Psalm 104:31 NKJV
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
May the Lord rejoice in His works.
Charles Spurgeon
“The glory of the LORD shall endure forever.” His works may pass away, but not his glory. Were it only for what he has already done, the Lord deserves to be praised without ceasing. His personal being and character ensure that he would be glorious even were all the creatures dead.
“The LORD shall rejoice in his works.” He did so at the first, when he rested on the seventh day, and saw that everything was very good; he does so still in a measure where beauty and purity in nature still survive the Fall, and he will do so yet more fully when the earth is renovated, and the trail of the serpent is cleansed from the globe. This verse is written in the most glowing manner. The poet finds his heart gladdened by beholding the works of the Lord, and he feels that the Creator himself must have felt unspeakable delight in exercising so much wisdom, goodness, and power.
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Enduring Word
May the glory of the LORD endure forever: As the psalmist considered the power and wisdom of God in all creation, it made him long for His glory to endure forever. (Guzik)
May the LORD rejoice in His works: The psalmist also wanted God to find pleasure in what He had created. This implies that His creatures that are gifted with rational choice (such as humanity) should deliberately choose to give God reasons to rejoice in His works. (Guzik)
i. “This is perhaps the highest and most daring note in all this wonderful song of praise. So impressed with the glory and wonder and beauty of creation was the singer, that he positively called upon God to rejoice in what He had wrought.” (Morgan)
ii. “As he did at the creation when he saw all to be good, and very good; so still, it doth God good, as it were, to see the poor creatures feed, and men to give him the honor of all.” (Trapp)
iii. “There is nothing irreverent in this. It is rather an expression of the soul’s profound understanding of what God actually feels in view of His own mighty and marvelous works.” (Morgan)
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Barnes
The glory of the Lord shall endure forever – Margin, as in Hebrew, “shall be.” It might be rendered, “Let the glory of the Lord be forever,” implying a strong desire that it should be so. But the language may denote a strong conviction that it would be so. The mind of the writer was filled with wonder at the beauty and variety of the works of God on the land, in the air, and in the waters; and he exclaims, with a heart full of admiration, that the glory of a Being who had made all these things could never cease, but must endure forever. All the glory of man would pass away; all the monuments that he would rear would be destroyed; all the works of art executed by him must perish; but the glory of One who had made the earth, and filled it with such wonders, could not but endure forever and ever.
The Lord shall rejoice in his works – See Genesis 1:31. The idea here is, that God finds pleasure in the contemplation of his own works; in the beauty and order of creation; and in the happiness which he sees as the result of his work of creation. There is no impropriety in supposing that God finds pleasure in the manifestation of the wisdom, the power, the goodness, the mercy, and the love of his own glorious nature.
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John Gill
The glory of the Lord shall endure forever,…. The glory which arises from the works of his hands, which is due unto him, and shall be given him; this is opposed to the perishing and fading glory of all created beings: and as Christ is the person spoken of throughout the whole psalm, this may be understood of his glory as the only begotten of the Father; and which is equal to his Father’s glory, and is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and of the glory of his office as Mediator: and of all his works of nature and grace, of creation and redemption: nor will there be creatures wanting, angels and men to glorify his name, to all eternity. The Targum, Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions render it as a prayer, “let the glory of the Lord be forever”; or, let him be forever glorified, on account of the perfections of his nature, and the works of his hands; as he will and ought to be.
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Matthew Henry
As a great God, and a God of matchless perfection: The glory of the Lord shall endure forever, v. 31. It shall endure to the end of time in his works of creation and providence; it shall endure to eternity in the felicity and adorations of saints and angels. Man’s glory is fading; God’s glory is everlasting. Creatures change, but with the Creator, there is no variableness.
As a gracious God: The Lord shall rejoice in his works. He continues that complacency in the products of his own wisdom and goodness which he had when he saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good, and rested the seventh day. We often do that which, upon the review, we cannot rejoice in, but are displeased at, and wish undone again, blaming our own management. But God always rejoices in his works, because they are all done in wisdom. We regret our bounty and beneficence, but God never does; he rejoices in the works of his grace: his gifts and callings are without repentance.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 104:31
31 Glory be to the Lord forever: let the Lord rejoyce in his works.
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