a little bird (as hopping) · noun, common both genders plural absolute
nests
יְקַנֵּ֑נוּye.ka.Ne.nu
H7077
to nestle · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
stork
חֲ֝סִידָ֗הcha.si.Dah
H2624
the kind (maternal) bird · noun, common feminine singular absolute
trees
בְּרוֹשִׁ֥יםbe.ro.Shim
H1265
a cypress (?) tree · noun, common masculine plural absolute
house
בֵּיתָֽהּbei.Tah
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 104:12 By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.
Leviticus 11:19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
Jeremiah 8:7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but…
Jeremiah 22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in…
Ezekiel 31:6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and…
Daniel 4:21 Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose br…
Obadiah 1:4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the LORD.
Matthew 13:32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 104:10-18
Having given glory to God as the powerful protector of this earth, in saving it from being deluged, here he comes to acknowledge him as its bountiful benefactor, who provides conveniences for all the creatures.
I. He provides fresh water for their drink: He sends the springs into the valleys, Psa 104:10. There is water enough indeed in the sea, that is, enough to drown us, but not one drop to refresh us, be we ever so thirsty - it is all so salt; and therefore God has graciously provided water fit to drink. Naturalists dispute about the origin of fountains; but, whatever are their second causes, here is their first cause; it is God that sends the springs into the brooks, which walk by easy s…
Where the birds make their nests,.... As they do in large, tall, spreading trees: not any particular "birds", as the sparrow, to which the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, and Apollinarius, restrain it: but birds in general are intended; and especially such as build in large trees, as before and after mentioned. Jarchi applies it to the Israelites dwelling among the trees in the garden of Eden: and it may be much better applied to the saints dwelling in the churches, among the trees of righteousness, under the shadow of Gospel ordinances; see Ezekiel 17:23.
As for the stork, the fir trees are her house; where she makes her nest, and brings up her young. Kimchi says it is a large bird,…
Psalm 104:16-18
16. The trees of Jehovah [188] shall be satiated; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; 17. For there the birds build their nests: the stork, [189] whose dwelling is the fir trees. 18. The high mountains are for the deer [190] and the rocks are a place of shelter for the hedgehogs. [191]
16. The trees of Jehovah shall be satiated The Psalmist again treats of God's general providence in cherishing all the parts of the world. In the first place, he asserts, that by the watering of which he had spoken the trees are satiated, or filled with sap, that thus flourishing they may be a place of abode to the birds. He next declares, that the wild deer and conies have also the…
The Church Fathers
There the sparrows shall build their nests. By "sparrows," let us understand all birds — the whole from a part.
The house of the heron is their leader. The heron is a bird of very great size: and it is said to conquer even the eagle, and to have the eagle itself as its food. And it is not like the other birds, which have fixed nests, and go to their own places at evening; but this one sleeps wherever the darkness overtakes it. But according to the figurative interpretation, the monk has no cell, but wherever he finds himself, there he stays; and his battle is with the devil who reigns in this world, just as the heron too conquers the eagle, the king of the birds, as it is written: "Though you be exalted like the eagle, from there I will drag you down, says the Lord." For the eagle is the devil, according to Ezekiel.
"There shall the sparrows build their nests: their leader is the house of the coot" (ver. 17). Where shall the sparrows build? In the cedars of Libanus. ...Who are the sparrows? Sparrows are birds indeed, and fowls of the air, but small fowls are wont to be called sparrows. There are therefore some spiritual ones that build in the cedars of Libanus: that is, there are certain servants of God who hear in the Gospel, "Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor; and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow Me." ...Let him who hath resigned many things, not be proud. We know that Peter was a fisherman: what then could he give up, to follow our Lord? Or his brother Andrew, or John and James the sons of Zebedee, themselves also fishermen; and yet what did they say? "Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed Thee." Our Lord said not to him, Thou hast forgotten thy poverty; what hast thou resigned, that thou shouldest receive the whole world? He, my brethren, who resigned not only what he had, but also what he longed to have, resigned much. ...But although the sparrows will build in the cedars of Libanus, "the house of the coot is their leader." What is the house of the coot? The coot, as we all know, is a water bird, dwelling either among the marshes, or on the sea. It hath rarely or never a home on the shore; but in places in the midst of the waters, and thus usually in rocky islets, surrounded by the waves. We therefore understand that the rock is the fit home of the coot, it never dwelleth more securely than on the rock. On what sort of rock? One placed in the sea. And if it is beaten by the waves, yet it breaketh the waves, is not broken by them: this is the excellency of the rock in the sea. How great waves beat on our Lord Jesus Christ? The Jews dashed against Him; they were broken, He remained whole. And let every one who doth imitate Christ, so dwell in this world, that is, in this sea, where he cannot but feel storms and tempests, that he may yield to no wind, to no wave, but remain whole, while he meets them all. The home of the coot, therefore, is both strong and weak. The coot hath not a home on lofty spots; nothing is more firm and nothing more humble than that home. Sparrows build indeed in cedars, on account of actual need: but they hold that rock as their leader, which is beaten by the waves, and yet not broken; for they imitate…
Dictionary and topics
Lebanon — White, “the white mountain of Syria,” is the loftiest and most celebrated mountain range in Syria. It is a branch running southward from the Caucasus, and at its lower end forking into two parallel…
Birds · Nests of — Nests of
Stork · Nest of, in fir trees — Nest of, in fir trees
Trees · Mentioned in scripture: Fir — Mentioned in scripture: Fir
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
In the fourth decastich the poet goes further among the creatures of the field and of the forest. The subject to להוציא is מצמיח. 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 משּׁמן 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…
The storks migrated from northern Europe and resided in Palestine during the winter. • hyraxes: These animals are about the size of a rabbit and live in rocky places.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 104:17
Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. So far from being in need, these trees of God afford shelter to others, birds small and great make their nests in the branches. Thus what they receive from the great Lord they endeavour to return to his weaker creatures. How one thing fits into another in this fair creation, each link drawing on its fellow: the rains water the fir trees, and the fir trees become the happy home of birds; thus do the thunder clouds build the sparrow's house, and the descending rain sustains the basis of the stork's nest. Observe, also, how everything…
