Psalms 104:17-35: a reflection

17where the birds make their nests. The stork makes its home in the cypress trees. 18The high mountains are for the wild goats. The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers. 19He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set. 20You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl. 21The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God. 22The sun rises, and they steal away, and lie down in their dens. 23Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening. 24LORD, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches. 25There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals. 26There the ships go, and leviathan, whom you formed to play there. 27These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. 28You give to them; they gather. You open your hand; they are satisfied with good. 29You hide your face; they are troubled. You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust. 30You send out your Spirit and they are created. You renew the face of the ground. 31Let the LORD’s glory endure forever. Let the LORD rejoice in his works. 32He looks at the earth, and it trembles. He touches the mountains, and they smoke. 33I will sing to the LORD as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have any being. 34Let my meditation be sweet to him. I will rejoice in the LORD. 35Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. Let the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD!

This part of the psalm sweeps across the whole living world, birds in the cypress, wild goats on the crags, young lions roaring for their prey, people heading out to their work, the wide sea teeming with creatures, and even leviathan at play. And then it gathers them all into one dependence: these all look to you to give them their food in due season. You open your hand, they are satisfied.

Notice how the psalm levels everything under that open hand. The lion and the bird, the sea creature and the working man, all of them, without exception, receive their life and their food not from themselves but from God, day by day. You open your hand, they are filled; you hide your face, they are dismayed; you take away their breath, they die; you send your Spirit, they are made new. Every creature lives moment by moment on what God gives.

That includes you. In a world where we imagine we provide for ourselves, the psalm quietly puts us back among the creatures, fed from the same open hand as the lions and the birds. Your breath, your daily bread, your very life, are gifts continually given, not achievements you secured. There is deep rest and gratitude in seeing it this way. You do not sustain yourself; God opens his hand, and you are satisfied. Receive today's provision from that hand, and give thanks.

Lord, you open your hand and every creature is satisfied, and I am one of them. Forgive me for imagining I sustain myself. My breath, my bread, my life are your continual gifts. Teach me to receive today from your open hand with gratitude and rest.