Psalms 104:16 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

The trees of the Lord - From the grass, from the herb, from the vine, and from bread, as adapted to sustain the living beings upon the earth, the psalmist passes to the more lofty and grand productions of the vegetable world - to those which display more manifestly the power of God, and which furnish abodes and retreats for the various orders of living beings. The phrase “the trees of the Lord” means great and magnificent trees - as the expression “mountains of God” means great and lofty mountains - as if they seemed to “approach” God, or as if no appellation would so well describe their nature as that which was derived from the Infinite One. See Psalms 36:6, note; Psalms 65:9, note; Psalms 80:10, note.

Are full of sap - The word so rendered means merely to be full, to be saturated - the words “of sap” being supplied by the translators. The idea is, that, lofty as they are, they are abundantly supplied with that which is necessary to their growth. There is no want - no lack - of that which is needful to supply them. They flourish, sustained abundantly by that which is derived from the earth and the waters.

The cedars of Lebanon - As among the loftiest and most magnificent productions of the earth. See Psalms 29:5, note; Psalms 92:12, note; Isaiah 2:13, note.

Which he hath planted - So lofty and large, that it would seem as if none could plant them but the Almighty.

Psalms 104:16

16 The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted;