You Send Out Your Spirit
19 He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set. 20 You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl. 21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God. 22 The sun rises, and they steal away, and lie down in their dens. 23 Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening. 24 Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches. 25 There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals. 26 There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there. 27 These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. 28 You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good. 29 You hide your face; they are troubled. You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust. 30 You send out your Spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground. 31 Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever. Let Yahweh rejoice in his works. 32 He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke. 33 I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. 34 Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh. 35 Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh, my soul. Praise Yah!
Lions on the night shift and men on the day shift, a sea monster made to play in, and every creature waiting for a meal.
He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set.
The fourth day of Genesis, and the psalm treats the two lights as timekeepers rather than as powers — which is what the account in Genesis does by declining to name them.
20 You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl. 21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.
A predator hunting is described as asking God for dinner. The psalm does not separate the natural from the providential at any point, and it does not treat a lion killing as a defect in the arrangement.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away, and lie down in their dens. 23 Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening.
The shift change. Lions clock off as men clock on, and the two share the same world by dividing the hours. Human labor is given one verse, between the lions and the sea, which is roughly the proportion the psalm assigns it.
Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
The sea monster of the seventy-fourth psalm, which was broken in pieces there, is here a pet. It was formed to play — and the English translations divide over whether it plays in the sea or with God, which changes very little. Either way the terror of the deep is something made for amusement, and it is mentioned in the same breath as shipping.
27 These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. 28 You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.
Every creature on the list is described as waiting at a table. Nothing feeds itself.
29 You hide your face; they are troubled. You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust. 30 You send out your Spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground.
The psalm's most serious claim, and it applies to everything alive. Life is not a possession that continues on its own; it is a loan, held while breath is given, and returned to dust when it is withdrawn — the same account as Genesis 2:7 and Genesis 3:19, stated of the whole creation.
Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in Yahweh.
Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless Yahweh, my soul. Praise Yah!
The one jarring line, and it is not out of place. A psalm this attentive to how the world was arranged is entitled to want the thing that has spoiled it gone.
settled What this mark means