1 My soul, bless Jehovah, Jehovah my God, Thou art exceeding great, Thou hast clothed Thyself with honour and majesty; 2 Covering Thyself with light as with a garment, Stretching out the heavens like a curtain. 3 Who lays the beams of His chambers in the waters, Who makes clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind, 4 Making winds His messengers, Flaming fire His servants.
5 He sets fast the earth upon its foundations, [That] it should not be moved for ever and aye. 6 [With] the deep as [with] a garment Thou didst cover it, Above the mountains stood the waters. 7 At Thy rebuke they fled, At the voice of Thy thunder they were scared away. 8 --Up rose the mountains, down sank the valleys-- To the place which Thou hadst founded for them. 9 A bound hast Thou set [that] they should not pass over, Nor return to cover the earth.
10 He sends forth springs into the glens, Between the hills they take their way. 11 They give drink to every beast of the field, The wild asses slake their thirst. 12 Above them dwell the birds of heaven, From between the branches do they give their note. 13 He waters the mountains from His chambers, With the fruit of Thy works the earth is satisfied. 14 He makes grass to spring for the cattle, And the green herb for the service of men, To bring forth bread from the earth, 15 And that wine may gladden the heart of feeble man; To cause his face to shine with oil, And that bread may sustain the heart of feeble man. 16 The trees of Jehovah are satisfied, The cedars of Lebanon which He has planted, 17 Wherein the birds nest; The stork--the cypresses are her house. 18 The high mountains are for the wild goats, The rocks are a refuge for the conies.
19 He has made the moon for (_i.e._, to measure) seasons, The sun knows its going down. 20 Thou appointest darkness and it is night, Wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth. 21 The young lions roar for their prey, And to seek from God their meat. 22 The sun rises--they steal away, And lay them down in their dens. 23 Forth goes man to his work And to his labour till evening. 24 How manifold are Thy works, Jehovah! In wisdom hast Thou made them all, The earth is full of Thy possessions. 25 Yonder [is] the sea, great and spread on either hand, There are creeping things without number, Living creatures small and great. 26 There the ships go on, [There is] that Leviathan whom Thou hast formed to sport in it. 27 All these look to Thee, To give their food in its season. 28 Thou givest to them--they gather; Thou openest Thy hand--they are filled [with] good. 29 Thou hidest Thy face--they are panic-struck; Thou withdrawest their breath--they expire, And return to their dust. 30 Thou sendest forth Thy breath--they are created, And Thou renewest the face of the earth.
31 Let the glory of Jehovah endure for ever, Let Jehovah rejoice in His works. 32 Who looks on the earth and it trembles, He touches the mountains and they smoke. 33 Let me sing to Jehovah while I live, Let me harp to my God while I have being. 34 Be my meditation sweet to Him! I, I will rejoice in Jehovah. 35 Be sinners consumed from the earth, And the wicked be no more! Bless Jehovah, my soul! Hallelujah!
Like the preceding psalm, this one begins and ends with the psalmist's call to his soul to bless Jehovah. The inference has been drawn that both psalms have the same author, but that is much too large a conclusion from such a fact. The true lesson from it is that Nature, when looked at by an eye that sees it to be full of God, yields material for devout gratitude no less than do His fatherly "mercies to them that fear Him." The key-note of the psalm is struck in ver. 24, which breaks into an exclamation concerning the manifoldness of God's works and the wisdom that has shaped them all. The psalm is a gallery of vivid Nature-pictures, touched with wonderful grace and sureness of hand. Clearness of vision and sympathy with every living thing make the swift outlines inimitably firm and lovely. The poet's mind is like a crystal mirror, in which the Cosmos is reflected. He is true to the uniform Old Testament point of view, and regards Nature neither from the scientific nor æsthetic standpoint. To him it is the garment of God, the apocalypse of a present Deity, whose sustaining energy is but the prolongation of His creative act. All creatures depend on Him; His continuous action is their life. He rejoices in His works. The Creation narrative in Genesis underlies the psalm, and is in the main followed, though not slavishly.