Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2 covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.
3 He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
4 he makes his messengers winds,
his ministers a flaming fire.
5 He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;
11 they give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.
13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
15 and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man's heart.
16 The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 In them the birds build their nests;
the stork has her home in the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19 He made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
20 You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21 The young lions roar for their prey,
seeking their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they steal away
and lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work
and to his labor until the evening.
24 O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom have you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Here is the sea, great and wide,
which teems with creatures innumerable,
living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.
27 These all look to you,
to give them their food in due season.
28 When you give it to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works,
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke!
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more!
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord! Psalm 104 ESV
A Psalm proclaiming the splendor and glory of God made known through His Creation.
The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers -
A Psalm proclaiming the splendor and glory of God made known through His Creation.
The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers -
“The badger is a misnomer for the hyrax, a small and shy rock-dweller (cf. Prov. 30:26).” (Kidner)
57 As they were walking along the road, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow You wherever You go.” 58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” 59 Then He said to another man, “Follow Me.” The man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”… Luke 9: 57-59
He made the moon to mark the seasons - Many of the surrounding cultures subscribed to a creation story, but in falling away have became more and more polytheistic. They would hold that there was a god of the moon, a sun god (Ra), geographically divided gods of different territories, water, rain etc.., but the Hebrew poet would reform it all back to God, the Creator of all things. The seasons, the tides, the rising and setting of the sun, all part of His miraculous design, and how much further has our science allowed us to see, how much more grand it should make all of this in our eyes, God is above and in all of this.
The earth is full of Your creatures - There is so much diversity. We are the stewards of the earth, but such greedy and thankless poachers we become.
“They are all God’s property, and should be used only in reference to the end for which they were created. All abuse and waste of God’s creatures are spoil and robbery on the property of the Creator.” (Clarke)
Living things both small and great - I have always found it fascinating the way the largest of creatures, the whale, uses a baleen to feed upon some of the smallest of creatures, plankton. The invention of the microscope has revealed worlds within worlds, entire cities inside a drop of water. The surface does not even begin to reveal the complexity underneath. We are children in a vast play ground, a science class every day. I remember setting up a tank for the first time, and the man at the aquarium store explaining to me the necessity of removing the chlorine which I could not see. He went on to explain the necessity of something else I could not see, the nytrifying bacteria that were a part of the biological filtration necessary for the life and health of the fish. This would require some days of breaking in, adding a dither fish to start the ammonia cycle, which would in turn cause the bacteria to colonize the filter. Once men grasp all these things they are now able to treat the water, add the bacteria and then the fish, all in the same day. What a wonderful world.
When You send forth Your Spirit they are created -
…6 But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. 8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.… Genesis 2: 6-8
…21 Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.” 22 When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”… John 20: 21-23
May the Lord rejoice in His works - How could this be, who would say such to Him Who has declared hatred of sin, and the whole of this world infected by it? His Spirit will not always strive with man, but again we look from time and space, but He is sovereign and omniscient in that, nothing has caught Him off guard. This may well be a cry for redemption. Even the soiled universe is miraculous, beyond us and even beyond the abilities of our imagination. He has decreed the beginning to the end, how soft a pillow for the head.
“This is perhaps the highest and most daring note in all this wonderful song of praise. So impressed with the glory and wonder and beauty of creation was the singer, that he positively called upon God to rejoice in what He had wrought.” (Morgan)
“There is nothing irreverent in this. It is rather an expression of the soul’s profound understanding of what God actually feels in view of His own mighty and marvelous works.” (Morgan)
May my meditation be pleasing to Him - You, Who looks upon the heart, Who sees my every thought, please guide me even in this, let what I mistook as omission be now commission in my eyes and let me steer clear of all errors.
Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed of great transgression. 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19: 13-14
