Who laid the foundations of the earth— Who hath built the earth upon her bases. Bishop Lowth, in his 8th Prelection, of images taken from things sacred, observes, that we have a remarkable example hereof in this psalm. "The exordium (says he) is peculiarly magnificent, wherein the majesty of God is described, so far as we can investigate and comprehend it from the admirable construction of nature: in which passage, as it was for the most part necessary to use translatitious images, the sacred poet has principally applied those which would be esteemed by the Hebrews the most elevated and worthy such an argument; for they all, as it deems to me, are taken from the tabernacle. We will give the passage verbally, with a short explication. In the first place he expresses the greatness of God in proper words; then he uses metaphorical ones:
לבשׁת׃ והדר הוד hod vehadar labashta Thou hast put on honour and majesty:
לבשׁת labashta is a word very frequently used in the dress of the priests.
Covering himself with light as with a garment:
A manifest symbol of the divine presence; the light, conspicuous in the holiest, is pointed out under the same idea; and from this single example a simile is educed to express the ineffable glory of God generally and universally.
כיריעה׃ שׁמים נוטח noteh shamaiim kaiieriah. Stretching out the heavens like a curtain:
The word יריעה, rendered curtain, is that which denotes the curtains, or covering of the whole tabernacle.
עליותיו במים המקרה hammekareh bammaiim aliiothaiv. Laying the beams of his chambers in the waters.
The sacred writer expresses the wonderful nature of the air, aptly and regularly constructed from various and flux elements into one continued and stable series, by a metaphor drawn from the singular formation of the tabernacle; which, consisting of many different parts, and easily reparable when there was need, was kept together by a perpetual juncture and contiguation of them all together. The poet goes on:
רכובו עבים השׂם hassam abiim rekubo. רוח כנפי על המהלךֶ hammehallek al kanpei ruach. Making the clouds his chariot; Walking upon the wings of the wind.
He had first expressed an image of the divine majesty, such as it resided in the holy of holies, discernible by a certain investiture of the most splendid light. He now denotes the same from that sight of itself, which the divine majesty exhibited, when it moved together with the ark, sitting on a circumambient cloud, and carried on high through the air: the seat of the divine presence is even called by the sacred historians, as its proper name, המרכבה hamerchabah, that is, a chariot.
Causing the winds to be his angels. And the flaming fire to be in the place of his ministers. רוחות מלאכיו עשׂה ouseh malaakaiv ruchoth. להט׃ אשׁ משׁרתיו meshartaiv eish lohet.
The elements are described prompt and expedite to perform the divine commands, like angels or ministers serving in the tabernacle; the Hebrew משׁרתיו mashartaiv, being a word most common in the sacred ministrations.
מכוניה על ארצ יסד iasad erets al mekoneihah. He hath also founded the earth upon its bases:
This also is manifestly taken from the same. The poet adds,
ועד עולם תמוט בל bal timmot olam vanged. That it should not be removed for ever:
That is, till the time appointed according to the will of God. As the condition of each was the same in this respect; so the stability of the sanctuary, in turn, is in almost the same words elsewhere compared with the stability of the earth."