Between Text and Sermon: Psalm 104

The hymn of Psalm 104 is the most extensive celebration of creation in the Psalter. It surveys the works of God—from the heavens to the earth’s foundations, from springs and rivers to grass and trees, from birds in their nests to the great Leviathan in the sea. It is often analyzed in exegetical conversation with such weighty texts as the Genesis 1 creation account and the divine tour de force of created beings in Job 38–42, as well as extra-biblical comparanda such as the Egyptian Hymn to Aten. ¹ But the psalm’s distinctive exuberance also invites attention to its doxological role for joy and even “play” in God’s providence for all creation. Attention to this aspect in particular provides exegetical and homiletical direction for a biblical ecology that is joyfully reverent: playful delight in the life of the earth is humanity’s truest praise and in fact a joining in divine revelry.

William Brown analyzes Psalm 104 along such lines, envisioning “the world as God’s playfield.” ² This reading includes both perceptions of divine nature and implications for humanity. “God’s work in the world is not drudgery. God’s delight provides a model for human interaction with the world and God.” ³ The joy expressed in the psalm recognizes that both creator and creation are to find delight in the reality of the world: “As long as the psalmist rejoices in God and God rejoices in God’s handiwork, the ‘play’ continues to sustain the world.” ⁴

Two key lines from Psalm 104 bolster such an emphasis in reading the psalm. In v. 31, the psalmist weds the eternal glory of God with God’s delight in creation: “May the glory of Yahweh be forever; may Yahweh rejoice in his works!” Remarkably, this line is the only place in the Hebrew Bible where God is the subject of the verb śmḥ, “rejoice” (in its primary Qal stem).

Verse 26 has also attracted considerable interpretive discussion, much of which relates to this very theme. Surveying “the sea, great and wide,” and the creatures therein in v. 25, the psalmist speaks in the next line of the ships that sail its waters and of that archetypal sea monster, Leviathan. The second half of the verse has been understood in various ways, depending on who/what is understood to be the subject of the infinitive ləśaḥeq, “to play, sport,” and the sense and object of the preposition bô. One reading, reflected in most modern translations, makes Leviathan the subject of the verb and the sea his domain: “Leviathan, which you formed to play in it” (ESV, LSB). ⁵ Another reading makes God the subject and Leviathan the object, “Leviathan, whom you formed to sport with him” (NJPS and many academic analyses). Additionally, questions arise regarding the precise nuance of the verb śḥq here, whether “sport,” “play,” “laugh,” or “take delight in.” ⁶

Both directions of interpretation have potential resonance within the larger logic of mutual delight by creator and creatures in the realm of creation. If Leviathan is the subject, the psalmist claims that God has created even this most fearsome of beasts (here no longer an uncreated primordial embodiment of chaos, as in other ANE texts) to frolic and delight in the vastness of the sea, a fitting conclusion to a survey of creatures which spans from birds in their nests to this greatest of creatures. Such an expression of a theology of creation implies that even the most feared of monsters in fact has a place in the expansive creation of God and rightly delights in its life therein.

In the other interpretive direction, the psalmist asserts that God plays or takes delight even in the greatest sea monster. Reading the text along such lines as a counterpoint to older Chaoskampf traditions (the pervasive Near Eastern theme of a primordial divine combat behind creation), Jon Levenson memorably relayed a comment from one of his students, that here Leviathan had been reduced to merely God’s “rubber ducky.” ⁷ Pithy as this comment may be, it arguably misses the vitality of the image of God sporting with and/or delighting in the great creature Leviathan. ⁸ As Levenson himself emphasized, the best parallel for this image comes from Job : “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or push down his tongue with a rope? Can you put a cord in his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?…Will you sport with him like a bird, or will you leash him for your young women?” (Job 40:25–26, 29 [Eng. 41:1–2, 5]). The first question of Job 40:29 here unambiguously uses the same verb as Psalm 104:26 (śḥq), with Leviathan as the object rather than subject. The context of the speech implies that although Job can certainly do none of these things, God, remarkably, can.

This parallel in Job perhaps tips the balance toward the second way of translating v. 26 in the psalm: God formed Leviathan to sport with/play with him. This resonates with the psalmist’s pronouncement that God should delight in all the things God has made (v. 31); significantly, this even includes Leviathan! Nonetheless, the alternative understanding, which most modern translations retain, fits within the logic of the psalm as well. Leviathan, great and fearsome beyond comprehension to humanity, is created by God to play and take delight in its existence within the vast sea. All creatures similarly receive their life joyfully from God who creates and sustains them. The psalm gives voice to the human participation in this rejoicing in God and God’s creation. The sinful and wicked (v. 35) are those who lose this vision of their belonging within creation.

Psalm 104:24 both encapsulates much of the sentiment of the psalm and connects it to broader wisdom traditions: “How numerous are your works, O Yahweh! You have made all of them with wisdom; the earth is filled with your creations.” In Proverbs 8:30b–31, this divine Wisdom says: “I was daily [his] delight; playing before him always. Playing in the dry land of his earth, my delight was the children of humanity.” Using the same verb (śḥq) as Psalm 104:26, here the divine Wisdom of God delights, even plays, in the created world of God. All creation reflects this divine delight, but humanity gives voice to this universal reality from its distinctive place in creation. This delight in creation, shared by creator and creature, sustains the whole: “creation is sustained…by unabashed joy.” ⁹ The God of Psalm 104, omnipotent creator of all things in heaven and on earth, must also be a God who smiles, who plays, who laughs. Humanity, and all other creatures great and small, join the revelry.