Psalms 104:27-30 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

These all Both beasts and fishes, wait upon thee Expect supplies from thy providence: which is spoken of them figuratively, and with an allusion to the manner of tame beasts and fowls, which commonly look after and wait upon those persons who bring their food to them. That thou mayest give them their meat, &c. When it is necessary or convenient for them. That thou givest them they gather Whatsoever they receive is from the bounty of thy gift, and they do their part for the obtaining of it: what thou placest within their reach they gather, and expect not that thy providence should put it into their mouths; and with what they gather they are satisfied. For when thou openest thy hand To supply their wants, they are filled with good And desire no more than what thou seest fit to give them. Thou hidest thy face Withdrawest, or suspendest the favour and care of thy providence; they are troubled Dejected and distressed through want and misery. Thou takest away their breath Which is in thy hand, and then, and not till then, they die and return to their dust To the earth, from whence they had their original. Thou sendest forth thy spirit That spirit by which they live, which may be called God's spirit, because given and preserved by him. Or rather, that quickening power of God, by which he produces and preserves life in the creatures from time to time. For he speaks not here of the first creation, but of the continued production and preservation of living creatures. They are created That is, either, 1st, The same living creatures, which were languishing and dying, are strangely revived and restored. Or, 2d, Other living creatures are produced or generated; the word created being taken in its largest sense, for the production of things by second causes. And thou renewest the face of the earth And thus, by thy wise and powerful providence, thou preservest the succession of living creatures upon the earth, which otherwise would be desolate and without inhabitants. It is justly observed here, by Dr. Dodd, that “the ideas in these verses can be excelled by nothing, but by the concise elegance of the expressions;” which convey to the human mind the most sublime and awful conceptions of that Almighty Being who does but open his hand, and the creatures are filled with good; does but hide his face, and they are troubled and die; does but send forth his Spirit, and they are created.