Psalms 104-105 (Week 34)

1. Bless the Lord: God’s Relation to Creation

A year in the Psalms, Psalm 104. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover yourself with light as with a garment, who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of his upper chambers in the waters, who makes the clouds his chariot, who walks on the wings of the wind, who makes his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire. You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment.

At the voice of your thunder they hastened away. They went up over the mountains, they went down into the valleys to the place where you found it for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. He sends the springs into the valleys, they flow among the hills, they give drink to every beast of the field, the wild donkeys quench their thirst. By them the birds of the heavens have their home, they sing among the branches. He waters the hills from his upper chambers, the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your works.

sap and cedars of Lebanon which he planted, where the birds make their nests, the stork has her home in the fir trees, the high hills are for the wild goats, the cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. He appointed the moon for seasons, the sun knows its going down. You make darkness and it is night, and which all the beast of the forest creep about. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God. When the sun rises they gather together and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. O Lord, how manifold are your works in wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions, the great and wide sea in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great.

There the ships sail about there is that Leviton which you have made to play there. These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. What you give them they gather in, you open your hand, they are filled with good. You hide your face, they are troubled, you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May the Lord rejoice in his works he looks on the earth and it trembles. He touches the hills and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord as long as I live I will sing praise to my God while I have my being may my meditation be sweet to him.

2. Remember His Marvelous Works and His Covenant

I will be glad in the Lord. May sinners be consumed from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul, praise the Lord. Here is a hymn of praise similar to in certain respects to the one in Psalm one o three. The opening and concluding phrases of the two Psalms are almost identical, setting forth an attitude of thanksgiving and praise. While the previous hymn in Psalm 103 emphasize God’s relation to history, this one pictures God’s relation to creation. It offers interesting parallels to Persian, Babylon, and Egyptian thought, hymn to Aten. Even more important are the parallels with Genesis one and Job thirty eight through forty ones. A year in the Psalm, Psalm one oh five. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, sing to him, sing Psalms to Him, talk of His wondrous works, glory in His holy name.

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and His strength, seek His face evermore. Remember His marvelous works which He has done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth. O seed of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God, his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever, the word which he commandeth for a thousand generations, the covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac, and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying to you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance. When they were few in number, indeed very few and strangers in it, when they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, he permitted no one to do them wrong.

Yes, he rebuked kings for their sake, saying, Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm. Moreover, he called for a famine in the land. He destroyed all the provision of bread. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in arms until the time that his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him. The ruler of the people let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to bind his princes as his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob dwelt in the land of Ham. He increased his people greatly and made them stronger than their enemies.

3. He Sent Moses His Servant

He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal craftily with his servants. He sent Moses his servant and Aaron whom he had chosen. They performed his signs among them and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness and made it dark, and they did not rebel against his word. He turned their waters into blood and killed their fish. Their land abounded with frogs, even in the chamber of their kings, he spoke, and they gave swarms of flies, and lice in all their territory. He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land. He struck their vines also and their fig trees, and splintered the trees of their territory. He spoke, and locusts came, young lopus without number, and ate up all the vegetation in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.

He also destroyed all the firstborn in their land, the first of all their strength. He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among his tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed, for their fear of them had fallen upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to give light in the night. The people asked, and he brought quail, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock and water gushed out.

Again the Psalmist sings a hymn of praise, this time emphasizing the wondrous act of God within the covenant relations. Next week we’ll read Psalms one o six and find the companion pieces in that history is searched in both. In the former God’s acts were emphasized, in the latter Israel’s acts of disobedience was recited. Both points show affinity with Psalm seventy-eight, in which the two themes are interwoven.