Psalm 104:6 Komentář

It is very probable that this psalm was penned by the same hand, and at the same time, as the former; for as that ended this begins, with "Bless the Lord, O my soul!" and concludes with it too. The style indeed is somewhat different, because the matter is so: the scope of the foregoing psalm was to celebrate the goodness of God and his tender mercy and compassion, to which a soft and sweet style was most agreeable; the scope of this is to celebrate his greatness, and majesty, and sovereign dominion, which ought to be done in the most stately lofty strains of poetry. David, in the former psalm, gave God the glory of his covenant-mercy and love to his own people; in this he gives him the glory of his works of creation and providence, his dominion over, and his bounty to, all the creatures. God is there praised as the God of grace, here as the God of nature. And this psalm is wholly bestowed on that subject; not as Psa 19:1-14, which begins with it, but passes from it to the consideration of the divine law; nor as Psa 8:1-9, which speaks of this but prophetically, and with an eye to Christ. This noble poem is thought by very competent judges greatly to excel, not only for piety and devotion (that is past dispute), but for flight of fancy, brightness of ideas, surprising turns, and all the beauties and ornaments of expression, the Greek and Latin poets upon any subject of this nature. Many great things the psalmist here gives God the glory of I. The splendour of his majesty in the upper world (Psa 104:1-4). II. The creation of the sea and the dry land (Psa 104:5-9). III. The provision he makes for the maintenance of all the creatures according to their nature (Psa 104:10-18, Psa 104:27, Psa 104:28). IV. The regular course of the sun and moon (Psa 104:19-24). V. The furniture of the sea (Psa 104:25, Psa 104:26). IV. God's sovereign power over all the creatures (Psa 104:29-32). And, lastly, he concludes with a pleasant and firm resolution to continue praising God (Psa 104:33-35), with which we should heartily join in singing this psalm.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 104 This psalm, though without a title, was probably written by David, since it begins and ends as the former does, as Aben Ezra observes; and to him the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, ascribe it. The inscription of the Syriac version is, "a psalm of David, when he went to worship before the ark of the Lord with the priests; and as to us, it teaches us confession and prayer; and intimates to us the constitution of the beginning of the creatures; and declares some things concerning the angels.'' Some copies of the Septuagint version have it, "a psalm of David concerning the constitution of the world;'' which indeed is the subject matter of it; for it treats of the creation of all things, of the heavens and the earth, and of all creatures in them; and of the providence of God in taking care of them. Christ is the divine Person addressed and described throughout the whole, as appears from the quotation of Psa 104:5 and the application of it to him in Heb 1:7.

Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment,.... This refers not to the waters of the flood, when the earth was covered with them, even the tops of the highest mountains; but to the huge mass of waters, the abyss and depth of them, which lay upon the earth and covered it as a garment, at its first creation, as the context and the scope of it show; and which deep was covered with darkness, at which time the earth was without form, and void, Gen 1:2 an emblem of the corrupt state of man by nature, destitute of the image of God, void and empty of all that is good, having an huge mass of sin and corruption on him, and being darkness itself; though this depth does not separate the elect of God, in this state, from his love; nor these aboundings of sin hinder the superaboundings of the grace of God; nor the operations of his Spirit; nor the communication of light unto them; nor the forming and renewing them, so as to become a curious piece of workmanship; even as the state of the original earth did not hinder the moving of the Spirit upon the waters that covered it, to the bringing of it into a beautiful form and order. The waters stood above the mountains; from whence we learn the mountains were from the beginning of the creation; since they were when the depths of water covered the unformed chaos; and which depths were so very great as to reach above the highest mountains; an emblem of the universal corruption of human nature; the highest, the greatest men that ever were, comparable to mountains, have been involved in it, as David, Paul, and others.

Now, according to a Hebrew figure of speech, it is said of God in the eighteenth psalm that “he made darkness his secret place,” to signify that those notions that should be worthily entertained of God are invisible and unknowable, because God conceals himself in darkness, as it were, from those who cannot endure the splendors of his knowledge or are incapable of looking at them, partly owing to the pollution of their understanding, which is clothed with the body of mortal lowliness, and partly owing to its feebler power of comprehending God. And in order that it may appear that the knowledge of God has rarely been vouchsafed to people and has been found in very few individuals, Moses is related to have entered into the darkness where God was. And again, with regard to Moses it is said, “Moses alone shall come near the Lord, but the rest shall not come near.” And again, that the prophet may show the depth of the doctrines that relate to God and that are unattainable by those who do not possess the “Spirit that searches all things, even the deep things of God,” he added, “The abyss like a garment is his covering.” No, our Lord and Savior, the Logos of God, manifesting that the greatness of the knowledge of the Father, is appropriately comprehended and known preeminently by him alone, and in the second place by those whose minds are enlightened by the Logos and God, declares, “No one knows the Son but the Father; neither does any one know the Father but the Son, and he to whoever the Son will reveal him.” For no one can worthily know the “uncreated” and firstborn of all created nature like the Father who begat him, nor any one the Father like the living Logos, and his Wisdom and Truth. By sharing in him who takes away from the Father what is called “darkness,” which he “made his secret place,” and “the abyss,” which is called his “covering,” and by unveiling the Father in this way, every one knows the Father who is capable of knowing him.

"The deep, like a garment, is its clothing" [Psalm 104:6]. Whose? Is it perchance God's? But he had already said of His clothing, "Clothed with light as with a garment." I hear of God clothed in light, and that light, if we will, are we. What is, if we will? If we are no longer darkness. Therefore if God is clothed with light, whose clothing, again, is the deep? For an immense mass of waters is called the deep. All water, all the moist nature, and the substance everywhere shed abroad through the seas, and rivers, and hidden caves, is all together called by one name, the Deep. Therefore we understand the earth, of which he said, "He has founded the earth." Of it I believe he said, "The deep, like a garment is its clothing." For the water is as it were the clothing of the earth, surrounding it and covering it....

After an exhortation to praise God, addressed especially to the chosen people, the writer presents the special reason for praise, in a summary of their history from the calling of Abraham to their settlement in Canaan, and reminds them that their obedience was the end of all God's gracious dealings. (Psa. 105:1-45) call . . . name-- (Psa 79:6; Rom 10:13). Call on Him, according to His historically manifested glory. After the example of Abraham, who, as often as God acquired for Himself a name in guiding him, called in solemn worship upon the name of the Lord (Gen 12:8; Gen 13:4). among the people--or, "peoples" (Psa 18:49). deeds--or, "wonders" (Psa 103:7).

These verses rather describe the wonders of the flood than the creation (Gen 7:19-20; Pe2 3:5-6). God's method of arresting the flood and making its waters subside is poetically called a "rebuke" (Psa 76:6; Isa 50:2), and the process of the flood's subsiding by undulations among the hills and valleys is vividly described.