a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
creeping
רֶ֭מֶשׂRe.mes
H7431
a reptile or any other rapidly moving animal · noun, common masculine singular absolute
innumerable
מִסְפָּ֑רmis.Par
H4557
a number · noun, common masculine singular absolute
small
קְ֝טַנּ֗וֹתke.ta.Not
H6996
abbreviated · adjective, feminine plural absolute
great
גְּדֹלֽוֹתge.do.Lot
H1419
great (in any sense) · adjective, feminine plural absolute
beasts
חַיּ֥וֹתchai.Yot
H2416
alive · noun, common feminine plural absolute
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 69:34 Let the heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moveth therein.
Psalms 95:4-5 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the…
Acts 28:5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
Genesis 1:20-22 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open fi…
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye…
Deuteronomy 33:14-16 And for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon,
Deuteronomy 33:19 They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the abundance of th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 104:19-30
We are here taught to praise and magnify God,
I. For the constant revolutions and succession of day and night, and the dominion of sun and moon over them. The heathen were so affected with the light and influence of the sun and moon, and their serviceableness to the earth, that they worshipped them as deities; and therefore the scripture takes all occasions to show that the gods they worshipped are the creatures and servants of the true God (Psa 104:19): He appointed the moon for seasons, for the measuring of the months, the directing of the seasons for the business of the husbandman, and the governing of the tides. The full and change, the increase and decrease, of the moon, exactly observe…
So is this great and wide sea,.... One of the great and manifold works of God, made in his wisdom, and full of his riches and possessions, as the earth is; this is that collection of waters which God called seas, Genesis 1:10 and is, as Kimchi observes, great in length, and wide and spacious in breadth; or "broad of hands" (i), as in the original; or spacious in borders, as the Targum; it washing the several parts of the continent, and encompassing and embracing the whole earth with both arms as it were. Nor is it unusual with other writers to call the sea the great sea (k), and to speak of an arm or arms of the sea (l), as we do. Isidore says (m), the great sea is that which flows out of th…
Psalm 104:24-26
24. O Jehovah! how magnificent are thy works! thou hast made all things in wisdom: the earth is full of thy riches. 25. Great is this sea, and wide in extent; therein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great animals. 26. There go the ships [195] and the leviathan, which thou hast made to sport itself in it.
24. O Jehovah! how magnificent are thy works The prophet does not make a full enumeration of the works of God, which would be an endless task, but only touches upon certain particulars, that every one may be led from the consideration of them to reflect the more attentively on that wisdom by which God governs the whole world, and every particular part of it.…
The Church Fathers
This great and spacious sea with its arms. Is this not a matter of wondrous wisdom, how in the sea there are creeping things beyond number, and fish both greater and smaller: and how they are in the deep, and there draw their life, where, if a man should fall in, he dies, while they themselves, if they come onto the land, die?
After this the prophet added the words "The sea also, great and wide, in which are schools without number of living things." The sea is understood as the world, which is full of storms and dangerous waves, even full of bitterness and saltiness. It also has quite large fish that do not cease to devour the smaller ones. There are numberless creeping things, so-called because they creep over the earth. For this reason carnal people and those who are too fond of the world, because they think only of the present life and continuously apply themselves to its pursuits out of love for it, are not unfittingly called creeping things.
Let us, therefore, in the faith of the disciples, converse frequently with our Master. For the world is like the sea to us, my brothers, of which it is written, "This is the great and wide sea, there go the ships; the Leviathan, which you have created to play therein." We float on this sea, as with the wind, through our own free will, for everyone directs his course according to his will, and either, under the pilotage of the Word, he enters into rest, or, laid hold on by pleasure, he suffers shipwreck and is in peril by storm. For as in the ocean there are storms and waves, so in the world there are many afflictions and trials.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Providence — Literally means foresight, but is generally used to denote God’s preserving and governing all things by means of second causes (Ps. 18:35; 63:8; Acts 17:28; Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3). God’s providence…
Creeping Things · A general term for animals — A general term for animals
Fishes · Number and variety of — Number and variety of
Insects · Fed by God — Fed by God
Sea, The · Of immense extent — Of immense extent
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).
Fixing his eye upon the sea with its small and great creatures, and the care of God for all self-living beings, the poet passes over to the fifth and sixth days of creation. The rich contents of this sixth group flow over and exceed the decastich. With מה־רבּוּ (not מה־גּדלוּ, Psa 92:6) the poet expresses his wonder at the great number of God's works, each one at the same time having its adjustment in accordance with its design, and all, mutually serving one another, co-operating one with another. קנין, which signifies both bringing forth and acquiring, has the former meaning here according to the predicate: full of creatures, which bear in themselves the traces of the Name of their Creator…
The ocean, . . . teeming with life of every kind (see Gen 1:20-21), exemplifies the Lord’s creative activities.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 104:25
So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
So is this great and wide sea. He gives an instance of the immense number and variety of Jehovah's works by pointing to the sea. "Look, "saith he, "at yonder ocean, stretching itself on both hands and embracing so many lands, it too swarms with animal life, and in its deeps lie treasures beyond all counting. The heathen made the sea a different province from the land, and gave the command thereof to Neptune, but we know of a surety that Jehovah rules the waves." Wherein, are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts; read moving things and animals small arid great, and you hav…
