Thou hadst covered it with the deep, as with a vesture; the waters stood above the mountains
This verse looks back to a time before there was any coastline or any place to stand. Water lay over everything, even over the high ground. The psalm is a song of praise, and it traces the world's beginnings step by step. So why does a worshipper sing about a drowned world?
Commentators read the verse as a picture of the world before dry land appeared. It matches the account in Genesis. One writer calls the covering of water a birth the earth passed through, with its shape already formed underneath.
But at first, as we read in Genesis, water ruled everywhere: "You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains." Geology knows this condition well. Moses somehow knew it before geology. The earth man lives on was born out of water, like a child from the womb. Its structure was already there — mountains, and by implication valleys — before that birth.
The verse does not stand alone; the next lines tell how the water left. What ended the flooded state was not a slow process but a spoken word.
As is implied in Genesis 1:9, the deep waters covered the entire world, a fact that science cannot dispute. In fact, here we read "the waters stood above the mountains" (v. 6). It was the rebuke of God's word that changed this condition. What a voice of thunder indeed! (v. 7)... The emerging earth was to be a suitable place for men's dwelling.
The psalm follows the order of the creation days. This verse belongs to the third day, when God gathered the sea into one place.
In the verses that follow, the psalmist recalls the first part of the third day's work. He thinks of the day when the Lord's "rebuke" gathered the waters into one place and the dry land appeared. On that day "the mountains rose, the valleys sank, to the place" which God had "founded for them," and God set the bounds of the seas so that "they may not pass over."
The water once stood higher than the hills, so its retreat is no small thing. One writer hears in the pushing back of the waters a picture of something larger.
The psalmist now tells the story of how the earth was prepared for man. God's delight in man, and so His "rejoicing in the habitable parts of His earth," are plainly the theme. The rebuke and bounding of the overflowing waters may be read as a parable of the conflict this world has always seen. That conflict receives its final rebuke when the Prince of Peace comes... The flood changed nothing essential in the structure of the earth in this way, and the purification by fire that awaits it before the new earth can come need not do so either — though then there will be "no more sea" (Rev. 21:1). Whatever changes may come, God keeps to His first plan all through, and builds for eternity.
One writer connects the land rising out of the deep with resurrection, then applies it to the believer. What troubles a person is not always removed; God gives it a limit.
The third day is resurrection day, and the earth rises out of the waters. Once the power of resurrection is known, it gives the soul stability and fruitfulness. As with the darkness before, so now with the waters: God sets their bound. They cannot pass it, and they cannot turn again to cover the earth. So it is with everything that causes the soul's unrest and barrenness.
Reading these events as a picture of spiritual things could look like an illustration laid over the facts. One commentator argues the opposite, and points to what the psalm as a whole is saying.
The more we study this, the more sure we shall be that the typical meaning is no arbitrary fitting of the facts to a spiritual illustration. It is deeply grounded in the nature of things. In short, we shall realise what this psalm emphasises: the Redeemer and the Creator are One.
- Covered. The verse describes the world before dry land existed. Water lay over everything, even above the mountains. The shape of hills and valleys was already there underneath.
- Rebuked. What lifted that covering was God's word, not time. The sea went back at a voice like thunder, and the land came into view.
- Bounded. The water was not removed but limited. God set a border the sea cannot cross, so the ground stays fit for people to live on.
- Secured. God builds for eternity, so the waters do not come back. One writer reads this as a picture of the world's long conflict, which meets its final rebuke when the Prince of Peace comes.
- Risen. Land rising out of the deep pictures resurrection. The God who spoke the sea back is the God who redeems. So what unsettles a soul gets a limit it cannot pass.
At thy rebuke they fled, at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away; --
Psalm 104 sings its way through the days of Genesis. Verse 7 lands on the moment when the waters covering the world fled at God's voice. How did the sea come to have limits at all? And what voice can make an ocean run?
One writer contrasts the Genesis account with this psalm.
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 as it works now. "One pictures the beginning of the eternal order, the other its ongoing living display. So the song has far more life in it than the record. The record is a picture of still life; the song is crowded with figures full of stir and movement" (Perowne).
The verse only makes sense against the state described just before it.
But at first, as we read in Genesis, water ruled everywhere: "You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains." Geology knows this condition well. Moses somehow knew it before geology. The earth man lives on came out of water, like a child from the womb. Its structure was already there — mountains, and valleys implied along with them — before it came out in this way.
Where does the verse fit in the order of the creation days? One writer places it in the third day's work.
In the verses that follow the psalmist recalls the first part of the third day's work. He thinks of the day when at the "rebuke" of the Lord the waters were gathered into one place, and the dry land appeared. On that day "the mountains rose, the valleys sank, to the place" which God had "founded for them." On that day God set the bounds of the seas so that "they may not pass over."
The verse names no tool and no slow process — only a spoken rebuke. One writer points to God's word as what changed a drowned world.
As is implied in Genesis 1:9, the deep waters covered the entire world, a fact that science cannot dispute. In fact, here we read that "the waters stood above the mountains" (v. 6). It was the rebuke of God's word that changed this condition. What a voice of thunder indeed! (v. 7).
The second half of the verse turns to thunder.
Thunder is rare in Palestine. Scripture treats it as the voice of God in power — in the Old Testament looking back, and in Revelation looking ahead. Ps. 29; Ps. 77:18; Ps. 104:7; Rev. 4:5; Rev. 6:1; etc.: compare also John 12:29.
One writer sets God's voice at creation beside the same voice on a lake.
It was His voice — "God said," ten times repeated — that brought order out of chaos, light out of darkness, and life out of death (Gen. 1). It was His voice that stilled the angry Galilean sea, and hushed its wild winds and waves into the calm of a sleeping child (Matt. 8:23-27).
One writer finds a picture in the driving back of the waters.
The psalmist now tells the story of how the earth was made ready for man. God's delight in man, and so His "rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth," are plainly the theme. The rebuke and bounding of the overflowing waters can also be read as a parable of the strife that the world has always seen. That strife receives its final rebuke when the Prince of peace comes.
- Chaos. Before this verse, water ruled the whole earth. The deep covered it like a garment and stood higher than the mountains.
- Word. Nothing but a rebuke changed that. God's spoken word, not any visible force, sent the waters running.
- Voice. Scripture uses "thunder" for the voice of God in power, from the Psalms to Revelation.
- Obedience. The voice that scattered the waters at creation later stilled a storm on Galilee. The sea answers its Maker.
- Peace. The rebuke and bounding of restless waters pictures the world's strife. That strife gets its final rebuke when the Prince of peace comes.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank, unto the place which thou hadst founded for them; --
Psalm 104 is a hymn that walks through the days of creation. Verse 8 catches the moment the land takes its shape under God's word. Two questions sit behind the rising hills and sinking hollows: what is the "place appointed," and why does it matter that God gave the valleys a floor as surely as He raised the peaks?
The psalm follows the order of Genesis. Verses 5-9 sit at one stage of it: the day God gathered the sea and the dry land appeared.
In the verses that follow, the psalmist recalls the first part of the third day's work. He thinks of the day when the "rebuke" of the Lord gathered the waters into one place and the dry land appeared. On that day "the mountains rose, the valleys sank, to the place" which God had "founded for them," and God set the bounds of the seas so that "they may not pass over."
Verse 8 only makes sense against verse 6, where water stands over everything. One writer reads the rising of the mountains as what drained the flooded globe and made it fit to live on.
As is implied in Genesis 1:9, the deep waters covered the entire world, a fact that science cannot dispute. In fact, here we read that "the waters stood above the mountains" (v. 6), and that the rebuke of God's word changed this condition. What a voice of thunder indeed! (v. 7). The Numerical Bible translates verse 8: "Mountains ascended; they went down the valleys unto the place that You have appointed for them." This evidently means the mountains rose and made the waters run down into the valleys. The emerging earth was to be a suitable place for men's dwelling.
Commentators differ over who is moving in verse 8: the landforms, or the water. One writer sets out the problem, and why the usual reading feels awkward.
Some object that we cannot say, "They ascended the mountains," speaking of the waters. It sounds unnatural in itself, and the waters already stood above the mountains, which rules it out. So most read "The mountains rose; the valleys sank," and treat it as an aside, since the rest of the verse, and the next one too, speak again of the waters. The "place appointed" is clearly the "one place" into which God gathers the waters on the third day. It does not refer to either the mountains or the valleys. On the other hand, it is awkward to take the first half of the verse as an aside. But there seems no reason why we should not translate it, "Mountains ascended: they went down the valleys." That keeps the connection, and makes the language a vivid picture.
The next verse adds a boundary to the sea. The same writer draws out what that recovered earth tells us about the God who made it.
The next verse then speaks of the boundary God assigned to the retreating waters, to keep them from returning again. So man's earth has been recovered and is kept for him… The more we study this, the more sure we shall be that its meaning as a picture is no arbitrary fitting of the facts to a spiritual lesson. It is grounded deep in the nature of things. In short, we shall see what this psalm stresses: the Redeemer and the Creator are One.
But what about Noah's flood, when the water did come back? The limit God set on the sea answers that.
At the time of Noah's flood this process may seem to have been reversed for a short time. Yet it was not reversed for good. God had set a boundary for the waters so that they might not return to cover the earth (v. 9). As God tells Job, "I said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed'" (Job 38:11).
The verse credits God with the depths as much as the heights. One writer quotes it in an older wording, "founded for them," where the ESV has "appointed." He turns that detail into comfort for anyone whose life is now at the bottom of the map.
In Psalm 104:8 we see that "valleys" are a creation of God Himself: "the valleys sank, to the place which You had founded for them." So we can accept our "valley" circumstances as the ordering of God. And we can rejoice in the knowledge that "He sends the springs into the valleys" (v. 10). How blessed to hear Him say to His people, "I the LORD will answer them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them, I will open… fountains in the midst of the valleys" (Isaiah 41:17-18).
- Rebuke. God's word alone moved a world drowned under water. Verse 8 records what happened when that voice spoke on the third day.
- Founded. God set both the heights and the hollows. The valleys sank to a spot He had already prepared.
- Bounded. The next verse fixes a limit on the sea. So the appointed place lasts — even the flood did not overturn it for good.
- Inhabited. The whole rearrangement had a purpose: the emerging earth was to be a suitable place for people to live.
- One. The God who shaped and secured this earth is the God the singer already knows as Redeemer. Creator and Redeemer are one Person.
Thou hast set a bound which they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth.
This line closes Psalm 104's account of creation by fixing a limit for the sea. Commentators ask two things about it: what did God fix, and how firm is it?
The psalm moves through the days of creation in order, and this verse belongs to the moment the sea was gathered and land appeared.
In the verses that follow, the psalmist recalls the first part of the third day's work. He thinks of the day when at the "rebuke" of the Lord the waters gathered into one place and the dry land appeared. He thinks of when "the mountains rose, the valleys sank, to the place" which God had "founded for them," and when God set the bounds of the seas so that "they may not pass over."
God sets the limit on water that is already going back. The result is an earth recovered and kept for people to live in.
The next verse then speaks of the boundary God set for the retreating waters, to keep them from coming back. So man's earth has been recovered, and God preserves it for him. The picture behind it has been pointed out elsewhere (Genesis 1: notes). The more we study this, the more sure we shall be that this picture-meaning is not a random fitting of the facts to a spiritual lesson. It rests deep in the nature of things. In short, we shall see what this psalm stresses: that the Redeemer and the Creator are One.
Noah's flood looks like an exception: the waters did come back. One writer answers that this lasted only a short time, and ties the verse to God's word to Job.
At the time of Noah's flood this process may seem to have been reversed for a short time. But it was not reversed for good. God had set a boundary for the waters so that they would not return to cover the earth (v. 9). As God tells Job, "Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed" (Job 38:11).
Neither past nor future judgment changes the design. Even the fire that will purify the earth need not undo it.
The flood (which we are beginning to know something about from geology) changed nothing basic in the structure of the earth in this way. The purification by fire that awaits it, before the eternal condition of the "new earth" can come, need not change it either, though there will then be "no more sea" (Rev. 21:1). Whatever the changes may be, God keeps to His first plan all through, and builds for eternity.
Look at what the boundary holds back. People can cross the ocean, but they cannot command it.
God has restrained this restless mighty ocean. He did so at the beginning, and again when in judgment He let it swallow up the earth. Man gazes at it with awe, but cannot control its power. His "thousand fleets sweep over it in vain"; he "marks the earth with ruin," but his control stops at the shore.
Commentators also read the held-back sea as an image. The endless press of water against the land pictures the long strife against God's people.
Clearly this foundation is a separation. Ever since, the water has been working at this earth that God established, trying, as it were, to overthrow it. But it has not been able. This struggle is a fitting picture of what has happened to His people. For centuries the fight has been waged against them, to break down the barrier of God's purpose that He has put around them — and it could not.
The same notes point that picture forward. The rebuke of the waters can be read "as a picture of the conflict that has always filled the world, which gets its final rebuke when the Prince of Peace comes" (Numerical Bible Notes).
- Rebuke. The verse closes the third day's work: at God's rebuke the waters gathered, the mountains rose, and dry land appeared.
- Boundary. God sets the limit on retreating water, so it cannot come back. By that boundary man's earth is recovered and kept for him.
- Security. The flood seemed to reverse it for a time, but not for good. The word to Job stands: "Thus far shall you come, and no farther."
- Permanence. Neither the deluge behind us nor the fire ahead changes the plan: God builds for eternity.
- Picture. The sea still works at that barrier and cannot break it. It pictures the long strife against God's people, and a world whose unrest gets its final rebuke when the Prince of Peace comes.