Psalms 104:19 - Meaning and Application

We are taught here to praise and honor God for the steady cycle of day and night, and for the sun and moon’s rule over them. The nations around Israel were so struck by the sun and moon’s light and usefulness that they worshiped them as gods. So Scripture often shows that the things people worship are really only creatures and servants of the true God (Psalm 104:19). He set the moon to mark seasons, to measure months, and to guide the times for farming and the tides. Its waxing and waning follows the Creator’s command exactly, and the sun also keeps to its rising and setting as if it knew what it was doing.

God arranges all this for human comfort. The shadows of evening help us rest at night (Psalm 104:20). Darkness, though black, adds beauty to the world and makes daylight shine more clearly. Under the cover of night, wild animals come out to feed, because they are afraid to do so in daylight. God has put fear of human beings into every animal of the earth (Genesis 9:2), which protects people as much as it honors them.

This also warns us about the danger of living in darkness of soul, through ignorance or sadness. Those who wait for twilight (Job 24:15) and fellowship with the works of darkness are close in spirit to the wild beasts that roam at night. In such darkness, Satan’s temptations press harder and gain more ground. The night can become a picture of the soul’s danger when it is without light and guidance.

Then the young lions roar after their prey, and naturalists say their roar frightens weaker animals so badly that they cannot run away. In that way, the lions become an easy threat to them. Yet Scripture says they seek their food from God, because they do not get it from human planning, but from God’s care. Their roaring is treated like a cry for food, much like the cry of young ravens. If God hears and kindly interprets the language of mere nature, even in fierce creatures, will he not much more receive the weak and broken prayers of his own people?

The light of morning also serves a good purpose (Psalm 104:22, 23). The sun rises, and, thanks be to God, he keeps to his rising as faithfully as his setting. Then the wild beasts go back to rest. They gather together and lie down in their dens, which is a mercy to people, because it keeps travelers safe during the day. So no one has good excuse for laziness, saying there is a lion in the way. The hour of work has come.

So man goes out to his labor. Beasts of prey come out in fear, but man goes out boldly, as one who has been given dominion. The beasts go out to spoil and harm, but man goes out to work and do good. Each day has its own work, and that work should be done in its own time. The light is given for labor, not for idleness, and we should keep at our task until evening. There will be time enough for rest when night comes, and then no one can work.

We are also taught to praise God for the way he fills the sea (Psalm 104:25, 26). As the earth is full of God’s riches and well supplied with animals, so the great wide sea is also full of his wisdom and care, even if it seems to some people to take up more space than it seems to serve. God has given it a place and made it useful to people, both for sailing and trade, and as a storehouse of fish. The sea was not made in vain, any more than the land was. It was made to be inhabited, for it holds countless creatures, small and great, that provide food for people.

The whale, called leviathan, is mentioned here as in the story of creation (Genesis 1:21) and in Job 41:1. He is said to play in the sea, since he has no labor like man and no fear like the animals that hide in dens. He moves freely in the water. It is sad if human beings, who have higher powers and were made for higher purposes, live as if they were made only for amusement, like leviathan in the waters. Leviathan can play in the sea because he is so well protected that he laughs at danger, even at the shaking of a spear (Job 41:29).

We are also to praise God for the timely and abundant provision he makes for all creatures (Psalm 104:27, 28). God is a generous giver. He gives them their food, opens his hand, and fills them with good. He supports the armies of heaven and earth. Even the smallest creatures are not beneath his care. He gives with an open hand, like a good householder who provides for a very large family.

The creatures also wait patiently for him. They seek their food by the instinct God has given them, and in the right season. They do their part to get it. What God gives, they gather, and they do not expect providence to put food straight into their mouths. Then they are satisfied with what they gather, and filled with good. They want no more than what God sees fit to give them. That should humble our complaints, our discontent, and our dissatisfaction with what we have.

We also see God’s complete power and rule over all creatures, by which every kind continues, even though the individual members of each kind die and pass away. When God hides his face, meaning when he withdraws his sustaining power and generous care, they are troubled at once (Psalm 104:29). Every creature depends on God’s favor as fully as every saint knows he does and says with David, “You hid your face, and I was troubled” (Psalm 30:7). God’s displeasure toward this lower world because of human sin is the reason all creation feels the emptiness and burden it now carries.

You take away their breath, and they die, returning to dust, their original state. The life of the beast, which seems to go downward, is just as much under God’s command as the life of a man, which goes upward. The death of cattle was one of the plagues on Egypt, and it is also especially noticed in the destruction of the world by the flood.

Yet all are still preserved in an ongoing succession. “You send out your Spirit, and they are created” (Psalm 104:30). The same Spirit, that is, the same divine will and power, by which all creatures were first made, still keeps each kind of creature alive, in its place, and useful in its own way. So, although one generation passes away, another comes, and in this sense they are continually created. The earth itself is renewed from day to day by the sun’s light, which makes it beautiful again each morning, and from year to year by the crops and plants it produces, which give it a fresh look every spring.

The world is as full of living creatures as if none had died, because the places of those that die are filled again. The Jews say this points to the resurrection, which every spring is a picture of, when a new world rises from the remains of the old one. In the middle of this thought, the psalmist breaks out in wonder at God’s works: “O Lord, how many are your works!” (Psalm 104:24). They are many, varied, and of every sort, and yet God made them all with wisdom.

When people try to do many different things, some of them are usually neglected or done carelessly. But God’s works, though many and diverse, are all made with wisdom and with perfect care. There is no flaw or defect in them. The more closely people examine works of art with microscopes, the rougher they seem. But the works of nature, when examined in the same way, appear even more fine and exact. They are all made in wisdom because they all serve the purpose they were made for, the good of the whole universe, and through that, the glory of its great King.