Biblion Bible Commentary
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Clothed With Honor and Majesty
Psalms 104:1-18
1 Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty. · WEB
Creation retold in the order of Genesis, with God dressing in light and the rock badgers given a mention.
Bless Yahweh, my soul. Yahweh, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty Psalms 104:1.
The psalm opens exactly as the one before it did, and then goes somewhere completely different. The hundred and third was about mercy; this is about the world, and it follows the order of the first chapter of Genesis from beginning to end.
He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain Psalms 104:2.
Light was the first thing made, and here it is what God puts on. The heavens are a tent being pitched — the same verb used of Abraham's household setting up camp.
He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind Psalms 104:3.
Building on water is the one thing construction cannot do. The psalm is describing a house whose upper rooms are floored on the sky.
He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved forever Psalms 104:5.
You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they don't turn again to cover the earth Psalms 104:9.
The waters are given a limit, and the last clause is a reference to the flood — a promise that it will not happen again Genesis 9:11, stated here as a fact about geography.
He sends springs into the valleys... They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by them Psalms 104:10–12.
And here the psalm does the thing that makes it distinctive. The water is described in terms of who drinks it, and the first creatures named are wild — donkeys nobody owns, birds nobody feeds. Human beings are not mentioned for three more verses.
He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth: wine that makes the heart of man glad, oil to make his face to shine, and bread that strengthens man's heart Psalms 104:14–15.
Three products, and only one of them is necessary. Bread strengthens; oil is cosmetic; and wine is named first and its stated purpose is gladness. The psalm lists God's provision for human beings and includes what is merely pleasant without any apology for it.
Yahweh's trees are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted Psalms 104:16.
The great timber of the ancient world, and it belongs to nobody who cuts it.
The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers Psalms 104:18.
The psalm's finest small touch. Having reached the cedars and the mountains, it stops to say that a particular kind of crag is for a small, defenseless animal of no use to anyone. The habitat was arranged with the rock badger in mind.
settled What this mark means