Psa 104:24-30 | KingComments | STEP | All previous structures were created by God with precision. Everything interlocks like the wheels of a clockwork. He has given everything in creation a fixed place and time and takes care of both life and inanimate matter. The whole cycle of time and life comes from Him and He sustains it. We cannot help but exclaim in admiration with the psalmist: “O LORD, how many are Your works!” ( ). The psalmist again speaks directly to God. He says to Him that in all His works His wisdom is evident. “In wisdom” He has “made them all”. Wherever we look on earth or in the deepest seas, we see His possessions everywhere. When we look at creation with a telescope, with a microscope or even an electron microscope, we see His wisdom and His possessions. The earth is full of it, both by day and by night. It is all His, it is His possession. What a poor, blind, fool man is who believes that the earth and life on it came into being ‘by chance’ and developed through evolution. Then the psalmist looks at the sea ( ). What he sees overwhelms him. He sees how “great and broad” the sea is. The sea is full of life. There are “swarms” living in it. Their number is so great that they cannot be counted. Nor are they all equal in size, for there are “beasts both small and great”. God has also provided great variety in the life in the sea. Here we recognize the fifth day of creation ( ). On the sea “ships move along” ( ). This is also striking when the psalmist looks at the sea. The sea carries the ships. It is a wondrous sight. The ships cross the great, wide expanse of the sea to areas that are otherwise inaccessible. God has made it possible for man to navigate the sea. Another thing that stands out about the sea is that it is a playing area for a special sea creature, the “Leviathan”, which God has “formed to sport in it”. From the description of this beast in the book of Job, it is clear that it is an indomitable giant, like a dinosaur, which man is incapable of subduing (see commentary on Job 41). But God deals with him with ‘playful ease’. He shows him the space where he can move. Beyond that he cannot go. He is completely in the power of God. All life on earth depends on God. The beasts know this instinctively. “They”, the psalmist says to God, “all wait for You, to give them their food in due season” ( ). With this we can connect the sixth day of creation, which is not only about the creation of the beasts and man, but also about the provision of food for man and beasts ( ). They have no food sources of their own. God has to give it to them. Even if they can stockpile, it is because God gives it to them. When God gives it, they go out and gather it ( ; cf. ; ). They receive food from His opened hand. To open the hand means to give ( ). Thus “they are satisfied with good”. When God opens His hand to give, He gives with a generous hand. He also always gives the good, and so much, that the recipient is satiated with it. It may also be that God hides His face ( ). This is a terrible thing, causing such a great terror that it “dismays” them. Even worse is when He “takes away their spirit [or: breath]”. Then “they expire and return to their dust”. Life and death are in the hand of God. Everything depends on Him. All life ends when He withdraws Himself.

‏ Psalms 104:24-30

God Made All His Works in Wisdom

All previous structures were created by God with precision. Everything interlocks like the wheels of a clockwork. He has given everything in creation a fixed place and time and takes care of both life and inanimate matter. The whole cycle of time and life comes from Him and He sustains it. We cannot help but exclaim in admiration with the psalmist: “O LORD, how many are Your works!” (Psa 104:24).

The psalmist again speaks directly to God. He says to Him that in all His works His wisdom is evident. “In wisdom” He has “made them all”. Wherever we look on earth or in the deepest seas, we see His possessions everywhere. When we look at creation with a telescope, with a microscope or even an electron microscope, we see His wisdom and His possessions. The earth is full of it, both by day and by night. It is all His, it is His possession. What a poor, blind, fool man is who believes that the earth and life on it came into being ‘by chance’ and developed through evolution.

Then the psalmist looks at the sea (Psa 104:25). What he sees overwhelms him. He sees how “great and broad” the sea is. The sea is full of life. There are “swarms” living in it. Their number is so great that they cannot be counted. Nor are they all equal in size, for there are “beasts both small and great”. God has also provided great variety in the life in the sea. Here we recognize the fifth day of creation (Gen 1:20-23).

On the sea “ships move along” (Psa 104:26). This is also striking when the psalmist looks at the sea. The sea carries the ships. It is a wondrous sight. The ships cross the great, wide expanse of the sea to areas that are otherwise inaccessible. God has made it possible for man to navigate the sea.

Another thing that stands out about the sea is that it is a playing area for a special sea creature, the “Leviathan”, which God has “formed to sport in it”. From the description of this beast in the book of Job, it is clear that it is an indomitable giant, like a dinosaur, which man is incapable of subduing (see commentary on Job 41). But God deals with him with ‘playful ease’. He shows him the space where he can move. Beyond that he cannot go. He is completely in the power of God.

All life on earth depends on God. The beasts know this instinctively. “They”, the psalmist says to God, “all wait for You, to give them their food in due season” (Psa 104:27). With this we can connect the sixth day of creation, which is not only about the creation of the beasts and man, but also about the provision of food for man and beasts (Gen 1:29-30).

They have no food sources of their own. God has to give it to them. Even if they can stockpile, it is because God gives it to them. When God gives it, they go out and gather it (Psa 104:28; cf. Exo 16:4; Rth 2:8). They receive food from His opened hand. To open the hand means to give (Deu 15:8 ; 11). Thus “they are satisfied with good”. When God opens His hand to give, He gives with a generous hand. He also always gives the good, and so much, that the recipient is satiated with it.

It may also be that God hides His face (Psa 104:29). This is a terrible thing, causing such a great terror that it “dismays” them. Even worse is when He “takes away their spirit [or: breath]”. Then “they expire and return to their dust”. Life and death are in the hand of God. Everything depends on Him. All life ends when He withdraws Himself.

God’s Glory Endures Forever

The taking away of the breath is not God’s last word with regard to His creation. In Psa 104:30, the psalmist describes new life after a drought or after a winter, as a picture of the regeneration of the earth: the realm of peace. It is a picture of the work of the Spirit of God Who brings about a new creation by renewing “the face of the ground”.

The same will happen when the realm of peace is established (Isa 65:17). That will happen after the period of the great tribulation. We see a picture of this in the flood and afterwards. After the flood, which ended all life on earth, Noah and his family come to an earth with a renewed face.

In the realm of peace, “the glory of the LORD” will “endure forever” (Psa 104:31). All that is then is the work of God Himself through His Spirit. At that time, “the LORD” is “glad in His works”. All who enter into the realm of peace will rejoice with Him in it. It is like the Sabbath, the seventh day, when God sees all that He has made and sees that it is very good (Gen 1:31 ; Gen 2:1-3).

He remains the Almighty even then (Psa 104:32). His gaze alone is enough to make the earth tremble (cf. Hab 3:10). And when He touches the seemingly unshakable mountains with His finger, “they smoke”. We see this at Mount Sinai when God descends upon it (Exo 19:18).