Psalm 104
Marvelous God of creation
Thank God
1I’m thanking the LORD with all my heart.My LORD and God, you are magnificent.
You present yourself in splendor,
2And then you add a glowing light.
You unfold the sky like it’s just a tent.
3You build your home
On beams driven into the sea.
You ride the wind on chariot clouds.
4The wind delivers your message.
Ministers of flaming fire burn it in.
5You put the earth on solid footing
So it will never ever slip away.
6You filled the planet with oceans
That had one day covered the mountains.
7Water receded at the sound of your voice.
The thunder scared it away.
8Mountains rose and the valleys dipped
As you choreographed their dance.
9You set limits the oceans can’t cross,
So they won’t swallow up the land.
You give us water to drink
10You’re the reason springs gush with waterAnd flow on their way down the hills.
11They quench the thirst of every critter.
Wild donkeys drink to their fill.
12Birds of the sky make their home nearby,
Where they sing among branches and leaves.
13You water the mountains
From your storehouse above.
And the earth is glad that you do.
14You grow the wild grass for livestock.
You grow vegetables for hardworking folks,
Giving them food from the earth.
15There’s wine to cheer up the people,
Olive oil to moisten dry skin,
And food to nourish the body.
16Trees you made drink all they want
Including great cedars of Lebanon.
17There the birds build their nests
And storks make a home
In the towering juniper trees.
18High mountains you made for wild goats.
Rock badgers find a home in the cliffs.
19You made the moon to mark months and seasons.
Your sun knows its way through the sky.
20You call in darkness,
And here comes the night,
When animals prowl the land.
21Lions roar for a prey
As they look for food
Served by the hand of God.
22But when the sun comes up, they go down,
To rest in their dens for the day.
23People will work all day.
But work ends in the evening.
God, the great inventor
24LORD, you sure have made a lot of things.In your wisdom, you made them all.
Now, the world is full and you own it.
25Look at that sea, stretching far and wide,
Full of creatures too many to count,
Animals large and small.
26Ships sail the sea,
Where Leviathan [1] plays,
That massive sea creature you made.
27They all depend on you
To give them their food
When you say the time is right.
28You give it to them, and they eat it up.
You serve to satisfy hunger.
29You abandon them, to their terror.
When you take their breath, they die.
Then in time, they turn to dust.
30When your Spirit [2] breathes on them
They come to life.
And new life appears on the earth.
Thank you, thank you Lord
31May you always receive the honor you deserve.And may you be happy about all you’ve done.
32You glance at the earth and it trembles.
You touch the mountains and they smoke.
33I’ll sing to the LORD as long as I breathe.
I’ll sing to God as long as I live.
34I hope you’re pleased with the way I’ve praised you.
I’m certainly delighted with you.
35I hope that one day, sinners are gone.
I hope the wicked won’t exist anymore.
I’m thanking the LORD with all my heart.
Thank you, thank you, LORD.
Footnotes
Leviathan often shows up in ancient stories as a vicious sea monster. Here, it’s just a big, wet animal having fun in the water. There was an ancient myth in Canaan, in what became the Jewish nation, that a seven-headed monster creature lived in the sea: Leviathan. The name shows up in Job 3:8; 41:1 and in Isaiah 27:1. The psalm writer in 74:14 uses the name to argue that God is stronger than the strongest creatures we can imagine. It’s unclear if Jews of ancient times believed the stories. But they lived by the Mediterranean Sea and they seemed to prefer herding and farming to sea travel or saltwater fishing. Phoenicia in what is now Lebanon was the seafaring nation. Israel seemed to lean more toward sea-fearing. In fairness, they didn’t have a natural harbor on the coast. King Herod the Great, a thousand years after King David, built a huge harbor at Caesarea, north of what is now Tel Aviv.
The Hebrew word can mean: wind, spirit, breath. It’s the same word used to describe God’s work in Creation: “God’s Spirit cruised through the darkness, above the water” (Genesis 1:2). It’s the word used to describe the death of people and animals during the Flood: “If it lived on land and drew a breath it died” (Genesis 7:22). Even in New Testament times, wind and breath symbolized life. “Jesus breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’ (John 20:22). It’s hard to imagine Jesus going up to each disciple, blowing into the man’s face, and telling him to receive the Holy Spirit—even though wind will be associated with the Spirit’s arrival (Acts 2:2). But the image, whether literal or figurative, sounds very much like what was going on in the Creation story. “The LORD God made a man from the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath that brought him to life” (Genesis 2:7). One suggestion some scholars make is that just as God blew the breath of life into human beings (whether literally or figuratively), Jesus blew the breath of eternal life into the disciples, through the gift of the Holy Spirit. This did not necessarily mark the beginning of God’s new creation, launched by the resurrection of Jesus after he conquered death. But it may have marked the beginning of humanity’s role in God’s new creation.
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