PSALM CIV THE MAJESTY OF JEHOVAH 1. Bless the LORD, O my soul ! O JEHOVAH My God, thou art exceeding great ; CREATOR OF HEAVEN, EARTH, AND SEA 2. Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain. 3. Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the upper waters; Who maketh the clouds his chariot; Who goeth upon the wings of the wind. 4. Who maketh winds his messengers; His ministers are as flaming fire. 5. He hath founded the earth upon her bases, That she should not be moved for ever. 6. Thou coveredst her with the deep as with a vesture; The waters stood above the mountains. 7. At thy rebuke they fled; At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. 8. They went up by the mountains, they went down by the valleys, Unto the place which thou hadst established for them. 9. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; That they turn not again to cover the earth. THE WATERS OF GOD 10. He sendeth forth springs into the ravines, They go among the mountains: PSALM CIV 11. They give drink to every beast of the field; The wild asses quench their thirst. 12. Beside them the fowl of the heaven have their nests; Among the branches they utter their voice. 13. He watereth the mountains from his chambers; The earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works. MAN AND HIS SUSTENANCE 14. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the labour of men; That he may bring forth bread out of the earth : 15. And wine that he may make glad the heart of man, And oil to make his face to shine, And bread to strengthen man's heart. THE GREAT AND THE SMALL 16. The trees of the LORD are satisfied; 17. Where the birds make their nests: As for the stork the fir trees are her house. 18. The high mountains are for the wild goats; The rocks are a refuge for the conies. DAY AND NIGHT 19. He appointed the moon to mark seasons : The sun knoweth the time of his going down. 20. Thou makest darkness, that it may be night; Wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth. 21. The young lions roar after their prey, Seeking their meat from God. 22. The sun ariseth, they get them away And lay them down in their dens. 23. Man goeth forth unto his work And to his labour until the evening. 205 THE SEA AND ITS INHABITANTS 24. How manifold are thy works, O LORD: In wisdom hast thou made them all; The earth is full of thy creatures. 25. Yonder is the sea great and broad on the right hand and on the left; Wherein are things creeping innumerable, Both small and great beasts. 26. There go the ships; There is Leviathan whom thou hast formed to play with him. LIFE AND DEATH 27. These wait all upon thee, That thou mayest give them their meat in due season. 28. Thou givest unto them; they gather ; Thou openest thy hand; they are satisfied with good. 29. Thou hidest thy face; they are troubled; Thou takest away their breath; they die, and return to their dust. 30. Thou sendest forth thy spirit; they are created; And thou renewest the face of the ground. PRAISE AND PRAYER 31. Let the glory of the LORD endure for ever; 32. Who looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; NATURE AND REVELATION 35. Let sinners be consumed out of the earth, Bless the LORD, O my soul. 207 SALMS ciii. and civ. form a pair. Each begins and PSALMS each ends with the exclamation "Bless the Lord, O my soul." The general form of the two Psalms is the same; both are descriptive. Again, the two resemble one another in tone; they are the utterances of an individual who speaks for himself, though he does not forget that he belongs to a nation. On the other hand, the subject of the two Psalms is different. If we may use modern language to describe this difference, we may say that Psalm ciii. has to do with Revealed Religion, Psalm civ. with Natural Religion. Not that the Hebrews themselves ever consciously drew such a distinction. Their thoughts moved on a different plane from ours. In the first place, they had no word for Nature in the modern sense of the word as a system which it is possible to contemplate apart from any thought of creative Will and Love. The Hebrew said the Works of God where the modern man would say Nature. In the second place the Hebrews had many words and illustrations with which to convey the idea of Revelation. The idea was familiar to them. It was in their view only natural that God should speak to Man, to whom (as the book of Genesis tells) he had given of his own life. So there was no contrast in the Hebrew mind between that which was Natural and that which was Revealed. Nature was the universal whisper of the Works of God, Revelation was 1 Praise ye the Lord ("Hallelu-jah") is added at the end of Ps. civ. 35, but it is probably a later addition. only the louder proclamation of them. Job, after tracing out briefly the marvels of Creation thus concludes: "Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways: With this caution then that the Hebrew regarded Nature as the revelation of God, and that which we call Revelation as truly natural, we may allow that Nature and Revelation are sometimes viewed separately in the Old Testament as two aspects of the same thing. Psalm ciii. may be called a Song of Revealed, Psalm civ. a Song of Natural Religion. Psalm ciii. speaks of God's dealing with Moses, his judgments on Egypt (v. 6), his covenant with Israel (vv. 17, 18). The key-note of the Psalm may be said to be struck in vv. 8, 9, where JEHOVAH'S proclamation of his name recorded in Exod. xxxiv. 6 is quoted : "The LORD is full of compassion and gracious, Slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide; Neither will he keep his anger for ever." But in Psalm civ. a different note is struck. No reference is made to Mosaic teaching. There is nothing in it to suggest that there ever was a nation called Israel for which a Revelation was made on Mount Sinai, and to which a glorious company of prophets was sent. The Psalm might have been written wholly for Gentiles; it simply describes the phenomena of Nature as the works of God. Psalm civ. begins and ends with the exclamation, "Bless the LORD, O my soul." These words form the key-note |