Psalms 104:10-18

He seneth the springs into the valleys.

The furnishing of the earth

1. Because the use of fresh waters was necessary for man, and necessary it was that man should have it nigh at hand unto him, for the more commodious use, the Lord broke up wells of water in several places, and made brooks and waters, and rivers and floods, like veins in a man’s body, to carry from them water along to all habitable places of the earth, where God had appointed men to dwell (verse 10).

2. Not only where men do dwell, but also where men’s ordinary resort is not, the Lord hath set drinking vessels full of water, for the use of travelling men and other creatures, appointed to attend man, and some way to serve his use.

3. For the furnishing of man’s house on earth, God hath provided him with parks for beasts to feed in, and trees for fowls and birds to live in, and ponds for fishes, as we will hear afterward; and these beasts and fowls, and singing birds, have their drinking vessels set for them (verse 11).

4. The Lord hath adorned the habitation of man, with trees growing beside the waters; not only for his own proper use, but also for the use of fowls and singing birds (verse 12).

5. Where wells and rivers are not, as in hills and high places, it is seen for the most part; there the Lord supplieth the lack of waters, by rain from the clouds. “He watereth the hills from His chambers,” that is, from the clouds, wherein as in chambers He hath stored up great waters.

6. The Lord doth not dissolve the clouds all at once, but by little and little maketh them distil smaller or greater drops only.

7. There is no part of the earth, whereupon God bestoweth not so much of the fruit of His operation, as may fill it full of His glory (verse 13).

8. The grass and herbs, and the divers sorts of them, serving for the use of beasts and men, are worthy of a room in our meditation of God’s provident care for man and beast (verse 14).

9. The Lord’s allowance upon man is very large, not only for necessity, but also for delectation (verse 15).

10. The right use of God’s creatures is not to surfeit, and bury the memory of God and of the excellency of man above beasts, in gluttony and drunkenness, but to give him strength and gladness in such a measure as may encourage him cheerfully to serve his Maker.

11. God will have His excellency taken notice of in everything which is great, notable, excellent: upon which ground, great trees are called here, “The trees of the Lord.”

12. The Lord hath furnished trees, not only with so much sap as might make them grow; but also with so much sap as might serve man for meat and drink and medicine, and other uses.

13. Among the trees the Lord will have us take notice of the cedars, as of a special plant of His husbandry on the earth, for their height and greatness, and durableness of the timber, and namely of those of Lebanon, designed for the use of His people.

14. It is worthy of our marking, that for the nests of birds He hath provided high trees, where they might breed and lodge, and bring forth their young more safely and securely (verse 17).

15. It is worthy of our observation for glorifying of God, that God hath taught weak creatures naturally to draw themselves to strong defences; and sundry sorts of them to have their several sorts of refuge (verse 18). (D. Dickson.)

Mountain springs

My little girl gazing one day upon the brown freckled ripples of a streamlet, suddenly said to me, “Why does the water always run?” This is a question that is apt to puzzle many older minds. It seems a great mystery why hour after hour the stream should continue to flow without any diminution. You sit beside it a whole forenoon and watch a stone in its bed, and you see that the water keeps the same level along its sides. Day after day its voice is as full-toned and its sparkle as bright as ever; and you wonder from what perennial fountain comes the inexhaustible supply. Let us ascend to the source of the stream, and we shall obtain an explanation of the mystery. We see in the cushions of moss around its source the explanation of the ceaseless flow of the streamlet down in the valley. Nearly all our mountain tops have large spaces covered with dense carpets of moss. On these the snow appears early and lingers late; and during the rest of the year the clouds and mists are constantly distilling their moisture into them. They are therefore thoroughly charged with water, and give rise, wherever the ground forms a sloping hollow, to tiny rills, which drain the mossy sides of the hill, and nourish large quantities of moss along their course; and these in their turn imbibe more moisture from the clouds and mists, and conserve the gathering waters, until at last they acquire some volume, and in well-defined channels flow down to the valley in a series of snowy cascades and sparkling pools. Moss serves on our mountains which are below the snow-line the same purpose which the glacier serves on the mountains of other lands that are above the snow-line. They each afford one of the most striking examples of those marvellous adjustments which pervade the whole economy of nature. Without the intervention of the glacier and the moss the moisture that falls on the mountain summits would speedily run off in raging torrents, inundating the plains, scattering over the cultivated fields the barren debris of the mountains, and leaving behind after their subsidence a dry white wilderness of stones and mud. But the moss and the glacier retain the moisture of the clouds, and part with it gradually and safely, allowing it to descend to the plains so gently and continuously that, instead of destroying, it imparts beauty and fertility to the fields. Associated with the glacier and the moss in the formation of the springs that run among the hills, is the tree. The Chinese have a proverb that the grandest rivers are cradled in the leaves of the pine. Artificial springs may be created among the foldings of the hills by simply digging a hole in the ground, and sheltering it from the sun’s rays by planting around it trees and bushes, when the rain that falls will drain towards this hole, and in a short time make it a source of living water. The rod of Moses, smiting the rock and producing the miraculous water from it, is thus in a line with the natural way in which the growth of the tree on the arid rock gives birth to a fountain. Periodical rains, however abundant they may be, speedily pass away and descend into the valleys with unrestrained violence, doing infinite harm. But the alpine woods retain the fallen moisture long after the storm has abated, and the surface of the hill is dried up under the scorching sun. The continued existence of moisture in these woods, and the constant evaporation from them, produce a cooler atmosphere, which in its turn attracts and condenses the vapour of the clouds and thus replenishes the springs. Nor must we omit from this wonderful partnership in the circulation of the vital fluid of the earth, the agency of rocks. Layers of sand alternating with rocky strata imbibe and retain an immense quantity of water, which supplies the source of springs. Ordinary building stones contain a large percentage of moisture. Granite and marble are highly absorbent. Limestone contains two pints of water in every cubic foot, and as it is more pierced and more easily dissolved by the carbonic acid which the rain-water holds in solution, it forms the best of all mediums for the formation of springs and wells. Hence the abundance of fountains in the Holy Land, whose geological structure is almost entirely limestone. Even the driest rock has its pores filled with moisture like a sponge. Mountain rocks are thus vast storehouses of water, which husband and equalize the supply, and replenish the springs with unfailing regularity, independently of the varying rainfall. Very mysterious seems the origin of a spring as it sparkles up from the bosom of the mountain, from the heart of the rock into the sunshine. We do not wonder that in ancient times it should be regarded as the local haunt of some Divine presence, the sites of the Grecian oracles were always beside springs, whose water gushing up from the dark depths of the earth expressively symbolized the Divine voice speaking from the unseen world. And in harmony with the same idea, the Hebrew name of a prophet was derived from the bubbling forth of the waters of a spring, implying that his utterances were the irresistible overflowings of the Divine fountain of inspiration in his soul. Beside the well of Sychar, incarnate in human form, in visible manifestation to the eyes of men, was the great Reality to whom all these myths and symbols pointed, who thirsted Himself that He might give us to drink. And if our eyes be purged with spiritual eye-salve, we too shall see beside every spring the True Oracle, the Great Prophet, the Divinity of the waters who “sendeth the springs into the valleys which run among the hills.” (H. Macmillan, D.D.)