Psalms 104
Big idea: Creation, walked through in order, and the astonishing thing is how much of it has nothing to do with people. Springs for wild donkeys. Cypress trees for storks. High mountains for wild goats and rocks for badgers. Night arranged so lions can hunt, and morning so they can sleep and a man can go to work. Leviathan is in the sea not as a threat but because God formed him to play there. The psalm's centre of gravity is verse 27: these all wait for you. Everything alive is on the same feeding schedule.
Psalm 104 celebrates a world sustained daily. Psalm 105 turns to the story God has been telling inside it.
104:1–9 — He stretches out the heavens like a curtain
A creation hymn that follows Genesis 1's order, and its opening move is to dress God in the sky. Light is a garment, the heavens a curtain being pulled out, clouds a chariot. Then the waters — and the crucial verse is 9: a BOUNDARY set, so they may not turn again to cover the earth. Order in this psalm is not the absence of chaos but a limit placed on it.
1 Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. 2 He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. 3 He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind. 4 He makes his messengers winds, and his servants flames of fire. 5 He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever. 6 You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains. 7 At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away. 8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down, to the place which you had assigned to them. 9 You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they don’t turn again to cover the earth.
104:10–18 — Springs into the valleys
The same water that had to be pushed back is now sent, deliberately, into the valleys — and it is the most generous passage in the psalm. Wild donkeys drink, birds nest, and then the three things made for people: wine to gladden the heart, oil to make a face shine, bread to strengthen. The psalm does not treat the wine as a concession. And the last verses give whole habitats to animals with no use to anyone.
10 He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains. 11 They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. 12 The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches. 13 He waters the mountains from his rooms. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works. 14 He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth: 15 wine that makes the heart of man glad, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man’s heart. 16 Yahweh’s trees are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted, 17 where the birds make their nests. The stork makes its home in the cypress trees. 18 The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
104:19–26 — Leviathan, whom you formed to play
The psalm sets up a shift system. Night belongs to the lions, who 'seek their food FROM GOD' — predation described as prayer answered — and day belongs to the man going out to work. Neither is privileged. And then verse 26, which is one of the strangest and best lines in the Bible: Leviathan, the chaos monster of Psalms 74 and 89, made TO PLAY.
19 He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set. 20 You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl. 21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God. 22 The sun rises, and they steal away, and lie down in their dens. 23 Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening. 24 Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches. 25 There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals. 26 There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
104:27–35 — These all wait for you
The last movement is honest about dependence in both directions. They wait, he opens his hand, they are satisfied; he hides his face, they die and return to dust. Creation is described as continuously held rather than wound up and released. And the psalm's one sour note — let sinners be consumed — sits immediately before the last line, unexplained.
27 These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. 28 You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good. 29 You hide your face; they are troubled. You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust. 30 You send out your Spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground. 31 Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works. 32 He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke. 33 I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. 34 Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh. 35 Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh, my soul. Praise Yah!
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).