In the previous psalm, “all that is within me” is the focus of the praise to God. In this psalm, all around me is the point of our attention, or we might say, the world within [Ps. 103] and the world without [Ps. 104]. The world within is God concerning history, and the world without is God concerning creation. The psalmist views the created world before his eyes and sings a hymn to glorify the Creator and Sustainer of all things. In Psalm 103, “all that is within me” was the cause for praise to the Lord. In this psalm, it is all that is around us that moves us to praise. Both psalms conclude with the commitment to praise the Lord and bless His holy name.
The theme is of praise to the greatness, splendor, and majesty of God. The writer goes through the days of creation from day one through day six. In the early part of the psalm, in the creation process in the celestial realm, God is the light and the source of all light. This is the first day of creation. Then the heavens are spread like a canopy over the earth, and the sun and moon give it light. God is above everything in “the chambers.” The wind and lightning are His messengers and servants. Life would not survive on Earth without these things happening constantly worldwide. There are observable things that leave every person on earth without excuse as to the fact of a Creator in whom they should believe.
The realm of earth with time, space, and matter that we can experience is made subsequent in this psalm. Earth is set in a specific place, functioning in specific ways suited to the needs of mankind. The earth flourishes like a garden as God carries out His plan to care for cattle with grass, birds with trees, and mankind with the earth's fullness, releasing its bounty to supply food for us. Water below and above are given in remarkable ways so that we are not overcome with downpours of water that produce flooding conditions in which nothing can grow. Instead, God's sovereign wisdom carefully calculates the cycle of evaporation and the gradual release of water in the form of rain. God uses floods, uncontrollable weather, and winds to bring people to consider that there is One greater than all who controls the universe by the power of His word. He uses His creation to get people to repentance, whether “the goodness of God” or “the severity of God.”
The psalmist opens by singing about the realm of the heavens, the celestial scene above that is mostly unseen. They declare the “glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” He closes the psalm, singing about the sea and the unseen realm below the water's surface. In between these “bookends,” he sings of the foundations of the earth and its boundaries, which are solid and secure. The next-to-last stanza of the psalm is about the life cycles on Earth and how the moon and sun control them. In the middle [10-18], he sings of the bounties of life on earth that God gives life to so that they come forth for our use and blessing.
What God has created gives great reason to praise and bless the Lord and the name of the Lord. He is light and put light here. The heavens and water, land and vegetation, the sun, moon, stars, the fish and birds, man and food to sustain the billions of people, all come from God’s limitless power to create. All of this deserves our gratitude and praise. The energy that undergirds the earth as it speeds and spins through space is the foundation of our faith as believers in the Lord God. The variety of creation and the intricacies of everything to function, each in a unique way, reveal the supreme intelligence of the Creator, and that deserves our open and honest praise. The goodness and wisdom of God to make all that He has created available for us to use, learn from, admire, and experience calls on us to praise and bless the Almighty God.
The first day of creation is seen in verse 3. Light is God’s robe. The heavens are a protective covering, like a canopy, covering everything that He created for His own use and ours. In verses 5 and 6, He laid the “foundations of the earth,” with everything formed according to His divine plan. The invisible foundations are secure, but that does not mean they are immovable. The very fact of this world moving in rotation around the sun and spinning each day makes it a stable place for human habitation. Then, in the following two verses, He divided land and water. In infinite wisdom, He arranged an astounding water system to maintain life with rain, streams, rivers, and oceans, and then evaporation to make a continuous cycle of life-giving water available for the growth of all creatures on earth. On the fourth day of creation, seasons and days were set in motion so the vegetation He created grows, plants, and grows again. Each plant He created was put in a place suitable for God’s plan. Death takes down one generation, and another rises.
God has created every creature and plant suited to the habitat in which He would place it. Each plant and animal has within its unique nature the complexity that only an intelligence far beyond that of humans can conceive. Our Lord God, who has infinite intelligence, created everything with a plan and purpose. One is amazed at what we can see through a telescope and a microscope. Even more impressive is what we can see with our own eyes (an amazing organ that defies description) everywhere we look, every day, and every season.
Verses 25 and 26 tell of animal life God created, and verses 30 and 31 speak of man and the fact that the “Lord shall rejoice” because there are now, on earth, those He created who can respond to Him with their “free will.” The center part of the psalm is the focal point of the writer’s song as he considers the full provision God made in advance to meet every need man would have. The moon and sun control the orderly cycle of seasons and life on Earth. People recognize the benefits of that order as they plant crops during specific cycles of time, depending on where they live on the Earth.
Everything would die if God were to “hide [His] face” or withdraw His providential care. By the Spirit, they are made new year by year and grow again because of the life imparted into every seed. The display of God’s glory in creation is such that no one with an honest mind or powers of observation can escape the fact that our Creator is one of infinite wisdom and power. All of man's attempts to discredit God as being real fade away when we take time to observe all that is around us. Our sovereign God, who has unlimited power over all the universe, has created, sustains, provides for, and governs us. How sensible it is that we should have complete confidence and unwavering faith in Him. Some arrogant people don’t think they need God, not realizing that “in Him we live and move and have our being.”
Toward the end of the psalm, the hymn turns to the seas and the works that God, in His wisdom, created in the areas of the earth that are teeming with life that we seldom see. From giant whales to plankton, we can barely see God’s creative power, illustrating who He is and His kindness toward us. His care, guardianship, and power leave all humanity without an excuse to accept the fact of His existence. Man is on earth to praise Him, and well, we should. However, there have been, and are now, those who have sinned and will not accept the Savior of sinners nor admit their need of Him. When those who disregard His grace do not acknowledge Him nor give Him praise and glory, they will be “consumed out of the earth.” For those who know and love Him, our “meditation of Him shall be sweet; [we] will be glad in the Lord.”