Psalm 104

Commonplace –

“Bless the Lord, O my soul”

“I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have being. My meditation of Him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord” (Psalm 104:1, 33-34).

Psalm 104:1 echoes the words of Psalm 103:1. The psalmist is calling himself to worship. Matthew Henry compares the two psalms in the following way:

“It is very probable that this psalm [104] was penned by the same hand, and at the same time, as the former [103]; for as that ended this begins, with “Bless the Lord, O my soul!” and concludes with it too. The style indeed is somewhat different because the matter is so: the scope of the foregoing psalm [103] was to celebrate the goodness of God and his tender mercy and compassion, to which a soft and sweet style was most agreeable; the scope of this is to celebrate his greatness, and majesty, and sovereign dominion, which out to be done in the most stately and lofty strains of poetry. David, in the former psalm, gave God the glory of his covenant-mercy and love to his own people; in this he gives him the glory of his works of creation and providence, his dominion over, and his bounty to, all the creatures. God is there praised as the God of grace, here as the God of nature. (Henry 512).

Verses 33-34 are a call to the believer to meditate on God and the great works of His hand. Doing so is a blessing, because it puts the world into perspective. It minimizes our troubles and maximizes His dominion over all.

Matthew Henry’s thoughts on verses 33 and 34:

“I will sing unto the Lord, unto the Lord, unto my God, will praise him as Jehovah, the Creator, and as my God, a God in covenant with me, and this not now only, but as long as I live, and while I have my being.” Because we have our being from God, and depend upon him for the support and continuance of it, as long as we live and have our being we must continue to praise God; and when we have no life, no being, on hearth, we hope to have a better life and better being in a better world and there to be doing this work in a better manner and in better company” (Henry on v.33).

“My meditation of him shall be sweet; it shall be fixed and close, it shall be affecting and influencing; and therefore it shall be sweet. Thoughts of God will then be most pleasing, when they are most powerful. Note, Divine meditation is a very sweet duty to all that are sanctified: “I will be glad in the Lord; it shall be a pleasure to me to praise him; I will be glad of all opportunities to set forth his glory; and I will rejoice in the Lord always and in him only.” All my joys shall centre in him, and in him they shall be full” (Henry on v. 34) (Henry 517).

Psalms 103 and 104 are terrific lessons on how to stir up one’s soul to praise God aright.

Works Cited

Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 104.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

© 2025 Angela Hormberg