Psalm 104:5

Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5–18) The work of the third day of Creation in its two great divisions. (1) The separation of the land and water (Psalm 104:5-9); (2) the clothing of the earth with grass, herbs, and trees (Psalm 104:10-18). The poet, however, ranges beyond the Mosaic account, and already peoples the earth with the living creatures of the fifth day. “It is not a picture of still life like that of Genesis, but a living, moving, animated scene” (Perowne).

(5) Who laid . . .—Better, He fixed the earth on its foundations. (Comp. Job 38:4-6; Proverbs 8:29.)

The inconsistency of this with Job 26:7, “He laid the earth upon nothing,” need not cause difficulty. Both treatments are poetical, not scientific. The word foundations implies stability and endurance (comp. Psalm 82:5), as in Shakespeare’s

“The frame and huge foundation of the earth.”

The verse has a historical interest from having supplied the Inquisition with an argument against Galileo.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 104:5. Who laid the foundations of the earth — Hebrew, יסד ארצ על מכוניה, jasad eretz gnal mechoneah, who hath founded the earth upon its own bases, or foundations, that is, upon itself, or its own centre of gravity, by which it is self-balanced, and by which it stands as fast and immoveable as if it were built upon the strongest foundation imaginable, which is a most stupendous work of divine wisdom and power; that it should not be removed — Out of its proper place; for ever — Or, till the end of time, when it must give way to the new earth. “God,” says Dr. Hammond, “has fixed so strange a place for the earth, that, being a heavy body, one would think it should fall every moment: and yet, which way so- ever we should imagine it to stir, it must, contrary to the nature of such a body, fall upward, and so can have no possible ruin, but by tumbling into heaven,” namely, which surrounds it on all sides.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

104:1-9 Every object we behold calls on us to bless and praise the Lord, who is great. His eternal power and Godhead are clearly shown by the things which he hath made. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. The Lord Jesus, the Son of his love, is the Light of the world.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who laid the foundations of the earth - Referring still to the creation of the earth. The margin is, "He hath founded the earth upon her bases." The Hebrew word rendered in the margin "her bases" means properly a place; then a basis or foundation. The idea is, that there wes something, as it were, placed under the earth to support it. The idea is not uncommon in the Scriptures. Compare the notes at Job 38:4.

That it should not be removed for ever - So that it cannot be shaken out of its place. That is, It is fixed, permanent, solid. Its foundations do not give way, as edifices reared by man. but it abides the same from age to age - the most fixed and stable object of which we have any knowledge. Compare the notes at Psalm 78:69.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. The earth is firmly fixed by His power.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He hath founded or established the earth upon its own basis or foundations, i.e. upon itself, or its own weight, whereby it stands as fast and unmovable, as if it were built upon the strongest foundations imaginable; which is a stupendous work of Divine power and wisdom. That it should not be removed out of its proper place, which is the lowest part of the world.

For ever; as long as the world continues.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Who laid the foundations of the earth,.... Or "founded the earth upon its bases" (l); which some take to be the waters, according to Psalm 24:2, others the centre of gravity in it; others the mountains; others the circumambient air, by which it is poised; rather the almighty power of God, by which it subsists; this is the work of Christ the Almighty; see Hebrews 1:3.

That it should not be removed for ever: for though it may be shaken by earthquakes, yet not removed; nor will it be until the dissolution of all things, when it shall flee away before the face of the Judge, and a new earth shall succeed, Revelation 20:11.

(l) "super bases ejus", Montanus, Musculus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; so the Tigurine version, Gejerus, Michaelis.

Geneva Study Bible

Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. He founded the earth on its bases,

That it should not be moved for ever.

The earth is compared to a building erected upon solid foundations. Cp. Job 38:6; Proverbs 8:29.

5–9. The formation of the earth, and the separation of land and water: the work of the third day, Genesis 1:9-10; cp. Job 38:8-11.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Who laid the foundations of the earth; rather, as in the margin, who founded the earth upon her bases; i.e. fixed the earth in its place, on bases - not necessarily material bases - which keep it steadily where it is (comp. Job 26:7). That it should not be removed forever (comp. Psalm 93:1). Psalm 104:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In a second decastich the poet speaks of the restraining of the lower waters and the establishing of the land standing out of the water. The suffix, referring back to ארץ, is intended to say that the earth hanging free in space (Job 26:7) has its internal supports. Its eternal stability is preserved even amidst the judgment predicted in Isaiah 24:16., since it comes forth out of it, unremoved from its former station, as a transformed, glorified earth. The deep (תּהום) with which God covers it is that primordial mass of water in which it lay first of all as it were in embryo, for it came into being ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ δι ̓ ὕδατος (2 Peter 3:5). כּסּיתו does not refer to תהום (masc. as in Job 28:14), because then עליה would be required, but to ארץ, and the masculine is to be explained either by attraction) according to the model of 1 Samuel 2:4), or by a reversion to the masculine ground-form as the discourse proceeds (cf. the same thing with עיר 2 Samuel 17:13, צעקה Exodus 11:6, יד Ezekiel 2:9). According to Psalm 104:6, the earth thus overflowed with water was already mountainous; the primal formation of the mountains is therefore just as old as the תהום mentioned in direct succession to the תהו ובהו. After this, Psalm 104:7 describe the subduing of the primordial waters by raising up the dry land and the confining of these waters in basins surrounded by banks. Terrified by the despotic command of God, they started asunder, and mountains rose aloft, the dry land with its heights and its low grounds appeared. The rendering that the waters, thrown into wild excitement, rose up the mountains and descended again (Hengstenberg), does not harmonize with the fact that they are represented in Psalm 104:6 as standing above the mountains. Accordingly, too, it is not to be interpreted after Psalm 107:26 : they (the waters) rose mountain-high, they sunk down like valleys. The reference of the description to the coming forth of the dry land on the third day of creation requires that הרים should be taken as subject to יעלוּ. But then, too, the בקעות are the subject to ירדוּ, as Hilary of Poictiers renders it in his Genesis, 5:97, etc.: subsidunt valles, and not the waters as subsiding into the valleys. Hupfeld is correct; Psalm 104:8 is a parenthesis which affirms that, inasmuch as the waters retreating laid the solid land bare, mountains and valleys as such came forth visibly; cf. Ovid, Metam. i.:344: Flumina subsidunt, montes exire videntur.