God Is to Be Praised for His Mighty Works; and Wonderful Providence
Explanation of the Psalm
1 The prophet stirs up his soul to bless, that is, to praise God, and at once his soul, so excited, bursts forth into admiration and praise, saying, “O Lord my God, thou art exceedingly great.” Your works have made you exceedingly great in the eyes of all those who got a glimpse of them. God being infinite and immense, cannot increase in any way, but he can increase in the opinion of men and Angels by their coming to a greater knowledge of the power, wisdom, and goodness that shines forth in his works. “Thou hast put on praise and beauty,” an explanation of how God is so exceeding great. As we recognize a king or a judge, or anyone in authority, from the beauty and costliness of their dress, so we perceive God’s wisdom and power from the glory in which he is enveloped. Now, “God is light, and in him there is no darkness,” still “he inhabits light inaccessible, which no man hath seen, nor can see.” But, independent of that light, there is another light of glory, a certain splendor that shines forth from God’s works, of which the prophet speaks when he says, “Thou hast put on praise and beauty.”
2 As nothing is more beautiful than light or glory, you have assumed both as a robe, being clothed with that light of glory that shines forth in all your works. Here we must remind our readers how strange it is that, though we cannot look upon the sun, yet, from the light that surrounds it, we readily form an idea of its presence and its beauty; and still we find such a difficulty in raising the eyes of our interior to God that we form but a very faint idea of his boundless beauty, however surrounded he may be by the splendid and extraordinary light that shines in all his works, himself being the light “that enlightens every man coming into this world.” The only reason that can be assigned for it is, that our hearts are blinded by the dust of carnal thoughts and affections; for “blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” For certainly, if we had a clean heart we would readily behold God in all his works, and his glory filling everything, and, with Abraham, Elias, and Eliseus, we would exclaim, “God, in whose sight I stand,”—”Who stretchest out the heaven like a pavilion.” He now begins to draw our attention to the light of the power and wisdom of God, as visible in the creation of the firmament or the heavens, and proposes two points for our consideration, as being worthy of great admiration in them. The first is, that God so dexterously spread out the immense mass of the firmament, and enveloped all created things with it, with as much ease as men will erect and spread out a tent usually made of skins to protect themselves.
3 The second point for our consideration, God’s wonderful skill in placing the waters above the heavens, as if he put them on so much fire without the fire being quenched by the waters, or the waters being dried up by the fire. Without entering into the various theories propounded to explain this passage, let it suffice to say, that the general opinion of the holy fathers is, that there is water above the ethereal sky called the firmament, and they are the waters alluded to, and not the water in the clouds. “Who makest the clouds thy chariot.” Descending from the ethereal sky to the clouds, he chants forth the admirable wisdom of God in their construction, endowing them with such velocity that when impelled by the wind they travel with marvelous celerity from one part of the world to the other. At one time we behold the sky all serene, and in the twinkling of an eye, on the change of the wind, we behold it veiled with clouds; and, on the other hand, we behold it now murky and gloomy, and in a moment, on another change of wind, away with the clouds, and all becomes bright and cheerful again. This is all described in a most poetical manner, making God, as it were, to sit on the clouds as he would on a chariot, with the winds for so many winged horses; the meaning of the whole being, that God is the primary author of all things, and that the winds and the clouds are moved, and directed, and governed at his pleasure.
4 Only for St. Paul this verse could be easily explained by applying it to the storms and lightnings, and the meaning would be, You who use the storms as your messengers to admonish mankind, and the lightning to punish them: but as the Apostle, in the epistle to the Hebrews, quotes this passage in allusion to the Angels, and argues from it in favor of the divinity of Christ, and his superiority to the Angels, we must say that the prophet speaks here of them, telling us, that God has not only the winds and the clouds at his command, but also far superior and more exalted messengers, the Angels, to send to mankind when he chooses to admonish or to punish them. The meaning, then, of the passage is, When you employ your Angels on any mission, you endow them with the velocity of the wind to execute your commands, with as little delay as possible; and you give them the force of burning fire, so that nothing can resist them.
5 From the air the prophet now comes to the earth; and, from the fact of its being inhabited by us, and consequently, better known to us than the other parts of the world, he devotes more time to description of, and reflection on, the wonderful works of God to be found there. He begins with the creation, and proposes for consideration God’s wonderful power, that could produce such an enormous and ponderous mass, and place it aloft without any support or foundation, having nothing but itself to rest on. “Who hast formed the earth upon its own bases;” you have built the earth on no foundation whatever, but on itself, without anything to support it. “It shall not be moved forever and ever;” your command is surer than any foundation, and such being your orders, the earth, dependent on its own gravity, will remain undisturbed forever.
6–9 He now comes to the consideration of the state of the earth at the creation, being then enveloped, as if by a robe, with water; and yet, by the mere expression of his will, God shut up the water in the lower parts of the earth; by his power and wisdom made the land to rise up, and made it fit for producing grass and grain for the support and nourishment of animal life. That was effected by condensing the water, which hardly deserved the name of water at the time, being rather a sort of watery vapor that upon condensation fell down to the hollows of the earth, to which, possibly, allusion is made in Ecclesiasticus, chap. 24, where he says, “And as a cloud I covered all the earth;” which David describes more poetically when he says, “The deep like a garment is its clothing;” that is, in the beginning of creation, the earth was all surrounded with water, as if with a garment, that completely envelopes one. He calls the depth of waters an abyss, as it is styled in Genesis, where we read that, darkness was over the face of the abyss; and then, “above the mountains shall the waters stand;” that is to say, that the vapors of water, or that very deep cloud that was all but water, covered the very mountains. He uses the future shall, for the preterimperfect tense, a thing not uncommon with the Hebrews when they spoke or wrote of anything in actual progress. By the same rule the expression, “at thy rebuke they shall flee;” that is, they did flee, for at the voice of God’s thunder the waters that previously covered the whole earth, on being condensed at God’s nod alone, descended to the hollows; for the divine intimation was something terrible, having the effect of thunder on thinking beings. “The mountains ascend, and the plains descend, into the place which thou hast formed for them.” The mountains then began to appear aloft, as if they had ascended, and the fields in the low grounds, as if they had descended; but they all rested “in the place which thou hast founded for them,” being over awed by God’s reprimands and thunder. “Thou hast set a bound which they shall not pass over; neither shall they return to cover the earth.” When the waters did recede and were shut up in the caverns of the earth, you put bounds to them they can never transgress, nor can they come back again of themselves by their own power to cover the earth again. They did come back, to be sure, at the time of the deluge, but that was by God’s orders and permission. The bounds that God put to the waters was the sand, as we read in Job 39 and Jer. 5, “The sands of the shore,” which he did when he created the elements, for the water being heavier that the air, always descends to the lower parts, leaving the higher to the air.
10–12 In the third place, the prophet now comes to consider God’s wonderful wisdom in the formation of fountains and rivers. If the waters, when they receded from the earth, had left it dry entirely, the animals thereon could have died of thirst; and, therefore, God, in his wisdom, formed fountains of sweet water, from which the rivers flow in all directions, to supply all animals with drink. These fountains generally have their source in the mountains, and the streams from them run down to the valleys; and thus, the meaning of the words, “Thou sendest forth springs in the vales,” seems to be, you who made the streams from the springs in the mountains to run down into the valleys, and the rivulets to pass between the mountains. “All the beasts of the field shall drink,” especially “the wild asses,” who inhabit the mountains, and, being naturally thirsty, long very much for water. And these fountains will be available not only to the four footed animals, but even the birds of the air will build their nests near them, so as to be able to have recourse to them, and, from the midst of the rocks in which they have their nests, “shall give forth their voices,” chanting, in their own way, the praises of the Lord.
13–15 In the fourth place, the prophet proposes for consideration, and sings of another admirable gift of God’s providence. When he saw that many elevated places in the hills and mountains could not be reached by the fountains and the rivers, and that they would be even unavailable to many of the fields, he thought of rain, which, coming from the clouds, as if from so many fountains, might irrigate any land, however elevated; and that the land so enriched may produce grass and grain to support all those living on it. “Thou waterest the hills from thy upper rooms;” that is to say, God it is who waters or irrigates the hills, that cannot be reached by the rivers; “from his upper rooms;” from the clouds. “The earth shall be filled with the fruits of thy works.” The dry and thirsty earth shall be satiated with the water you express from the clouds. “Bringing forth grass for cattle, and herb for the service of men.” By that providence of God, you bring forth food for man and beast. “That thou mayest bring bread out of the earth;” bread being taken for the food of man in general; “and that wine may cheer the heart of man,” intelligible enough. “That he may make the face cheerful with oil;” for the Jews were much pleased with oil at their repasts; “and that bread may strengthen man’s heart;” may support and keep up nature. We have a few remarks to make here. First, that God is the source of all good things that appertain to the support and the enjoyment of corporal life; for, however man may labor in digging up the ground, putting the seed into it, planting trees, and fixing and pruning vines, if God will not make his sun shine on them, and his rain fall on them, cause them to fructify, and give man strength to labor on them, all will be of no avail. And, as God can do everything of himself, without the intervention of secondary causes, as he did in the beginning of the world; while the secondary causes, without God, can do nothing; with the greatest truth does the Apostle say, “Neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth; but God who giveth the increase;” and in Acts 14, “Nevertheless, he left not himself without testimony, doing good from heaven, giving rains, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness;” and again, Acts 17, “Seeing it is he who giveth to all life and breath, and all things; for in him we live, and we move, and we are.” Most truly also does the Psalmist sing in this passage, that it is God who brings forth grass for the cattle; bread, wine, and oil for mankind. Hence appears the incredible ingratitude of many, who, while they are in the receipt of so many favors from God, never raise their thoughts to heaven to thank their most loving Father, by whom they are so paternally and fondly supported. Secondly, it is to be remarked, that, in the spirit of a truly fond and loving Father, he has given us, not only the necessaries of life, represented by bread and water, but even the luxuries of life, in order to savor the necessaries, and make them more agreeable to us; for he gave us wine to gladden our hearts, according to Proverbs 31, “Give wine to them that are grieved in mind,” and oils which serves to beautify the face, and also to season our food, for when mixed with herbs or vegetables, it makes them much more palatable, and thus tends to make the face cheerful. Hence the monks of old, when they would be hospitable to a stranger, always served up the herbs or vegetables with oil. Thirdly, we should remark that man ought to be content with frugal meals, and moderate drink, such moderation is a gift from God, while expensive delicacies and the various condiments of luxury, and, of course, much more so excess and drunkenness, are from the devil.
16–18 In the fifth place, the prophet turns to the consideration of the divine providence, in his producing and nourishing, without any human aid, trees of enormous size, such as the cedars of Lebanon, that serve as a dwelling and a refuge for certain birds, as the mountains do for the stags, and the rocks for the irchins. “The trees of the fields shall be filled.” The rain that falls will supply sufficient moisture to nourish those great cedar trees, which God “himself hath planted,” because the seed of them was not set by man, for they grew spontaneously. “There the sparrows shall make their nests;” the sparrow is a term for all small birds that nestle there. “The highest of them is the house of the heron.” The heron, being the largest of the birds that nestle therein, inhabits the highest branches. “The high hills are a refuge for the harts;” as these tall trees protect the heron and the sparrow, so the high hills shelter the deer, and the rocks protect the irchins (a species of hedge hog), into whose crevices they run for shelter.
19–23 In the sixth place, the prophet praises and reviews God’s providence, in his division of time for labor, both of man and beast; for he gave the night to the beasts to go in quest of their prey, and the day to man to labor for his food. “He made the moon for seasons; the sun knoweth his going down.” The Lord God made the moon for the use of man and beasts to give them light at certain seasons in the night. “The sun knoweth his going down;” when he ought to set and give way to the night. “Thou hast appointed darkness and it is night; in it shall the beasts of the wood go about;” from such alternation of moon and sunshine you have caused darkness to ensue on the setting of the sun, to enable the wild beasts to emerge from their hiding places, and go abroad in quest of food and especially “the young lions roaring after their prey,” through hunger, and thus “seeking their meat from God,” seeking it in the way ordained by divine providence. “The sun ariseth, and they have gathered together, and they shall lie down in their dens.” The same divine providence causes those wild beasts who roamed about so ferociously during the nights to return to their dens towards morning, and lie down in quiet there. “Man shall go forth to his work and to his labor till the evening.” The wild beasts having retired to their lairs, man arises and goes out in safety to his labor. Here we are reminded that the beasts who have got no hand, and are not endowed with reason, are prompted by nature to live on the plunder acquired in the night; but that such plunder is positively prohibited to mankind, that has got hands wherewith to labor, and reason to guide and direct that labor; and, therefore, that all thieves, robbers, or those who are engaged in deception, lying, fraud, or other such sinful practices, disturb, as far as in them lies, the order of divine providence; and to them may properly be applied that verse of the Psalm, “Man when he was in honor did not understand: he hath been compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them.”
24 An exclamation in admiration of the works of God all over the earth, and a sort of conclusion from the six foregoing considerations. His admiration turns on the excellence, wisdom, and multitude of God’s works. In regard of their excellence he says, “how great are thy works!” how splendid, noble, superior, and worthy of all praise are thy works, O Lord! In regard of their wisdom he says, “Thou hast made all things in wisdom;” nothing has been done by chance or at random; everything has been done, with consummate prudence and judgment, so that there is not too much or too little to be found anywhere; in fine, there is no one thing where God’s wisdom does not shine forth and appear, and especially in the formation and construction of the human frame, and of all its minutest parts. In regard of the number of his works he says, “The earth is filled with thy riches.” These beautiful, valuable, extraordinary works, formed with such consummate skill, are not few in number, for they are innumerable; they fill the whole world, they are to be found everywhere, so that the earth may be truly said to be “filled with thy riches.”
25–27 Having praised God’s wisdom by reason of his works in the heavens, the air, and on the earth, he, at length, comes to the sea, and sings of God’s wisdom as displayed therein, by reason of its extent, the multitude and variety of its fishes, its utility as a highway for shipping, and the magnitude of one of its denizens, the whale; and comes to the conclusion that all those animals, and not only those of the deep, but all animals in general, however innumerable, are supported and maintained by God. “This great sea which stretcheth wide its arms.” This great sea, too, is one of the wonderful works of God, great in its depth, great in its extent, and as the strength of a man is judged by the extent to which he can stretch out his arms, we can infer what the power and might of the sea is, when we look at its various and extensive ramifications. “There are the creeping things without number.” Another of the wonderful works of God to be found in the sea is, that notwithstanding the incredible and daily capture of fish over the world, they still so abound that they are “without number,” which fecundity was alluded to when the Creator said to them, “Increase and multiply and fill the waters of the sea.” Add to this their variety, which is nearly infinite, to which he alludes when he says, “Creatures little and great.”—”There the ship shall go.” Another wonderful attribute of the sea is its being able to bear up ships laden with the heaviest materials, transporting them with facility from one part of the world to the other, and thus promoting man’s comforts by the blessings of trade and commerce. “This sea dragon which thou hast formed to play therein.” Great and heavy as the ships may be, a greater and a heavier burden still is borne by the same waters, and not only borne by them, but this great sea dragon skips about and “plays therein.” And all these animals, great and small, so living in the sea, were not only created, but are even fed and supported daily by God. “All expect of thee that thou give them their food in season.”
28–29 He repeats, at greater length, that all animals are so dependent on God, that when he opens his hand to give them food, they all live, and when he closes his hand, in refusal of the food, they die; and though, strictly speaking, this is said of those in the deep, it is true in regard of all animals, who equally depend upon God. “What thou givest to them they shall gather up.” If you cooperate with them through secondary causes, or rather yourself move the secondary causes, and by your assistance help them to procure their food, “they shall gather up,” and, therefore, live. “When thou openest thy hand they shall be all filled with good;” a repetition, in different language, of the same idea, which clearly proves God to be the author of all good, and without whose assistance neither the art of man, nor the fertility of the soil, can be of any avail. “But if thou turnest away thy face they shall be troubled.” If you turn from them in anger they will feel it severely, they will be troubled; “they will fail,” die away, for “you will take away their breath,” the spirit of life you infused into them; “and shall return to their dust,” the mother earth from whence they sprang.
30 He proves that God’s power should be greatly praised and extolled from the fact of his being able to restore life to things he had deprived of life, a thing he can do even in individual cases, as he actually will do in the resurrection of the dead on the day of judgment; however, he speaks here of resurrection, not in the individual, but in the species, for God deprives a thing of life, when, by various ways, he suffers it to die; and, again, he infuses the spirit of vitality into animals, by a new generation; and thus, “he renews the face of the earth,” by filling it with all manner of animals.
31 Having explained the wonderful works of God in the heavens, the air, the land, and the sea, he concludes the Psalm with prayer, using the first petition in the Lord’s prayer. “May the glory of the Lord endure forever.” May the Lord always be praised, not only by the words, but also by the life and conduct of his servants. “The Lord shall rejoice in his works;” hence will come to pass, that God will always be glad of what he shall have done, and will have no occasion to regret or be sorry for it, as he did in Genesis, where we read that “God, seeing the wickedness of men upon the earth was great, and being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, he said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” God cannot suffer sorrow, nor regret, nor joy; but the prophet uses the ordinary mode of expression, to convey to us, that God, in order to punish sinners, destroys his own work, just as those do who regret having produced a work; while, on the contrary, he cherishes and regards with fondness other works of his, to reward the just, as those who are proud of having produced them.
32 Having said that all created things were the works of the Lord, he proves it briefly, from the fact that such is the power of God over all creation, that a single look of his makes the earth tremble, and a touch of his ignites the very mountains, alluding to God’s descent on mount Sinai, when the whole mountain smoked and trembled.
33–34 Another petition, that his praise may be pleasing to God. As I wish that God should be praised by all, I too, “will sing to the Lord as long as I live,” and will celebrate his praise, not only with my voice, but also with the psaltery. But this I ask and pray for, “that my speech be acceptable to him;” that is, that the hymn I shall constantly chant to his praise may be agreeable to his Majesty, and I, too, “will take delight in the Lord;” will be delighted in loving him, and in constantly reflecting on his goodness.
35 This is the last petition, praying that those sinners who know not how to praise God “be consumed out of the earth,” either that they be no longer sinners, by being converted, or if they will not be converted, that they be cast beneath the earth, never again to appear.