_A meditation upon the mighty power, and wonderful providence of
God.—God’s glory is eternal.—The prophet voweth perpetually to praise
God._
Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou
art clothed with honour and majesty:
Who coverest _thyself_ with light as _with_ a garment; who stretchest
out the heavens like a curtain;
Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters; who maketh the
clouds his chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the wind;
Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire;
_Who_ laid the foundations of the earth, _that_ it should not be
removed for ever.
Thou coveredst it with the deep as _with_ a garment; the waters stood
above the mountains.
At thy rebuke they fled: at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys, unto the
place which thou hast founded for them.
Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over, that they turn not
again to cover the earth.
He sendeth the springs into the valleys, _which_ run among the hills.
They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench
their thirst.
By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, _which_
sing among the branches.
He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with
the fruit of thy works.
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service
of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
And wine _that_ maketh glad the heart of man, _and_ oil to make _his_
face to shine, and bread _which_ strengthened man’s heart.
The trees of the LORD are full _of sap_: the cedars of Lebanon, which
he hath planted;
Where the birds make their nests: _as for_ the stork, the fir-trees
_are_ her house.
The high hills _are_ a refuge for the wild goats, _and_ the rocks for
the conies.
He appointed the moon for seasons: the sun knoweth his going down.
Thou makest darkness, and it is night, wherein all the beasts of the
forest do creep _forth_.
The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God.
The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and lay them down in
their dens.
Man goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour, until the evening.
O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all:
the earth is full of thy riches;
_So is_ this great and wide sea, wherein _are_ things creeping
innumerable, both small and great beasts.
There go the ships; _there is_ that leviathan, _whom_ thou hast made
to play therein.
These wait all upon thee, that them mayest give _them_ their meat in
due season.
_That_ thou givest them, they gather; thou openest thine hand, they
are filled with good.
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their
breath, they die, and return to their dust.
Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the
face of the earth.
The glory of the LORD shall endure for ever: the LORD shall rejoice in
his works.
He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, and
they smoke.
I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my
God while I have my being.
My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the LORD.
Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no
more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.
This is a most spiritual song and a Psalm of glory to God. It is drawn
out of the First Commandment: and with a grand enumeration of all the
creatures of God, it sets forth and exalts the whole work of creation.
By this recounting of the works of creation the Psalmist’s design is
to show, that all the creatures, whether those in the heavens, those
in the earth, or those in the sea, are monuments of the goodness of
God. And what orator or what poet ever has existed, or ever will
exist, with an eloquence adequate to describe the infinite use and
benefits of even one creature of God. If any one of those creatures
were gifted with speech, so as to declare its own nature and value, it
would praise God with a thousand tongues. Not only, therefore, the
whole of God’s works together, as one glorious universe, but each one
creature, if you would explain its nature and use, exceeds all the
eloquence of men and angels.
What philosopher or sage could even open or utter the extent of the
use and blessings of common light, in which we live? What one of them
could ever explain what that is which we call light, in which we all
breathe, all are nourished, and all live; by which the night and
darkness are dispelled in one short moment; by which the whole
creation is rendered visible, and as it were, recreated; and by which
all creatures, from out of one same obscure darkness, receive each
their proper hues and colours?
Who, again, can recount the benefit and blessings of that one creature
the sun? and then those of the moon? Who can enumerate the blessings
of fire, of water, of fountains and springs? If one creature were
deprived for one short hour of the blessings of fire or of water, you
would in a moment see the wide and infinite benefit of one of those
creatures of God.
But alas! who can even touch one of these creatures with anything like
a due comment or reflection! And yet, when heathen men have
contemplated the whole universe of creatures so diligently, (as we see
it done in Cicero’s second book ‘De Natura Deorum;’) and have thence
gathered and concluded that there exists some eternal Deity who
created and who governs all these things; it would be a shame in one
professing the fear and worship of that God, to be cold and not
affected with these same things, and not to meditate and reflect upon
them.
This Psalm, therefore, is a Psalm of thanksgiving for all the
creatures which God has created, whether in the heavens, in the earth,
or in the sea; and a rendering of thanks unto God also, that he hath
made a covenant with the day and the night, and hath given laws to the
heaven and the earth; laws so certain that they cannot be moved, but
continue in their appointed order. The moon, saith the Psalmist,
distinguished the seasons; the sun knoweth his going down; the day
cometh, and also the night; the summer returns at its appointed time,
and the winter also in its season. Thou fillest, saith he, that
immense space of the heaven with light: thou stretchest out the heaven
itself like a curtain, which resteth not on any beams or columns: and
thou suspendest the mighty range of clouds, at thy word, like a
glorious canopy. The winds rise, and blow over and blow through all
things, having neither wings nor feathers. And the angels whom thou
sendest forth, saith he, fulfil their commands like the winds, and
like a “flame of fire.”
Hence the prophet, as you see, has all these things depicted in his
mind, and his faith is kindled by a meditation on this wonderful and
ineffable work of creation. But, alas! how few, how very few, are
there who thus look into, meditate on, and admire these created
things? Here, therefore, with a view to reprove both the indolence and
the wickedness of certain characters, I cannot help transcribing the
words of Cicero, a heathen, who cites another heathen, Aristotle:
‘Aristotle,’ says Cicero, ‘has most greatly and beautifully spoken
thus. “If there could be men, who had lived under the earth in grand
and noble habitations; habitations adorned with paintings and works of
art, and with all those embellishments which ornament the houses of
those who are now accounted wealthy and happy; and if it could so be
that such subterranean inhabitants had never been above ground, but
had heard by fame and report that there was a certain Deity, and a
certain Almighty power of that Deity; and then if it could so be,
that, at a certain time, the doors of the earth’s surface should be
thrown open, and they should come forth from their subterranean
abysses into these above-ground regions which we inhabit:—when such
men beheld, on a sudden, the earth, the sea, and the heavens; when
they saw the expanded grandeur of the clouds, and felt the mighty
power of the winds; when they looked up to the sun and beheld his
glorious magnitude and his beauty, and knew something of his influence
and efficacy in all creation,—that it is he, who, by diffusing his
light through the whole heaven, makes the day; and when such mortals,
newly admitted on earth, should see by the departure of the sun the
whole creation veiled in the darkness of night, while the whole heaven
was studded and bespangled with stars; and when they saw and
understood the various degrees of the light of the moon, and the
increasings and decreasings of that heavenly body; and the various
risings and settings of all the celestial luminaries; and, finally,
when such astonished and contemplating strangers on the earth’s
surface should know the appointed and never-erring and never-varying
courses and revolutions of all these glorious creatures,—they would,
with one voice, confess that there was a God, and that all these
creatures were the works of that God! But our minds, by daily use,
become insensible to these things; and as we daily see all these
creatures we inquire not their nature, nor wonder at their glory: as
if the novelty of such things, and not their greatness and glory, is
that which should lead us to meditate on their natures, and the ends
of their creation.”’ Thus far Cicero, the heathen! I shall perhaps be
deemed by some a silly man for bringing forth these things out of the
books of a heathen! Let those that would fear God, then, remember what
is required of them!