Psalms 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,... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:1
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... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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 priv... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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 r... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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 thou... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:13
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 n... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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 shou... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:20
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 Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:20
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... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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 Go... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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,... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:31
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... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 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
concentra... [ Continue Reading ]