Psalm 104 is a hymn oriented to nature. I offer a theological-exegetical essay with homiletical motives. I will combine biblical scholarship, close textual exegesis, doctrinal reflection, and contemporary application. The purpose is both information and formation that leads to cultivating wonder, praise, and trust in the God’s sustaining order within creation and human life.
Summary
I explore Psalm 104, highlighting its theme of God as Creator and Preserver of life, paralleling it with Genesis 1 and other biblical passages where creation itself praises the Lord, such as Prov 8, Isa 40, Job 38, John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1. This canonical awareness reinforces the idea that creation through wisdom is a unifying biblical theme. The psalm's exuberance is likened to the New Testament's proclamation of God's glory through Christ, who sustains all things with wisdom. The concept of "ruach" (wind, breath, spirit) is central to God's continuous life-giving activity, emphasizing that all life is a divine loan:
· Explains its semantic range in Hebrew
· Connects it to Greek pneuma
· Integrates theological implications of divine life-sustaining presence
I draw a parallel between Psalm 104 and Ikhnaton's "Hymn to the Sun," both marveling at life's source.
The discussion then shifts to what I think is a distinctive contribution to Benoit Mandelbrot's fractal geometry, contrasting nature's "rough" self-similar shapes (like cauliflowers and coastlines) with Euclidean geometry. Mandelbrot's idea that seemingly chaotic natural patterns follow simple rules suggests an underlying order. This fractal order is proposed as a metaphor for understanding human life's twists and turns, hinting at a divine design even in its irregularities, and offering a new lens through which to perceive God's work in the world. This recognizes the limited human perspective, that God’s order may be non-Euclidean, and that imperfection and irregularity are features of a deeper design. I am seeking a bridge between faith, science, and lived experience.
Introduction
The Israelite Monarchy may be the time of writing for this psalm. However, Pannenberg refers to it as an exilic psalm. The poet combines profound religious thought with reflecting on nature in an intimate way. The creation focus of Psalm 104 is like that of Psalm 19:1-6 and Genesis 1, where the Lord created sun, moon and stars (which other people worshiped as gods/goddesses), and the creation praises the Creator. Also, in Psalms 96:9-13; 98:7-9; and 148 (all), creation itself does the praise-singing. Other passages that marvel at creation include Psalms 8 and 89; Proverbs 8:23-31. See Isaiah 40 passim and Isaiah 46:1 ff. for a prophetic emphasis on the Lord God as Creator, in mocking contrast to the inability of idols made by human beings to do anything. Isaiah 40:12 ff. parallels Job 38:1 ff. The reign of God is without beginning or end, not attained by a fight with chaos. Further, the sequence here of plants before the stars is like Genesis 1, largely because they belong closely to the earth and to depreciate the stars in comparison with the divine rank that the stars had in the religious world around Israel, especially Babylon.[1] One parallel to Psalm 104 in another culture is that of Ikhnaton, Pharaoh Amenophes IV (1375-1358 BC), Hymn to the Sun. it refers to the beauty of the sun, affirming it has the beginning of life. The sun blinds the earth with its love. The world is in silence and darkness until the sin rises. Animals, like cattle, birds, and sheep, as well as vegetation, offer praise to the sun. The sun gives life and breath. The sun (Aton) makes the Nile in the Netherworld in order to preserve the people of Egypt. Aton is in the heart of the poet and holds the earth in its hand.[2]
Verse-by-verse study
In Psalm 104: 24-26, wonder fills the sea, to the point where Leviathan plays in it. In fact, one can sense the exuberance of the writer. James Herriot notices this exuberance in the title of his book, The Lord God Made Them All. We find such exuberance as well in the New Testament, for the Lord is worthy to receive glory, honor, and power, for the Lord created all things (Revelation 4:11). 24 O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom (hokmah), you have made them all. Creation through wisdom appears elsewhere in Scripture (Proverbs 3:19, and the roughly parallel Psalm 136:5, as well as Jeremiah 10:12 and 51:15). Indeed, in Proverbs 8:22 ff., God creates Wisdom first. A common observation among scholars today is that the Torah and the Prophets view the Lord primarily in terms of covenant, while the wisdom tradition views the Lord primarily through the Lord as creator. If one observes life, one can see the harmony in creation and live in right relation to it.[3] Such wisdom teaching is akin to the New Testament's understanding that God created and sustains everything through Christ; see such passages as John 1:1-5, 10, 14, where God explicitly has created everything through the logoV/Word. Also see Hebrews 1:2-3; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:13-17 ("firstborn," from prwtotokoV, can mean either first in order or highest in rank = supreme over). The carol/hymn "Of the Father's Love Begotten"[4] reflects this outlook.
Of the Father's love begotten
ere the worlds began to be,
he is Alpha and Omega,
he the Source, the Ending he,
of the things that are, that have been,
and that future years shall see,
evermore and evermore!
…
now he shines, the long-expected;
let creation praise its Lord,
evermore and evermore!
…
let no tongue on earth be silent,
ev'ry voice in concert ring,
evermore and evermore!
Further, the earth is full of your creatures. 25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. 26 There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it. Leviathan is a serpentine or crocodilian sea monster. The LXX translates it as drakwn (dragon, serpent, sea monster), imagery picked up in the book of Revelation (as chapters 12-13). Take the blue whale, for example. They migrate farther than any other known animal, about 12,000 miles every year. The blue whale’s heart weighs 1,300 pounds and beats only about 10 times per minute. (By comparison, the human heart beats at least 70 times per minute.) The blue whale’s tail can generate 500 horsepower! Indeed, wonders fill the sea.
In Psalm 104: 27-34, a segment that extends to verse 35, the Lord is the preserver of life. The Lord cares for each individual creature, providing it with food and water at the right time, a sign of the Lord preserving creation.[5] 27 These all look to you to give them their food in due season; 28 when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. 29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed. The poetically expressed fear of all creatures is that the Lord might "hide his face," that is remove the divine presence, from them. They would experience dismay ("terror" or "panic") because if the Lord were to take away their breath (ruach), they would die. (The same Hebrew root words for "hide," "face" and "dismay" appears in Psalm 30:7.)[6] Theologically, this notion connects with the infinity of God as the source of the life-sustaining nearness of God. For God to turn away is to create fear because it would mean denial of life.[7] Thus, when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. 30 When you send forth your spirit, you create them; and you renew the face of the ground. The breath of the Lord preserves all life. This suggests that life presupposes life. Humanity had nothing to do with creating the conditions for its own life.[8] Ruach is a mysteriously invisible natural force that declares itself especially in the movement of the wind. This is the background of the statement in John 3:8. This passage says the Spirit is the incalculable force of the origin of all life. The breath of the Lord is a creative life force.[9] The Spirit is the source of life. The life of the creature is through the divine Spirit, and the continued enjoyment of life is the result of a loan of life at creation. Without this connection with the Lord, creation could never reach its goal.[10] The sending forth of the spirit suggests movement within time and space. The Lord not only creates but also sustains creation. The creative activity continues as the Lord providentially gives ongoing breath and sustenance (daily food from the hand of the Lord to the creatures the Lord has made, as also in Psalm 145:15-16 and 147:7-9). The Spirit of the Lord is the life-giving principle, to which all creatures owe life, movement, and activity. This is particularly true of animals, plants, and humans.[11] This verse also connects with the notion of the Lord doing new things in creation, such as its evolution, as a creative act of the Lord.[12] Wind, breath and spirit are three often-interchangeable meanings of the Hebrew word ruach; similarly, pneuma in Greek (as in the play on words in John 3), from which we get our word pneumatic (air-filled). So, unless the Lord sustains their breath, all creatures return to the dust from which they are made (see Genesis 2:7; 3:19; Psalm 90:3; Ecclesiastes 12:7; Job 34:14-15: "If God should take back the spirit [ruach] to himself, and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and all mortals return to dust."). In contrast, when God sends forth the spirit (the divine ruach, the "life-giving breath" - NET) God creates them (anew). The Old Testament uses 'bara' for God's creating (as Genesis 1:1, 21, 27 [three times]; 2:3, 4). 31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in the works of the Lord—32 who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. This reminds us that earth can be an enemy. 33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. See as well Psalm 96:12 and 98:7-8. There is joy within the world because of God's creating and sustaining majestic power. Passages with "sing to the Lord" are in association with praising God or thanking God; e.g., see Exodus 15:1, 21; 1 Chronicles 16:7-10, 23-26; 2 Chronicles 20:21; Psalms 13:6; 95:1-2; 98:1; 147:7; 149:1; Isaiah 42:10-12; Jeremiah 20:13. 34 May my meditation thoughts or musings of this psalm be pleasing to the Lord (see Psalm 19:14), for I rejoice in the Lord. 35b Bless the Lord O my soul Praise the Lord!
Application
Where in nature do we see straight lines, exact triangles, perfect circles and other standardized shapes? Nowhere. As mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, a man I will tell you more about in a moment, put it, "Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line." Nature does not follow traditional Euclidian geometry.
Let us think for a moment about the lowly cauliflower, for example. If we want to get some sense of measurement of a cauliflower head, we can easily weigh it and come up with a number. However, if we want to measure its surface, we have great difficulty arriving at a number, for the surface is neither flat nor smooth. To measure it, we would need some way to measure irregularity or roughness. What is more, if we cut off one of the florets and study it, we see that it, like the whole cauliflower head, is also rough. The same is true if we break a sprig off the floret - and is even true of smaller pieces of the sprig. In fact, each smaller part is like the whole cauliflower, only more diminutive.
It turns out that this principle applies to many things in nature, such as trees. If we look at a tree closely, we see that the individual branches look like small trees, and the same is true of the smaller branches off the larger ones.
Now let us return to the mathematician. Mandelbrot was not the first to notice that in natural formations, small parts often resemble the whole. However, before him, people regarded this feature as an isolated curiosity. In the 1970s, however, Mandelbrot took this phenomenon - which he calls "self-similarity" - and used it as a basis on which to build a new kind of geometry, a non-Euclidian geometry for applying science and measurement to non-smooth objects in the real world. Self-similarity is the property of having a substructure analogous or identical to an overall structure. For example, a part of a line segment is itself a line segment, and thus a line segment exhibits self-similarity. By contrast, no part of a circle is a circle, and thus a circle does not exhibit self-similarity. Many natural phenomena, such as clouds and plants, are self-similar to some degree. In the process, he coined the word fractals to refer to these irregular shapes. However, more importantly, he demonstrated that the irregularly shaped objects in nature do not have a random shape. Such shapes follow simple rules to generate seemingly complex and chaotic patterns. Mandelbrot said the roughness of shapes in nature is not a mess but something in which he found "very strong traces of order." (He developed the word fractals from the Latin fractus, which means broken.) Mandelbrot went on to write a book about his new geometry based on fractals, which he also described as the "science of roughness." He said he preferred the word roughness to irregularity because grammatically, "irregularity is the contrary of regularity," whereas in nature, the contrary of regularity is rough.
One more example sometimes used to explain fractals is a coastline, which, of course, is irregular or "rough." On a map, we might represent a small section of coastline as a straight line, but, in reality, even small sections do not form straight lines. If we look at that section closely, we see that its composition is that of several small peninsulas and inlets. If we look even more closely, we see that each peninsula and inlet has its own bays and headlands. If we continue to look at even smaller sections, we will discover that the pattern is always present. Moreover, the recurring pattern of roughness is more or less the same, no matter how closely we look at the object in question.
Understanding fractals has made possible significant advances in fields as varied as physics, music, linguistics, weather forecasting, medicine, economics and even moviemaking. In the case of the latter, for example, a film director needing a shot with a mountain in the background can put into a computer a fractal algorithm of a pattern of peaks and crags, and the computer can generate the whole mountain, reproducing those basic shapes on varying scales. Granted, the result is not a real mountain, but it looks like a real one. In addition, if the director decides the mountain is not rugged enough for the scene, the special-effects people can simply bump up the roughness number and regenerate the mountain.
All of this suggests that nature does have an order, even if the order is not the smooth surface on which Euclidean geometry paints. Rather, the order of nature is more like the rough surface of fractal geometry. If you have followed me so far, maybe we can think of this type of order in nature as a metaphor of the type of order we find in human life. After all, human beings are part of nature. What if we viewed what occurs in the human life as having an order something like that of fractal geometry? Human life is hardly smooth. It has all the twists and turns that we find in nature. In our limited experience of our personal lives or of human life on this planet, it may appear irregular. In reality, it may simply be rough; having an order that one might perceive if one could gain the proper perspective. It has a design, if you please, even if our limited perspective makes it look random.
What would happen if such reflections can help us understand the way God is at work in the world?
A Shift in Perspective on Imperfection: We might learn to see the "irregularities" and "roughness" in life, both personal and global, not as flaws or chaos, but as integral parts of a larger, beautiful design. Just as a coastline's jaggedness reveals its true nature more than a smooth line, the ups and downs of existence could be viewed as essential to its fractal, divine pattern.
Embracing Complexity as Design: It could encourage us to appreciate that God's plan isn't always a straight, clear path, but rather one that unfolds with self-similar patterns at different scales. What seems like a chaotic, small-scale event might reflect a grander, underlying order that we can't fully perceive yet.
Finding Harmony in the Unpredictable: The idea that seemingly complex and chaotic patterns in nature follow simple rules could offer comfort. Even when life feels overwhelmingly complicated, there might be fundamental, divine principles guiding its unfolding, bringing a sense of harmony to the unpredictable.
A Deeper Connection to Creation: It could strengthen the idea that God is intimately involved in every detail of creation, from the smallest floret of cauliflower to the vastness of the cosmos, sustaining it all with an elegant, self-similar design. This might lead to a renewed sense of wonder and reverence for the natural world and the divine wisdom behind it, much like the psalmist's exuberance.
Essentially, it could help us find design, purpose, and even beauty in the messy, non-Euclidean reality of our lives, rather than constantly striving for an idealized, smooth perfection that doesn't truly exist in nature or, perhaps, in God's grander scheme. It's a really thought-provoking way to bridge faith and the natural world!
A Pastoral Example: Vocation, Failure, and “Rough” Order
Consider a person who senses a clear calling early in life—to teach, to serve the church, to heal, to create. The expectation, often unspoken, is that vocation should unfold like a straight line: education leads to opportunity, opportunity to stability, stability to fulfillment. But lived experience rarely follows that smooth geometry. Instead, there are detours—jobs that fail, doors that close, seasons of doubt, even choices that feel like mistakes. From close up, the story looks jagged and incoherent, marked more by loss than progress.
Yet, looking back years later, patterns begin to emerge. Skills learned in one “failed” role reappear in another. Hard lessons from disappointment shape wisdom and compassion. The calling does not disappear; it repeats itself at different scales, taking new forms, echoing earlier moments in unexpected ways. What once felt like chaos begins to resemble a rough but intelligible design.
If Psalm 104 teaches us that God sustains creation not only in its beauty but also in its ongoing, breathing fragility, then perhaps human vocation works the same way. God’s faithfulness is not expressed through a perfectly smooth path, but through a resilient, self-similar pattern—where meaning reappears, life is renewed, and purpose is not erased by failure but refracted through it. What seemed irregular was not the absence of order, but the presence of a deeper one.
[1] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume II, 13, 117.
[2] Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of the sky,
O living Aton, Beginning of life!
When thou risest in the Eastern horizon,
Thou fillest every land with thy beauty.
Thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high above every land,
Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all that thou hast made.
Thou art Re, and thou carriest them all away captive;
Thou bindest them by thy love.
Though thou art far away, thy rays are upon the earth;
Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day.
When thou settest in the western horizon of the sky,
The earth is in darkness like the dead;
They sleep in their chambers,
Their heads are wrapped up,
Their nostrils are stopped,
And none seeth the other,
While all their things are stolen
Which are under their heads,
And they know it not.
Every lion cometh forth from his den,
All serpents, they Sting.
Darkness ...
The world is in silence,
He that made them resteth in his horizon.
Bright is the earth when thou risest in the horizon.
When thou shinest as Aton by day
Thou drivest away the darkness.
When thou sendest forth thy rays,
The Two Lands (Egypt) are in daily festivity,
Awake and standing upon their feet
When thou hast raised them up.
Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing,
Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning.
(Then) in all the world they do their work.
All cattle rest upon their pasturage,
The trees and the plants flourish,
The birds flutter in their marshes,
Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee.
All the sheep dance upon their feet,
All winged things fly,
They live when thou hast shone upon them.
The barques sail up-stream and down-stream alike.
Every highway is open because thou dawnest.
The fish in the river leap up before thee.
Thy rays are in the midst of the great green sea.
Creator of the germ in woman,
Maker of seed in man,
Giving life to the son in the body of his mother,
Soothing him that he may not weep,
Nurse (even) in the womb,
Giver of breath to animate every one that he maketh!
When he cometh forth from the body ... on the day of his birth,
Thou openest his mouth in speech,
Thou suppliest his necessities.
When the fledgling in the egg chirps in the shell,
Thou givest him breath therein to preserve him alive.
When thou hast brought him together
To (the point of) bursting it in the egg,
He cometh forth from the egg
To chirp with all his might.
He goeth about upon his two feet
When he hath come forth therefrom.
How manifold are thy works!
They are hidden from before (us),
O sole God, whose powers no other possesseth.
Thou didst create the earth according to thy heart
While thou wast alone:
Men, all cattle large and small,
All that are upon the earth,
That go about upon their feet;
(All) that are on high,
That fly wilh their wings.
The foreign countries, Syria and Kush,
The land of Egypt;
Thou settest every man into his place,
Every one has his possessions,
And his days are reckoned.
Their tongues are diverse in speech,
Their forms likewise and their skins are distinguished.
(For) thou makest different the strangers.
Thou makest the Nile in the Nether World,
Thou bringest it as thou desirest,
To preserve alive the people.
For thou hast made them for thyself,
The lord of them all, resting among them;
Thou lord of every land, who risest for them,
Thou Sun of day, great in majesty.
All the distant countries,
Thou makest (also) their life,
Thou hast set a Nile in the sky;
When it falleth for them,
It maketh waves upon the mountains,
Like the great green sea,
Watering the fields in their towns.
How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity!
There is a Nile in the sky for the strangers
And for the cattle of every country that go upon their feet.
(But) the Nile, it cometh from the Nether World for Egypt.
Thy rays nourish every garden;
When thou risest they live,
They grow by thee.
Thou makest the seasons
In order to create all thy work:
Winter to bring them coolness,
And heat they they may taste thee.
Thou didst make the distant sky to rise therein,
In order to behold all that thou hast made,
Thou alone, shining in thy form as living Aton,
Dawning, glittering, going afar and returning.
Thou makest millions of forms
Through thyself alone;
Cities, towns, and tribes, highways and rivers.
All eyes see thee before them,
For thou art Aton of the day over the earth.
Thou art in my heart,
There is no other that knoweth thee
Save thy son Akhnaton.
Thou has made him wise
In thy designs and in thy might.
The world is in thy hand,
Even as thou hast made them.
When thou hast risen they live,
When thou settest, they die;
For thou art length of life of thyself,
Men live through thee,
While (their) eyes are on thy beauty
Until thou settest.
All labour is put away
When thou settest in the west.
Thou didst establish the world,
And raise them up for thy son,
Who came forth from thy limbs,
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt,
Living in Truth, Lord of the Two Lands,
Nefer-khrpru-Re, Wan-Re (Akhnaton),
Son of Re, living in Truth, lord of diadems,
Akhnaton, whose life is long;
(And for) the chief royal wife, his beloved,
Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer-nefru-Aton, Nofretete,
Living and flourishing for ever and ever.
[3] Carole R. Fontaine says (in Women's Bible Commentary [Westminster John Knox Press], 153):
"Unlike the Torah and the Prophets, which view God primarily in terms of covenant and national history, for the wisdom tradition God is primarily Creator. God used Wisdom to create the world and placed Wisdom within creation, where people could observe its harmonies and live in right relation to it ... ."
[4] Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, 348-410
[5] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume II, 35.
[6] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume II, 85.
[7] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume I, 414.
[8] Barth, Church Dogmatics III.1 [41.2] 152.
[9] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume I, 373.
[10] Barth, Church Dogmatics III.1 [41.1] 57.
[11] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume II, 76.
[12] Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, Volume II, 41.
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