them they gather, from the various places where it is provided; Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good, plentifully supplied with all they need.
v. 29. Thou hidest Thy face, refusing, for a time, to recognize and supply their need, they are troubled, terrified, immediately feeling themselves forsaken; Thou takest away their breath, depriving them of what they need to sustain their life; they die and return to their dust, Gen 3:19; Ecc 12:14.
v. 30. Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, as active in the work of creation, Gen 1:3, they are created, and Thou renewest the face of the earth, with every new generation of creatures.
v. 31. The glory of the Lord shall endure forever, as manifested in His work of creation; the Lord shall rejoice in His works, as He did when He found them very good, Gen 1:31.
v. 32. He looketh on the earth, with a frown of anger, and it trembleth, in fear of His punishment; He toucheth the hills, and they smoke, set on fire at His will. Thus God could glorify His power in destruction if He so chose; therefore it is best for the believers to spend their lives in grateful praise of Him.
v. 33. I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
v. 34. My meditation of Him, in considering all the miracles of His mercy and power, shall be sweet, acceptable to the Lord; I will be glad in the Lord. The same fine relation, according to the psalmist, ought to obtain everywhere, those who refuse to enter into fellowship with Jehovah being punished forever.
v. 35. Let the sinners, those who refuse Him faith and service, be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul, the final self-admonition of the psalmist. Praise ye the Lord, or, "Hallelujah!" giving full expression to the emotions of the poet, and calling upon the Church of God of all ages to join him in his hymn of praise.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 16, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 33, 35 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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General Information:
This psalm is a song of praise.
with all my life
This phrase means that he will praise Yahweh wholeheartedly and is used to emphasize his devotion to him. AT: "with all of me" or "with all my soul"(See: Metonymy)
you are clothed with splendor and majesty
The words "splendor" and "majesty" have similar meanings and emphasize the greatness of Yahweh's glory. They are described as clothing Yahweh like a garment. AT: "you have splendor and majesty all around you" (See: Doublet and Metaphor)
You cover yourself with light as with a garment
Yahweh is described as being covered with light as if the light were a garment around him. AT: "You are covered in light" (See: Simile)
you spread out the heavens like a tent curtain
Here God is described as spreading out the heavens like someone spreads out a tent when setting it up. AT: "you spread out the heavens like someone sets up a tent" (See: Simile)
You lay the beams of your chambers on the clouds
"You build your upper rooms in the heavens." This is referring to his house is so tall that the upper floor extends into the clouds.
you make the clouds your chariot
Here the clouds are described as carrying Yahweh as if they were a chariot. AT: "you make the clouds carry you like a chariot" (See: Metaphor)
you walk on the wings of the wind
Here the blowing of the wind is described as wings on which Yahweh walks. AT: "you walk upon the wind" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
Yahweh
God
clothe
splendor
majesty
light
heaven
tent
curtain
chariot
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 35 Ps 104 This creation hymn (see also Pss 8,…
Ps 104 This creation hymn (see also Pss 8, 33, 145) exalts God’s goodness and majesty. The psalmist reflects on the present world, the original creation, and a future new creation. He sees both creations as marvelously and wisely made (cp. 139:14), as the work of the Lord’s Spirit (104:30; Gen 1:2; 2 Cor 3:6).
104:1 Let all that I am praise the Lord: Pss 103 and 104 each open and close with this commitment to praise (103:1-2, 22; 104:1, 35). • how great you are! This acclamation expresses praise for rescue (see also 35:27; 40:16; 70:4).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.