Psalms 104:1. Greatness, if you look at it as something separate from you, and away, still more if you have a consciousness that it may be against you, is a matter of awe and terror. If you mingle it with yourself, as a part of yourself, and yourself a part of it, greatness, becoming a possession,... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:1 Nature has two great revelations: that of use and that of beauty; and the first thing we observe about these two characteristics of hers is that they are bound together and tied to each other. The beauty of nature is not, as it were, a fortunate accident, which can be separated from her... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:2 I. There are two kinds of mystery: a mystery of darkness and a mystery of light. With the mystery of darkness we are familiar. Of the mystery of light we have not thought, perhaps, so much. With all deep things the deeper light brings new mysteriousness. The mystery of light is the priv... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:4 Consider what is implied in the text. I. What a number of beautiful and wonderful objects does nature present on every side of us, and how little we know concerning them! Why do rivers flow? Why does rain fall? Why does the sun warm us? And the wind why does it blow? Here our natural r... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:10 I. The incessant murmur of the mountain spring in the solitude speaks to the ear of the thoughtful of the wonderful rhythm of the universe. That spring seems the wayward child of uncertain parents; and yet it wells up with every beat of the pulse of nature, as it has welled up for thou... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:13 The Bible tells us not to be religious, but to be godly. Because we think that people ought to be religious, we talk a great deal about religion; because we hardly think at all that a man ought to be godly, we talk very little about God: and that good old Bible word "godliness" does n... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:17 I. Nature, in all her departments, is a system of mutual accommodation. Every object affords hospitality to every other object. Nature places before us, in the kind shelter which the larger and more richly endowed objects afford to the smaller and poorer, a silent picture of what shou... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:20 I. Consider, with respect and admiration, the manful, cheerful view of pain and death, and indeed of the whole creation, which the psalmist has, because he has faith. There is in him no sentimentalism, no complaining of God, no impious, or at least weak and peevish, cry of "Why hast Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:20 I. "Thou makest darkness." Darkness is a part of Divine order; at least, in the physical universe it is so: and I suppose in this respect, as in all other respects, the material universe represents the spiritual. Universal darkness is a house for light. Darkness is that upon which or... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:23 It has been pretended by some teachers that works were only required under the Law, and grace comes instead under the Gospel; but the true account of the matter is this, that the Law enjoined works, and the grace of the Gospel fulfils them. The Law commanded, but gave no power; the Go... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:24 I. Surely the man who wrote this Psalm must have thought very differently about this world, with its fields and woods, its beasts and birds, from what we think. David looked on the earth as God's earth. We look on it as man's earth, or nobody's earth. To David the earth spoke of God,... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:30 I. The first voice we hear speaks directly for God for the Divine existence and presence with us in His works. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God." Nature says in _her_heart, and in every colour and feature of her flushing face, "There is a God, and He is here!" II. Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:31 I. In God, in the ever-blessed Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Ghost we and every living thing live, and move, and have our being. He is the Infinite, whom nothing, however huge, and vast, and strong, can comprehend; that is, take in and limit. He takes in and limits all things, giving... [ Continue Reading ]
Psalms 104:34 Meditation is the calm and quiet dwelling of the mind upon a great fact till that fact has time to get into the mind and pervade it with its influence. Meditation is the quiet thinking on single truths, the steady setting of attentive thought drawn away from other things and concentra... [ Continue Reading ]