Psalms 104

Though a Christian wants the sun, he has a day-star in his heart. 2. A believer has real, though not royal comforts; he has, as Aquinas says, Gaudium in Deo, though not à Deo, joy in God, though not from God: joy in God, is the delight and complacency the soul takes in God (Psal…

They spend their days in mirth. I have read of a place in Africa, where the people spend all their time in dancing, and making merry: and have not we many, who make a God of pleasure; who spend their time in going to plays, and visiting stews, as if God had made them like the Le…

Is there beauty in a rose? what beauty then is there in Christ the Rose of Sharon? Does oil make the face shine? (Psalms 104:15). How will the light of God's countenance make it shine?

It is such a deep as cannot be fathomed — deep pride, hypocrisy, atheism. The heart is like the sea, where is the leviathan, and creeping things innumerable (Psalms 104). If the skin has boils or leprosy in it, how much corruption is in the blood?

God's wisdom is seen in setting bounds to the sea, and so wisely contriving it, that though the sea be higher than the earth, yet it should not overflow the earth. So that we may cry out with the Psalmist (Psalm 104:24): O Lord, how manifold are your works! in wisdom have you ma…

God being in Heaven governs the universe, and orders all occurrences here below for the good of his children: When the saints are in straits and dangers, and see no way of relief, he can send from Heaven and help them; (Psalm 57:3) He shall send from heaven and save me. 3. We le…

Let us on a Sabbath meditate on the infiniteness of our Creator, look up to the firmament, there we may see God's glory blazing in the sun, twinkling in the stars; look into the sea, there we may see God's wonders in the deep (Psalm 107:24). Look into the earth, there we may beh…

God is worthy of honor. Psalm 104:1. You are clothed with honor and majesty. What are all his attributes, but glorious beams shining from this sun.

Love is as musk among linen, that perfumes it; love perfumes obedience, and makes it go up to Heaven as incense; this is doing God's will as the angels in Heaven do it; they are ravished with delight while they are praising God, therefore the angels are said to have harps in the…

1. As we are creatures, there is such a weakness and infirmity in us, as David speaks — by reason of which, if God does but hide himself and withdraw his presence (which supports us in comfort as in being), we are ready presently to fall into these fears of ourselves. The psalmi…

Whom this apostle compares to a roaring lion that seeks whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). And like as when God makes this natural darkness and it is night, then the young lions creep forth and roar after their prey, as the psalmist says (Psalm 104:20-21): so do these roaring lio…

But you who are more deeply and lastingly distressed — I pity you; I do not blame you for being troubled. For when he hides his face the creatures all are troubled (Psalm 104:29). God would have you lay it to heart when he is angry (Isaiah 57:17).

Religion does not seal Warrants to idleness. Christians must not be as the Leviathan, which is made to play in the Sea, Psalm 104.26. Idleness is Balneum Diaboli, the Devils Bath; a slothful person becomes a prey to every temptation.

Question. Must we then use God's creatures only for necessity? Answer. We may use them not only for necessity, but also for honest delight and pleasure (Psalm 104:15): God gives wine to make glad the heart of man: and oil to make his face shine. And (John 12:3) our Savior Christ…

The poor are tanquam in sepulchro, as it were in the grave, the comfort of their life is buried, O help with your merciful hands, to raise them out of the Sepulchre. God sends his springs into the valleys, Psalm 104. 10. let the springs of your charity run among the valleys of p…

A righteous man is got upon the top of Mount Tabor, solacing himself in Jehovah; he contemplates the beauty of holiness, the love of Christ, the felicity of saints glorified; his thoughts are among the cherubims. The soul while it is musing on Christ, is filled with holy and swe…

O what precious communion you might have with God every time you approach him, if your hearts were but in frame! You might then say with David — Psalm 104:34 — 'My meditation of him shall be sweet.' What loses all our comforts in ordinances and more secret duties is the indispos…

What the psalmist observes of natural darkness is equally true of spiritual darkness. Psalm 104:20: You make darkness and it is night, in which all the beasts of the forest creep forth, the young lions roaring after their prey. When it is dark night with men, it is noonday with…

Crisp and his followers are far wide, for Christ died freely, out of extreme love, and yet he died out of a command laid on him, to lay down his life for his sheep, though no penal power was above Christ's head, to punish him if he should not die (John 10:18). Nor was there need…

God was well pleased, that lapsed mankind should be restored, at the first God was pleased with his creation (Exodus 31:17), on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed, that is recreated in the view of his works, as the effects of his wisdom, power and goodness. And (Psalm…

But the Prophet will handle this matter more largely hereafter in Chapters 30 and 31. Behold the Lord rides] This manner of speech is found in other places of the Scripture, as in Psalm 104:3, but only in general. But Isaiah applies it here to this prophecy; because the Egyptian…

But it is necessary first to see what the breath of the nostril signifies. He thereby sets forth the fragility of mankind: namely, that the life of man is but a breath which forthwith vanishes away; and as David says, If the Lord withdraws the spirit, man returns to his dust: Al…

It is not without cause then that Isaiah says, the Spirit shall come from above, which warming the earth, shall cause the same to flourish with new fruitfulness. Neither do I doubt but he alludes to that sentence of David, Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and y…

To the end then that they might no more deceive themselves with the sweet deceits of lying vanities, the Prophet summons them before God's judgment seat, and grants indeed that they flourish in appearance, as long as they keep themselves a great way off from the presence of God'…

Isaiah will afterwards likewise call the holy Spirit water, but in another respect: to wit, in that it gives strength and vigor to fainting souls, by his secret and inward power. But here the Prophet's words have a further extent: for he not only speaks of the spirit of regenera…

Now this is nothing else but to overturn the whole order of nature. For as David says, Man ought to rise in the morning to go to his work, and to wait upon his business till the evening (Psalm 104:23). But if he rise to do nothing but to take his pleasures, and to give himself t…

And I think the Prophet meant thus much in this place, as if the Lord should have said; What should I do trying my force against a little wind, or breath; or against a leaf, or grass, which vanishes in a moment, and withers away as soon as it has felt the heat of the sun? Some e…

Thou Lord hast made me glad through your works: I will triumph in the works of your hands, Psalm 2:4 Your hearts may be as sweetly and sensibly refresht by the works of Gods hands, as by the words of his mouth. Psalm 104. per totum is spent in the consideration of the works of P…

Elijah procures fire from Heaven to consume the captains that came from the King to take him (2 Kings 1:10, 12). The Psalmist speaking of the plagues of Egypt (Psalm 105:32) says that the Lord sent flames of fire in the land; so some expound that place (Psalm 104:3), He makes hi…

It seems that Christ here speaks especially of a priuate fast, for besides that he vses words of the singular number, you, yours, &c. he inioyns the concealing of it frō others, which cannot be done in a publike fast: and yet the maine thing here inioyned, is the approbatiō of…

The second word to be cleared, is wine. Wine is cheering to men (Psalm 104:15), and makes their heart glad: under it here is understood, what is most cheering and comfortable in its use to men. 3. Christ's love is better, 1. Simply in itself, it's most excellent.

The second way how he explains and illustrates this, is more particular, by two comparisons, yet keeping still the former manner of expression, by way of question and admiration: The first is, how much better is your love than wine! Wine may be looked on in two respects, 1. As i…

They choose rather to go in a feather-bed to hell, than to be carried to heaven in a fiery chariot of zeal and violence. How many sleep away, and play away their time; as if they were made like the Leviathan, to play in the sea! (Psalm 104:26). It is a speech of Seneca, No man i…

God might have taken you from the Womb, when you were a Sinner but of a span long, and immediately have sent you to your own place: you had no right to a drop of water, more than what the bounty of God gave you. And whereas he might have thrust you out of the world, as soon as y…

There are multitudes of Living Creatures in the Sea. The Psalmist says, There are in it things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts, Psalm 104:25. And we read, Genesis 1:20. that when God blessed the Waters he said, Let the Waters bring forth abundantly, both Fish a…

IT is a wonderful work of God, to limit and bound such a vast and furious Creature, as the Sea; which according to the judgment of many Learned Men, is higher than the Earth; and that it has a propension to overflow it, is evident, both from its nature and motion; were it not, t…

THE Ocean is of a vast extent and depth, though supposedly measurable, yet not to be sounded by Man. It compasses about the Whole Earth, which in the account of Geographers, is Twenty one thousand and six hundred Miles in compass; yet the Ocean surrounds it on every side, Psalm…

In wisdom hast you made them all; the Earth is full of your riches. So is this great and wide Sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great Beasts, Psalm 104. 24, 25. And we read, Lamentations 4:3. of Sea-Monsters, which draw out their Breasts to their young.

For whereas by cursing the earth, and filling all the elements oftentimes with signs of his anger and indignation, he has as the apostle tells us (Romans 1:18) revealed from heaven his wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, yet not proceeding immediately to de…

The first is ordinary for all living creatures: for it was one principal reason why God caused the light of the Sun to be withdrawn from the face of the earth, that the inhabitants thereof might rest from their labor. Until the evening man goes forth to his labor and work (Psalm…

Now we have not only right to those things; but withal there must be frequent consideration of them to work joy. The soul must often view them, and so rejoice: My meditation of him shall be sweet, says David, I will be glad in the Lord (Psalm 104). And the godly failing in this,…

And in regard of his other throne also in the hearts of men: the power of outward potentates reaches but to the bodies of men; they can take cognizance of nothing, but of external conformity to their laws: but Christ gives laws to the thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5). So for his ro…

For his power, that is notably discovered to us every day; if we would draw aside the covering of the creature, you might soon see the secret almighty power of God which acts in every thing that falls out; the same everlasting arm that made the creatures is under them to support…

This is to degenerate into the state of devils, a part of whose torment it is to think of God, they believe and tremble; the more explicit thoughts they have of the name of God, the more is their horror increased. Oh then let your meditations of God be sweet and serious (Psalm 1…

So Midrash Tillim. And partly, because the being and order of heaven shows the settledness of God's word, as the heavens were created and settled in a course, which they constantly observe in their motions; and this duration and regularity in the motion is so exact, that men can…

The earth abides in the same seat and condition in which God left it, as long as the present course and order of nature is to continue. Psalm 104:5: He has laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved for ever. God's truth is as immovable as the earth.

Now the devils are spiritual substances, and flames of fire themselves. He makes his angels spirits, and his ministers, that is his ministering spirits, whether good or evil, whether ministers of his wrath, or ministers of his mercy, he makes them flames of fire (Psalm 104:4). T…

(Oh man then remember your Creator in the days of your youth.) All the creatures do the like (Psalm 104:27-28); they all wait upon you, that you may give them their meat in due season. Indeed, beside their waiting, they petition too (Psalm 145:15-16).

The poor are, as it were, in the grave; the comfort of their life is buried. God sends his springs into the valleys (Psalm 104:10); let the springs of your liberality run among the valleys of poverty. Your sweetest and most gentle influences should fall upon the lower grounds.

Quest. 1. Why is this put in the forefront? I answer, Christ does it, to show that poverty of spirit is the very basis and foundation of all the other graces that follow: You may as well expect fruit to grow without a root, as the other graces without this; till a man be poor in…