Psalm 104 is not as well-knownas Psalm 102 and 103 or 105 and 106. It is however a beautiful psalm filled withpictorial descriptions of God’s wonderful creation. We may entitle this psalm,the “Glory of the Lord Displayed in Creation.”

The structure of this Psalm isactually quite straightforward even if it may not be as orderly as we may likeit to be.

It begins with aself-exhortation to praise the LORD (v. 1). Then the material or reason forpraise is given through a description of creation roughly according to thecreation account in Genesis 1 (v. 2-26); as well as a brief summary of God’sgovernance and providence over creation (v. 27-32). It concludes with areminder that all men ought to praise the LORD (v. 32-35).

1. Self-Exhortation to Praise the LORD

¹ Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou artclothed with honour and majesty.

We have, you will realise, avery similar self-exhortation in the beginning of Psalm 103, where we read:“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.”But there, the reason for praising the Lord is his work of redemption; whereashere, the reason is His work of creation.

We must bless the LORD when wethink of how great a salvation he has granted us. We must also bless the LORDwhen we behold His wondrous creation.

The child of God who is rightin his heart cannot but burst forth in praise when he beholds God’s wondrouscreation, whether it is on the massive scale as the Grand Canyon or MountEverest or the Marinas Trench; or it is on the micro scale as in the design ofa microscopic insect or a single cell or even an atom.

When we behold these things, weneed not that men teach us, but our hearts should pour forth praise for thegreatness and majesty of our wise and wonderful God: thou art very great; [Oh Lord] thou art clothed with honour and majesty!

But seeing how our hearts areoften cold and our tongues often slow, the Lord our Saviour gives us words thatwe may sing in union with Him by enumerating God’s work of Creation. Thisconstitutes the bulk of this psalm.

2. Praisethe LORD for His Work of Creation

Now, we noted that theenumeration of creation follows roughly the order of creation recorded inGenesis 1.

Well, verse 2 alludes to the 1^stday of creation—

² Who coverestthyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like acurtain:

TheLORD we must bless in our soul is he who created light that man may with oureyes see a shadow of his glory and majesty. Remember that our Lord does notdwell in material space, much less use light as a garment. These words givenfor us to sing speak really of how great our LORD is. He is brighter than thebrightest light for He is transcendently holy. He is greater than the wholeexpanse of heaven for He created all things.

Verse2 alludes to the 2^nd day of creation—

³ Who layeth thebeams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: whowalketh upon the wings of the wind: ⁴ Who maketh his angels spirits;his ministers a flaming fire:

On the second day, God created the atmosphere of theearth and separated the waters of the ocean from the waters in the clouds. Thephysics of it is of course much more complicated than that. But it is a factthat the cloud is really water suspended in the air. When the creationist talksabout the canopy of water surrounding the earth before the flood, the canopy isbasically water vapour and cloud.

Likelight, the clouds and all associated with it, such as wind and lightning, allpoint to God’s majesty and power. Who can ride the clouds in the paths of thewind but the LORD himself and His angels?

But now, the 3^rd day of creation isreferred to in verses 5-18…

⁵ Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removedfor ever. &c.

On the third day, the LORDcreated the dry land and the vegetation in it. How was the dry land created?The picture given in our text, verses 6-10, is that the dry land was made torise out of the ocean. As the land rose, the water, as it were, fled away (v.7). Then rivers and streams were formed as water flowed off the sides of themountains (v. 8, 10). Seas and lakes were also formed with their shoresappointed by the LORD (v. 9).

By the springs and streams, theLORD waters the land, making the grass, the crops and the trees (v. 13-15) togrow. And these in turn become food and a source of food for the enjoyment andsustenance of man and of all the birds and animals in the land (v. 14-15).

Now, the birds were created onthe 5^th day and land animals are created 6^th day, butthese are highlighted here because of the way life is so tightly intertwined increation.

Now,the 4^thday of creation saw the creation of the sun and moon and stars, andthis is reflected in verses 19-20—

¹⁹ He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down. ²⁰Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest docreep forth.

We must not take for granted the sun and the moon.They are God’s mighty creation, and when we look at them, we should rememberthat the LORD is far greater than them. Our hearts should then be lifted up topraise the LORD.

Now,the 5^thday of creation is a bit off order in this psalm. In the 5^thday, God created the birds of the air and the creatures of the sea, bothgigantic and microscopic. This is reflected in verses 24-26.  Remember that this psalm is not intended togive us a historical account. The reason why the 6^th day isdescribed first is due to the flow of ideas. For example, there can be no shipsin the sea (v. 26) until man is created.

Well,in any case, the creation of the 6^th day is reflected inverses 21-23. The lion (v. 21-22), the king of the animal kingdom, was made onthat day. And so too man, who is created in God’s image and given dominion overall the creatures (v. 23).

Man and lion and all other creatures all depend on thesun for their cycle of work and rest. As the redeemed of the Lord, we mayrecall that the sun is given as a shadow of the Sun of Righteousness, and sopraise God that through Him we may rest from sin and be fruitful unto goodworks.

Buteven without the knowledge of the Sun of Righteousness, the marvel and power ofthe sun and all the creatures on earth which depend on it should spur us topraise the LORD, verse 24—

 ²⁴ O LORD, how manifold are thyworks! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

And not just creation, but letus praise the LORD for how He governs and provide for all Creatures.

Life on earth in all itsvariety is sustained by the power of God. In Him we live and move and have ourbeing. The LORD brings them into existence. He upholds them in existence by theword of His power. He enables them to live by giving them food according totheir needs (v. 27). And when the time for them to return to the dust is come,then the Lord. This will be so until in the fulness of time God renews the faceof the earth (v. 30).

4. Call to All to Praise the LORD

³¹ The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice inhis works.  ³² He looketh onthe earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.

TheLORD our God is powerful and everlasting. His glory shall endure forever and heshall rejoice in his works (v. 31). Yes, even the mighty volcanoes (v. 32) thatare able to send out enough smoke to cripple the world’s economies and destroyall life-forms on earth are in his hand.

How shall I respond to thereminder of His power and His greatness, but to sing of His mighty power aslong as I live? Indeed, my heart will be filled with sweetness, awe, gratitudeand joy when I think about the Lord:

³³ I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to myGod while I have my being. ³⁴ My meditation of him shall be sweet: Iwill be glad in the LORD.

Ohwho could remain silent and refuse to praise the LORD, but such as areungrateful and undeserving of the LORD’s bountiful blessings. Therefore, verse35—

³⁵ Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be nomore. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.

Conclusion

Wemust conclude. There are two books that teach us to how and why to praise theLORD. One is the Bible. It teaches us who God is, what God has done, and how hehas saved us. The other book is the Book of Creation and Providence.

Ofthis second book, and what it teaches, the apostle Paul says:

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world areclearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternalpower and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Rom 1:20).

Belovedbrethren and children, if the unconverted in the world are without excuse whenthey behold creation and fall down to worship the creature; how much moreshould we as believers be well-acquainted with this book. Let us seek to be soacquainted by actually going outdoors to observe nature and also by availingourselves to whatever material there is available that can help us to marvel atGod’s wonderful creation—including books and videos of which there are a plentytoday.

Unlesswe hold down the truth in unrighteousness, nature in all its wonders willalways point us to our Creator so that we are stirred to praise him from thebottom of our hearts in the way that this psalm enjoins us to. Amen. Ω