Creation Moment 11/29/2024 - Psalm 104

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https://www.youtube.com/embed/J7AI9Izz9ps?si=oKZLqHozPQqpeYkJ

"Psalm 104—along with Job 38 and Psalms 8 and 29—produces a magnificent poetic and musical commentary on the creation. 

Even the structure of the psalm draws praise in that it is modeled quite closely on the day–by–day creation events recorded in Genesis 1.
It’s clear that the psalmist used the various stages of creation as his

starting points for praise. Yet, as he developed each creation-day theme, there is a constant anticipation for more, especially for the later days of the creation. While the psalmist closely followed the day-by-day creation events recorded in Genesis 1, he allowed himself some poetic license.

It is fitting that God’s people are summoned to offer praise to Him with every aspect of their being (v. 1). After all, concerning Him alone can it be said that the world is His regal attire. 

He robes Himself with it as a showcase of His splendor. 

Moreover, God used “light” (v. 2) as if it were a “garment” to cover Himself. The power of God is further seen in His ability to stretch out the starry skies like a tent curtain.

The Lord also created and sustains His celestial abode, which verse 3 refers to as His “upper chambers.” The “waters” are another way of pointing to lofty rain clouds. 

The picture is one of the Lord laying out the “beams” of His heavenly palace in the sky. So awesome is the Creator, that He makes the “clouds His chariot,” and He rides along the “wings of the wind.”

In verse 4, we catch a further glimpse of God’s supreme power. The “winds” of a swirling storm are the Lord’s “messengers” (or “angels”) carrying out His purposes. Similarly, “flames of fire” produced by thunder are God’s ministers to attend to His every bidding.

Psalm 104:6 reveals that at one time the watery “deep” covered the land like a “garment.” According to Genesis 1, it was on the second day of creation that God made the sky by separating surface water from clouds. Also, it was at this time that the “waters” (Ps. 104:6) of the planet reached above the “mountains.”

Furthermore, it wasn’t until the third day of creation that God separated dry ground and surface water, making land and seas. Then, the surface “waters” (v. 7) retreated at the sound of the Lord’s “rebuke.” 

Moreover, when His thunderous voice boomed, the oceans “took to flight.” This was also when God caused the “mountains” (v. 8) to rise up and the “valleys” to go “down” to the “place” He decreed.

Later in the Genesis account, we find a description of the Flood, an incident in which the Lord allowed the earth’s surface waters to inundate the planet. Then, at the appointed time, God caused the waters to recede gradually. The Lord also pledged never again to allow the “waters . . . [to] become a flood to destroy all life” (9:15).

As Psalm 104:9 relates, God has “set a boundary” for the surface waters that cannot be crossed. In turn, this prevents them from ever again covering the entire planet. The Lord not only protects every aspect of His creation, but also watches over, provides for, and sustains it. 

The Creator tends the earth as if it were a gigantic, complex garden. 

.....verse 10 reveals that God causes the streams, which originate

from the “springs,” to gush forth into the surrounding valleys. The cascading water, in turn, flows between the hills. This provides life-giving “water” (v. 11) for all the animals of the “field.”

As noted earlier, the Creation account of Genesis 1 forms the theological backdrop for Psalm 104. 

During the first three days of God’s creative activity, He brought order out of the original formlessness specified in Genesis 1:2. 

He created light where there had been only darkness and filled what had been empty with the first signs of life. 

During the final three days of His creative activity, the Lord established and filled the earth with all forms of life, including fish in the sea, birds in the air, and animals on the dry ground." 

Bible.org