Psalms 104:24

24 Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you made them all. The earth is full of your riches.

Psalms 104:24 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 104:24

O Lord, how manifold are thy works
The psalmist having taken notice of many of the works of creation, stops and wonders at the number of them; though he had not gone through them all, and there were even things innumerable behind; see ( Psalms 104:25 ) , he admires the sum of them, how great it was; and not only the quantity but the quality of them; for so the words may be rendered, "how great are thy works" F7, as for number, so for nature; in which there is such an amazing display of the greatness and power of God, and particularly of his wisdom, as is observed in the next clause.

In wisdom hast thou made them all
not only one thing, as the heavens, ( Psalms 136:5 ) , but everything is wisely contrived and made; there is a most glorious display of the wisdom of God in the most minute thing his hands have made; he has made everything beautiful in its season: a skilful artificer, when he has finished his work and looks it over again, often finds some fault or another in it: but when the Lord had finished his works of creation, and looked over them, he saw that all was good; infinite wisdom itself could find no blemish in them: what weak, foolish, stupid creatures must they be that pretend to charge any of the works of God with folly, or want of wisdom? Some by "wisdom" here understand Christ himself, the wisdom of God; and not amiss, since without him was not anything made; see ( Proverbs 3:19 ) .

The earth is full of thy riches:
or possessions F8; for as the Lord is the maker, he is the proprietor and the possessor of heaven and earth, and all that is in them, and can and does dispose thereof as seems good in his sight; and whatever of the riches and good things of the earth men may have, they are only stewards, the Lord is the rightful owner and possessor of them; see ( Genesis 14:19 ) ( Psalms 24:1 ) , with which compare ( Psalms 33:5 ) , (See Gill on Psalms 33:5).


FOOTNOTES:

F7 (wbr hm) "quam multa ac magna", Gejerus.
F8 (Knynp) "possessione tua", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Gejerus; "tuis possessionibus", Tigurine version, Vatablus, Piscator, Michaelis.

Psalms 104:24 In-Context

22 The sun rises, and they steal away, And lay down in their dens.
23 Man goes forth to his work, To his labor until the evening.
24 Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom have you 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 great animals.
26 There the ships go, And leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
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