Study Slides for Psalm 104

Psalm 104:5-9, 24-30

THE GOD OF CREATION

Call to Worship (Psalm 81, Hebrews 13)

God has led us through our wildernesses.God has led us into a plentiful land.God is the fountain of living water.Come to the Water! Come to God!

"O that my people would listen to me,O that they would walk in my ways!" God is our strength. God is our helper.Enter the sanctuary. Come and listen.

So we come.

Invocation (Psalm 81, Jeremiah 2, Hebrews 13, Luke 14)

Now, O God, your voice sounds into our lives again.We are grateful to hear your call for on many mornings we hear other voices—voices urging us to care only about ourselves; voices urging us to serve other

gods: our work, our bank accounts, our egos, our peer groups, our ideologies.By the time of your worship, we feel trapped in our anxiety, our work, our

spending, our need for control, and our excuses.And then we hear your voice again, calling us to your healing care, to your

spacious freedom, to your giving humility.We come to rest and be fed.

Call us to your freeing love again.Feed us now, God of our strength. Amen.

Context

During the next weeks we will study from the book of Genesis.

Today’s text provides a helpful introduction to the creation account (Genesis 1). It leads the reader to praise God for his

unimaginable greatness and goodness, shown when he made the world.

The psalm has been described as “a poetical commentary upon the first chapter of Genesis.” Similar praises include Job

38, 39; Psalm 8, 19, 29 and Habakkuk 3.

Context

The lesson examines how God Created All. The study's aim is to show that God is the creator and owner of all material and spiritual things. The study's application is to gratefully

and willingly place ourselves under the authority of our Creator and rest in His provisions.

Key Verse: Ps 104:24O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have

made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions

Context

This beautiful psalm or hymn praises God for the wonders of creation. It parallels the creation account in Genesis as an

allusion to God’s work on each successive day in Psalm 104: first day (vv. 2-5), second (vv. 6-9), third (vv. 10-18), fourth

(vv. 19-23), fifth (vv. 24-30).

Context

We are living in a day when the thought of God as our

Creator is repugnant to many people. Science seems to have become the dominant religion in our country. The public

schools and the media appear to have become the evangelistic arm of the evolutionists.

Sadly, many who confess Christianity do not believe that God is sovereign or that we are responsible to Him or to anyone

other than ourselves as individuals.

Context

Our commitment as Christians to the authority of the Word

of God and to His authority in the universe is being questioned and even opposed by the world at-large.

Christians are not anti-science but believe sincerely that they are in agreement since their creator is the same. Our

struggle is with the refusal to see a divine design to all things.

Context

The theory of evolution reasons that everything we see in the world just came to be out of nothing for no particular

reason. But, based on the Word of God, Christians believe that God

created the world and mankind out of nothing for the purpose of displaying His grace, His mercy, and all His other

magnificent attributes. Our text builds on this theme and leads the psalmist to enter into praise and worship.

Psalm 104:5-9

The psalm begins and ends with the challenge, “Praise the Lord, O my soul”. The psalmist says God wraps himself in

light. He stretches out the heavens like a tent. When creating the earth, God set it on its foundations.

This illustration compares the earth to a solid, secure building (Job 38:4).

Psalm 104:5-9

God, of course, did not need to use a literal foundation. He is

the Master Builder (Genesis 1:2). As easily as a man might put up a tent, so God created the heavens.

The Lord needed but to say the word and the water took to flight. He is in absolute control of everything that has been made. Even water must respect the boundaries God has set

(Genesis 9:11-15).

Psalm 104:5

You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be

shaken.

Psalm 104:5

Psalm 104 describes the six days of God’s creation in Genesis

1 and verses 5-9 describe God’s creation on the third day. The Psalm gives good reasons to praise God as the Creator of

all things. God is the foundation of all that exists. God holds in

existence all that continues to exist. As long as God wills, the earth as a whole will never be shaken, even though we may

experience natural disasters such as devastating earthquakes and floods.

Psalm 104:6

You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters

stood above the mountains.

Psalm 104:6

At one time waters covered the entire Earth. All landmasses were underwater, including the mountains. A garment covers

or hides from view whatever is underneath of it. The Creator put the mountains under the seas, and then He

revealed what He had hidden when He chose to do so. There are still some mountains under the seas today, and some

islands are mountain tops.

Question

How is it that man refuses to see the divine in creation’s design?

Lesson

God's majesty is clearly displayed in His marvelous creation.

Psalm 104:7

At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.

Psalm 104:7

God created by speaking, “Let there be …” The Gospel of John tells us that the Word of God created everything, and

the Word was God and the Word was with God. Poetically speaking, God “rebuked” the water and it fled

exposing the land, the continents, and the mountains. God’s voice could sound similar to, or as loud as, thunder.

Psalm 104:7

The personified water or seas heard and “fled” or took “flight” as God commanded.

Later, Jesus would quiet a storm and bring peace at His command, because He is the Son of God, the Word of God,

who with His Father created all things.

Question

If God would have a word for His creation today, what would it be?

Lesson

Because of His almighty power, God need only speak, and His will is done.

Psalm 104:8

They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them.

Psalm 104:8

As the waters fled, many times they went into the valleys and became rivers, lakes, and streams.

God created an orderly world for people, animals, and plants to live. God chose where the lakes, rivers, and streams would

reside and run in their courses.

Psalm 104:9

You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.

Psalm 104:9

When God created the continents and set the boundaries for the oceans, He did so in such a way that all the continents

would never be covered again as they were before He began to create.

Even during the Great Flood in the days of Noah, God provided for the human race, the animals, and the fish in various ways. God will not allow the world to return to a time of primeval chaos, though God will cleanse the world by fire someday.

Question

How can the pollution and the destruction of God’s creation ever serve His will?

Lesson

Our wise God set limits for creation.

Psalm 104:24-30

The psalmist moves from God’s creating power to his sustaining power (vv. 10-23). This final portion of today’s text calls on

everyone to recognize and honor God for what he has done and is doing throughout the world. The psalmist points out that, in

wisdom, God made everything that exists. “By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding

he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the deeps were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew” (Proverbs 3:19, 20).

Psalm 104:24-30

Interestingly, all life in the universe—human, animal, bird, or aquatic—is covered both by the Lord’s knowledge and his control. Jesus himself alluded to this fact

while on earth (Matthew 10:23).When speaking of creatures of the sea, the psalmist mentions Leviathan. This

creature is mentioned more than once in Scripture (Job 41; Isaiah 27:1) but is not easily identified.

Some Bible scholars believe Leviathan is a crocodile, while others identify it with some type of serpent (Psalm 74:14). The obvious lesson is to see that this

fearsome beast (Job 3:8) is “merely God’s pet playing in the ocean” (John H. Stek).

Psalm 104:24-30

All of the creatures in the world depend on God for their food (Psalm 104:27). The same God provides every good and perfect gift to mankind as well (James

1:17). He is the source of all blessings for all of his creation. H. C. Leupold writes, “The world over living creatures are continually looking to heaven for food . . . In a measure that surpasses our comprehension God gives them what they need. Luther once remarked that the Lord must have a large

kitchen.”The Lord holds the power of life and death in his hand. He is the all-powerful

Creator and Sustainer of life for humans and animals alike. When God recalls the breath of life from a creature, that creature will die. His Spirit is sent forth,

however, to replenish the earth with new life.

Psalm 104:24

O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Psalm 104:24

Before the psalmist began to declare some of the marvels of the fifth day of creation, he cannot contain himself and he breaks forth in praise

to God. God’s works are so manifold that even today researchers are finding

new species of animals, plants, and fish. The earth is full of microscopic creatures up to the largest animals and plants.

Every creature that God has created reveals the wisdom of God, and every scientific study of God’s creation can reveal God’s wisdom to

researchers and those who study their writings.

Psalm 104:25

Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.

Psalm 104:25

Live coral reefs and other forms of sea life often grow slowly among innumerable varieties of plants, fish, and mammals

that live in the ocean. Small microscopic shrimp can feed tiny seahorses. Dolphins, squid, sharks, and whales take their

place as some of God’s great sea creatures. God has created all things, small and great things.

Psalm 104:26

There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

Psalm 104:26

Whereas faraway lands once separated people of various nations and races, ships now cross the oceans as a highway

to bring people together and enrich kingdoms through trade. The Leviathan is mentioned also in Psalm 74:13-15. God

intended the Leviathan to enjoy the sea and be a creature that God and those in ships would enjoy watching when it

broke forth above the waters.

Question

How do you feel when you take the time to marvel at a night sky, a forest or a little child?

Lesson

Praise to God is the proper response of the careful observer when he views the countless forms of His creation.

Psalm 104:27

These all look to you to give them their food in due season;

Psalm 104:27

All human beings and animals depend on God to survive. A person may think he depends on his resourcefulness alone to live and

prosper, but all depend on God to supply them with food and oxygen. Intelligent human beings with understanding, look to God for their

provisions, and they know the seasons that God has provided for the planting and harvesting of the variety of foods they eat.

Here the psalmist praises God not only for creating, but also for sustaining life.

Psalm 104:28

when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

Psalm 104:28

The Bible teaches that God is personally involved in His good creation throughout all history. God did not just create and then

decide to sit back to watch and let the world be totally self-sustaining.

God personally gives us what we need. We “work” to gather our food, but God has provided the food and God has given the

growth to a farmer’s field. The good things we enjoy come from God’s open hand – a sign of love: God is not selfish.

Question

Do you ever fear for a world-wide famine or devastation by disease?

Lesson

The God who creates always provides for His creation.

Psalm 104:29

When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust..

Psalm 104:29

For good and sufficient reasons, God sometimes allows or causes His creatures to not have everything they need or want.

For example, Job was dismayed at his losses, but God revealed His faithfulness to Job. The psalmist praises God for the cycle of life

and death. For good reasons, God sometimes seems far away, but God is still personally involved in all life and death. Jesus said that God even

cares for every sparrow that falls to the ground.

Psalm 104:30

When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.

Psalm 104:30

During various seasons, the face of the ground changes, God brings the springtime after fall and winter. God brings forth the

green trees, grasses, flowers, and crops in their seasons. God creates by Word and Spirit, and God’s Spirit gives life to all

living things. From the New Testament, we learn with certainty about life

after death and the future that God has promised His children, all those who love God through faith in Jesus Christ as their

Lord and Savior.

Question

Do you believe that the seasons of your life are in His hands? How does that change your attitudes?

Lesson

The life and death of all created things are in the hands of the Creator.

Conclusion

There is so much for us to learn about our God. We all get so busy sometimes that we forget how great and awesome our God realty is. The Holy Spirit of God led and guided the psalmist to write about the work of God in the

creation of the world we live in.

Conclusion

In light of His great power, we know that surely He is able to meet our every need. In fact, He has promised to do so in His

Word. He wants us to trust Him for everything. In another psalm he wrote of the heavens declaring the very glory of God and the firmament announcing His handiwork

(Ps. 19:1).

Conclusion

In these verses the abundance of God's works in nature is acknowledged. "The earth is full of thy riches" (Ps. 104:24).

All the creatures on the earth, in the heavens, and in the waters are dependent upon God to supply their needs. We

too are told to wait upon Him so that we might be strengthened by Him (Ps. 27:14).

To sum up the heart of this lesson, it is that one of our responsibilities is to care for God's creation and to do so with

grateful hearts for His bounty.

Benediction (Psalm 81, Hebrews 13)

We have heard God's words of blessing. "Listen to me! Walk in my ways!"

We hear your voice, and will follow."I will never leave or forsake you!"

God is our helper. We will not be afraid. Amen.

Blessing (Psalm 81, Hebrews 13, Luke 14)

Practice humility and hospitality.Invite the lowly to your table.

Remember the imprisoned and the tortured.Honor your covenants.

Be content with what you have.Love God, and walk in God's ways.

May the way we live offer praise to God, our helper and our strength. And may God feed you with the finest wheat and the sweetest

honey.