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Psalms

About this book
Psalm 104

1 Praise the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are magnificent. You are robed in splendor and majesty. 2 He covers himself with light as if it were a garment. He stretches out the skies like a tent curtain⁠ 3 and lays the beams on water in his upper rooms3. He makes the clouds his chariot and travels on the wings of the wind.⁠ 4 He makes the winds his messengers⁠ and the flaming fire his attendant.⁠ 5 He established the earth on its foundations; it will never be moved. 6 The watery deep covered it like a garment; the waters reached above the mountains. 7 Your shout made the waters retreat; at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off— 8 as the mountains rose up and the valleys went down—to the place you appointed for them. 9 You set up a boundary for them that they could not cross, so that they would not cover the earth again.⁠ 10 He turns springs into streams; they flow between the mountains. 11 They provide water for all the animals in the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. 12 The birds of the sky live beside them; they chirp among the bushes. 13 He waters the mountains from the upper rooms of his palace; the earth is full of the fruit you cause to grow. 14 He provides grass for the cattle and crops for people to cultivate, so they can produce food from the ground 15 as well as wine that makes people glad, and olive oil to make their faces shine as well as bread that sustains them. 16 The trees of the Lord receive all the rain they need, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted, 17 where the birds make nests near the evergreens in which the herons live. 18 The wild goats live in the high mountains; the rock badgers find safety in the cliffs. 19 He made the moon to mark the months, and the sun sets according to a regular schedule.⁠ 20 You make it dark and night comes, during which all the beasts of the forest prowl around.⁠ 21 The lions roar for prey, seeking their food from God. 22 When the sun rises, they withdraw and sleep in their dens. 23 People then go out to do their work, and they labor until evening. 24 How many living things you have made, O Lord! You have exhibited great skill in making all of them;⁠ the earth is full of the living things you have made. 25 Over here is the deep, wide sea, which teems with innumerable swimming creatures, living things both small and large. 26 The ships travel there, and over here swims Leviathan35 you made to play in it.⁠ 27 All your creatures wait for you to provide them with food on a regular basis. 28 You give food to them and they receive it; you open your hand and they are filled with food. 29 When you ignore them, they panic. When you take away their life’s breath, they die and return to dust.⁠ 30 When you send your life-giving breath, they are created, and you replenish the surface of the ground. 31 May the splendor of the Lord endure. May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made. 32 He looks down on the earth and it shakes; he touches the mountains and they start to smolder. 33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God as long as I exist. 34 May my thoughts be pleasing to him. I will rejoice in the Lord. 35 May sinners disappear from the earth, and the wicked vanish. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord.

Texts in conversation

Compare Psalm 104:29 and Job 34:14

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Psalm 104 and Job 34 share similar language, based on Genesis, that describes how life depends on the divine gift of breath and returns to dust when it is withdrawn. Both use this imagery to describe mortality and the cycle of creation and decay.

Passages

Psalm 104:29

Hebrew Bible
27 All your creatures wait for you to provide them with food on a regular basis. 28 You give food to them and they receive it; you open your hand and they are filled with food. 29 When you ignore them, they panic. When you take away their life’s breath, they die and return to dust. 30 When you send your life-giving breath, they are created, and you replenish the surface of the ground. 31 May the splendor of the Lord endure. May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made.
600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

Job 34:14

Hebrew Bible
12 Indeed, in truth, God does not act wickedly, and the Almighty does not pervert justice. 13 Who entrusted to him the earth? And who put him over the whole world? 14 If God were to set his heart on it, and gather in his spirit and his breath, 15 all flesh would perish together, and human beings would return to dust. 16 “If you have understanding, listen to this, hear what I have to say.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Job

References

"... God’s sovereign control over death itself is affirmed in another parallel, Job 34:14–15 / Ecclesiastes 12:7 and 3:20, cited by both Dhorme and Schoors ... The idea of the human spirit or breath being gathered is also found in Psalm 104:29: “when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.” ... The verbal correspondence between Job 34:14–15 and Psalm 104:29 is so close and extensive, including the use “die” (eight times in Job), that some type of dependence seems likely here, one text either expanding or abbreviating the other. This raises the question of whether Ecclesiastes has been influenced here by Psalm 104 rather than by Job 34. (Both Ecclesiastes 3:20 and Psalm 104:29, as well as Genesis 3:19, use the directive preposition ...) The expression “and the breath returns to God who gave it” in Ecclesiastes 12:7, which may recall Ecclesiastes 3:21, “the human spirit goes upward,” is a more passive way to say “If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath,” as in Job. Job 34:15 admittedly more closely parallels Ecclesiastes 3:20, but it is likely that both Ecclesiastes 3:20 and 12:7 are dependent rather on Genesis 3:19 ..."
Richard L. Schultz, “Job and Ecclesiastes: Intertextuality and a Protesting Pair,” in Reading Job Intertextually, ed. Katharine Dell and Will Kynes (New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013), 190–203.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Psalm 104:29 and Job 34:14

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