Psalm 104:24-25 NKJV
O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions—
25
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
Charles Spurgeon
“O LORD, how manifold are thy works.” They are not only many for number but manifold for variety. Mineral, vegetable, animal—what: a range of works is suggested by these three names! No two even of the same class are exactly alike, and the classes are more numerous than science can number. Works in the heavens above and in the earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth, works which abide the ages, works which come to perfection and pass away in a year, works which with all their beauty do not outlive a day, works within works, and works within these—who can number one of a thousand? God is the great worker and ordainer of variety. It is ours to study his works, for they are great, and sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. The kingdom of grace contains as manifold and as great works as that of nature, but the chosen of the Lord alone discern them.
“In wisdom hast thou made them all,” or wrought them all. They are all his works, wrought by his own power, and they all display his wisdom. It was wise to make them—none could be spared; every link is essential to the chain of nature—wild beasts as much as men, poisons as truly as odoriferous herbs. They are wisely made—each one fits its place, fills it, and is happy in so doing. As a whole, the “all” of creation is a wise achievement, and however it may be checkered with mysteries, and clouded with terrors, it all works together for good, and as one complete harmonious piece of workmanship it answers the great Worker’s end.
“The earth is full of thy riches.” It is not a poor house, but a palace; not a hungry ruin, but a well-filled store house. The Creator has not set his creatures down in a dwelling place where the table is bare, and the buttery empty, he has filled the earth with food; and not with bare necessaries only, but with riches—dainties, luxuries, beauties, treasures. In the bowels of the earth are hidden mines of wealth, and on her surface are teeming harvests of plenty. All these riches are the Lord’s; we ought to call them not “the wealth of nations,” but “thy riches” O Lord! Not in one clime alone are these riches of God to be found, but in all lands—even the Arctic ocean has its precious things which men endure much hardness to win, and the burning sun of the equator ripens a produce which flavors the food of all mankind. If his house below is so full of riches what must his house above be, where
The very streets are paved with gold
Exceeding clear and fine?
“So is this great and wide sea.” He gives an instance of the immense number and variety of Jehovah’s works by pointing to the sea. “Look,” saith he, “at yonder ocean, stretching itself on both hands and embracing so many lands, it too swarms with animal life, and in its deeps lie treasures beyond all counting. The heathen made the sea a different province from the land and gave the command thereof to Neptune, but we know of a surety that Jehovah rules the waves.”
“Wherein, are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts;” read moving things and animals small and great, and you have the true sense. The number of minute forms of animal life is indeed beyond all reckoning: when a single phosphorescent wave may bear millions of infusoria, and around a fragment of rock armies of microscopic beings may gather, we renounce all idea of applying arithmetic to such a case. The sea in many regions appears to be all alive as if every drop were a world. Nor are these tiny creatures the only tenants of the sea, for it contains gigantic mammals which exceed in bulk those which range the land, and a vast host of huge fishes which wander among the waves, and hide in the caverns of the sea as the tiger lurks in the jungle, or the lion roams the plain. Truly, O Lord, thou makest the sea to be as rich in the works of thy hands as the land itself.
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Barnes
Verse 24
O Lord, how manifold are thy works! – literally, “how many.” The reference is to the “number” and the “variety” of the works of God, and to the wisdom displayed in them all. The earth is not suited up merely for one class of inhabitants, but for an almost endless variety, and the wisdom of God is manifested alike in the number and in the variety. No one can estimate the “number” of beings God has made on the earth; no one can comprehend the richness of the variety. By day the air, the earth, the waters swarm with life – life struggling everywhere as if no place was to be left unoccupied; even for the dark scenes of night countless numbers of beings have been created; and, in all this immensity of numbers, there is an endless variety. No two are alike. Individuality is everywhere preserved, and the mind is astonished and confounded alike at the numbers and the variety.
In wisdom hast thou made them all – That is, Thou hast adapted each and all to the different ends contemplated in their creation. Anyone of these beings shows the wisdom of God in its formation, and in its adaptations to the ends of its existence; how much more is that wisdom displayed in these countless numbers, and in this endless variety!
The earth is full of thy riches – Hebrew, “possessions.” So the Septuagint and the Vulgate. That is, these various objects thus created are regarded as the “possession” of God; or, they belong to him, as the property of a man belongs to himself. The psalmist says that this wealth or property abounds everywhere; the earth is full of it.
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John Gill
The earth is full of thy riches: or possessions; for as the Lord is the maker, he is the proprietor and the possessor of heaven and earth, and all that is in them, and can and does dispose thereof as seems good in his sight; and whatever of the riches and good things of the earth men may have, they are only stewards, the Lord is the rightful owner and possessor of them; see Genesis 14:19, with which compare Psalm 33:5
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Matthew Henry
In the midst of this discourse the psalmist breaks out into wonder at the works of God (v. 24): O Lord! how manifold are thy works! They are numerous, they are various, of many kinds, and many of every kind; and yet in wisdom hast thou made them all. When men undertake many works, and of different kinds, commonly some of them are neglected and not done with due care; but God’s works, though many and of very different kinds, are all made in wisdom and with the greatest exactness; there is not the least flaw nor defect in them. The works of art, the more closely they are looked upon with the help of microscopes, the more rough they appear; the works of nature through these glasses appear more fine and exact. They are all made in wisdom, for they are all made to answer the end they were designed to serve, the good of the universe, in order to the glory of the universal Monarch.
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Clarke
Verse 24
Verse Psalms 104:24. O Lord, how manifold are thy works — In this verse there are three propositions:
1. The works of the Lord are multitudinous and varied.
2. They are so constructed as to show the most consummate wisdom in their design, and in the end for which they are formed.
3. They are all God’s property and should be used only in reference to the end for which they were created.
All abuse and waste of God’s creatures are spoil and robbery on the property of the Creator. On this verse Mr. Ray has published an excellent work, entitled, “The Wisdom of God in the Creation,” which the reader will do well, not only to consult, but carefully to read over and study.
Verse 25
Verse Psalms 104:25. This great and wide sea — The original is very emphatic: זה הים גדול ורחב ידים zeh haiyam gadol urechab yadayim, “This very sea, great and extensive of hands.” Its waters, like arms, encompassing all the terrene parts of the globe. I suppose the psalmist was within sight of the Mediterranean when he wrote these words.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 104:24-25
24 O Lord, how n manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is ful of thy riches.
25 So is this sea great and wide: for therein are things creeping innumerable, both small beasts and great.
n He confesses that no tongue is able to express God’s works, nor mind to comprehend them.
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Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:20-21 NKJV
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