Psalms 104:35

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth,.... Not in common, for all men are sinners, even good men are not without sin; but notorious sinners, whose lives are one continued series and course of

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.

But as for those ungodly creatures who do not regard the works of the Lord, which is noted as a most grievous sin, and punished with a grievous imprecation, like this, ,5, nor give him the glory due to his name, but dishonour God, and abuse his creatures, and thereby provoke God to destroy the earth, and the men and things which are upon it, it is my prayer for thine honour, and for the safeguard of all mankind, that those sinners who obstinately and resolutely continue in this practice of dishonouring and disobeying their Creator, may be taken out of this world, that they may no longer infect it, nor procure its total destruction. Or it may be a prediction delivered in the form of an imprecation, as hath been noted before in like cases. But thou, O my soul, come not into this wretched society, but employ thyself in this great work of blessing and praising God; and it is my desire and hope that others will follow my example.

Psalms 104:35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.Ver. 35. Let the sinners be consumed, &c.] Such sinners against their own souls, as when they know God, or might know him by his wonderful works, glorify him not as God, neither are thankful, Romans 1:21; but pollute and abuse his good creatures, to his dishonour, fighting against him with those lives that he hath given them. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul] The worse others are the better be thou, kindling thyself from their coldness, &c.

(35) Sinners be consumed.—This imprecation, which comes in at the close of this otherwise uniformly glad hymn, has been variously excused. The truth seems to be that from a religious hymn of Israel, since religion and patriotism were one, the expression of the national feeling against heathen oppressors and apostates who sided with them could not well be absent, whatever its immediate subject and tone. But the poet touches even a profounder truth.[19] The harmony of creation was soon broken by sin, and the harmony of the song of creation would hardly be complete, or rather, would be false and unreal, did not a discord make itself heard. The form such a suggestion would take was conditioned by the nationality of the poet; the spirit of it brings this ancient hymn at its close into accord with the feeling of modern literature, as reflected in Wordsworth’s well-known “Verses Written in Early Spring”:— [19] In reality the power of sin to interfere with God’s pleasure. in His universe is present as an undercurrent of thought in Psalms 103, as well as 104. In the former it is implied that forgiveness and restoration are requisite before the harmony of the universe (Psalms 104:20-22) can become audible. The two psalms are also closely related in form. “I heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I lay reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind. To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran And much it grieved my heart to think What Man has made of Man.” Bless thou the Lord.—This is the first hallelujah in the psalter. Outside the psalter it is never found, and was therefore a liturgical expression coined in a comparatively late age. It is variously written as one or two words.

Verse 35. Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.] Or, He shall consume the wicked and ungodly, till no more of them be found. Then the wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God. No wonder, with these prospects before his eyes, he cries out, "Bless Jehovah, O my soul! Hallelujah!" And ye that hear of these things, bless the Lord also. ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND FOURTH PSALM The scope of this Psalm is the same with that of the former, i.e., to excite them to praise God in consideration of his benefits; but yet on a different ground. In the former, for the benefits of grace conferred upon his Church; in this, for the gifts of nature bestowed in general upon all. Those flow immediately from his mercy; these, from his power, wisdom, and goodness, and depend upon his providence, and are manifest in the creation, governance, and preservation of all things. The creature then is the subject of this Psalm, relative to which we have a long but very methodical narration. I. The exhortation proposed briefly, Psalms 104:1. II. The exhortation urged by the inspection of the fabric, the beauty, order, and government of the world, Psalms 104:1-33. III. The duty practiced by himself, Psalms 104:33-34. IV. An imprecation on them that neglect the duty, Psalms 104:35. I. He begins with a double apostrophe: - 1. To his own soul, to praise God: "Bless the Lord, O my soul;" which was the conclusion of the former Psalm. 2. To his God: "O Lord my God," whom he describes to be great and glorious. That he may set forth his majesty and glory, borrowing his figure from the person of some great king, presenting himself very glorious to his people in his robes, in his pavilion, with a glittering canopy extended over his throne; sometimes in his chariot, drawn by the swiftest horses, with his nobles, ministers, and servants, waiting on his pleasure. In this way he describes the majesty of God in the works of the first and second day, for by that order he proceeds in setting forth God's works, that in which they were made. 1. His robe is the light, the work of the first day, which is the purest, the most illustrious and cheerful of all God's creatures. With this "he is clothed as with a garment," for he is light, John 1:1; and he dwells in that inaccessible light that no man hath seen, nor can see, 1 Timothy 6:16. 2. His pavilion stretched round about him is the heavens, the work of the second day. These are as the hangings and curtains of his chamber of presence, by his fiat and power stretched out as we now see them: "He stretched out the heavens as a curtain." 3. His palace built in a most miraculous manner.

35. Let the sinners be consumed &c.] There is no need to make excuse for this conclusion of the Psalm. It is not an imprecation, but a solemn prayer for the restoration of the harmony of creation by the banishment from it of “all things that cause stumbling, and them that do iniquity.” The preceding verses (31, 32) have just hinted that there is something in the world which may hinder God from continuing to rejoice in His works. What is it? “Disproportioned sin Jarred against nature’s chime, and with harsh din Broke the fair music that all creatures made To their great Lord, whose love their motion swayed In perfect diapason, whilst they stood In first obedience, and their state of good.” Modern thought would say, ‘May sin be banished’: but Hebrew thought is not abstract but concrete, and moreover the form of the prayer reminds us of the solemn truth that sin is a personal thing, which cannot be separated from the sinner, but has its existence through his perverted will. It may be noted that the intensive form of the word for sinner implies obstinate and incorrigible habit. As in Psalms 103, the Psalmist concludes as he began, Bless Jehovah, O my soul, to which is appended the general call to praise, Hallelujah, ‘Praise ye Jah.’ This word (for according to the Massoretic tradition it is to be written as one word except in Psalms 135:3) occurs nowhere but in the Psalter[57] and meets us here for the first time. [57] In Jeremiah 20:13 the phrase is ‘Praise ye Jehovah,’ as in Psalms 117:1. Cp. however Tob 13:18, “All her streets shall say, Hallelujah”: 3Ma 7:13, “The priests and all the people shouted, Hallelujah.”According to Graetz (Comm. p. 91), and Ginsburg (Introd. to the Heb. Bible, pp. 376 ff.), it was the summons addressed by the precentor to the congregation to join him in reciting the Psalm, or to respond by repeating the first verse after his recitation of each verse. Its proper place therefore is at the beginning not at the end of a Psalm, and in the LXX (with the possible exception of Psalms 150) it is always found at the beginning. In the Massoretic text however it occurs at both beginning and end of eight Psalms, at the beginning only of two, at the end only of five, and once in the text of the Psalm (Psalms 135:3).

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth - Compare Psalms 37:38.

35. Let the sinners be consumed—Or, The sinners shall be consumed. These are not only the enemies of God, but of mankind. They are at war with the harmony of nature and well being of society, by opposing the purposes of God.