A SONG TO THE GOD OF CREATION.
Psalm 104:1-9, Psalm 104:24, Psalm 104:35c.
The opening of this Psalm, “Bless the LORD, O my soul” (Psalm 104:1a), is familiar from the beginning of the previous chapter (Psalm 103:1).
The response of the Psalmist to his own exhortation to “Bless the LORD” is to speak well of the LORD, to the LORD. The writer speaks to the LORD in terms of a relationship: “O LORD my God” (Psalm 104:1b). Throughout the rest of Psalm 104:1-9, he reminds the LORD of what He has done in the primeval past.
The Psalmist expresses his own wonder at the greatness of the LORD: “thou art very great” (Psalm 104:1c). This he elucidates: “thou art clothed with honour and majesty” (Psalm 104:1d).
The Psalm follows the order of Creation set down in Genesis 1. But we must never lose sight of the fact that this Psalm is not so much about the Creation, as about the Creator and Preserver of all things.
We see God, first of all, “wrapped in light as with a garment” (Psalm 104:2a). ‘God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all’ (1 John 1:5). So there is an uncreated light even before the LORD spoke those words into the chaos: ‘Let there be light’ (Genesis 1:3). The Light Himself is, as it were, enshrouded in light (Psalm 104:2a). How impenetrable must that Light be!
Yet ‘God has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Then we see Him “stretching out the heavens like a curtain” (Psalm 104:2b). The expanse of space has its beginning here, the arena into which the LORD will later set the sun, moon, and stars, which altogether are but pale reflections of His Light. ‘The heavens declare the glory of God’ (Psalm 19:1).
The verbs pile in upon each other. The subject is still the LORD our God (Psalm 104:1b), ‘maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is’ (Psalm 146:6). It is the LORD who stretches (Psalm 104:2b), lays, makes, walks (Psalm 104:3), makes (Psalm 104:4), laid (Psalm 104:5), covered (Psalm 104:6); rebukes, thunders (Psalm 104:7), founded (Psalm 104:8). sets a bound (Psalm 104:9).
The LORD “lays the beams of His chambers in the waters” (Psalm 104:3a). His palace needs no foundations: His is the power to uphold it.
Metaphorically, He “makes the clouds His chariot” (Psalm 104:3b). Thunder often reminds us of the wrath of God (2 Samuel 22:14-15); but rain reminds us of His mercy (Matthew 5:45).
He “walks on the wings of the wind” (Psalm 104:3c). David also used this metaphor in 2 Samuel 22:11.
Lightning reminds us of the LORD’s retinue: He “makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire” (Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7).
He “laid the foundations of the earth” (Psalm 104:5a; cf. Job 38:4). There is a fixedness about it, too: “it should not be removed forever” (Psalm 104:5b). The earth remains in its orbit, here in the Goldilocks zone, only by an endless decree of the LORD God.
He “covered” the earth “with the deep as (with) a garment” (Psalm 104:6a). Before ever man walked this earth, geologists will confirm, “the waters stood above the mountains” (Psalm 104:6b).
“At thy rebuke they (the waters) fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away” (Psalm 104:7; cf. Psalm 29:3). The Dry land appeared (Genesis 1:9-10)! Jesus also had occasion to ‘rebuke the winds and the waves’ as the waters remain ever boisterous and rebellious (cf. Mark 4:39).
The waters “go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys” (Psalm 104:8a). They go up in mists, and down in rains. The rivers thus formed flow “unto the place which thou hast founded for them” (Psalm 104:8).
“Thou hast set a bound that they (the waters) might not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth” (Psalm 104:9; cf. Job 38:11; Jeremiah 5:22).
The writer uses the name of the LORD sparingly, but it does appear at the end of the inventory of Creation. It is an exclamation: “O LORD how manifold are thy works!” (Psalm 104:24a). Multifarious: innumerable and of wide variety.
“In wisdom thou hast made them all” (Psalm 104:24b; Proverbs 8:27-30; 1 Corinthians 1:30).
“The earth is full of thy riches” (Psalm 104:24c). ‘Not the wealth of nations,’ points out Mr Spurgeon, ‘but “thy riches” O Lord!’
The Psalm ends as it began, with a repetition of the now familiar beatitude: ‘Bless thou the LORD, O my soul’ to which the writer adds “Alleluia” which means “Praise the LORD” (Psalm 104:35c). Amen.
