View Psalms 104 in the note window.
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.
2: Light - With that first created light, which the psalmist fitly
puts in the first place, as being the first of God's visible works.
3: Waters - In the waters above the heavens, as they are called,(Ge 1:7).
4: Spirits - Of a spiritual or incorporeal nature, that they might
be fitter for their employments. Fire - So called for their irresistible
force and agility, and fervency in the execution of God's commands.
5: Who laid - Heb. he hath established the earth upon its own
basis, whereby it stands as fast and unmoveable, as if it were built
upon the strongest foundations. Forever - As long as the world continues.
God has fixt so strange a place for the earth, that being an heavy body,
one would think it should fall every moment. And yet which way so ever 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.
6: The deep - In the first creation, (Ge 1:2,9).
7: Rebuke - Upon thy command, (Ge 1:9).
Fled - They immediately went to the place which God had allotted them.
8: Go up - In that first division of the waters from the earth, part
went upwards, and became springs in the mountains, the greatest part went
downwards to the channels made for them.
9: A bound - Even the sand of the sea - shore.
11: Wild asses - Stupid creatures, and yet plentifully provided for
by the Divine providence.
13: The hills - Which most need moisture. From - From the clouds.
Satisfied - By this means all the parts of the earth, are made fruitful.
The fruit - With the effects of those sweet showers.
15: Oil - He alludes to the custom of those times and places,
which was upon festival occasions to anoint their faces with oil.
Bread - Which preserves or renews our strength and vigour.
16: Trees - Which come up, and thrive not by man's industry, but
merely by the care of God's providence.
19: For seasons - To distinguish the times, the seasons of divers
natural events, as of the ebbing and flowing of waters, and other seasons
for sacred and civil affairs, which were commonly regulated by the moon.
20: Darkness - Which succeeds the light by virtue of thy decree.
21: Roar - They roar when they come within sight of their prey.
Seek - Their roaring is a kind of natural prayer to God, for relief.
25: Creeping - This word is common to all creatures that move without
feet.
26: Leviathan - The whale. Therein - Who being of such a vast
strength and absolute dominion in the sea, tumbles in it with great
security, and sports himself with other creatures.
29: Hidest - Withdrawest the care of thy providence.
30: Spirit - That quickening power of God, by which he produces life
in the creatures from time to time. For he speaks not here of the first
creation, but of the continued production of living creatures.
Created - Other living creatures are produced; the word created being
taken in its largest sense for the production of things by second causes.
Renewest - And thus by thy wise and wonderful providence thou preservest
the succession of living creatures.
31: Rejoice - Thus God advances the glory of his wisdom and power
and goodness, in upholding the works of his hands from generation to
generation, and he takes pleasure in the preservation of his works,
as also in his reflection upon these works of his providence.
32: He looketh - This is a farther illustration of God's powerful
providence: as when he affords his favour to creatures, they live and
thrive, so on the contrary, one angry look or touch of his upon the
hills or earth, makes them tremble and smoke, as Sinai did when God
appeared in it.
35: Praise ye the Lord - Heb. Hallelujah. This is the first time
that this word occurs. And it comes in here on occasion of the
destruction of the wicked. And the last time it occurs, (Re 19:1,3,4,6),
it is on a like occasion, the destruction of Babylon.
