Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 104:2
Who coverest [thyself] with light as [with] a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
2. Light, the first created element, is as it were God’s robe, revealing while it conceals Him. Nothing can serve better as the expression of His Nature (1Jn 1:5; 1Ti 6:16). Light is universally diffused; it is the condition of life, the source of gladness, the emblem of purity.
who stretchest out &c.] Cp. Isa 40:22. The canopy of the sky is compared to a tent-curtain, stretched out over the earth. By His simple fiat God spread out these heavens as easily as a man might pitch his tent. Their vastness is a symbol of the majesty of the King Who dwells in His royal pavilion, Whom yet “heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain.”
Observe the present participles, covering thyself, stretching out. The original act of creation is regarded as continued into the present in the maintenance of the universe.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment – Referring to the first work of creation Gen 1:3, And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. He seemed to put on light as a garment; he himself appeared as if invested with light. It was the first manifestation of God. He seemed at once to have put on light as his robe.
Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain – As an expanse spread over us. The word used here means a curtain or hanging, so called from its tremulous motion, from a word meaning to tremble. Thus it is applied to a curtain before a door; to a tent, etc. It is applied here to the heavens, as they seem to be spread out like the curtains of a tent, as if God had spread them out for a tent for himself to dwell in. See the notes at Isa 40:22.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. Who coverest thyself with light] Light, insufferable splendor, is the robe of the Divine Majesty. Light and fire are generally the accompaniments of the Supreme Being, when he manifests his presence to his creatures. He appeared thus to Abraham when he made a covenant with him, Ge 15:17; and to Moses when he appointed him to bring the people out of Egypt, Ex 19:18. Moses calls God a consuming fire, De 4:24. When Christ was transfigured on the mount, his face shone like the sun, and his garment was white as the light, Mt 17:2. And when the Lord manifests himself to the prophets, he is always surrounded with fire, and the most brilliant light.
Bishop Lowth has some fine remarks on the imagery and metaphors of 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 seems to me, are taken from the tabernacle. We will give these passages verbally, with a short illustration: –
hod vehadar labashta.
“Thou hast put on honour and majesty.”
The original, , is frequently used when speaking of the clothing or dress of the priests.
Verse 2. oteh or cassalmah.
“Covering thyself 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.
noteh shamayim kayeriah.
“Stretching out the heavens like a curtain.”
The word , rendered here curtain, is that which denotes the curtains or uncovering of the whole tabernacle. This may also be an allusion to those curtains or awnings, stretched over an area, under which companies sit at weddings, feasts, religious festivals, curiously painted under, to give them the appearance of the visible heavens in the night-season.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Coverest, or adornest, or clothest. With light; either,
1. With that light which no man can approach unto, as it is called 1Ti 6:16, wherewith therefore he may well be said to be covered or hid from the eyes of mortal men. Or rather,
2. With that first-created light, Gen 1:3, which the psalmist fitly puts in the first place, as being the first of Gods visible works.
Like a curtain; the use whereof it hath, partly in reference to that glorious mansion of the blessed God and his holy angels, which these visible heavens (far above which it is, Eph 4:10) do veil and cover; and partly in reference to the earth, which they enclose and protect.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. lightis a figurativerepresentation of the glory of the invisible God (Mat 17:2;1Ti 6:16). Its use in thisconnection may refer to the first work of creation (Ge1:3).
stretchest out theheavensthe visible heavens or sky which cover the earth as acurtain (Isa 40:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment,…. Referring, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, to the light, which was first created; and indeed this was commanded out of darkness by God the Word, or by the essential Word of God. Light is expressive of the nature of God himself, who is light, and in him is no darkness at all, and who dwells in light h inaccessible, and so may be said to be clothed with it; which is applicable to Christ as a divine Person, 1Jo 1:5. and to whom this term “light” well agrees; Light being one of the names of the Messiah in the Old Testament, Ps 43:3, and is often given him in the New Testament, as the author of the light of nature, grace, and glory, Joh 1:9. He is now possessed of the light and glory of the heavenly state, of which his transfiguration on the mount was an emblem, when his face shone like the sun, and his raiment was as the light, Mt 17:2.
Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain; alluding to the firmament or expanse, which, being spread out like a curtain, divided between the waters and the waters, Ge 1:6. Heaven is represented as a tent stretched out, with curtains drawn around it, to hide the dazzling and unapproachable light in which the Lord dwells, Isa 40:22 and it is as a curtain or canopy stretched out and encompassing this earth; the stretching of it out belongs to God alone, and is a proof of the deity of Christ, to whom it is here and elsewhere ascribed, Job 9:8. Here Christ dwells invisible to us at present; he is received up into heaven, retained there, and from thence will descend at the last day; and in the mean while is within the curtains of heaven, unseen by us.
h “Pura in luce refulsit alma parens”, Virgil. Aeneid. 2. “Et paulo post, pallas insedit, nimbo effulgens”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Who coverest.Perhaps better with the participles of the original retained:
Putting on light as a robe;
Spreading the heavens as a curtain.
The psalmist does not think of the formation of light as of a single past act, but as a continued glorious operation of Divine power and splendour. Not only is light as to the modern poet,
Natures resplendent robe,
Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt
In unessential gloom,
but it is the dress of Divinity, the ethereal woof that God Himself is for ever weaving for His own wear.
Curtain.Especially of a tent (see Son. 1:5, &c.), the tremulous movement of its folds being expressed in the Hebrew word. Different explanations have been given of the figure. Some see an allusion to the curtains of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26, 27). The associations of this ritual were dear to a religious Hebrew, and he may well have had in his mind the rich folds of the curtain of the Holy of Holies. So a modern poet speaks of
The arras-folds, that variegate
The earth, Gods ante-chamber.
Herder, again, refers the image to the survival of the nomadic instinct. But there is no need to put a limit to a figure so natural and suggestive. Possibly images of palace, temple, and tent, all combined, rose to the poets thought, as in Shelleys Ode to Heaven:
Palace roof of cloudless nights!
Paradise of golden lights!
Deep immeasurable vast,
Which art now, and which wert then;
Of the present and the past,
Of the Eternal where and when,
Presence-chamber, temple, home,
Ever-canopying dome
Of acts and ages yet to come!
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Who coverest thyself with light The text simply roads, “Who coverest with light,” there being nothing answering to “thyself” except the masculine form of the participle, while the object of the verb is left to be suggested by the connexion. Exley ( Commentary on Genesis) understands it of covering, or overspreading, the earth with “light,” being the first day’s work. Gen 1:3-5. This gives a good sense, and certainly the psalmist already begins, in the second member of this verse, to speak of the acts of God in the six days’ work.
Stretchest out the heavens An allusion to the second day’s work, “Let there be a firmament,” etc.
Gen 1:6-7. The action of this day’s work was upon the atmosphere, adapting it in a higher degree, as the pabulum of life, to plants and animals, and especially to the higher uses of man. The disordered state of the atmosphere prior to this was a prominent feature of the Hebrew cosmogony. In Job 38:9, the “cloud” and “thick darkness,” or the darkness of thick clouds, ( ,) is represented as “swaddling” the abyss. But the air now becomes pellucid, elastic, and animating.
Like a curtain The word means a hanging, or covering, of a flexible and tremulous substance, like a tent cloth, sometimes, the tent itself. Thus the sky, or expanse, seemed spread out like a tent covering. The present participial form of the verbs ( art covering, art stretching out, or spreading) teaches a present connexion of God with his universe, as if the acts of creation were still perpetuated in an all sustaining providence.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 104:2. The heavens like a curtain Like a tilta tent. Or, Like a canopy. Mudge. A tent seems the most proper translation, as comprehending, not the uppermost part of the tent or the canopy only, but the whole tent, both canopy and curtains: for by that the air which encompasseth the earth is most fitly resembled, in respect of us here below, for whose use it is that God has thus extended or stretched it out; as doing that by his secret and invisible virtue, which in tents used to be done by cords.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
What a sweet and lovely description is given of Jehovah covering himself with light! And, if we construe the expression, as we certainly may, without violence to the general sense of the passage, we may behold in it Jehovah’s covering himself with light in the manifestation of himself to our souls, in the person of Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son which is the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him; Joh 1:18 . And considered in this point of view, how truly blessed is the passage, In thy light shall we see light; Psa 36:9 . I hope the reader will forgive me, if, while I desire to enter, with him, into the full enjoyment of all the beauties this hymn of praise contains, in adoring Jehovah in the works of his creation and providence; I still look beyond the works of God in nature, to behold, in what is here said, very striking allusions to his works of grace. Jehovah hath indeed laid the beams of his chambers in the waters, and founded his earth upon the floods. But hath he not also founded the everlasting beams of his covenant love in redemption, in the chambers of all his divine perfections; and doth he not call upon his people to enter into them, as a security in Christ against all danger, when the Lord cometh out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity? – Isa 26:20-21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 104:2 Who coverest [thyself] with light as [with] a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:
Ver. 2. Who coverest thyself with light ] That lovely creature that first shone out of darkness, and is chief among all things sensible, as coming nearest to the unapproachable glory of God; like as the robe royal is next unto the king. Herod upon a set day came forth arrayed in royal apparel, in cloth of silver, saith Josephus, which being beaten upon by the sun’s beams, dazzled the eyes of the people, and drew from them that blasphemous acclamation, Act 12:21 . God, when he made the world, showed himself in all his royalty; neither can we ascribe too much unto him.
Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
curtain. Of the fifty-three occurrences of this word, only one (here) in the Psalms. No less than forty-seven of them have to do with the Tabernacle; forty-three of them being in Exodus 26 and Exodus 36.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
with light: Dan 7:9, Mat 17:2, 1Ti 6:16, 1Jo 1:5
stretchest: Isa 40:22, Isa 45:12, Zec 12:1, Heb 1:10-12
Reciprocal: Gen 1:3 – Let Gen 1:6 – Let there Gen 2:1 – Thus Gen 3:18 – herb Exo 20:21 – thick Job 9:8 – Which Job 26:7 – General Job 37:16 – the balancings Job 37:18 – spread Job 38:14 – as a Job 40:10 – Deck Psa 93:1 – he is Psa 136:6 – General Psa 145:5 – will speak Pro 30:4 – who hath gathered Isa 40:12 – measured Isa 42:5 – he that created Isa 44:24 – I am Isa 51:13 – that hath Jer 10:12 – stretched Jer 51:15 – and hath Dan 2:22 – and the Hab 3:4 – brightness Mar 9:3 – his raiment Act 9:3 – a light 1Jo 1:7 – as