Psalms 104:27-30

These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

-All God's creatures obtain from Him their food in due season. They die at God's pleasure: and when God sends forth His Spirit the earth is renewed again, as it was after the destruction by the deluge, (Genesis 8:1; Genesis 9:1.)

Verse 27. These wait all upon thee - not merely the sea animals, but all the animals previously named including man (Psalms 104:14; Psalms 104:23; Psalms 104:26). This is proved by Psalms 104:30: cf. also the parallel, Job 34:14. The distinctness of this strophe from the preceding shows that 'these all' is not to be restricted to the sea animals (Psalms 104:25-19: cf. Psalms 147:9; Psalms 136:25).

That thou mayest give them their meat in due season - (Psalms 145:15.) Each animal has its "due season" or appropriate time of getting its food. Nothing is hap-hazard in God's ways (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Verse 28. That thou givest them they gather - as the Israelites "gathered" (picked up from the earth [ laaqaT (H3950)]) the manna. The Hebrew word is rare, but recurs frequently in the account of the manna sent from heaven (Exodus 16:4-2; Exodus 16:16), which shows that our psalm refers to that passage. All the sustenance which the lower animals and man partake of is really "bread of (from) heaven" (Psalms 105:40; Deuteronomy 8:3).

Verse 29. Thou hidest thy face - i:e., dost withdraw thy loving care and presence.

They are troubled - (Psalms 90:7.) So, spiritually, when God hides His face from His people, instantly "they are troubled" (Psalms 30:7).

Thou takest away their breath - literally, 'thou gatherest in their breath' to thyself, as "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22); "the Father of spirits" (Hebrews 12:9; Genesis 1:2; Genesis 2:7; Ecclesiastes 12:7). They die - as at the flood, to which the allusion here is (Genesis 7:21-1).

And return to their dust - (Genesis 3:19.)

Verse 30. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created. So in the coming revival of Israel from her long-continued national and spiritual death (Isaiah 32:15; Ezekiel 37:9; Psalms 102:18, "The people which shall be created shall praise the Lord").

And thou renewest the face of the earth - by peopling it again with man, and restoring the animal and vegetable creation. The phrase shows an allusion to Genesis 7:4. The restoration after the extraordinary catastrophe of the flood, and, on a smaller scale, every spring after the ordinary desolation of winter, are a pledge of the future perfect "regeneration" of the earth, when God shall fulfill His word "Behold, I make all things new" (Matthew 19:28; Revelation 21:5). Meanwhile it assures the Church and the individual believer that, however God may cause trouble by hiding his face for a time, He will send forth His spirit and create anew what He had suffered to die.