1Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great; You are clothed with splendor and majesty … 24O Lord, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your possessions.
This psalm gives God the blessing of praise, not because of anything He has specifically done for us, but simply because of His general nature as the world’s creator. Reflecting on all He has amazingly done in creation leads us to overwhelming worship!
Following Psalm 103, which focuses on God as our redeemer, both begin and end with the phrase, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” The godly writers encourage us to see our worship of God not in terms of our benefit but His benefit. We can praise God for what He has done for us or what we hope He will do for us. However, the essence of worship is not ultimately about a “spiritual feeling” but a posture toward the Lord and what we can give Him. To counter popular notions, worship is not about what we get from the experience. It’s about what God gets from it. This takes effort on our part to move past our self-interest to become more God-interested.
Psalm 104 describes God’s creativeness in a poetic complement to Genesis 1. The parallels and sequencing are not precise, as is usual for poetry, but they are not difficult to notice. Verses 1-2 portray a pre-formation: God exists before or above creation, “clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light.” His activity in creation involved “Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain, He lays the beams of His upper chamber above the waters” (vss. 2b-3a). The writer moves fluidly between the physical and spiritual realities throughout the psalm. The heavenly skies, whose creation is described in Genesis 1:6-8, are spoken of poetically with spiritual imagery: “He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, He makes the clouds His chariot…”
The “winds” in verses 3-4 (as it is translated in all major English translations) is the Hebrew word ruach, which in other places is translated as “spirit” or even “angels.” Similarly, the corresponding word in Greek is pneuma, which can be translated as wind or spirit. The inspired writer of the book to the Hebrews quoted this verse (Ps. 104:4) in support of the supremacy of Jesus Christ over the angels (Heb. 1:7).
In verses 5-9, we see depictions of the original separation of the oceans from the dry land (Gen. 1:9-13) and possibly an allusion to the Noahic flood. Our attention turns to God’s provision of life-sustaining water (vss. 10-13), and vegetation meets the needs of animals and humankind alike (vs. 14-17)
The account of God’s creation of the moon and sun is reflected in verses 19-20. While science may approximate the physics of the cosmos, God is the ultimate creator and sustainer of all, even the celestial bodies. Pagan religions had their humanly imagined deities controlling the earthly and regional seasons and weather patterns on this terrestrial sphere. Atheists enthrone random chance as the ultimate cause behind the material world. But God claims creative and sustaining authority over all creation.
The psalmist segues from God providing food for lions (as an example) to humankind working during the daytime hours (presumably for food) and then to God’s activity, “O Lord, how many are Your works!” (vs. 21-24). Since He created everything, He possesses all things (vs. 24b). He owns the seas, the animals, and the fish. The Leviathan (vs. 26) probably refers to whales that “sport in” the waters. The Hebrew word carries the sense of “laughing.” Who has seen a whale breech or a dolphin jumping out of the water and not thought of them as delightfully playing or frolicking (as some translations render this word)? It is no stretch to think of God being entertained by it all. The Lord is the sustainer of all life: “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground” (Ps 104:30).
So, what is our response to all this? The psalmist offers a fitting closure in prayer:
Let the glory of the Lord endure forever; let the Lord be glad in His works … I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; as for me, I shall be glad in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord! (vss. 31-35)
Thank you for the reminder of our awesome God! He is worthy of all our praise!