Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 95:4
In his hand [are] the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills [is] his also.
4. In whose hand are the secret depths of earth,
And to whom the peaks of the mountains belong.
The depths of the earth which cannot be explored by man (Job 38:16; Jer 31:37), the soaring mountain peaks upon which man cannot set his foot, are all under His control.
The meaning of the word for peaks is doubtful; but it probably means eminences (LXX, Jer.) rather than strength.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In his hand – In his power, or under his control as his own. That is, he so possesses all things that they can be claimed by no other. His right over them is absolute and entire.
Are the deep places of the earth – The word used here – mechqar – means the interior, the inmost depth; that which is searched out, from – chaqar – to search, search out, explore. The primary idea is that of searching by boring or digging; and the allusion here is to the parts of the earth which could be explored only by digging – as in mining, or sinking shafts in the earth. The meaning is, that all those places which lie beyond the ordinary power of observation in man are in the hand of God. He knows them as clearly as those which are most plain to human view; he possesses or owns them as his own as really as he does those which are on the surface of the ground.
The strength of the hills is his also – Margin, The heights of the hills are his. The word rendered strength – toaphoth – means properly swiftness or speed in running; then, weariness, wearisome labor; and hence, wealth obtained by labor; treasures. Here the expression means treasures of the mountains; that is, treasures obtained out of the mountains, the precious metals, etc. Compare the notes at Job 22:25, where the same word occurs. All this belongs to God. As he is the Maker of these hills, and of all that they contain, the absolute proprietorship is in him.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 95:4
The strength of the hills is His also.
The strength of the hills
The characteristics of the things made are characteristic of their Maker. What, therefore, I find suggestive in the hills I find suggestive of God. What is the strength of the hills? It is not mere bulk, size, hugeness of form, massiveness of outline. Strength is not one characteristic; it is a combination of characteristics. Strength is a harmony of various elements.
I. Beauty. To see their green slopes speckled thin with sheep; the grey crag peeping out here and there like a hoary battlement; the purple heather making a feast of colour; the huge boulder, poised upon some dizzy eminence, seeming to threaten destruction to the venturesome climber; the cloud-shadows passing like swift and silent ghosts along the frowning steeps; is not all this an impressive exhibition in the picture-gallery of nature, open every day, and free of charge? And the thought of the psalmist is this,–that the beauty of the hills is in reality a beauty of God; that all this panorama of living loveliness is an indication of the loveliness of the Divine character.
II. Permanence. Who that has looked thoughtfully upon the mountains could imagine anything more typical of the immovable? Their sunless pillars are sunk so deep in earth that we cannot dream of their being moved out of their place; the idea of the fugitive and the transient is excluded as we contemplate the fixity of the hills. An Old Testament writer, indeed, has made them an image of permanence when he says that sooner than imagine that the kindness of God can pass away, or that the mercy of the Eternal can cease, the very mountains shall pass and the hills be removed. But even as he regards the one impossible, so he is sure that the character of God is fixed and unchangeable for ever. In this way does Nature become one of our best religious teachers. The hills speak to us of the permanence of the Divine. A fickle God would be worse than none at all. A God whose principles of action were continually changing would be the terror, and not the inspiration of his worshippers. Jesus Christ has given me a greater sense of trustworthiness and permanence than any one I know, and I think the reason is that He is the express image of the person of God. There is only one thing that abides–and it is character. There is only one thing that can make character–and it is love. There is but one man who lasts and keeps young throughout the centuries–he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
III. Atmosphere. Why did your doctor send you away to the hills? It was to get change of air. He wanted you to get some of that mountain breeze into your wasted lungs; he knew that if he could get you away into that bracing ozone it would be better than all the pills and mixtures as before. The air of the hills is a tonic. The atmosphere ought to be an element in your religion. A religion without atmosphere is like a picture without perspective, dull, flat, uninteresting because unnatural. We are afraid to be natural in our religious life. Why is it that so many Christian people seem to be so bloodless, lifeless, atrophied in their character? It is simply want of air. They have no mountains in their creed. We shall never make much impression upon the world until we are less afraid of our own honest thought, and less bound by the rigid rule-of-thumb religion of society. Christ came to be to us the Truth, and to be the Truth that makes us free–free from our own ignorance, and sin, and unbelief, and fear–free to do the will of the Father by ministering health and kindness to our brethren. To be whole, holy, complete; to be like Christ, is at once the noblest, freest, hardest thing in the world, the one desirable attainment, the sole way to happiness; yes, to more than happiness, to blessedness; and the only way to reach this end is to live in the strengthening atmosphere of Christs love, and to avail ourselves of all the manifold riches of His grace.
IV. Outlook. What is it that makes you so anxious to climb the hill? The view. To see the landscape lying outspread before the eye; to see the country stretching away to the distant horizon; to realize the sense of vastness; to revel in the subtle poetry of distance; this is enough to make you toil up the steep path, and scale the rugged crag, and for a moment call the spreading scene your own. And it is this sense of outlook we need to get into our religion if we would obtain from it the best it has to give us. There is no faith which gives to man such a sense of vastness as the faith of Jesus Christ. The outlook He gives is so commanding and so rich that the eye cannot take it all in, and the mind reels as it tries to grasp it. But the heart is satisfied with that outlook, and pronounces it very good. Do not allow your outlook to be bounded by the grave; stand by the side of the Saviour, and look beyond into the eternal city. (A. Mursell.)
The strength of the hills
I. The immense power involved. We read of the hanging gardens of Babylon and count them among the wonders of the world. Yet in magnitude they were insignificant compared to the everlasting hills. We climb a range of mountains and find building material sufficient for a hundred cities. It exceeds the power of arithmetic to calculate, and it surpasses the power of language to describe, the colossal greatness, power and wealth of which they are the embodiment. How easy are miracles to Him who built the hills! How terrible to live in a world of such energies, unless we are loyally obedient to Him who can create and can destroy, and who is as wise and benign as He is omnipotent!
II. The dainty and marvellous beauty of the hills. Their loveliness images the beauty which exists in the mind of the Builder. In form, and outline, and altitude, here in round or undulating lines, there in abrupt and jagged peaks, here lofty and there in lowly elevations, there is constant variety. So, too, in the relation the mountains bear to each other. Some stretch along in terraces and some in continental ranges or chains; some tower up apart and alone; still others tumbled together in confusion, but everywhere bringing refreshment to the vision of the beholder, who is alternately awed and delighted. The verdure that covers their slopes, from the beech and birch below to the evergreen of the higher slopes, with the wild flowers between the splintered crags or the mosses and lichens that cling to them, and the changing colour of the verdure as autumn touches it with brilliant hues–all teach us Gods wonderful and eternal love of beauty and lift our thoughts to that city above which He is to make the crown and consummation of beauty eternal.
III. The utility and the helpfulness of the hills. They are rich in their stony or metallic materials, and in the forests that clothe them. Mountains influence the temperature, cooling in summer and protecting us from the rigour of winter. They are great hospitals for the sick, for some diseases cannot exist 2,000 feet above the sea. The springs that run among the hills unite to form the rivers that in turn pour their waters into the sea. There are moral as well as physical benefactions. The mountains teach us to face difficulties and to overcome them, inspiring strength to labour, perseverance and patience in toil and trial. The hills are helpful in stimulating the love of liberty, quickening great thoughts and poetic inspirations. The mountains have sheltered the persecuted people of God, and there the bones of His slaughtered saints have been sometimes laid. It was to the mountain Christ retired to pray; it was on a mountain He was transfigured; it was on a mountain He delivered that matchless discourse which will inspire men as long as time lasts. It was into a great and high mountain that John was carried, in the spirit, from which he saw Holy Jerusalem. Mountains are earths spires. We build spires a hundred feet or more, but these spires are lifted up miles in height toward heaven, pointing to Himself and clothed with pure, white, awful majesty, as if to remind us of the great white throne of judgment which is to be revealed.
IV. The littleness of man is another lesson of the hills. Men may tunnel the earth and lift magnificent bridges, but with all their wealth and force they can neither build nor level the Alleghanies and the Sierras. God alone has reared them, and at His word they will vanish as a dream when one awaketh. What is man that Thou art mindful of him!
V. How beautiful is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ! The mountains tell us nothing of His mercy and grace toward sinful men. They tell of inexorable power, but not of forgiveness. It is in Christ alone we learn this: He who built the mountain opened the eyes of the blind, and blessed the little children. The Bible is the great moral mountain of the world. Why is it that men are unwilling to receive it? (R. S. Storrs, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. In his hand are the deep places of the earth] The greatest deeps are fathomed by him.
The strength of the hills is his also.] And to him the greatest heights are accessible.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In his hand; under his government.
The deep places; those parts which are far out of mens sight and reach, and much more those that are at mens disposal.
The strength of the hills; the strongest or highest mountains are under his feet, and at his disposal. The sense of the verse is, All the parts of the earth, whether high or low, are subject to his power and providence, and therefore it is not strange if all the nations of the earth be brought to the acknowledgment of him, and if the Gentiles receive his gospel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4, 5. The terms used describethe world in its whole extent, subject to God.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In his hand are the deep places of the earth,…. The “penetrals” c of it; not only what are penetrated by men, the minerals that are in it; but what are of such deep recess as to be penetrated only by the Lord himself; these are in the hands and power of Christ, which he can search into, discover, and dispose of; these are the foundations of the earth, which cannot be searched out beneath by men, Jer 31:37,
the strength of the hills is his also; or, “the wearinesses” d of them, the tops e of them, which make a man weary to go up unto, they are so high; the Targum is,
“the strengths of the height of the hills;”
which takes in both ideas, both the height and strength of them. The hills, that are both high and strong, are set fast by his power, and are at his command; and bow and tremble before him, whom men ought to worship.
c “penetralia terrae”, Musculus, Piscator, Gejerus, Michaelis. d “lassitudines”, Gejerus. e “Cacumina”, Montanus, Tigurine version, Musculus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(4) Deep places.From a root meaning to search, perhaps by digging. Hence either mines or mineral wealth.
Strength of the hills.The Hebrew word rendered strength is rare, found only here and Num. 23:22; Num. 24:8 (strength of an unicorn), and Job. 22:25 (plenty of silver; margin, silver of strength). The root to which the word is usually assigned means to be weary, from which the idea of strength can only be derived on the lucus a non lucendo principle. Keeping the usual derivation, we may, with many critics, give the word the sense of mines or treasures, because of the labours of extracting metal from the earth. This suits Job. 22:25, and makes a good parallelism. But the LXX. and Vulg. have heights, and by another derivation the Hebrew may mean shining, and so sunny summit. With this agrees the rendering of the LXX. in Num. 23:22; Num. 24:8, and the rhythm is preserved by an antithetic parallelism, as in next verse.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Deep places The Hebrew word signifies that which is known only by searching; but these inmost recesses of the earth were unsearchable. See Jer 31:37. To the ancients the interior of the earth was a fathomless mystery, which modern science has only hypothetically dispelled. Here the ancients located sheol, or hades the region of departed spirits. They had no conception either of the absolute or relative dimensions of the earth.
Strength of the hills The heights of the mountains. The opposite of “deep places of the earth.” To the former, as the word indicates, we attain by wearisome labour; the latter are unsearchable, but God knows, governs, and possesses them all. What language of modern science can more beautifully and impressively exalt our conceptions of God?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 95:4 In his hand [are] the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills [is] his also.
Ver. 4. In his hand are the deep places ] Heb. searching, that is, much searched after, but found to be unsearchable.
The strength of the hills
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 95:4
Psa 95:4
“In his hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the mountains are his also.”
Ocean caves and mighty mountain peaks alike are God’s. The mighty palm trees of the desert as well as the tiniest flowers that grow at the snow-line are God’s; He made them all, protects them all and uses them all. The evidence and unmistakable witness of God’s limitless intelligence and glory are seen alike in the sub-microscopic wonders of the tiny atom and in the measureless light-year distances of the universe, so large and limitless that even the imagination of men cannot reach to the farthest edge of it.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 95:4. Deep places and strength of the hills are figures to express the scope of the knowledge and power of the Lord.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In: Psa 21:2, Job 11:10
his: Heb. whose
deep: Psa 135:6
the strength of the hills is his also: or, heights of the hills are his, Psa 65:6, Psa 97:5, Job 9:5, Mic 1:4, Nah 1:5, Hab 3:6, Hab 3:10
Reciprocal: Exo 9:29 – that the earth Exo 20:11 – General Psa 24:2 – For Psa 104:25 – this great
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 95:4-5. In his hand Under his government, and in his possession; are the deep places of the earth With all the treasures they contain; even those parts which are far out of mens sight and reach. The strength of the hills Which, with majestic pride, tower above, and lift up their heads to heaven; is his also Even the highest and strongest mountains are under his feet, and at his disposal. The sea is his With its unnumbered waves, which roll in perpetual motion round the world; and all the millions of living creatures, of all forms and sizes, that inhabit its fathomless depths and immeasurable waters. And his hands formed the dry land With all its rich and variegated produce, when, by his word, he commanded it to appear, and it was so; and he crowned it with verdure and beauty. And though he hath given it to the children of men, it is, nevertheless, still his, for he reserved the property to himself. His being the Creator of all, makes him, without dispute, the Owner and Lord of all.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
95:4 In his hand [are] the deep places of the earth: the {c} strength of the hills [is] his also.
(c) All things are governed by his providence.