O God, how great are Your works!

The Psalms offer more than com fort and inspiration. The 104th, for instance, describes in poetic form God's accomplishments during the Creation week. Commentators note this but commonly overlook references to the meaning of the seventh day. A close look reveals the glories of the Sabbath nestled amid the language of worship and praise.

Not only the Sabbath itself, but the entire Creation account of Genesis 1, is questioned by some who presume to honor biblical authority. It is thus helpful to see the Creation account reaffirmed in other scriptures, such as Psalm 104. Whereas Genesis 1 reports the events of Creation directly and factually, the psalmist uses a different method: poetic imagery. He anticipates the benefits of what would come about from the various successive Creation days. Psalm 104, clothed in majestic poetry, offers even more possibilities than Genesis 1 for praising the Creator.

God the Creator

God of light. A brief tour of Psalm 104 reveals the various days of Creation week one by one. As to the first day of Creation week, a longstanding question is Where did the light come from? Was it direct from God, or was the sun already shining but hidden from the earth by some sort of cloud cover? Psalm 104:2 suggests the answer: the light that surrounded the person of God provided the light for the earth, too. The Creator Him self presented this light; He needed no intermediary.

The second day of Creation in Gene sis 1 was time for the firmament, the stretched-out division between the waters above and the waters below. In Psalm 104:2-4 those same elements are portrayed in action. God "stretches out the [atmospheric] heavens like a tent."* This is anthropomorphic (human) language for an event that would be of overwhelming magnitude for humans, but for God it was as easy as stretching out a tent. Yet that "tent" encompasses all His creatures on earth.

God in motion. Psalm 104 pictures God in motion, riding in His cloudy chariot on the wings of the wind. So He not only made the atmosphere in which we live, but He is the driving force that set it in motion. No static God is this; He is dynamically active in His creation and for His creation.

God rebukes the sea. The appearance of dry land on the third day of the Creation week in Genesis 1 is described in a rather matter-of-fact way. There God simply spoke and it was so. In contrast Psalm 104:7 says that God rebuked the seas that stood over the land. They fled, terrified at the "thunder" of His voice. There is a beautiful literary arc in the passage of Psalm 104 that covers events of the third day. It starts in verse 6, with the condition of the earth as blanketed with water before God brought that dry land forth, and it ends in verse 9, with the promise that He would not cover the earth with waters as it was before. In between these two pictures we find first the activity of God and then the results that stemmed from it. Verse 7 portrays God's rebuke of thundering voice, resulting, in verse 8, with movement of the waters in opposite directions. The mountains rose up, and the valleys sank down. This was how God shaped the earth, the dry land, with all of its rich variety of geographical conditions.

God waters the earth. While God does not allow the seas to cover the earth again as they did before bringing forth the dry land, He continues to water the earth to maintain life (see Ps. 104:10- 13). Instead of an arc describing the shaping of the earth, there is a crescendo here that takes the waters of God higher and higher. They start with the springs in the valley that give drink to the field animals. Higher up come the birds in the trees, also provided with the water they need through God's creative act. Finally even the tops of the lofty mountains are watered in the cycle of nature that God has organized and energized. Up and up and up is drawn our view of the abundant provision for His creatures. Just as the earth moves in response to the word and the touch of God in the previous section of the psalm, so the waters are constantly in motion and action, providing for all of His creatures.

God the sustainer

The divine crescendo. The next section of Psalm 104 climaxes God's creative actions on the third day. At this time He also brought forth the plants on dry land. Genesis waits until the account of day 6 to tell how these plants provide the food that humans and animals need, but this psalm describes both the creation of that food and its use. We recognize here the same pattern as the waters, a crescendo that moves up and up and up. Thus this drink of His creatures rises up to this climax, and so does their food. The food provided starts down on the plain, where the cattle feed off the pasture and humans labor to raise crops. These all have their purpose, not only for life's necessities but enjoyment as well. So we read about the products of the grapes and the grain and the olives, each with its place in the life of people. Just as humans plant crops and harvest them, so God has planted His crops on a scale that surpasses human comprehension. From this comes the majestic trees, such as the cedars of Lebanon (see verse 16). These serve a purpose too, for the birds build their nests in them. There is even some life beyond the timberline, where mountain goats scamper on the cliffs.

Let us compare those two created elements in Psalm 104:

Drink

the valleys (verse 10)

the animals (verse 11)

the birds (verse 12)

in the trees the mountains (verse 13)

Food

the plains (verses 14, 15)

the animals (verse 14)

man (verse 15)

the birds (verses 16, 17)

in the trees the mountains (verse 18)

All of this comes forth from the dry land formed on the third day, but here the look at the third day is prospective, what it will eventually provide for.

God's order. In thinking of a day, we first picture the bright or sunny part, daylight, then the night. Genesis 1 has a different order for the creative days, be ginning with evening and then morning. Psalm 104 follows that order for the events of the fourth day of the Creation week. But in contrast to Genesis 1, which mentions first the largest orb and then the smaller light and then the smallest lights of the stars, this psalm begins with the moon as evening comes on and the sun sets. Then it tells of the activities of the animals at night, when the lions come forth from their dens to hunt and eat. But after the hunt of the night is over, they crawl back into those dens to take their rest, and new occupants of the land come forth. People rise and go forth in the sunshine to work in the fields by that sunlight. So the order of the elements of time here are evening and morning, moon and sun, lions who work at night and people who work in the light. All in its order, as established by God.

God's wisdom and power. Before proceeding to the fifth day of Creation week, the psalmist pauses in verse 24 to praise the Creator for His great wisdom and power. Genesis 1 tells us that on day 5 the firmament, previously divided, became populated with birds above and fish below. And in Psalm 104 the sea teems with life, and even the great Leviathan, also mentioned in Genesis. Where are the birds? They already were mentioned in relationship to the trees where they live, which were created on day 3. But something new came along now. Just as the life was made for the seas, a new form of life appeared on those seas: not a new kind of fish, but human life. Specifically, humans traveling along in boats, sailing over the seas rather than swimming in them.

According to Genesis 1, first the animals and then people were created on the sixth day. In Psalm 104, humans are not even mentioned directly in the ac count of that Creation day. What we do find is God's provision for both humans and animals to sustain life with food. The picture is not that of a Creator who became an absentee landlord, establishing food sources and then leaving them to recycle themselves. Rather, we see a God who has made such detailed provisions for His creatures that He is portrayed as feeding them from His hand like a gentle shepherd or zookeeper would do: "When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things" (verse 28).

God of life. The final act of Creation on the sixth day was the creation of man and woman. God accomplished that by breathing into Adam the breath of life. This climactic act is reflected here in Psalm 104, but in reverse order. Where as in Genesis 1 and 2 the order was that humans were given the breath of life and became living beings, and then when that breath was withdrawn returned to the dust of the earth, notice what the psalmist says: "When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust" (verse 29). "When you send your Spirit [or breath], they are created, and you renew the face of the earth" (verse 30). So in Psalm 104, that order is reversed. First the fact that humans and animals die when the breath of God goes forth from them. But that is not the end of the race or the species. As God breathes anew, life crops up again in the next generation. The curse of sin and death have come, but the blessing and promise of God go on in spite of them, and they will overcome the enemy.

With these two provisions for life food and breath the account of the sixth day of Creation ends, and with it, seemingly, the remarks of the psalm on Creation week. But not really.

God of the Sabbath

In Genesis the Creation account flows from the sixth day into the seventh day, the Sabbath. Regarding Psalm 104, commentators often miss the fact that the same pattern is followed. The psalm does not say directly that this is the seventh day, but then neither does it say anything directly for any other day of Creation. Instead, the psalm describes the events of those days in terms of their central elements and events and future results. The account of the seventh day does that here as well.

Worship and praise. The first thing that we do on the Sabbath day is to recognize that He is our Creator; we honor Him in the commemoration of those events. The glory of the Lord is revealed in those mighty acts, and we worship Him for them. And that is the first thing mentioned in this next section of the psalm. When God finished His Creation, He said that it was "very good." He says the same thing here in verse 31, where He rejoices in His works. But something more happens: "He looks at the earth, and it trembles; He touches the mountains, and they smoke" (verse 32, NASB).

Theophany. This is the picture of a theophany. As the God of heaven draws near, the earth trembles and melts before Him. His personal presence has been made manifest. This is precisely what happens on the Sabbath day. The Lord draws near to His people and makes Himself manifest, and they respond accordingly. Struck with reverential awe, they render Him worship.

That worship is described in the next two verses. When we see the theophanic vision of God, we are struck dumb with awe at His greatness. We cannot resist the impetus to offer worship and honor and glory and praise to Him. According to verse 33, this is not a onetime occurrence. The psalmist promises to praise God continually as long as he lives.

Meditation. And there is another part of worship, when the saint is silent in meditation. The psalmist speaks of that, too, praying that such contemplation of the Lord may be pleasing to Him. Just as the smoke that went up from the burnt offering sacrifice was pleasing to God, so also is the meditation of the righteous, which goes up to Him as the central focus of worship. The psalmist's meditations end with rejoicing. Evident ly the religion of the ancient Israelites was not dull and neither should our worship today be a boring experience.

Thou-I experience. There is an I Thou experience here, but it is given in the other order, the divine order. Thou art the one who speaks first and acts first. On that basis we respond to Thee with all our heart and mind and spirit. Four actions of God are listed in verses 31 and 32, and four actions of humans in response are listed in verses 33 and 34. They are as follows:

God's glory

God's rejoicing

God's theophany

God's theophany

The saint sings

The saint sings praise

The saint meditates

The saint rejoices

Rejoicing. Just as God rejoices in His creation, so the saint rejoices in His Creator God. Just as God reveals Him self in theophany, so the saint sings to Him. The earth responds to that theophany, and so do the saints as they see His might and majesty. Here God and His saints meet together.

That is also what happened on the seventh day of the Creation week, when God met for the first Sabbath with Adam and Eve. Now on that same Sabbath day He meets with the descendants of Adam and Eve. The seventh day of the Creation week is in this psalm too, and it is present where God meets His people. When God comes to them in might, majesty, and glory, they all sing His praises in worship. That is what the original Sabbath was set apart and sanctified for for human blessing, for God to come to us and meet with us. Creation in Genesis and Psalm 104 Poetry or prose? Exegetes have debated whether Genesis 1 is prose or poetry. Some elements seem like poetry; there is some parallelism of thought and repetition of themes. But this is not enough to make Hebrew poetry. Meter also is necessary, measuring off the length of line. And here is where Gene sis 1 falls short of the standard of poetry. Many of its lines, however parallel, are just too long to make metered poetry. There are, as far as I can find, only two poetic elements in Genesis 1 and 2. They are found at parallel points in their respective narratives. I refer here to Genesis 1:27 and 2:23. They make an interesting couplet, because the first one can be called the Song of the Creation of Man and the second one can be called the Song of the Creation of Woman. God speaks the first one about man; Adam speaks the second one about Eve. Their poetic nature, both in terms of parallelism and meter, can be seen by comparing them.

Genesis 1:27

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Genesis 2:23

"This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man.

Except for these two verses, Genesis 1 and 2 are largely prose. Psalm 104, on the other hand, is Hebrew poetry through out. Some insist that we need not take Genesis 1 and 2 seriously because of alleged poetic expression. But here in Psalm 104 we truly witness a poetic account of Creation. The figurative language and hyperbole of Psalm 104 are lacking in Genesis 1 and 2. Comparing a genuine poetic account of the Creation week shows how different it is from Genesis 1 and 2, which account features the kind of prose reserved for historic accounts. If Psalm 104 were the only account of Creation that we had, one might argue that it is not historic be cause it is poetic, artistic, and aesthetic. One cannot argue this for Genesis 1 and 2, when comparing Psalm 104 with those accounts. One can disagree with the assertion that Genesis 1 contains a true account of Creation, but one cannot do it on the basis of the literary style.

Sabbath: sign of God's covenant. Summarizing our review of God's Creation, we come back to its memorial, the Sabbath. In the fourth commandment, as proclaimed at Sinai, the Sabbath is enjoined as the commemoration of Creation. Forty years later God gave the Ten Commandments again on the plains of Moab, as recorded in the book of Deuteronomy. He added another reason for us to observe the Sabbath: the creation of Israel as a nation. Thus the sign of the Mosaic covenant had been added to the sign of the Adamic covenant.

Creation, covenant, and the Sabbath they all belong together. Creation because we acknowledge God as our Creator; covenant because we have entered into a new covenant relationship with Him; and Sabbath because it is both the sign of the commemoration of the creation of which we are a part and the covenant into which we have entered with our Creator and Redeemer God.