Psalm 104:1

Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Thou thyself art not to be seen, but thy works, which may be called thy garments, are full of beauties and marvels which redound to thine honour. Garments both conceal and reveal a man, and so do the creatures of God. The Lord is seen in his works as worthy of honour for his skill, his goodness, and his power, and as claiming majesty, for he has fashioned all things in sovereignty, doing as he wills, and asking no man's permit. He must be blind indeed who does not see that nature is the work of a king. These are solemn strokes of God's severer mind, terrible touches of his sterner attributes, broad lines of inscrutable mystery, and deep shadings of overwhelming power, and these make creation's picture a problem never to be solved, except by admitting that he who drew it giveth no account of his matters, but ruleth all things according to the good pleasure of his will. His majesty is, however, always so displayed as to reflect honour upon his whole character; he does as lie wills, but he wills only that which is thrice holy, like himself. The very robes of the unseen Spirit teach us this, and it is ours to recognize it with humble adoration.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Whole Psalm. -- This psalm is an inspired "Oratorio of Creation." -- Christopher Wordsworth.

Whole Psalm. -- The Psalm is delightful, sweet, and instructive as teaching us the soundest views of nature (la mas sans fisica), and the best method of pursuing the study of it, viz., by admiring with one eye the works of God, and with the other God himself, their Creator and Preserver. --Sanchez, quoted by Perowne.

Whole Psalm. -- It might almost be said that this one psalm represents the image of the whole Cosmos. We are astonished to find in a lyrical poem of such a limited compass, the whole universe -- the heavens and the earth -- sketched with a few bold touches. The calm and toilsome labour of man, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same, when his daily work is done, is here contrasted with the moving life of the elements of nature. This contrast and generalisation in the conception of the mutual action of natural phenomena, and this retrospection of an omnipresent invisible power, which can renew the earth or crumble it to dust, constitute a solemn rather than a glowing and gentle form of poetic creation. --A. Vonl Hurnboldt's Cosmos.

Whole Psalm. -- Its touches are indeed few, rapid -- but how comprehensive and sublime! Is it God? -- "He is clothed with light as with a garment," and when he walks abroad, it is on the "wings of the wind." The winds or lightnings? -- They are his messengers or angels: "Stop us not," they seem to say; "the King's business requireth haste." The waters? -- The poet shows them in flood, covering the face of the earth, and then as they now lie, enclosed within their embankments, to break forth no more for ever. The springs? He traces them, by one inspired glance, as they run among the hills, as they give drink to the wild and lonely creatures of the wilderness, as they nourish the boughs, on which sing the birds, the grass, on which feed the cattle, the herb, the corn, the olive tree, the vine, which fill man's mouth, cheer his heart, and make his face to shine. Then he skims with bold wing all lofty objects -- the trees of the Lord on Lebanon, "full of sap," -- the fir trees, and the storks which are upon them -- the high hills, with their wild goats -- and the rocks with their conics. Then he soars up to the heavenly bodies -- the sun and the moon. Then he spreads abroad his wings in the darkness of the night, which "hideth not from Him," and hears the beasts of the forest creeping abroad to seek their prey, and the roar of the lions to God for meat, coming up upon the wings of midnight. Then as he sees the shades and the wild beasts fleeing together, in emulous haste, from the presence of the morning sun, and man, strong and calm in its light as in the smile of God, hieing to his labour, he exclaims, "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all!" He casts, next, one look at the ocean -- a look glancing at the ships which go there, at the leviathan which plays there; and then piercing down to the innumerable creatures, small and great, which are found below its unlifted veil of waters. He sees, then, all the beings, peopling alike earth and sea, waiting for life and food around the table of their Divine Master -- nor waiting in vain -- till, lo! he hides his face, and they are troubled, die, and disappear in chaos and night. A gleam, next, of the great resurrection of nature and of man comes across his eye. "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth." But a greater truth still succeeds, and forms the climax of the psalm -- (a truth Humboldt, with all his admiration of it, notices not, and which gives a Christian tone to the whole) -- "The Lord shall rejoice in his works." He contemplates a yet more perfect Cosmos. He is "to consume Sinners" and sin "out of" this fair universe: and then, when man is wholly worthy of his dwelling, shall God say of both it and him, with a yet deeper emphasis than when he said it at first, and smiling at the same time a yet warmer and softer smile, "It is very good." And with an ascription of blessing to the Lord does the poet close this almost angelic descant upon the works of nature, the glory of God, and the prospects of man. It is not merely the unity of the Cosmos that he had displayed in it, but its progression, as connected with the parallel progress of man -- its thorough dependence on one Infinite Mind -- the "increasing purpose" which runs along it -- and its final purification, when it shall blossom into "the bright consummate flower" of the new heavens and the new earth, "wherein dwelleth righteousness;" -- this is the real burden and the peculiar glory of the 104th Psalm. --George Gilfillan, in "The Bards of the Bible".

Whole Psalm. -- It is a singular circumstance in the composition of this psalm, that each of the parts of the First Semichorus, after the first, begins with a participle. And these participles are accusatives, agreeing with hwhy, the object of the verb ygdb, at the beginning of the whole psalm. Bless the Jehovah -- putting on -- extending -- laying -- constituting -- travelling -- making -- setting -- sending -- watering -- making -- making. Thus, this transitive verb, in the opening of the psalm, extending its government through the successive parts of the same semichorus, except the last, unites them all in one long period. --Samuel Horsley.

Whole Psalm. -- As to the details, -- the sections intervening between verses 2 and 31, -- they may be read as a meditation upon creation and the first "ordering of the world," as itself the counterpart and foreshadowing of the new and restored order in the great Sabbath or Millenary period, or, it may be, they are actually descriptive of this -- beginning with the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven (verse 3 with Psalms 18:9-11 ), attended with "the angels of his power" (verse 4 with 2 Thessalonians 1:7 Gr.): followed by the "establishing" of the earth, no more to be "moved" or "agitated" by the convulsions and disturbances which sin has caused: after which Nature is exhibited in the perfection of her beauty -- all things answering the end of their creation: all the orders of the animal world in harmony with each other, and all at peace with man; all provided for by the varied produce of the earth, no longer cursed, bug blessed, and again made fruitful by God, "on whom all wait...who openeth his hand and fills them with good"; and all his goodness meeting with its due acknowledgment from his creatures, who join in chorus to praise him, and say -- "O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. Hallelujah." --William De Burgh.

Verse 1. -- "Bless the Lord, O my soul." A good man's work lieth most within doors, he is more taken up with his own soul, than with all the world besides; neither can he ever be alone so long as he hath God and his own heart to converse with. --John Trapp.

Verse 1. -- With what reverence and holy awe doth the psalmist begin his meditation with that acknowledgment! "O Lord, my God, thou art very great;" and it is the joy of the saints that he who is their God is a great God: the grandeur of the prince is the pride and pleasure of all his good subjects. -- Matthew Henry.

Verse 1. -- Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. That is, as Jerome says, Thou art arrayed and adorned with magnificence and splendour; Thou art acknowledged to be glorious and illustrious by thy works, as a man by his garment. Whence it is clear that the greatness celebrated here is not the intrinsic but the exterior or revealed greatness of God. --Lorinus.

Verse 1. -- Each created, redeemed, regenerated soul is bound to praise the Lord, the Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier; for that God the Son, who in the beginning made the worlds, and whose grace is ever carrying on his work to its perfect end by the operation of the Holy Ghost, has been revealed before us in his exceeding glory. He, as the eternal High priest, hath put on the Urim and Thummim of majesty and honour, and hath clothed himself with light, as a priest clothes himself with his holy vestments: his brightness on the mount of transfiguration was but a passing glimpse of what he is now, ever hath been, and ever shall be. He is the true Light, therefore his angels are the angels of light, his children the children of light, this doctrine the doctrine of light. The universe is his tabernacle; the heavens visible and invisible are the curtains which shroud his holy place. He hath laid the beams and foundations of his holy of holies very high, even above the waters which are above the firmament. The clouds and the winds of the lower heaven are his chariot, upon which he stood when he ascended from Olivet, upon which he will sit when he cometh again. --"Plain Commentary".

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 1. (first clause) -- An exhortation to one's own heart.

Verse 1. (second clause). -- He is all this essentially, and in nature, providence, grace, and judgment.