Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 104:6
Thou coveredst it with the deep as [with] a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
6. This verse does not refer to the Flood, though its language may be borrowed from the account of the Flood (Gen 7:19-20; and cp. Psa 104:9 with Gen 9:11; Gen 9:15), but to the primitive condition of the earth. It is regarded as already moulded into hill and valley, but enveloped with the ‘abyss’ of waters (Gen 1:2), by which even the highest mountains are covered. Cp. Milton, Par. Lost, vii. 278,
Over all the face of earth
Main ocean flowed.”
The tense of the original is a graphic ‘imperfect.’ “The waters were standing above the mountains.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment – Compare the notes at Job 38:9. The meaning is, that God covered the earth with the sea – the waters – the abyss – as if a garment had been spread over it. The reference is to Gen 1:2; where, in the account of the work of creation, what is there called the deep – the abyss – (the same Hebrew word as here – tehom – covered the earth, or was what appeared, or was manifest, before the waters were collected into seas, and the dry land was seen.
The waters stood above the mountains – Above what are now the mountains. As yet no dry land appeared. It seemed to be one wide waste of waters. This does not refer to the Deluge, but to the appearance of the earth at the time of the creation, before the gathering of the waters into seas and oceans, Gen 1:9. At that stage in the work, all that appeared was a wide waste of waters.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Thou coveredst it with the deep] This seems to be spoken in allusion to the creation of the earth, when it was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the waters invested the whole, till God separated the dry land from them; thus forming the seas and the terraqueous globe.
The poet Ovid has nearly the same idea: –
Densior his tellus, elementaque grandia traxit,
Et pressa est gravitate sua; circumfluus humor
Ultima possedit, solidumque coercuit orbem.
Met. lib. i., ver. 29.
Earth sinks beneath, and draws a numerous throng
Of ponderous, thick, unwieldy seeds along:
About her coasts unruly waters roar;
And, rising on a ridge, insult the shore.
DRYDEN.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou coveredst it with the deep; either,
1. In the general deluge. Or rather,
2. In the first creation, as we read, Gen 1:2,9; of which the psalmist is here speaking.
The waters stood above the mountains; the mountains were not made by the deluge, as some have thought, who for that reason understand this verse of the said deluge, for it is apparent they were before it, Gen 7:19, and most probably were in the first creation, because this variety of mountains and valleys is both ornamental and useful to the world.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6-9. These verses ratherdescribe the wonders of the flood than the creation (Gen 7:19;Gen 7:20; 2Pe 3:5;2Pe 3:6). God’s method ofarresting the flood and making its waters subside is poeticallycalled a “rebuke” (Psa 76:6;Isa 50:2), and the process of theflood’s subsiding by undulations among the hills and valleys isvividly described.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment,…. This refers not to the waters of the flood, when the earth was covered with them, even the tops of the highest mountains; but to the huge mass of waters, the abyss and depth of them, which lay upon the earth and covered it as a garment, at its first creation, as the context and the scope of it show; and which deep was covered with darkness, at which time the earth was without form, and void, Ge 1:2 an emblem of the corrupt state of man by nature, destitute of the image of God, void and empty of all that is good, having an huge mass of sin and corruption on him, and being darkness itself; though this depth does not separate the elect of God, in this state, from his love; nor these aboundings of sin hinder the superaboundings of the grace of God; nor the operations of his Spirit; nor the communication of light unto them; nor the forming and renewing them, so as to become a curious piece of workmanship; even as the state of the original earth did not hinder the moving of the Spirit upon the waters that covered it, to the bringing of it into a beautiful form and order.
The waters stood above the mountains; from whence we learn the mountains were from the beginning of the creation; since they were when the depths of water covered the unformed chaos; and which depths were so very great as to reach above the highest mountains; an emblem of the universal corruption of human nature; the highest, the greatest men that ever were, comparable to mountains, have been involved in it, as David, Paul, and others.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
6. He hath covered it with the deep as with a garment, This may be understood in two ways, either as implying that now the sea covers the earth as a garment, or that at the beginning, before God by his omnipotent word held gathered the waters together into one place, the earth was covered with the deep. But the more suitable sense appears to be, that the sea is now the covering of the earth. At the first creation the deep was not so much a garment as a grave, inasmuch as nothing bears less resemblance to the adorning of apparel than the state of confused desolation and shapeless chaos in which the earth then was. Accordingly, in my judgment, there is here celebrated that wonderful arrangement by which the deep, although without form, is yet the garment of the earth. But as the context seems to lead to a different view, interpreters are rather inclined to explain the language as denoting, That the earth was covered with the deep before the waters had been collected into a separate place. This difficulty is however easily solved, if the words of the prophet, The waters shall stand above the mountains, are resolved into the potential mood thus, The waters would stand above the mountains; which is sufficiently vindicated from the usage of the Hebrew language. I have indeed no doubt that the prophet, after having said that God had clothed the earth with waters, adds, by way of exposition, that the waters would stand above the mountains, were it not that they flee away at God’s rebuke. Whence is it that the mountains are elevated, and that the valleys sink down, but because bounds are set to the waters, that they may not return to overwhelm the earth? The passage then, it is obvious, may very properly be understood thus, — that the sea, although a mighty deep, which strikes terror by its vastness, is yet as a beautiful garment to the earth. The reason of the metaphor is, because the surface of the earth stands uncovered. The prophet affirms that this does not happen by chance; for, if the providence of God did not restrain the waters, would they not immediately rush forth to overwhelm the whole earth? He, therefore, speaks advisedly when he maintains that the appearance of any part of the earth’s surface is not the effect of nature, but is an evident miracle. Were God to give loose reins to the sea, the waters would suddenly cover the mountains. But now, fleeing at God’s rebuke, they retire to a different quarter. By the rebuke of God, and the voice of his thunder, is meant the awful command of God, by which he restrains the violent raging of the sea. Although at the beginning, by his word alone, he confined the sea within determinate bounds, and continues to this day to keep it within them, yet if we consider how tumultuously its billows cast up their foam when it is agitated, it is not without reason that the prophet speaks of it, as kept in check by the powerful command of God; just as, both in Jeremiah, (Jer 5:22) and in Job, (Job 28:25) God, with much sublimity, commends his power, as displayed in the ocean. The ascending of the mountains, and the descending of the valleys, are poetical figures, implying, that unless God confined the deep within bounds, the distinction between mountains and valleys, which contributes to the beauty of the earth, would cease to exist, for it would engulf the whole earth. It is said that God has founded a place for the valleys; for there would be no dry land at the foot of the mountains, but the deep would bear sway, did not God command the space there to be unoccupied by the sea, as it were contrary to nature.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) The deep.The water-world is first considered as a vast garment wrapped round the earth, so that the mountain-tops are covered. But here it is beyond its right, and the Divine rebuke forces it to retire within narrower limits. It is noticeable that the idea of a chaos finds no place in the poetic conception of the worlds genesis. The primitive world is not formless, but has its mountains and valleys already existing, though merged beneath the sea.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Thou coveredst it with the deep The word “deep,” , ( tehom,) means, agitated “deep,” “mass of raging waters,” flood. So Psa 42:7. Compare Job 38:8, “Who shut up the sea when it brake forth?” or, after it had broken forth. The language suits an unwonted, lawless condition of the waters of the ocean, answering to the geological theory of the drift period, immediately preceding the human or historic era. This description of the state of the earth prior to the first day’s work assumes the existence of land and water, and is against the notion of a chaos, the rudis indigestaque moles of Ovid. ( Metem., lib. 1:10.)
Mountains The existence of these before the “six days” of Moses is another important coincidence with modern science, and a total refutation of the heathen theory of a chaos, adopted by the old commentators.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 104:6. Thou coveredst it with the deep, &c. That is, at the first creation, the earth, while yet without form, was covered all over, and, as it were, clothed with the great deep; that vast expansion of air and waters; and those which are now the highest mountains, were then all under that liquid element. He adds, Psa 104:7. At thy rebuke they fled; they, namely, the inferior waters, (see Gen 1:9.) which were all gathered together into one place: At thy rebuke, i.e. at the powerful command of God; which, as it were, rebuked, and thereby corrected and regulated, that indigested confusion of things. At the voice of thy thunder, means, “Thy powerful voice, which resounded like thunder.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 104:6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as [with] a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
Ver. 6. Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment ] Operueras, Thou hadst at first covered it, till thou for man’s sake hadst made a distinction; for else such a garment would this have been to the earth as the shirt made for the murdering of Agamemnon, where he had no issue out.
The waters stood above the mountains
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The waters stood. Compare 2Pe 3:5, 2Pe 3:6 with Gen 1:2 -.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 104:6-9
Psa 104:6-9
THE SECOND DAY OF CREATION
“Thou coverest it with the deep as with a vesture;
The waters stood above the mountains.
At thy rebuke they fled;
At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away
(The mountains rose, the valleys sank down)
Unto the place which thou hadst founded for them.
Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over;
That they turn not again to cover the earth.”
The division of the waters from the waters, separated by the firmament, is recounted in Gen 1:6-8
“Thou coverest it (the earth) with the deep (the sea) as with a vesture; the waters stood above the mountains” (Psa 104:7). This simply means that the entire planet earth was completely submerged at first, the highest mountains being beneath the waves: This, of course, is exactly the truth. If all of the multiplied trillions of tons of water in its vaporous or gaseous state were suddenly released upon the earth, and if all the millions of cubic miles of the frozen waters of the polar ice-caps were suddenly melted, the entire world would again be completely submerged in the sea.
The highly-imaginative manner in which this information is stated here has a majesty and dignity about it that every man should appreciate. These words are certainly entitled to a better comment than that of Briggs who wrote: “God’s thunder frightened the sea to the boundaries which God had assigned to it”!
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 104:6. God’s knowledge and control of the works of creation is the theme running through several verses. The mighty ocean as it envelops the earth presents as easy a task in the Lord’s hands as the handling of a garment would be in the grasp of a man. See a similar thought in the comments at V. 2. The waters stood, etc, refers to the flood in the days of Noah. At that time they were said to nave been 15 cubits above the mountains. (Gen 7:20.)
Psa 104:7. At thy rebuke they fled refers to the fact recorded in Gen 8:1, etc.
Psa 104:8. This refers to the further abatement of the waters of the flood. After the bulk of the water had been driven away by the wind (similar to Gen 1:6-7), the rest of it sought its original places in the valleys which God had founded for them.
Psa 104:9. Set a bound is the same as Gen 8:22.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Gen 1:2-10, Gen 7:19, 2Pe 3:5
Reciprocal: Gen 7:20 – and the mountains Job 26:10 – compassed Job 38:14 – as a Psa 24:2 – For Psa 29:10 – sitteth Psa 33:7 – He gathereth Psa 65:7 – noise Ecc 1:7 – the rivers run Jon 2:6 – mountains Mat 8:26 – and rebuked Luk 8:24 – he arose
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 104:6-7. Thou coveredst it with the deep That is, in the first creation, of which the psalmist is here speaking, when the earth, while yet without form, was covered all over, and, as it were, clothed with the great deep, that vast expansion of air and waters; the waters stood above the mountains Those which are now the highest mountains were all under that liquid element. At thy rebuke That is, at thy powerful command, which, as it were, rebuked, and thereby corrected and regulated that indigested congeries and confusion of things; they fled Namely, the inferior waters; at the voice of thy thunder Thy powerful voice, which resounded like thunder; they hasted away To the place that thou hadst prepared for them, where they still make their bed.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
104:6 Thou coveredst it with the {c} deep as [with] a garment: the {d} waters stood above the mountains.
(c) You make the sea to be an ornament to the earth.
(d) If by your power you did not bridle the rage of the waters, the whole world would be destroyed.