Yonder is the great and wide sea therein are moving things innumerable, living creatures small and great.
Psalm 104 walks through the creation week in order, and at verse 25 the singer turns from the land to the sea — water he can see the surface of but never search. He finds it crowded with life, which raises the question of what that life says about God.
The psalm's sections track the days of Genesis 1, and the sea belongs to the fifth of them. One writer traces the sequence and notes who is speaking:
The order of creation is observed as by One who was with Him, yes, who is the Creator. On the first day there was light (v. 2). On the second day, the expanse of sky was formed (v. 2). The waters were divided on the third day (v. 3), and the earth laid on its foundations (v. 5)... The sea, too, great and wide, on the fifth day, swarmed with its living creatures, moving things innumerable. (vv. 25, 26.)
"Creatures innumerable" is not poetic exaggeration. The sea holds more life than everything we can see, and it holds it at every depth:
The earth is full of His possessions; but the life in the seas (not easily observed by man) is astounding in its "innumerable teeming things" (v. 25). Science tells us that the combined weight of all humans, animals and birds is much less than the weight of the world's insects. But if we add the weight of all these together, it would be almost nothing compared to the weight of the population of the seas! For the seas cover about 75% of the earth's surface, and they are deep as well, with residents at every level. Animals and men live on one level, and even birds must come down to one level to sleep.
The verse names creatures small and great. One writer looks at what keeps every one of them alive:
The sea, barren at first sight, is also full of life in countless forms. Above, the ships tossed on its surface still make it the highway of man, God's noblest workmanship. Beneath, the sea-monster plays in its depths. All these must be fed at His table. They gather from His hand and are filled with what He gives. If He hides His face, they suffer; if He takes away their breath, they go back to the dust from which they came. Yet He is the fountain of life. From Him, if He sends out His Spirit, a new creation replaces these vanished forms, and the earth is renewed.
Verse 26 sets man-made ships beside the creatures of the deep. One writer links the two through the wording of verse 25:
"Moving things countless" naturally led from living creatures of the deep to the ships which made their way visibly across the sea. Even they were as dependent on God's care as any of the other objects the psalm considers before it comes to the great and wide sea. And how wide the interests they serve are, all over the world!
The list of creatures is not natural history. One writer weighs what men see, and fail to see, in it:
Once God is known, we find that all nature speaks of Him. The "great and wide sea" tells of the depth of His wisdom, care and goodness. The earth, with its countless forms of life, speaks of Him as the Author and sustainer of all life... How sad it is to see men of vast knowledge and deep reasoning powers gaze into the glorious heavens and fail to find God or wisdom there. They analyse the dust of the earth, yet do not see Him who "worked by weight and measure."
The creatures of this verse turn up again in the Gospels. One writer sets the great fish that swallowed the prophet Jonah beside the catch that filled Peter's boat:
In other days, the God of Israel had commanded the creatures of the great deep. He prepared "a great fish" to swallow up Jonah and to give him a burying place for the appointed time. And so, in His day, Jesus showed Himself the Lord of the fullness of "this great and wide sea." He called a host of its "small beasts" into the net of Peter (Ps. 104; Luke 5). "Both small and great beasts," that find their pastime there, in earlier and later days alike, obeyed the word of Jehovah-Jesus.
- Made — The sea belongs to the fifth day of creation, and the psalm keeps that order. The singer knows it as the Creator who was there.
- Filled — What looks barren is the fullest place on earth. Its life outweighs everything on land, at depths no one can watch.
- Fed — Small and great alike gather from His hand. If He takes their breath they return to dust; if He sends out His Spirit, life is renewed.
- Shared — Ships crossing the same water depend on that same care as much as the creatures beneath them.
- Known — The sea tells of the depth of His wisdom. The Lord who called fish into Peter's net is the One whose word they have always obeyed.
There go the ships; [there] that leviathan, which thou hast formed to play therein.
Psalm 104 walks through creation piece by piece. When it reaches the sea, it names two things side by side: ships built by human hands, and a creature no human hand could build. Why does a work of man stand in a list of God's works? And what is leviathan doing there?
The psalms around this one take up God's dealings from different sides.
Psalm 103 is a review of God's moral dealings with the people. Psalm 104 is a review of His dealings with creation. It celebrates Jehovah, God of Israel, in connection with creation.
Ships sit here between the sea creatures of the verse before and the monster of this one. William Kelly took up the oddness of that placing.
No doubt the mention of "the ships" in verse 26 is unusual and striking, coming between the sea creatures small and great before it and the one creature named after it. But that gives the reference all the more force. The ships glided by in majesty, and they are always an object of interest to the observer. The bulky creatures that played in the waters did not escape notice either, though not so constantly. "Moving things countless" leads on from the living creatures of the deep to the ships that made their way across the sea in plain sight. Even the ships, for the purposes of those who use them — and how wide these interests are all over the world! — were as dependent on God's care as any of the other objects the Psalm takes in.
Some have suggested the psalm means the little nautilus shell rather than real ships. Kelly weighed that idea and dismissed it.
The nautilus, interesting as it is, is no such striking object on the sea. These creatures make no show on any scale comparable to "the ships"; they are like a snail on land next to the house of a man. "The ships" are an exception, but one so vivid that it falls naturally into this wonderful picture with man at its centre according to God. No good reason appears for leaving them out.
The verse sets a man-made thing beside a sea creature. L. M. Grant reads both against the One who rules the water.
Only one foreign object appears here, something man has brought in — the ships that make use of the great expanse of waters. But neither the ships nor their owners are in control of the seas. Rather, "they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end" (Ps. 107:27). What a contrast to the calm, sublime control of the Master of the universe! But of all the life in the seas, only Leviathan is named. He is a sea monster, yet not designed for work. He spends his life playing! Why? Because God ordained it so.
The name carries a darker sense in other places in Scripture. Commentators weigh those uses against the setting of this verse.
Leviathan is an apt symbol of the enemy of God's people (Psalm 74:14). In Isaiah 27:1 it also stands for Satan: "Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent," whom God will punish. In Psalm 104:26 the reference may be to any sea monster, since it comes in connection with the "great and wide sea," that is, the Mediterranean.
What follows in the psalm gathers the ships above and the monster below into one dependence.
And so, too, the sea — barren at first sight — is full of life in countless forms. Above, the ships tossed on its surface still make it the highway of man, God's noblest workmanship. Beneath, the sea monster plays in its depths. All these must be fed at His table. They gather from His hand and are filled with what He gives. If He hides His face, they suffer. If He takes away their breath, they go back to the dust they came from. Yet He is the fountain of life. If He sends out His Spirit, a new creation replaces these vanished forms, and the earth is renewed.
- Creation — Psalm 104 celebrates God in His dealings with creation, which is why the sea and everything moving on it belongs in the song.
- Ships — The one man-made object in the list is not an intruder. It is the most visible thing on the water, and it depends on God's care just as much as everything else the psalm takes in.
- Control — Ships cross the sea but never master it. The psalm sets their smallness against the calm control of the Master of the universe.
- Play — Of all sea life the verse names only Leviathan, and not for work but for play. His whole existence rests on God ordaining it so. The same name elsewhere pictures the enemy of God's people, though here the wide sea may point to a real sea monster.
- Table — Highway above and depths below meet at one table. He feeds them all from His hand. He takes their breath and they return to dust. He sends out His Spirit and the earth is renewed.