A Commentary on the Book of Psalms: Psalm 104 — A Thanksgiving to God for His Benefits to His People of Israel
Psalm 104
A Thanksgiving to God for His Benefits to His People of Israel
Explanation Of The Psalm
1 The prophet, in the spirit of his fervor, invites God’s people to praise and invoke God, and to announce his wonderful works to other nations, that his praise and worship may be extended thereby. The true lover does not wish the praise and knowledge of his beloved should be confined to himself, but wishes that many, nay even all, should know her perfections and praise them. He, therefore, says, “Give glory to the Lord,” give him the just tribute of praise, “and call upon his name,” to help you to do it properly; for without his assistance you will not be able to accomplish it. “Declare his deeds among the gentiles;” speak in all directions among the gentiles of the wonderful works of God, that they, too, from a knowledge of his works, may begin to know, praise, and invoke their Creator.
2 An explanation of the previous verse, as much as to say, you are not only to sing to him, but also to sing with musical instruments, praising him in word and deed, by extolling him in your words and living up to the standard laid down by him as your rule of life, “relate all his wonderful works,” a repetition of the latter part of the previous verse; that is, announce to the gentiles God’s works, all of which are most astounding and sublime.
3 Having invited them to an expression of praise, united with chant, he now invites them to rejoice and be glad internally, first saying, “Glory ye in his holy name.” Glory in your heart for having come to the knowledge of God, the author of all good. “Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.” Do not seek the Lord in grief and sorrow, but in joy and gladness; for the getting hold of him surpasses all other earthly treasures.
4 He impresses on us the necessity of having constant recourse to God, “seek his face evermore.” If we refer this advice to those of the Old Testament, the meaning would be, seek to have God always present with you; through his grace and his favors endeavor that he may always look upon you with an eye of benignity—that he may pour his blessings from heaven on you—that he may not turn away his face, in his anger, from you, despise or afflict you. But, if we refer this passage, as we ought, to the new dispensation, the meaning will be, “Seek his face evermore.” Be always ascending in your hearts, in loving and longing for the face of the Lord, until you shall have got to see it in some measure. And, as nobody looks for what he knows nothing of, St. Augustine very properly says that they “who seek the face of the Lord” have already found him through faith, while they are still looking for him through hope and desire. Hence we infer that they who have no faith, or do not exercise that faith, do not seek the face of the Lord; and, therefore, that the beginning of the seeking the face of the Lord is to take its rise from the exercise of faith, by thinking and meditating on the excellence of the supreme good, and by firmly persuading themselves, from the Scriptures, that true happiness, such as can completely satisfy our desire, is not to be had but in beholding the infinite beauty of God, to which man can arrive if he seek the face of God as he ought. Now, to do that two things are necessary, viz., to remove all obstacles, and make use of the necessary means, as the Apostle informs Titus, “Renouncing impiety and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and piously in this world, waiting for the blessed hope.” The obstacles, then, are bad desires and an attachment to the things of this world; for in proportion to the absence of avarice is the increase of charity. They, then, who desire to be rich, and to amass wealth, administer not to the sufferer in his necessity, and, the slaves of gluttony or luxury, they do not ascend to seek the face of the Lord; but they descend, are farther removed from it, because, instead of removing, they multiply the impediments. True justice, or, in other words, the fulfillment of the law of God, is the means of finding the face of the Lord, as the Lord says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice,” the one as the end, the other as the means;
and, “If thou will enter into life, keep the commandments.” The one, then, that always seeks the face of the Lord is he who exercises his faith in reflection and meditation, who mortifies his members in this world, and, having abnegated all secular desires, always lives with a pure heart and good conscience, always longing to behold the face of God.
5 He tells us now for what we are to praise God, and points out a sort of ladder by which we may ascend to the love, and a desire for God, to which two things he invited us in the preceding verses. The subject of God’s praise are his wonderful works, that indicate to us his omnipotence, his supreme wisdom, and his most sweet goodness, which, if faithfully turned in the mind and reflected on, will elevate it to the love of, and a longing for God. “Remember his marvelous works, which he hath done.” Bring before your memory, and think on all the wonderful things you know to have been done by God; “His wonders and the judgments of his mouth.” The prodigies he effected through Moses, Josue, Samuel, that could never have been done by natural means; and “the judgments of his mouth;” the dreadful scourges inflicted on Pharao and others, who persecuted his people, being both prodigies and judgments, inasmuch as they were wrought on Pharao for his pride.
6 An explanation of the preceding verse; as if he said, I address you, ye Jews, who are “the seed of Abraham, and sons of Jacob;” you who have descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and not from Esau or Ismael; for you are “his servants, his chosen,” God having chosen you as his own servants, to give you his law, and to teach you how he should be worshipped. St. Augustine observes, that, however applicable this may be to the children in the flesh of Abraham and Jacob, it is more applicable to the children by faith; for the Apostle says, Rom. 4, “And he (Abraham) received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the justice of the faith, which is in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all the believers uncircumcised, that to them also it may be reputed to justice, and might be the father of circumcision, not to them only that are of the circumcision, but to them also who follow the steps of the faith that our father Abraham had, being as yet uncircumcised;” and again, chap. 9, “For all are not Israelites that are of Israel, neither are all they who are the seed of Abraham children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called; that is to say, not they who are the children of the flesh are the children of God; but they that are the children of the promise are counted for the seed;” and again, in Galatians 3, “Know ye, therefore, that they who are of faith are the children of Abraham, and the Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the gentiles by faith, told Abraham before: In thee shall all nations be blessed; therefore they who are of the faith shall be blessed with the faithful Abraham;” and he concludes the chapter thus, “And if you be of Christ, then you are the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.”
7–8 He now begins to narrate the wonderful works of God, beginning with the fact of God, the ruler of the universe, having chosen Abraham, and having entered into an everlasting compact with him of giving the land of promise forever to his seed, which promise was fulfilled in Christ, whose kingdom will have no end, while the children of Abraham have lost the possession of Palestine. “He is the Lord our God, his judgments are in all the earth;” God, whose judgments are all over the world, and who, as supreme King and Monarch, judges all; he, that very same great God, “hath remembered his covenant forever;” remembered the covenant he made, and which he intended should last forever, “the word which he commanded to a thousand generations;” that is, forever.