“How Great Thou Art!”
Psalm 104
Introduction
There is a growing movement today to seriously consider the glaring evidence pointing to a designer behind this marvelous world. The growing research into DNA coding has compelled many scientists to reconsider their model of origins. Walking along the beach you come across four large rocks stacked on top of each other. Our first thought is that someone put them there.
Out of a whole beach of random rock arrangements, the observation of stacked rocks leads you to conclude that some intelligence arranged them. How much more the amazing complexity of even the tiniest aspect of the human body or creation compels us to consider the possibility of an intelligent designer. If there is a code, there must be a coder. If there is a computer program, there must be a programmer. The Bible appeals over and over to creation and the Creator.
The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; it rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of them; and there is nothing hidden from its heat. Psa 19:1-6
To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing. Isa 40:26
Since the creation of the world God’s invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that all men are without excuse. Romans 1:20
When Job demanded answers to his excruciating trial, God took him back to creation.
The writer of this Psalm stirs his own soul to bless the Lord based on observation of creation.
He begins and ends his song with a call to bless the Lord and praise His name.
The catalyst for such ardent praise? Consideration of creation!
Some Bible commentators suggest that this Psalm follows a pattern similar to the six day account of creation in Genesis.
Light and sky on day one and two (1-6)
Separation of water and land and green plants on day three (7-18)
Sun and moon as guardians over the earth and creation on day four (19-23)
Life on the land and in the sea on day five and six (24-30)
Maybe even a Sabbath rest on day seven. (31-35)
This Psalm not only focuses on God as the original creator but the sustainer of His creation.
It is a call to individual praise of a most excellent and glorious God.
I. The call to bless the Lord
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
“bless” – the root occurs 415 times in the Old Testament.
To bless in the OT means “to endue with power for success, prosperity, fruitfulness, longevity, etc.”
We relate more readily to God blessing us, but it is more difficult to get a handle on us blessing God. The root word for “bless” can also indicate kneeling or bowing.
The parallelism in Psalm 103:1-2 provides a bit of light.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget none of His benefits
To bless God is to remember His benefits. To bless God is to humble ourselves in gratitude before Him as the great God that He is. The psalmist rouses his inner being to bless the Lord.
This is personal. He is not calling the people to bless the Lord. He calls his own soul to humbly acknowledge God’s greatness and majesty.
II. The reason to bless the Lord
Why should he bless the Lord?
O LORD my God, You are very great;
First, he delights in the personal nature of his relationship with God. “My God”
Next, he will reason from the general to the specific.
You are very great! Exceedingly, abundantly, forcefully.
“Great” = to grow in value, importance, significance, power, deeds. God is not just a great God but a VERY great God.
The psalmist follows with specific examples of His greatness as seen in creation. Those who advocate the view that God started the process of creation and evolution finished it, rip the guts out of a passage such as this As well as all the other passages that refer to God specific creative hand in all of creation. The wonder of creation is great but magnificence of the creator is even greater. The psalmist is careful to keep the focus on the Creator rather than the creation.
Romans one is very clear about the danger of worshiping the creation over the creator.
For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. Romans 1:25
Keep in mind that this is poetry. Poetry attempts to draw mental images and pictures that stir the heart.
A. Visualized the Creator-king’s throne room
He first describes the Creator-King’s robe.
You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering Yourself with light as with a cloak,
The king is surrounded in light. We learned in first John that God is light.
God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5
Light symbolizes energy, purity, brightness, power, goodness, splendor, glory, warmth and life.
He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen. 1 Timothy 6:15-16
Bless the Lord who is surrounded in light.
Next, he describes the room.
stretching out heaven like a tent curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters;
This is most likely a reference to the sky or firmament. In the original creation this consisted of a canopy of water spread over the whole earth like a curtain. The “upper chambers” is a reference to the private rooftop dwelling.
The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens and has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, The LORD is His name. Amos 9:6
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Isaiah 40:22-23
The creator’s vantage point is far above the inhabitants of the earth.
After Solomon completed the construction of the Temple, he realized that as glorious as it was, it still could not contain the glory of the God who would manifest his presence there.
"But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built! 1 Kings 8:27
Bless the Lord who is too big to be contained by any earthly building.
Next, the psalmist pictures God’s movement over his creation.
He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind;
He rides the clouds and moves with the wind. Basically, God’s movements are unrestricted.
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, Watching the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3
"For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. 2 Chronicles 16:9
God is also surrounded by angelic army.
He makes the winds(angels) His messengers, lightening His ministers. Psalm 104:1-4
The quote of this passage from in Hebrews 1.7 indicates he is referring to angelic beings who are appointed as God’s messengers and agents of mercy and judgment. Even the literal wind and lightning become messengers of God. Nothing speaks louder concerning helplessness of man and the power of God than wind and lightning.
Bless the LORD who is not limited by time or space.
B. The Creator-king’s hand in creation
1. God’s establishment of the earth
He established the earth upon its foundations, so that it will not totter forever and ever. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters were standing above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled, at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away. The mountains rose; the valleys sank down to the place which You established for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over, So that they will not return to cover the earth. Psalm 104:5-9
Out of the entire vast universe, God hung the earth on foundations perfect for sustaining life.
God hung the earth on a perfect angle to 23.5 degrees and distance from the sun.
Here is BBC’s theory…
No one knows why the Earth’s axis is tilted by 23.5 degrees. Some astronomers think that about 5 billion years ago, when the Earth was still very young, it was struck by a Mars-sized planet. This colossal impact could have tipped our planet over. Whatever the reason, it’s a good thing - if the Earth did not tilt, countries near the poles would be cold and dark all year round. If it tilted too much, the seasons would be very extreme – like on the planet Uranus. Here the winter lasts for 42 years in total darkness! (BBC)
Is a much more plausible to believe that the earth is at a 23.5° angle to the sun because God established the earth’s foundations? God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?” O Lord my God you are very great!
At the beginning, God wrapped the earth in water as His Spirit hovered over the surface of the waters. At God’s command dry land appeared and He forever established the boundaries between the water and the dry land.
Bless the Lord who spoke our world into existence
and perfectly fashioned it into a place for us to live.
2. God established a watering system
He sends forth springs in the valleys; they flow between the mountains; Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they lift up their voices among the branches. He waters the mountains from His upper chambers; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works. Psalm 104:10-13
Energy, wind, earth, water. Nothing lives without light. Nothing lives without water. God not only provides streams, rivers and lakes but also a whole underground system 100 times larger than the rivers and lakes called the aquifer. This is God’s work over which man has no control.
God satisfies the earth with its needed H20supply.
Bless the Lord who provides the water of life.
3. God established a feeding system
He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine which makes man’s heart glad, So that he may make his face glisten with oil, And food which sustains man’s heart. Psalm 104:14-15
Grass has a much greater significance than landscaping. It has fed animals around the world since the beginning. It is versatile and hardy. It can be found in every climate and area of the world. The sheer variety of edible plants is mind boggling. Not only has God provided a variety of tastes and textures but benefits as well. He has supplied plants for their nutritional value as well as their medicinal value.
Bless the Lord who supplies food for every living thing.
4. God gives us trees
The trees of the LORD drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon which He planted, where the birds build their nests, And the stork, whose home is the fir trees. Psalm 104:16-17
5. God gives us mountains
The high mountains are for the wild goats; the cliffs are a refuge for the badgers. Psalm 104:18
6. God gives us the sun and moon
He made the moon for the seasons; the sun knows the place of its setting. You appoint darkness and it becomes night, in which all the beasts of the forest prowl about. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their food from God. When the sun rises they withdraw and lie down in their dens. Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening. Psalm 104:19-23
Light, seasons, time, rest, warmth, growth, energy, tides.
Bless the Lord for trees, mountains, sun and moon.
7. God gives us the sea
O LORD, how many are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, Animals both small and great. There the ships move along, and Leviathan, which You have formed to sport in it. Psalm 104:24-26
There is no end to contemplating God’s creative genius as display in His creation. They are all His.
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36
Bless the Lord for the seas of the world.
8. God gives us life
They all wait for You to give them their food in due season. You give to them, they gather it up;
You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good. You hide Your face, they are dismayed;
You take away their spirit, they expire and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the ground. Psalm 104:27-30
"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, Acts 17:24-26
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. Hebrews 1:1-4
Bless the Lord for life!
III. The petition for blessing
The contemplation of God’s greatness stirs the soul to respond.
•Don’t ever let the glory of God’s marvelous words fade – let it endure forever.
•May God find delight in His creation as He did at the beginning.
May God not feel like He did in Genesis 6 being sorry that He made man in the first place.
May He not have to look at the earth and make it tremble.
May He not have to touch the mountains and make them smoke.
•Let me never stop singing to the Lord as long as I live.
•May God find pleasure in my contemplation of His greatness.
•May I find delight in Him.
•Let the wicked disappear from the scene.
May the earth return to its original form as man’s habitation and man to his original purpose of glorifying God and cultivating the earth.
IV.The call to bless the Lord repeated
The psalmist ended his song with a final stirring of his soul to bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord o my soul! Praise the Lord! O lord my God, You are VERY GREAT!
