Psalms 104:30 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Thy spirit; either,

1. That spirit by which they live, which is called the spirit of a beast, Ecclesiastes 3:21, which is called their breath or spirit, (for the word is the same there and here,)Psalms 104:29, and here may be called God's spirit, because it was given and preserved by him. Or rather,

2. Thy quickening spirit; for here seems to be an opposition between their spirit, Psalms 104:29, and thy spirit here, and this latter is mentioned as the creating or productive cause of the former. And this may be understood either,

1. Of the Holy Ghost; to whom, no less than to the Father and the Son, the work of creation is ascribed, Job 33:4 Psalms 33:6. Or rather,

2. That quickening power of God by which he produceth life in the creatures from time to time. For he speaks not here of the first creation, but of the continued and repeated production of living creatures. They are created; either,

1. The same living creatures which were languishing and dying are strangely revived and restored; which may not unfitly be called a creation, as that word is sometimes used, because it is in a manner the giving of a new life and being to a creature. Or,

Psalms 104:30

30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.