Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 104:14
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
14. herb ] Cp. Gen 1:11-12; Gen 1:29-30; Gen 3:18; Gen 9:3. The term includes all vegetable products.
for the service of man ] The use of the word in Psa 104:23 and elsewhere is in favour of the rendering of R.V. marg., for the labour of man: God makes the soil respond to man’s tillage with abundant produce. But the Heb. word seems to be capable of the same extension of meaning as ‘service’ and this sense fits the parallelism and the context best.
14 b , 15. The division of the verses obscures the parallelism. Render,
That he may bring forth bread out of the earth,
And that wine may gladden the heart of man.
That he may make his face to shine with oil,
And that bread may sustain man’s heart.
Corn wine and oil were the chief products of Palestine (Deu 12:17). God provides for man’s enjoyment as well as for his sustenance. Cp. for the language Jdg 9:13; Ecc 10:19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle – Out of the earth there is caused to grow every variety of food necessary for the various orders of beings that are placed upon it. The idea here is not merely that of abundance; it is also that of variety: the needs and tastes of all have been consulted in the productions of the earth. The one earth – the same earth – has been made to produce the endless varieties of food required for the creatures that have been placed on it. The word grass here refers to all the vegetable productions needful for cattle.
And herb for the service of man – Gen 1:29. The word herb here would include every green plant or vegetable; or all that the earth produces for the food of man. This, of course, refers to the earth as it came from the hand of God, and to the original arrangement, before permission was given to man to eat the flesh of animals, Gen 9:3. The word translated service might be rendered culture, as if man was to cultivate it for his use, not that it was to be produced, as the food for cattle, spontaneously.
That he may bring forth food out of the earth – Hebrew, bread. That is, that by culture he may bring forth that which would make bread.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 104:14
He causeth the grass to grow.
In the hayfield
I. Grass is in itself instructive.
1. As the symbol of our mortality. The whole history of man may be seen in the meadow. He springs up green and tender, subject to the frosts of infancy, which imperil his young life; he grows, he comes to maturity, he puts on beauty even as the grass is adorned with flowers; but after a while his strength departs and his beauty is wrinkled, even as the grass withers and is followed by a fresh generation, which withers in its turn.
2. As an emblem of the wicked. As the Eastern husbandman gathers up the green herb, and, despite its former beauty, casts it into the furnace, such must be your lot, O vainglorious sinners!
3. As a picture of the elect of God. How like the grass are Gods people for this reason, that they are absolutely dependent upon the influences of heaven! Our fields are parched if vernal showers and gentle dews are witheld, and what are our souls without the gracious visitations of the Spirit? Sometimes through severe trials our wounded hearts are like the mown grass, and then we have the promise, He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. Thank God for that old saying, which is a gracious doctrine as well as a true proverb, Each blade of grass has its own drop of dew.
4. As comparable to the food wherewith the Lord supplies the necessities of His chosen ones (Psa 23:1-6).
II. God is seen in the growing of the grass.
1. As a Worker. The simple production of grass is not the result of natural law apart from the actual work of God; mere law would be inoperative unless the great Master Himself sent a thrill of power through the matter which is regulated by the law–unless, like the steam-engine, which puts force into all the spinning-jennies and wheels of a cotton-mill, God Himself were the motive power to make every wheel revolve. How I could fall down, and find rest on the grass as on a royal couch, now that I know that my God is there at work for His creatures!
2. As a great Caretaker. He gives grass to the cattle, and He will give grace to you.
III. Gods working in the grass for the cattle gives us illustrations concerning grace.
1. Preventing grace may here be seen in a symbol. Grass grew before cattle were made. And what a mercy that covenant supplies, for Gods people were prepared before they were born. Long before sin came into the world the everlasting mercy of God foresaw the ruin of sin, and provided a refuge for every elect soul.
2. Then I perceive an illustration of free grace, for wherever the ox comes into the field, he brings no money with him. There is the food ready for him, but he brings nothing with which to purchase it. So I, poor needy sinner, having nothing, come, and receive Christ without money and without price.
3. And why is it that God gives the cattle the grass? The reason is because they belong to Him. The silver and the gold are mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. How is it that Christ is provided for Gods people? Because the Lords portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gods care for the lonely and obscure
Grass does not merely grow where men take care of it, but up there on the side of the lone Alp, where no traveller has ever passed. Where only the eye of the wild bird has beheld their lonely verdure, moss and grass display their beauty; for Gods works are fair to other eyes than those of mortals. And you, solitary child of God, dwelling unknown and obscure, in a remote hamlet, you are not forgotten by the love of Heaven. He maketh the grass to grow all alone, and shall He not make you flourish despite your loneliness? He can bring forth your graces, and educate you for the skies, in solitude and neglect. The grass, you know, is a thing we tread upon, nobody thinks of its being crushed by the foot, and yet God makes it grow. Perhaps you are oppressed and down-trodden, but let not this depress your spirit, for God executeth righteousness for all those that are oppressed: He maketh the grass to grow, and He can make your heart to flourish under all the oppressions and afflictions of life, so that you shall still be happy and holy, though all the world marches over you; still living in the immortal life which God Himself bestows upon you, though hell itself set its heel upon you. Poor and needy one, unknown, unobserved, oppressed and downtrodden, God makes the grass to grow, and He will take care of you. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle] Doth God care for oxen? Yes, and there is not a beast of the field that does not share his merciful regards.
And herb for the service of man] Plants, esculent herbs, and nutritive grain in general; and thus he brings forth food ( lechem, bread) out of the earth. In the germination and growth of a grain of wheat there is a profusion of miracles. God takes care of man, and of all those animals which are so necessary to the convenience and comfort of man.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Herb for the service of man; both for delight, and for necessity, either as food or physic. And this God doth; he watereth the earth, that thereby it may be prepared or disposed for the production of necessary provisions for beasts and for men, that so he (to wit, God)
may bring forth food out of the earth, which without this blessing of God the earth would never yield.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14, 15. so that men and beastsare abundantly provided with food.
for the serviceliterally,”for the culture,” &c., by which he secures theresults.
oil . . . shineliterally,”makes his face to shine more than oil,” that is, so cheersand invigorates him, that outwardly he appears better than ifanointed.
strengtheneth . . .heartgives vigor to man (compare Jud19:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle,…. By means of rain falling upon the tender herb, and upon the mown grass, whereby provision of food is made for those creatures that live upon grass.
And herb for the service of man: some herbs being for physic for him, and others for food, and all more or less for his use. Herbs were the original food of man, Ge 1:29 and still a dinner of herbs, where love is, is better than a stalled ox, and hatred therewith, Pr 15:17. Some render it, “and herb at the tillage of man” o: grass grows of itself for the use of the cattle; but the herb, as wheat and the like, which is for the use of man, is caused to grow when man has taken some pains with the earth, and has tilled and manured it: but the former sense seems best.
That he may bring forth food out of the earth; either that man may do it by his tillage; or rather that the Lord may do it, by sending rain, and causing the grass and herbs to grow. However, man’s food, as well as the food of beasts, comes out of the earth, as he himself does, and to which he must return.
o “ad culturam”, Cocceius, some in Vatablus, and Michaelis; so Gussetius, p. 572.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the fourth decastich the poet goes further among the creatures of the field and of the forest. The subject to is . The clause expressing the purpose, which twice begins with an infinitive, is continued in both instances, as in Isa 13:9, but with a change of subject (cf. e.g., Amo 1:11; Amo 2:4), in the finite verb. On what is said of wine we may compare Ecc 10:19, Sir. 40:20, and more especially Isaiah, who frequently mentions wine as a representative of all the natural sources of joy. The assertion that signifies “before oil = brighter than oil,” is an error that is rightly combated by Bttcher in his Proben and two of his “Gleanings,”
(Note: Proben, i.e., Specimens of Old Testament interpretation, Leipzig 1833, and Aehrenlese (Gleanings), referred to in the preface of these volumes. – Tr.)
which imputes to the poet a mention of oil that is contrary to his purpose in this connection wand inappropriate. Corn, wine, and oil are mentioned as the three chief products of the vegetable kingdom (Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Dathe, and Hupfeld), and are assumed under in Psa 104:14, as is also the case in other instances where distinction would be superfluous, e.g., in Exo 9:22. With oil God makes the countenance shining, or bright and cheerful, not by means of anointing-since it was not the face but the head that was anointed (Mat 6:17), – but by the fact of its increasing the savouriness and nutritiveness of the food. is chosen with reference to . In Psa 104:15 does not stand after, as in Psa 104:15 (where it is with Gaja on account of the distinctive), but before the verb, because as that which is inward stands in antithesis to as that which is outside. Since the fertilization of the earth by the rain is the chief subject of the predication in Psa 104:13, Psa 104:16 is naturally attached to what precedes without arousing critical suspicion. That which satisfies is here the rain itself, and not, as in Psa 104:13, that which the rain matures. The “trees of Jahve” are those which before all others proclaim the greatness of their Creator. refers to these trees, of which the cedars and then the cypresses ( , root , to cut) are mentioned. They are places where small and large birds build their nests and lodge, more particularly the stork, which is called the as being (Barbrius, Fab. xiii.), as avis pia ( pietaticultrix in Petronius, lv. 6), i.e., on account of its love of family life, on account of which it is also regarded as bringing good fortune to a house.
(Note: In the Merg& district, where the stork is not called leklek as it is elsewhere, but charnuk [ on account of its bill like a long horn (Arab. chrn ) standing out in front, the women and children call it Arab. ‘bu sad , “bringer of good luck.” Like the , the long-legged carrion-vulture ( Vultur percnopterus ) or mountain-stork, , is called (Arab. rhm ) on account of its .)
The care of God for the lodging of His creatures leads the poet from the trees to the heights of the mountains and the hiding-places of the rocks, in a manner that is certainly abrupt and that disturbs the sketch taken from the account of the creation. is an apposition. (Arabic wail ) is the steinboc, wild-goat, as being an inhabitant of ( wal , wala ), i.e., the high places of the rocks, as , Lam 4:3, according to Wetzstein, is the ostrich as being an inhabitant of the wana , i.e., the sterile desert; and is the rock-badger, which dwells in the clefts of the rocks (Pro 30:26), and resembles the marmot – South Arabic Arab. tufun , Hyrax Syriacus (distinct from the African). By the Jewish tradition understand the coney, after which the Peshto here renders it ( , cuniculus ). Both animals, the coney and the rock-badger, may be meant in Lev 11:5; Deu 14:7; for the sign of the cloven hoof ( ) is wanting in both. The coney has four toes, and the hyrax has a peculiar formation of hoof, not cloven, but divided into several parts.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(14) For the service of mani.e., for his use (so Gesenius). But some deny this meaning to the Hebrew, which properly means labour or office. (In 1Ch. 27:26; Neh. 10:37, it means agriculture, tillage.) Hence they render, And herbs for mans labour in bringing them forth from the earth, alluding to his task of cultivating the soil. Standing by itself the clause would indeed naturally require this sense, but the parallelism is against it, and in 1Ch. 26:30, service of a king, we have a near approach to the meaning use.
That he may.Better, bringing food out of the earth, taking the verb as gerund instead of infinitive absolute.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Grass for the cattle herb for man From the more general providence of nature, (Psa 104:10-13,) the poet now enters more particularly upon the provisions for animals and man. “Grass for the cattle,” improperly translated hay, (Pro 27:25; Isa 15:6,) and rendered leek in the English version of Num 11:5, probably from the radical idea of greenness, sufficiently defines itself. (Job 40:15.) But more probably the Egyptian clover ( helbeh) is intended, which, in its first and tender shoots, is universally eaten in Egypt as a salad, and, at a later stage, fed to the cattle. The “herb for the service,” or use “of man,” comprehends not only vegetables, but all breadstuffs and edibles. See Gen 1:29; Gen 3:18; Gen 9:3.
That he may bring forth Whether the verb be construed as the act of man in tilling, or, more properly, of God in causing to grow, the idea conveyed is, the standing miracle by which man’s food comes “out of the earth.” See Job 28:5. The inorganic earthly particles are first manipulated into vegetable tissue and organism, and this into animal.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
Ver. 14. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle ] He caused it to grow at first, before cattle were created, Gen 1:11-12 . And so he doth still, as the first cause; by rain and dew from heaven, as the second cause.
And herb for the service of man
That he may bring forth food out of the earth
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 104:14-17
14He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the labor of man,
So that he may bring forth food from the earth,
15And wine which makes man’s heart glad,
So that he may make his face glisten with oil,
And food which sustains man’s heart.
16The trees of the Lord drink their fill,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
17Where the birds build their nests,
And the stork, whose home is the fir trees.
Psa 104:14 vegetation for the labor of man It is interesting to note that mankind was to labor, both before and after the Fall (cf. Gen 2:15; Gen 3:17-19).
Psa 104:15 wine which makes man’s heart glad Wine is seen in a list of the gifts of God. The Bible does not condemn wine but it does condemn the overuse of wine. See Special Topic: Alcohol and Alcohol Abuse .
So that he may make his face glisten with oil The word glisten (BDB 843 II) appears only here in the OT. It refers to olive oil, which was used by the ancients as a cosmetic. It was placed on the face and hands in preparation for a festival (cf. Psa 23:5; Psa 92:10; Psa 141:1; Ecc 9:8; Luk 7:46).
Psa 104:17-18 Although they appear in different stanzas (according to NASB) in the poem, they both seem to describe the types of homes that God has provided for the animals. This Psalm speaks of God’s care and provision for His animal creation.
Psa 104:17 the fir trees This translation is followed by most English versions. The NEB, REB, and NJB support the emendation (as does the UBS Text Project [C rating] for the MT’s on top of them [i.e., the highest part of the Cedars of Lebanon])!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
man. Hebrew ‘ adam, with Art. = humanity. App-14.
food. Hebrew bread, Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Part), App-6, for all food. Note the three, “grass”, “herb”. “food”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
causeth: Psa 145:15, Psa 145:16, Psa 147:8, Psa 147:9, Gen 1:11, Gen 1:12, Gen 1:29, Gen 2:5, 1Ki 18:5, Jer 14:5, Jer 14:6, Joe 2:22
herb: Gen 1:29, Gen 2:9, Gen 3:18, Gen 9:3
that he: Psa 136:25, Gen 4:12, Job 28:5, 1Co 3:7
Reciprocal: Gen 1:30 – General Deu 11:15 – And I will Rth 1:6 – in giving Job 6:5 – when he hath grass Job 40:15 – he Job 40:20 – where Psa 36:6 – thou Psa 50:10 – cattle Psa 65:9 – visitest Pro 27:25 – hay Ecc 5:9 – the profit Isa 30:23 – shall he Jon 4:11 – and also 1Co 15:38 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
104:14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of {h} man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
(h) He describes God’s providential care over man, who not only provides necessary things for him such as herbs and other meat: but also things to rejoice and comfort him such as wine and oil or ointments.