Psalms 104 - Introduction

This psalm in the Syriac, the Arabic, the Greek, and the Latin versions, is ascribed to David, but on what authority is now unknown. That it “may” have been composed by him cannot be doubted, but there is no certain evidence that he was the author. In the Hebrew, it has no title, and there is nothing in the psalm itself which would furnish any indication as to its authorship.

The occasion on which the psalm was composed is unknown, and cannot now be ascertained. Rosenmuller and Hengstenberg suppose that it was at the time of the return from the Babylonian exile, and that it was intended to be used at the re-dedication of the temple. But it has no special applicability to such a service; it has no such local references as would fix it to that time; it has nothing which would make it inappropriate at “any” time, or in “any public service. It is such a psalm as might be composed at any period of the world, or in any country, where there was an intelligent view and a careful observation of the works of God. It implies, indeed, such a knowledge of the fact that God made the world as could be obtained only by revelation; but it evinces also a power of close observation; a large acquaintance with the creation around us; a relish for the scenes of nature; as well as a rich poetic faculty, and a power of description, adapted to place such scenes before the mind as realities, and to make us feel, in reading it, that we are in the very midst of the things which are described - so that they seem to live and move before our eyes.

The psalm was probably founded on the record of the creation in Genesis 1; with a design to show that the order of the creation, as there described, “was adapted to the purposes which were intended, and was carried out in the providential arrangements now existing on the earth;” or, that, taking the order of the creation as described there, the existing state of things furnished an illustration of the wisdom and benevolence of that order. Accordingly, in the psalm, it was convenient for the writer to follow substantially the “order” observed in Genesis 1 in narrating the creation of the world; and he states, under each part, the “acting out” of that order in existing things; creation in its being actually carried out, or in its results - the creation “developing itself” in the varied and wonderful forms of being - of vegetable and animal life - of beauty, of harmonious movement, of ceaseless activity - on the land, in the air, and in the waters. Accordingly there is in the psalm:

I. An allusion to the work of the “first” day, Psalms 104:2 (compare Genesis 1:1): to the stretching out of the heavens as a curtain; to the source of light - “who coverest thyself with light as with a garment;” - to the laying of the foundations of the earth to abide forever; to God as Creator of all things, with the additional ideas of his being clothed with honor and majesty; making the clouds his chariot; walking upon the wings of the wind; making the winds his messengers, and flames of fire his ministers.

II. An allusion to the work of the “second” day, Psalms 104:6 (compare Genesis 1:6). Here it is the separation of the waters - the power exerted on the waters of the earth; in Genesis, the dividing of the waters above from those on the earth; in the psalm, the poetic images of the deep covering the earth as with a garment; the waters climbing up the mountains, and rolling down into the valleys, until they found the place appointed for them, a boundary which they could not pass so as to return again and cover the earth.

III. An allusion to the work of the “third” day, Psalms 104:10 (compare Genesis 1:9). In Genesis, the waters gathering together; the dry land appearing, and the earth yielding grass, and herbs, and fruit trees - the creation of vegetables; in the psalm, the springs running into the valleys, and winding among the hills - giving drink to the beasts, and quenching the thirst of wild asses - furnishing a lace for the fowls to build their nests, causing the grass to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man - supplying him wine to make him glad, and oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen his heart - bringing forth the trees of the Lord, the cedars of Lebanon for the birds to make their nests, and the fir trees for the stork - making the hills a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies: that is, the work of creation on the third day is seen by the eye of the psalmist not “as” mere “creation,” but in the “result,” as enlivened and animated by all these varied forms of life, activity, and beauty which had been spread over the earth as the “consequence” of this part of the work of creation.

IV. An allusion to the work of the “fourth” day, Psalms 104:19 (compare Genesis 1:14). Here, as in the previous divisions of the psalm, it is not a reference to the mere “creation” - to the power evinced - but to the creation of the sun and moon “as seen in the effects” produced by them - the living world as it is influenced by the sun and moon: the seasons - the alternations of day and night. Thus Psalms 104:20, at night, when the sun has gone down, all the beasts of the forest are seen creeping forth; the lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God; and again when the sun arises Psalms 104:22, they are seen gathering themselves together, and retiring to their dens, and man is seen going forth to his work and to his labor until the evening. It is thus not the original act of creation which is before the mind of the psalmist, but that act in its development, or when it is seen what God contemplated by it, or what he intended that in this respect the world should be when he made the sun, the moon, and the stars.

V. An allusion to the work of the “fifth” day, Psalms 104:24 (compare Genesis 1:20); the creation of “life” in the waters, and in the air; as the fowls of heaven - the whales, etc. Here, too, the psalmist sees all this as it is - or developed on the sea, and in the air. In the sea there are things creeping innumerable, small and great; there are the ships; there is leviathan; there is everywhere animated life; there are beings innumerable all dependent on God; there are the processes of renewing, creating, destroying, continually going on - a moving scene, showing the “effect of life” as it is produced by God.

VI. It is remarkable, however, that the allusion to the successive days of the work of creation, so obvious in the other parts of the psalm, seems to close here, and there is no distinct reference to the sixth day, or the seventh - to the creation of “man” as the crowning work, and to the “rest” provided for man in the appointment of the Sabbath. The purpose of the psalmist seems to have been to celebrate the praises of God in the varied scene - the panorama passing before the eye in the works of “nature.” The purpose did not seem to be to contemplate “man” - his creation - his history - but “nature,” as seen around us. The remainder of the psalm, therefore, is occupied with a description of the glory of the Lord “as thus manifested;” the works of God as suited to fill the mind with exalted views of his greatness, and with a desire that his reign may be universal and perpetual, Psalms 104:31.