Psalms 104:2

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment,.... Referring, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi think, to the light, which was first created; and indeed this was commanded out of darkness by God the Word,

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment.

Coverest, or adornest, or clothest. With light; either, 1. With that light which no man can approach unto, as it is called , wherewith therefore he may well be said to be covered or hid from the eyes of mortal men. Or rather, 2. With that first-created light, , which the psalmist fitly puts in the first place, as being the first of God’ s visible works. Like a curtain; the use whereof it hath, partly in reference to that glorious mansion of the blessed God and his holy angels, which these visible heavens do veil and cover; and partly in reference to the earth, which they enclose and protect.

Psalms 104:2 Who coverest [thyself] with light as [with] a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain:Ver. 2. Who coverest thyself with light] That lovely creature that first shone out of darkness, and is chief among all things sensible, as coming nearest to the unapproachable glory of God; like as the robe royal is next unto the king. Herod upon a set day came forth arrayed in royal apparel, in cloth of silver, saith Josephus, which being beaten upon by the sun’ s beams, dazzled the eyes of the people, and drew from them that blasphemous acclamation, Acts 12:21. God, when he made the world, showed himself in all his royalty; neither can we ascribe too much unto him. Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain] The whole expanse or firmament is as a canopy over God’ s throne, or rather as a curtain or screen between us and the Divine majesty, the sight whereof we cannot bear.

(2) Who coverest.—Perhaps better with the participles of the original retained: Putting on light as a robe; Spreading the heavens as a curtain. The psalmist does not think of the formation of light as of a single past act, but as a continued glorious operation of Divine power and splendour. Not only is light as to the modern poet, “Nature’s resplendent robe, Without whose vesting beauty all were wrapt In unessential gloom,” but it is the dress of Divinity, the “ethereal woof” that God Himself is for ever weaving for His own wear. Curtain.—Especially of a tent (see Son 1:5, &c.), the tremulous movement of its folds being expressed in the Hebrew word. Different explanations have been given of the figure. Some see an allusion to the curtains of the Tabernacle (Exodus 26, 27). The associations of this ritual were dear to a religious Hebrew, and he may well have had in his mind the rich folds of the curtain of the Holy of Holies. So a modern poet speaks of “The arras-folds, that variegate The earth, God’s ante-chamber. Herder, again, refers the image to the survival of the nomadic instinct. But there is no need to put a limit to a figure so natural and suggestive. Possibly images of palace, temple, and tent, all combined, rose to the poet’s thought, as in Shelley’s “Ode to Heaven”:— “Palace roof of cloudless nights! Paradise of golden lights! Deep immeasurable vast, Which art now, and which wert then; Of the present and the past, Of the Eternal where and when, Presence-chamber, temple, home, Ever-canopying dome Of acts and ages yet to come!”

Verse 2. Who coverest thyself with light] Light, insufferable splendor, is the robe of the Divine Majesty. Light and fire are generally the accompaniments of the Supreme Being, when he manifests his presence to his creatures. He appeared thus to Abraham when he made a covenant with him, Genesis 15:17; and to Moses when he appointed him to bring the people out of Egypt, Exodus 19:18. Moses calls God a consuming fire, Deuteronomy 4:24. When Christ was transfigured on the mount, his face shone like the sun, and his garment was white as the light, Matthew 17:2. And when the Lord manifests himself to the prophets, he is always surrounded with fire, and the most brilliant light. Bishop Lowth has some fine remarks on the imagery and metaphors of this Psalm. The exordium, says he, is peculiarly magnificent, wherein the majesty of God is described, so far as we can investigate and comprehend it, from the admirable construction of nature; in which passage, as it was for the most part necessary to use translatitious images, the sacred poet has principally applied those which would be esteemed by the Hebrews the most elevated, and worthy such an argument; for they all, as it seems to me, are taken from the tabernacle. We will give these passages verbally, with a short illustration: - הוד והדר לבשת hod vehadar labashta. "Thou hast put on honour and majesty." The original, לבשת, is frequently used when speaking of the clothing or dress of the priests. Verse 2. עטה אור כשלמה oteh or cassalmah. "Covering thyself with light as with a garment." A manifest symbol of the Divine Presence; the light conspicuous in the holiest is pointed out under the same idea; and from this single example a simile is educed to express the ineffable glory of God generally and universally. נוטה שמים כיריעה noteh shamayim kayeriah. "Stretching out the heavens like a curtain." The word יריעה, rendered here curtain, is that which denotes the curtains or uncovering of the whole tabernacle. This may also be an allusion to those curtains or awnings, stretched over an area, under which companies sit at weddings, feasts, religious festivals, curiously painted under, to give them the appearance of the visible heavens in the night-season.

2. Light, the first created element, is as it were God’s robe, revealing while it conceals Him. Nothing can serve better as the expression of His Nature (1 John 1:5; 1 Timothy 6:16). Light is universally diffused; it is the condition of life, the source of gladness, the emblem of purity. who stretchest out &c.] Cp. Isaiah 40:22. The canopy of the sky is compared to a tent-curtain, stretched out over the earth. By His simple fiat God spread out these heavens as easily as a man might pitch his tent. Their vastness is a symbol of the majesty of the King Who dwells in His royal pavilion, Whom yet “heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain.” Observe the present participles, covering thyself, stretching out. The original act of creation is regarded as continued into the present in the maintenance of the universe.

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment - Referring to the first work of creation Genesis 1:3, “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” He seemed to put on light as a

2. Who coverest thyself with light—The text simply roads, “Who coverest with light,” there being nothing answering to “thyself” except the masculine form of the participle, while the object of the