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.
These all look unto thee, that thou mayest give their food in its season
Psalm 104 walks through the whole created world — light, water, mountains, grass, birds, sun and moon, and the sea. At verse 27 it draws all of them into one shared habit: every living thing looks upward for its next meal. So who feeds the world, and what does that say about the God who made it?
Verse 27 sits inside a psalm with one subject. One writer sets it beside the psalm just before it.
Psalm 103 reviews God's moral dealings with the people. Psalm 104 reviews His dealings with creation, celebrating Jehovah, the God of Israel, in connection with creation.
Just before verse 27 the psalm moves from sea creatures to the ships crossing the water. Even those, one writer notes, live on the same care.
Even the ships, for the purposes of those concerned (and how wide these interests are all over the world!), were as dependent on God's care as any of the objects this Psalm looks at. It takes in the heavens and the earth, the mountains, the valleys, the springs, the grass … the birds and the wild goats, the sun and the moon, the king of wild beasts and the king of creation, before the great and wide sea comes before us.
The food comes in season, matched to need. One writer weighs what a single day of that costs in the sea alone.
The creatures He has made, whether on earth or in the sea, depend on Him for their food. How much food do all the creatures of the sea need for even one day? But God supplies their needs and they have no lack.
The "all" includes animals that live by killing other animals. One writer draws this out in his notes on the book of Job, where Job was feeling Satan's attacks.
What a state man would be in if he had to provide food for even one class of these creatures for a single day. Only of God can it be said, "These all look to you, to give them their food in due season"... God not only tolerates but cares for these creatures which prey on others. They are part of His wise plan — once put under man's hand and subject to him, but now turned against him as enemies. So Satan, whose attacks Job was feeling, was only the creature of God's will. Even his hostility worked out God's purposes.
The looking described here never stops, because the need never stops.
The sun is always pouring out its abundance of light and heat and fruit-producing power. Just so our Sun pours out to His creatures... We easily forget that every living creature depends on Him for its existence during every moment of its life.
That includes the reader, and it turns an ordinary meal into evidence.
Every mouthful we eat declares our dependence on God, and should humble us before Him. We could not live without His provision for our daily needs. Knowing this would keep us from independence of God and from uncontrolled appetites. It would keep us thankful to Him every day of our lives.
The psalm was not written about a perfect world.
The true God gives to all life and breath and all things. Even in a ruined world this active goodness went out to all alike... What a comment Psalm 104 is on God's sustaining goodness!
A hungry crowd once sat on the ground and watched Jesus take the loaves in His hands.
All the people would know that their food was coming to them from His hand. Would David's song of praise have occurred to any of them? "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing" (Ps. 145:15-16; also Ps. 104:27).
- Look — Everything alive looks upward for food. Each creature depends on Him for its existence in every moment of its life.
- Season — The food comes on time, in its season. Feeding the sea's creatures for one day is beyond us. God does it, and they lack nothing.
- Reach — "These all" covers sun and moon, birds, wild goats and sea life. Even the ships depend on God's care.
- Wisdom — God feeds the hunters too. They are part of a wise plan in which even a hostile power serves His purposes.
- Response — Every mouthful declares our dependence. It should humble us, curb our appetites, and keep us thankful — and Christ showed that open hand when He fed the crowd.
That thou givest unto them, they gather; thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good.
Psalm 104 sings its way through the whole of creation — light, waters, mountains, grass, lions, the sea. Here every living thing takes its food straight from God's open hand — so who really feeds the world?
One writer sets this psalm beside the account in Genesis 1:
In Genesis 1 we have the record of creation; in this psalm the song of creation. The psalm in its main outline follows the story of creation. The record shows creation at its beginning. The song shows creation in its present life and activity.
Every verb in verse 28 is present tense — You give, they gather, You open. One writer makes the same point about the whole psalm:
The psalmist does not think of the Creator only in His past work as the Originator of all, but in His present work as the Sustainer of His creation. So the psalmist says that God sends the springs. He does not mean only that God sent them in the past; He sends them now. The psalmist also says that God waters the hills and makes the grass grow. It is the present sustaining mercy of the Creator that fills the soul with praise.
"They gather" describes creatures with no stores of their own. They live on what God hands out. One writer finds a picture of this constant giving in the sun:
The sun is always giving out its abundance of light and heat and power to make things grow. Our Sun gives to His creatures in just the same way. … We are apt to forget that every living creature depends on Him for its existence during every moment of its life.
Notice which creatures God feeds, and then imagine taking the job over yourself:
Beasts and birds of prey might seem worthless, or even harmful, and yet He cares for them with unerring wisdom. Shall He fail to watch over His child who knows and trusts Him? … Think of the confusion man would face if he had to provide food, for a single day, for even one class of these creatures. Only of God is it true: "These all look to you, to give them their food in due season." And again: "The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God." … God not only tolerates, but cares for these creatures which prey upon others.
The hand stays open even where sin has done its damage, and it does not sort the deserving from the undeserving:
The true God gives to all life and breath and all things. Even in a ruined world this active goodness went out to all alike. … What a comment Psalm 104 is on God's sustaining goodness!
The same hand feeds us. One writer turns that into a daily habit of mind:
God knows our needs. He is a faithful Creator and He remembers how He has fashioned us. He has given us bodies. They need food, and He has provided it. Every mouthful we eat declares our dependence upon God, and should humble us before Him. We could not live without His provision for our daily needs. Knowing this would keep us from living as though we did not need God. It would guard us from unrestrained appetites and keep us thankful to Him every day of our lives.
Commentators say this is true now, but not yet seen in full:
This psalm expands on Psalm 103, emphasising the great power of God in all creation. Of course this is true now. But in the millennium it will be shown much more fully to all mankind. By then they will have learned to give God His place of infinite majesty.
Another writer points to what stands in the way, and to what must change first:
Men have worshipped the creature more than the Creator. They still refuse to look at the works of their own hands with willing reference to God. They refuse in the same way to look at the great features of the natural world, and at the secrets of her wealth they can reach. Only when Satan is bound will they willingly own Him as the one Possessor of wisdom and power.
- One hand. The psalm sings of a Creator who still opens His hand today. He does not only make; He sustains.
- Open hand. Creatures earn nothing and seize nothing. They gather what God hands out, depending on Him every moment of their lives.
- Wide hand. The supply reaches every class of creature, predators included. No man could manage it for even a single day.
- Generous hand. Even in a ruined world the giving continues, and it goes out to all alike. It is a standing witness to God's sustaining goodness.
- Your hand receives. Every mouthful you eat comes from that same hand. That should keep you humble, thankful, and glad to depend on God.
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they expire and return to their dust.
Psalm 104 praises God as the maker and keeper of the whole world. Verse 29 turns to the other side of that: every creature's comfort and its very life hang on God's face and on the breath He lends.
Read verse 29 next to the verse before it. God opens His hand and fills every creature. Life is not something they own. It is a supply they receive without pause.
"The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing." We easily forget that every living creature depends on Him for its existence every moment of its life.
Hiding the face and taking away the breath are two steps of one withdrawal. The first brings trouble. The second ends the creature's life. One writer traces both steps and adds that God deals with man the same way.
If He sees fit to limit their food, He sometimes does this, and they are troubled (v. 29). In fact, He does this with man too. Then in the end He takes away their breath, and death sends them back to the same dust they came from. Yet, as easily as He makes a creature die, He can by His Spirit create another to take its place, so renewing the face of the earth (v. 30).
The verse applies to God's servants as well. One writer uses it to explain how the prophet Elijah lost his strength.
The moment a believer lets anything at all come between his soul and God, the distance grows beyond measure. The result must be that the prophet loses all his strength, because you find strength nowhere except before God. "When you hide your face, they are dismayed." Elijah was a remarkable instrument of the Lord's power. But he had not grasped to the same degree that in himself there was neither goodness, nor light, nor strength.
Nothing forces God to keep the world alive. Elihu, one of the men who spoke to Job, asks what would happen if God turned His heart back on Himself.
He is absolutely self-sufficient. He needs nothing from outside Himself... Suppose, says Elihu, He were to turn back into that Divine Sufficiency, and set His heart — not upon man, as some translations have it, but upon Himself — what would become of His creation? "All flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust" (v. 15). "when you take away their breath, they die" (Ps. 104:29)... So the apostle Peter tells the saints in the middle of suffering to "entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good" (1 Peter 4:19). How good it is to remember that the One who "upholds the universe by the word of His power" is also our Saviour, Lord and Friend.
The Hebrew word for "breath" here is ruach. The next verse uses the same word for "Spirit". One writer answers a man who argued that both verses should read "breath". The same word carries two senses, and the context decides which.
The "breath of life" in Genesis 6:17 is not the spirit, as a comparison with 7:22 may show. Nor is it in Psalm 104:29. He argues that if ruach in verse 29 means "breath," it must mean the same in verse 30: "You send forth your breath; they are created." But here the words "send forth" need the other translation... God forms the spirit in man: He does not form the breath of life in him.
The psalm does not stop at dust. One writer reads verses 29 and 30 as a picture of what God will finally do for creation.
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Psalm 104 looks at Creation in the same light. God's providence rules over all even now. But in the end He will apply His resurrection strength to Creation. Creation will then again, as it once was, become the object of divine delight. It now groans and suffers pain, but then it will be delivered.
- Given — no creature owns its life. God opens His hand and fills every living thing, moment by moment.
- Hidden — when He hides His face, He limits what creatures receive and trouble follows. Elijah found that away from God he had no strength.
- Withdrawn — the breath was never ours to keep. If God set His heart on Himself alone, all flesh would return to dust.
- Distinguished — ruach means "breath" in verse 29 and "Spirit" in verse 30. God forms the spirit in man, not the breath of life.
- Renewed — the same God who ends a life sends His Spirit and renews the face of the earth. The One who holds up all things is also our Saviour and Friend.
Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth.
Psalm 104 has just watched creatures die and return to dust; now the same hand sends life out again, and the ground fills with living things. Two questions follow: what is this "Spirit" God sends out, and how far does the renewing go?
The Hebrew word here, ruach, can be rendered "breath" or "Spirit." Some have argued for "breath," the air an animal draws. One writer answers that the verb settles it.
Some argue that if ruach in verse 29 is translated "breath," it must be translated the same way in verse 30: "When You send forth Your breath (ruach), they are created." But here the "sending forth" calls for the other rendering. Even if it were breath in both places, how would that prove his point? God forms the spirit in man; He does not form the breath of life in him.
One writer sets this line beside two others to show the Spirit's part in creation.
His creatorship. He had a part with the Father and the Son in everything God did. Otherwise what is the force of the passage, "By His Spirit He adorned the heavens"? (Job 26:13) As to the lower orders of creation we read, "When You send forth Your Spirit, they are created" (Ps. 104:30). Now go back to the earliest record. The very first mention of God at work in the six days is, "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:2). What could be plainer!
Verses 29 and 30 stand together. The removal of one generation and the arrival of the next both trace back to God, and neither costs Him effort.
Then finally He takes away their breath, and death sends them back to the same dust from which they came. Yet He makes a creature die easily. Just as easily He can create another by His Spirit to take its place, and so renew the face of the earth (v. 30).
Every creature in the psalm lives on what God hands out, moment by moment.
All these must be fed at His table. They gather from His hand and take their fill of 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 He renews the earth.
Some use this verse to argue that people are only animals, since God's Spirit makes both. One writer answers that Genesis says something about man this psalm never says.
No intelligent Christian claims that the phrase "living soul" marks man off from the rest of creation. But Scripture says that man's natural life came straight from God. It says this of him alone, and not of the animals placed under his rule. That statement was surely meant to convey what no one should have doubted: man, as man, apart from eternal life in the Son of God, is inwardly and essentially different from all other animals. And from the very first passage that speaks this way, Scripture carefully shows that man alone of all creatures on earth received his inner being from the breathing of the Lord God. Ps. 104:30 does not say the same thing as Gen. 2:7.
Commentators differ on how far the renewing reaches. One looks past the present round of life and death to the end.
Psalm 104 looks at creation in the same light. God's providence rules over all even now. But in the end He will put His resurrection strength to work on creation. Creation will then become the object of divine delight again, as it once was. It now groans and suffers pain, but He will then set it free.
Another writer keeps the psalm within its own limits.
Psalm 104 takes up creation in the same way. The Spirit is able to bring in the goodness in the middle of all it sees. Yet it does not go beyond a fallen creation.
- Sent, not merely breathed. The verb "send out" shows this is God's Spirit going forth, not just air in an animal's lungs.
- Sent to create. The Spirit shares the work of creation with the Father and the Son, hovering over the waters at the very start.
- Sent to replace. As easily as He takes breath away, He sends His Spirit and a new generation of life takes the place of the old.
- Sent to all, yet man stands apart. God is the fountain of life for every creature, yet man alone received his inner being straight from God.
- Sent forward. Commentators differ: one keeps the psalm inside a creation still fallen, another sees creation set free at the end.