Psalm 104

Psalm 104

is a praise to God

and a celebration of the

works of God.

This Psalm

proclaims

the wondrous works of God.

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of

Your majesty,

And on Your wondrous works.

Psalm 145:5 NKJV

Verse 1

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

This verse tells us - commands us - to bless the Lord.

Let us respond to God with enthusiasm!

In response to verse 1,

I present a prayer to bless the Lord.

-

Will you join me in prayer?

Dear Lord,

In this prayer, I will bless you with proclamations of love:

Blessed be the Lord who gives me life.

Blessed be the Lord who guides me with his Word.

Blessed be the Lord who protects me and provides for me.

Blessed be the Lord who loves me.

Amen!

Copyright © 2015 Beth McLendon of Inspirational - Prayers.com

Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

Those red words above

are a beautiful description of God.

Psalm 93 also has a beautiful description of God.

It say:

"The Lord reigneth,
he is clothed with majesty;
the Lord is clothed with strength.

Psalm 93:1a

In Conclusion:

Psalm 104 verse 1

describes God with Kingly majesty

and as one

who is worthy of our undivided attention.

Verse 2

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment:

Verse 2a

To see God would be to see light.

There is no darkness in him or on him.

In this psalm, God is revealing himself as great, clothed with honour and majesty, and covered with light.

who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

Verse 2b

THIS AWESOME GOD,

who is described in this psalm,

created ALL.

-

Our Powerful God

can even stretch out the heavens as if it were a curtain. 

The Hebrew word "curtain" or "tent" curtain is

יְרִיעָה

We see that Hebrew word

used in

Exodus chapter 26

multiple times

to describe the tent that they called

The Tabernacle of God

where God dwelt with them in the wilderness.

That word is used in chapter 26 in every verse except verse 11.

And many times it is used multiple times in a verse.

Below we can see

a type of tent

we use today that could be referred to as

the top and sides are spread out over the bottom

like God spreading the heavens out over the earth.

The letters of this Hebrew Word could be seen to tell a story.

If you are interested

in learning a little Hebrew,

then the rest of this section (in Blue) is for you.

If not, scroll down to verses 3-6 in the next section.

This Hebrew word has 5 letters.

(It is pronounced yer-ee-aw)

Hebrew is read right to left.

The little Hebrew I know tells me that
there are two letter "yods" in this word.

The first letter and the third letter are "yod."

Interestingly, in Hebrew, the word picture
for the letter yod is a hand.

So a person reading this word in Hebrew might notice
that the two yods
could represent the two "hands" of God
that spread out the heavens.

-

The second letter is resh.
The word picture for resh stands for
"a person's head or
someone who is the head of something."

Well, God is THE head of everything.

So the Head of everything took his "two hands" and
spread out the heavens.

-

The fourth letter is ayin.

The word picture is an "eye."

-

The last letter is "Hey."

The word picture is a person with his hands up in worship or hands up
beholding something.

Here many who teach Hebrew tell us
that the idea of the letter "hey" is
"Behold!"

It makes me think of "Ta Da!"

Many times

we see people

put their hands up and out and say,

"Ta Da!"

So the word picture for the word

"Curtain" or "Tent"

could be said to be:

The Head of everything,
took his "two hands" and spread out the heavens, and
he looked with his "eyes" and said,
"Behold!"

Verses 3-6

3 Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:

4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

Here we see some of the wondrous works of God.

Pondering them

will leave us with awe.

These verses

(including part of verse 2)

talk about God as Creator.

Verses 7-11

7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.

8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.

9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

Thou hast set all the borders of the earth.

Psalm 74:17a

We see the power of God as he

speaks, directs, and sets boundaries.

God's Voice

The voice of the Lord is powerful;

the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

Psalm 29:4

Check out our devotional about
God's Voice.

Psalm 104 verses 7- 9 talk about God as

Powerful and as Sovereign.

Verses 10-11

10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.

11 They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.

This verse talks of God's authority

and his care for living things.

Verses 12-15

12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.

13 He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.

14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart.

These verses talk of God as provider.

By God's power he causeth:

• Grass to grow.
• Herb and food to grow out of the earth.

The Hebrew word translated "herb" means vegetation or green plants.

Verse 15 has such a beautiful way of talking about the goodness of God. It is saying: By using his creation, we are able to make wine and oil and bread.

A Land of Milk and Honey

When Moses was leading the people through the wilderness, the Bible tells us that God was going to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.

I believe:

Milk

represents the things we need.

Milk and bread in the Bible represent things we need -

because those were vital to the diet of the people of Bible times.

In this psalm, bread represents the things we need.

Honey

represents things

we don't absolutely need - but things we enjoy.

In this psalm, wine represents the things we don't need.

So God was saying,

"I am going to give you a land full of things

you need and things you will enjoy."

Verses 16-23

16 The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;

17 Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.

18 The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.

19 He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.

20 Thou makest darkness, and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.

21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.

22 The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in their dens.

23 Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.

These verses talk of God as one who prepares

and equips

nature and us

for life.

God talks about giving us the things all living creatures need in this life.

God draws our attention to: the trees for the birds, the hills for the goats, the moon for us to mark months, the sun to give light and heat, etc.

Verse 24

24 O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

The 24th verse really sums up

the main idea of this psalm:

This psalm is written to praise God

and cause us reflect on

all the wonderful works of God.

~

It was by his wisdom

that the earth is full of its wondrous riches.

Psalm 40:5 NKJV says:

Many, O Lord my God are Your wonderful works

Which You have done;

And Your thoughts toward us

Cannot be recounted to You in order;

If I would declare and speak of them,

They are more than can be numbered.

Verse 25

25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.

God gives us delightful creatures to enjoy.

His creativity made them amazingly unique.

Psalm 104 verse 25 speaks of the

vastness and variety

of God's creation.

In thinking about God's creatures, each of us has favorites.

I am a fan of dolphins. At one point, I had a video on this site that featured a small cat playing with a dolphin.
(It is no longer available.)

The cat walked onto a dock that was jutting out into the ocean.
The cat stood on the edge of the dock and the dolphin swam right up to the cat. The dolphin took his snout and nudged the cat while the cat took his paw and touched the dolphin's "face." 

Delightful!

God has filled our world with fascinating and sometimes amusing creatures.

Prayer

Celebrating our AMAZING God

Almighty, Infinite Creator,

Lord of my Heart,

When I ponder you,

you leave me astonished!

Lord, I will spend more time pondering you!

Amen!

Copyright © 2015 Beth McLendon of Inspirational-Prayers.com

Verses 26-30

26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan**, whom thou hast made to play therein.

27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.

28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled 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 earth.

These verses talk of God as sovereign

over everything

including life and death.

**Leviathan

Many people wonder about what Leviathan looked like.

The creature called "Leviathan" is mentioned in Psalm 74:14, Isaiah 27:1, Job 3:8, Job chapter 41, and here in Psalm 104.

The Hebrew word translated "Leviathan" is Strong's Hebrew Word 3882. It means:

1) leviathan, sea monster, dragon
1a) large aquatic animal
1b) perhaps the extinct dinosaur, plesiosaurus, exact meaning unknown

++++

Some think this to be a crocodile but from the description in
Job 41:1-34 this is patently absurd. It appears to be a large fire
breathing animal of some sort. Just as the bomardier beetle has an explosion producing mechanism, so the great sea dragon may have an explosive producing mechanism to enable it to be a real fire breathing dragon

The above was taken from:

http://www.apostolic-churches.net/bible/strongs/ref/?stgh=hebrew&stnm=03882

Verses 31-32

31 The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.

32 He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.

These two verses talk about...

The Glory of God and the

Power of God.

Verse 33

33 I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

As we read this psalm,

 we see that God is teaching us to say,

"I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live."

God enjoys hearing us sing to him.

God enjoys hearing us sing,

AND

we were created to need to sing to our Maker.

God knows we need to praise him.

Our minds and emotions do not work

at their optimal capacity

if we do not regularly praise God.

So God teaches us to say,

"I will sing praise to my God while I have my being."

Psalm 104 verse 33

reveals

the emotions of God

and gives us clues to the way God made us.

Verse 34

34 My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.

The Lord wants my thoughts of him

to be sweet and pleasant.

So... I want my thoughts of God to be sweet and pleasant.

My Father,
who art in Heaven,
I will cooperate with you
and
create sweet times of communion
with you this day.
Amen

Copyright © 2015 Beth McLendon of Inspirational - Prayers.com

Dear Lord,

I want my thoughts to be pleasing to you.

I will intentionally guide my thoughts.

I want my thoughts about you and my words about you to be sweet and honoring and respectful.

I will speak out-loud your Scriptures and find delight in them.

I will be glad in the Lord.

Amen

Copyright © 2015 Beth McLendon of Inspirational - Prayers.com

Psalm 119 God tells us that he wants us to say:

"How sweet are Your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth."

                                      Psalm 119:103 NKJV

Psalm 104 verse 34

reveals

my proper response to God.

Verse 35

35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.

In this psalm, God teaches us to say, "Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more."

Here God is guiding us
to realize how dangerous it is
to live
as a rebellious sinner with no thought to our Maker.

This verse is God's response

to those who

will not open their heart to God

and follow him.

The sinner referred to here is one who is not seeking to follow God's commands.

The verse refers to one who is

hard-hearted, hard-headed, stiff-necked

and will not respond

in repentance to the Lord's conviction

of his present sins.

As we read this verse,

may we dedicate ourselves

to being ever mindful of

how important it is to stay right with God

so that our heart doesn't slowly become hard against Him.

- - -

May we begin to notice how easily

most people live

with no regard to their Creator.

As we read this verse,
may we
feel the stirring of the Holy Spirit
to
Pray fervently 
that
those we love will get right with God
and
start following his Word.

- - -

May those we love

feel the urgency

that

they need in order to give

respectful attention to their Maker

and surrender to the One who

Holds the Key to Heaven in his hand.

Consider visiting our:

Prayer for unsaved loved ones

Daily Prayers for loved ones who aren't right with God

- -

When we realize the love of God,

it should

draw us to him

and cause us to follow him closely.

-

We see this idea expressed in

Ephesians chapter 5

"Follow God's example in everything you do

just as

a much loved child imitates his father.

Be full of love for others,

following

the example of Christ

who loved you and gave himself to God

as a sacrifice

to take away your sins.

Ephesians 5:1-2 TLB

- But - 

Some people only come to God

when they are reminded

of the

terrible consequences

of never surrendering their life

to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

- Hell -

The famous Christian author, C.S. Lewis,

was one who had to face

the truth of hell

in order to choose heaven. 

Hearing about the goodness of God just wasn't enough

to draw him.

The Bible warns us:

Seek the Lord while he may be found.

Isaiah 55:6

And lastly,

this psalm ends

as it began

in praise:

 Bless thou the Lord, O my soul.

Praise ye the Lord.

Psalm 104 verse 35b

Lord of Heaven and earth,

Marvelous is your creation.

Miraculous are your deeds.

Magnificent are your names.

Meaningful, mighty, and moving are your words.

And

Matchless is your position in my heart.

Amen

Copyright © 2015 Beth McLendon of Inspirational-Prayers.com

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