You Are Not the Only One

Context

Psalm 104 is a hymn that celebrates Yah as The Creator and Sustainer life on earth. Let me restate that that refers to ALL life on earth. Go back to Psalm 103 and read the opening and closing verses where the writer, speaks to himself about worshipping God, not just as an individual but as the national worship leader of his people. Then he asks the entire congregation to join him. See Psalm 103 last verse, ²² Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul.”

The tone of this psalm is similar. The tone that is shared one of awe and admiration in Yah’s creation and his ability to sustain the cosmos. Scholars attest that Ps 104 is similar to the Hymn to Aten. The speaker in the Aten hymn Pharaoh Akhenaten. Akhenaten is for his religious suppression and the exclusive worship of the sun disk Aten, (Lichtheim 2006, 95). Verses 20-26 are the verses that more closely resemble the hymn to Aten.

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.²⁴ O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.²⁵ So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.²⁶ There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

The section of this psalm that is considered similar to the Hymn to Aten.

1 Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty. As part of His creation, we are expected to bless the Lord. Not only that we are to Yahweh as he really is: honorable and majestic. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal this to us. We can know of God, but until we truly know Him we will not be able to honor and respect Him and His Holy Word.

The wind powers His chariot

2 Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:

After one sees Yahweh as honorable and majestic they begin to see Him as the embodiment of light; Gen. 1:3 reminds us that Yah created light. “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. The steps to “what I call re-creation event.”

1. Genesis 1:8 “And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
2. John 1:3 “All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
3. God spoke and it simply happened. There was no discussion.
4. NEXT
5. verse 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: verse 4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: Can you visualize the “God of the storm” in these verses? Just see Deut. 33:26; Pss 18:9; 68:4; Isa. 19:1; Nah. 1:3. The imagery is stark, the judgment is pronounced, and His people were protected.

In many incidences in the Bible Jehovah rides on the wings of the wind to execute His justice on his enemies and the enemies of his people (Isa. 19:1; Psalm 18:10 ). On the other hand, His grace and mercy are extended to His people (Exodus 13:21). In these, as in chariots, Christ went up to heaven . And into these chariots will the saints be caught up to meet the Lord in the air at His coming (Acts 1:9).

Now creation on earth begins

5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever. 6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.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.

It is important that we note that these passages of scripture do not provide a scientific explanation of how Yah created all. However, they do affirm the cosmic knowledge of the original persons who were the original recipients of this description. Their ability to comprehend and accept this information is far superior to ours (Templar 2013, 362). The point is no HUMAN BEING created the earth. No other “lowercase” god, created the earth. Yahweh created the earth, full stop. See Job 38:4; Ps. 75:3 as scriptures that affirmed that God created the heavens and the earth.

NB: According to Longman, once again this scripture uses a language pattern that the recipients were familiar with, “again using the language of clothing. The waters were above the mountains until God rebuked them (evoking Ancient Near Eastern, the cosmic-conflict mythological language where God’s act of creation was a battle between the creator [Baal; Marduk] and the sea god [Yam/Leviathan; Tiamat] ibid., 363. See also Psalm 24 it reiterates this point but it states that the earth shrouded by waters.

God makes sure that all of His creation is provided for during this creation week.

• With water (verses 10-13),
• vegetation (verse 14),
• food producing vines, trees, and grain (verse 15),
• trees (verses 16-17),
• and cliffs (verse 18), What does this have to do with this psalm? In the following verses, Yah reminds his children of what he did for them

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. “The wild asses quench their thirst.” See Job 39:5. He provided for his people in the desert in the same way; see Isa. 41:18 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.

The past creation is gone and the new creation makes provision for the humans who will be living here. Remember that the earth was without form and totally ‘black/void when this recreation week began. It existed. He was making it habitable for human beings and oxygen breathing vegetation and animals. Just look at the powerful description of creation week that God discusses with Job, in Job 38 ESV.

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.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.

I can’t possibly say this any better than Longman,

“Heaven is often pictured as a place where meteorological phenomena are stored, ready to be released by God when he so desires. Heaven contains a storehouse of rain with which God can bless the earth (Deut. 28:12), but also storehouses that contain the more destructive forces of wind (Ps. 135:7; Jer. 10:13; 51:16), snow and hail (Job 38:22–30).” ibid., 363.

Now the daily and nightly heavenly signs.

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.

The psalmist remembers the 4th day of creation and what created for all living things to enjoy. As we read Gen. 1:16 let’s use our visualization powers to see the sun providing light for humans and animals that hunt during the day. Now visualize what happens in the waters, in the trees, and on land as the night hunters set out to build shelters and provide food for their kind. This description in this section of the psalm resembles the deity Aten and what he did for his sun worshippers. Prov. 3:19–20 ensures that we understand that the creation week was not a chaotic mess. It was planned, sequential, and executed with the mastery of God and the creation that needed that master plan. Humans picked what they needed to eat during the day time. The animals hunted their prey at night.

The wise of God is seen in His creation plan.

²⁴ O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.²⁵ So is this great and wide sea, c both small and great beasts.²⁶ There go the ships: there is that leviathan, [see what leviathan is considered to have been here] whom thou hast made to play therein. Longman proffers that;

“In particular, the psalmist mentions Leviathan, described elsewhere as the most formidable of sea creatures (Job 41), a multi-headed (Ps. 74:14 -“Thou breakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.”) ‘monster of the sea’ (Isa. 27:1). Leviathan is known as a seven-headed sea monster in Ugaritic” ibid 363-364.

Prov. 3:19–20; 8:22-31 demonstrates for us the orderliness of the creation period. Please read these scriptures it will help us to understand that God is not an author of confusion. “The “creeping things” refer to the variety of inhabitants of the deep that glide along as if they crept appear to refer to the variety of deep ocean dwellers that effortlessly glide along the ocean floor as if they are creeping.

Longman continues by describing God, safety for the humans that he created: “by God. Although in other contexts Leviathan represents dangerous evil, here it is presented as God’s creature which enjoys its God-given habitat, the sea. While the depths of the sea are the dwelling place of God’s sea creatures, humans sail the surface in their ships . Another close parallel with the Hymn to Aten is found in this stanza, as it extols Aten who makes ‘ships float downstream or sail for the south, each path lies open because of your rising” (ibid.,)

Yahweh, you provided food for your people

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. (The worse thing that could possibly happen to the people of God is for him to turn His face from them. Can you even imagine that?) ³⁰ Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

If Yah ever removed His presence from this earth ALL living things would cease to exist. Longman stated, “Although Genesis speaks of God’s breath (nĕšāmâ) and the psalmist of God’s Spirit (rûa h), the psalmist may well be alluding to Genesis 2:7 and the creation of the first human from the dust and God’s breath of life” (ibid., 364).

The Lord is Glorious

³¹ The glory of the Lord shall endure forever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.³² He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke. ^{Gen. 1:51 apprises us that, “The Lord shall rejoice in his works.” We should rejoice too.}

My soul is poured out to you YHWH

³³ I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Now the psalmist talks about our role and how much we need to praise Yahweh for creating all things for us. This is should not be a once in a while event. Songs of Praise are one of the very best ways to praise Yah!. ³⁴ My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord. Even our thoughts should be praising YHWH. ³⁵ Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.

“Sinners … wicked” people will be consumed. God has been merciful to let fallen human beings. See Gen. 3:1-24 Those who believe in Jesus and praise his holy name long to see the day when:

(1)  Rev. 20:11-15 “

¹¹ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. ¹² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. ¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. ¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. ¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” When Christ returns the curse that is on this earth right now will be reversed. Just look at the environment compare Rev. 22:3 “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:”

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). Let’s conclude with a quote from Longman. (John 8:12) also spoke of appearing on a cloud at the end of time, rescuing his people and bringing judgment on those who resist him (Please read these scriptures Matt. 24:30; Mark 13:26; 14:62; Luke 21:27; Rev. 1:7). The author of Hebrews cites 104:4 to support his argument that Jesus is superior to the angels (Heb. 1:7).”

Just look at the end of the Bible, we have read the entire book and we know that righteousness wins.

“There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever’ Rev. 21:23; “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” Revelation 22:5 “And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”

References:

Lichtheim, Miriam, ed. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II : The New Kingdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Accessed January 6, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.