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PSALM CIV
I
Bless the Lord, O my soul!O Lord, my God!
Very great hast Thou been.
Splendour and majesty
Thou hast put on as a robe;
Thou hast arrayed Thee with light
For Thy lucent vesture of wear,
Outspreading the heavens on heavens,
As the tremulous veil of a curtain.
Of His lofty chamber of Presence
On the floor of the waters above.
—Who setteth the clouds
Thick-encompassing, dense,
For the battle-car of His march.
—Who walketh on wings of the wind,
Who maketh His angels
As swift as the sweep of the storm-winds,
As strong as the flame of the fire.
II
Thou hast built up the marvellous buildingOf earth on foundations that shall not
Be shaken for ever and aye;
Thou didst mantle it once with the deep,
Sheer up o'er the hills stood the waters,
—They recoil'd because Thou didst chide them.
From the crashing voice of Thy thunder
They trembled and hasted away;
Ascended the mountains,
Descended the valleys,
To the place Thou hadst founded for them:
The line of their border Thou settest
Must never return in their anger,
To mantle the wide earth again.
III
Thou sendest in freedom awayThe bright springs into the river;
In the glens, the mountains between,
They walk for ever and aye.
They give drink to each beast of the field;
The wild asses quench the fierce fire
Of the thirst that is on them therein.
Beside them the fowl of the heaven
Abide; and out from among
The Apriling green of the branches
They give earth the gift of a voice.
From Thy lofty chamber of Presence
Thou makest the mountain to drink.
By the fruitful issue that comes
Of Thy works, the earth shall be filled.
Green herb for the service of man,
To bring forth bread from the earth,
And wine shall give gleams of its gladness
To man's heart, and brighten his face
Beyond all the richness of oil,
And man's heart the bread will uphold.
The happy trees of the Lord
Stand satisfied, even the cedars
Lebanonian, planted by Him;
There the chirping birds build their nests;
But the good and home-loving stork—
Her house the cypresses are.
The mountains, earth's high ones, uplifted
Are there for the wild goats to climb,
And the crags are a refuge for conies.
IV
He made the wan yellow moonTo mark the vespers for aye
And the bright sun, that knoweth so well
His unfailing succession of sunsets.
Thou settest the darkness. Comes night,
And in it will creep
All the teeming life of the thicket.
The young lions roar for their prey,
And seek for their food from their God.
Breaks forth at his bright birth the sun.
They gather and muster themselves,
And in their lairs they crouch down.
Man goes forth to his work,
To his service until the evening.
V
How many Thy works—O Jehovah!In wisdom all of them made.
The earth is full to the utmost
Of an ample possession of Thine:
And yonder, the sea that is grand
And wide with its infinite spaces.
The little lives and the vast.
There the stately ships walk on,
And there the whale Thou hast fashioned
To take his pastime therein.
VI
Hush'd in expectance, all theseLook forth and wait upon Thee,
To give them their food in its season;
And ever Thou givest it freely:
Thou openest divinely Thy Hand—
They are satisfied fully with good!
But when Thou hidest Thy face,
They are troubled, and restlessly shudder.
Their spirits Thou gatherest in,
They breathe out the breath of their life,
And unto their dust will return.
—Thou wilt send forth
In solemn procession Thy Spirit,
And the work of creation will grow,
And Thou wilt make young and renew
The sorrow-worn face of the earth.
VII
His glory shall be through the ages,The Lord shall be glad in His works.
If He do but look on the earth,
It trembles exceedingly sore.
If He touch the mountains, they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord in my life.
I will lift up psalms to my God
While my soul can call itself I.
My thought shall be sweet in His sight.
I will be glad in the Lord.
From this fair earth the sinner shall cease,
And yet in the space of the years
The wicked shall not be there.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Hallelujah.
‘This beautiful Psalm is at once felt to be a poetical imitation of the first chapter of Genesis. But the writer does not propose to give a bare recital of facts. He wishes to found upon them the praise of the Creator. As Moses divides the work of God into six days, the poet traces six pictures. The first corresponds to the First Day's work. God made the Light. But the poet speaks, not of the physical creation of the light, but of light considered as a symbol of the Divine Majesty.’ Reuss, in loc.
[HEBREW], leafage, from a root [HEBREW], to be luxuriantly covered with leaves and flowers. (Aram. [HEBREW], Arab. [HEBREW]. Cf. April. See Fuerst, Concord. Hebr., p. 852.)
‘This delightful picture of nature, just twice the length of the previous strophe, is more deeply interesting, because it is almost unique in the Old Testament. Oriental poetry in general, and even classical poetry, is not in the habit of drinking deeply from this inexhaustible source of beauty. —Reuss, in loc.
To a religious Hebrew it was rather the moon than the sun which marked the seasons, as the calendar of the Church was regulated by it.
Literally, of the abiding continuance, the immortality of species; spiritually, of the resurrection of dead souls and of the great renovation ever in progress.
‘As the author did not wish to stop with the idea of the Sabbath-rest, the seventh strophe is consecrated to a poetic peroration. It is linked to the last verse of the first chapter of Genesis, which says that God saw that everything He had made was very good.’—Reuss.
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