Chapter One Hundred Three

Immediately after a sincere, inspired, and touching depiction of God’s providence in human destiny, in the moral world, David paints a highly poetic picture of God’s providential activity in the life of the physical world.

Bless, my soul, the Lord, the good Creator and Provider over the world. You have created light, cloud, fire, and all the elements of the physical world (the first and second days of creation, 1–4); you have formed water and earth, and assigned boundaries to both (5–9); you have produced springs, plants, and animals (10–13); you have created what is necessary for the nourishment of cattle and humans, and you have appointed proper dwelling places for all existing things (14–18). By day and night the waters and earth are full of life and movement (19–26), and everything existing lives and is nourished by your gifts and is sustained by your merciful power (27–32). I will always sing praise to the Lord, and let there be no more lawless people on the earth (33–35).

Psalm 103:1. Bless, my soul, the Lord! O Lord, my God! You are wonderfully great; you are clothed in glory and majesty; Psalm 103:2. You clothe yourself in light as in a garment; you stretch out the heavens like a tent; Psalm 103:3. You establish your chambers above the waters; you make clouds your chariot; you stride upon the wings of the wind. Psalm 103:4. You make your angels spirits; your ministers are flaming fire. The Lord is great in all his creation; all objects of the visible world speak of his “greatness and glory”—that is, by their existence, beauty, and variety they silently praise the Lord, appearing as a magnificent external expression of his power. Light appears as his garment, heaven as a tent spread over all the earth; you dwell above the waters (“chambers above”—an upper room, the most honored in Hebrew houses); you govern the clouds, over which you walk (the ancients saw in clouds an image of God’s manifestation), just as over the winds, as a human being over the earth. The elements of the world, such as wind and fire, are as swift and precise executors of your will as the angels themselves. Here are indications of the numerous miracles accomplished by God through external nature, for example, through earthquakes, storms, fire, and so on.

Psalm 103:5. You set the earth on firm foundations; it will not be shaken forever and ever. Psalm 103:6. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. Psalm 103:7. At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they hurry away; Psalm 103:8. They go up the mountains, they go down into the valleys, to the place you appointed for them. Psalm 103:9. You set a boundary that they cannot pass, so they do not return to cover the earth. The history of the earth’s creation is briefly depicted. The earth is established by God immovably; nothing can destroy it and return it to its previous chaotic state, although at the beginning of world creation the solid mass of earth was surrounded by “the deep as with a garment,” so that the peaks of the mountains were covered by water. By the creative command (“at your rebuke,” “at the sound of your thunder”—images of the power of the Divine command) the waters withdrew from the earth, the mountains were revealed, and fields appeared in their appointed places; the waters themselves concentrated within set boundaries, from which they cannot of themselves overflow.

Psalm 103:10. You sent springs into the valleys; they flow between the mountains, Psalm 103:11. They give drink to all the wild animals; the wild asses quench their thirst. Psalm 103:12. Beside them dwell the birds of the sky; they sing from among the branches. Psalm 103:13. You water the mountains from your heights; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your works. But the earth was not completely deprived of water. Springs appeared in the valleys and among the mountains, giving water to all the animals living there and to the wild asses. The latter were numerous in the East and loved to live among the mountains. Around the water sources appeared trees as well, and various birds nest in them, enlivening all the mountains and valleys with their singing.

Psalm 103:14. You make grass grow for the cattle, and plants for human labor, to bring forth food from the earth, Psalm 103:15. and wine that gladdens the human heart, and oil that makes the face shine, and bread that strengthens the human heart. Psalm 103:16. The trees of the Lord are well-watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted; Psalm 103:17. In them the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the firs. Psalm 103:18. The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the rocky crags are a refuge for the badgers. The earth produces grain, wine, and oil for humans; gardens appear in the valleys, and luxuriant cedars on Lebanon; there birds nest, the stork builds its nest highest of all; on the mountains live wild goats, and among the rocks hide badgers. Thus everywhere is life and movement.

Psalm 103:19. He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time of setting. Psalm 103:20. You bring darkness and it becomes night; in it all the beasts of the forest stir about; Psalm 103:21. The lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. Psalm 103:22. When the sun rises, they gather and return to their dens; Psalm 103:23. and humans go out to their work and to their labor until evening. Psalm 103:24. How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. The sun and moon fulfill their appointed purpose by God, serving as indicators of time, and the sun knows its time (“knows its setting”—knows when it sets, when it ceases to shine). When the sun stops shining, night comes, and with it a special kind of life begins; then the predatory animals (lions) and all creatures that dwell in forests and groves come out to seek food appropriate to their instincts and physical nature. With the rising of the sun they hide in their dens; then humans come out with their daily tasks. How majestic and wise is all the world thus arranged by God and full of teeming and diverse life at every moment of day and night!

Psalm 103:25. There is the great and wide sea, in which are creeping things without number, both small animals and great; Psalm 103:26. There the ships go, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it. The sea is likewise full of life: it is impossible to count all the reptiles and various creatures from the small to the great; ships sail upon its surface like great monsters, testifying to the great power of human creative intelligence, and beneath the water plays Leviathan (the crocodile) (see Job 40:20-27), for which neither other water creatures nor even the deep of the seas are fearful.

Psalm 103:27. All of them look to you to give them food in due season. Psalm 103:28. When you give it to them, they gather it; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things; Psalm 103:29. If you hide your face, they are terrified; if you take away their breath, they die and return to dust; Psalm 103:30. When you send your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth. All this diversity of creation depends on God; everything awaits from him food in its proper time, and the Lord gives it to them. But all this world of creatures inevitably perishes when the Lord “hides his face,” does not give them food, and is reborn when the Lord “sends his Spirit,” when he again returns his mercy to all that lives. Here is expressed the exalted teaching about God’s constant providence over the world, which by his power and the gifts he sends, sustains and nourishes all creation.

Psalm 103:31. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works! Psalm 103:32. He looks upon the earth and it trembles; he touches the mountains and they smoke. Psalm 103:33. I will sing to the Lord throughout my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Psalm 103:34. May my meditation be pleasing to him; I will rejoice in the Lord. Psalm 103:35. Let the sinners vanish from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless, my soul, the Lord! Hallelujah! Let there be glory to God from all his creation, which may delight him with its reverence (“may the Lord rejoice”) toward him as the Almighty Being who cares so much (“he looks”) for it (creation) and who is so mighty that he can shake and destroy the earth and raise up mountains, that is, form volcanoes. David concludes the psalm with the wish that this feeble depiction of God’s greatness would be pleasing to him, and that all that is unclean and sinful would vanish from the earth and not defile the holiness of creation. The 102nd psalm is the fifth in the six psalms. Having previously indicated and expounded (Ps 87) the severity and ruin of the state of one rejected by God, the Church here urges people to value and care for their salvation, pointing out through the words of this psalm the great love of God for humanity, his longsuffering and compassion, which gives every sinner the opportunity to hope and seek divine help. The 103rd psalm is called the opening psalm, because with it the beginning of Vespers is established. By pointing out the greatness of creation and God’s providence over it, every person praying is disposed toward serious and attentive regard for all the content of worship, as guidance from the Almighty, all-powerful and loving Being. By the power of its language, its precision, vividness, and imagery of expression, and hence by the special relief of the depiction of its subject, this psalm is considered by many ancient and modern scholars to be remarkable for its artistry as an epic work in all world literature. “Job, the Prophets, Ecclesiastes, and especially the Psalms, are filled with magnificent descriptions.” The Psalm “Bless, my soul, the Lord” represents a masterpiece of this kind... Horace falls far short of this poetry (Chateaubriand). “One can say that Psalm 103 contains the only sketch of the world” (A. von Humboldt).