Psalms 104:4

Who maketh his angels spirits,.... The angels are spirits, or spiritual substances, yet created ones; and so differ from God, who is a spirit, and from the Holy Spirit of God, who are Creators and

Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire - (Hebrews 1:7.) [ ho (G3588) poioon (G4160) tous (G3588) angelous (G32) autou

Who maketh his angels spirits, i.e. of a spiritual or incorporeal nature, that they might be fitter for their employments. Or, who maketh his angels winds, as this last word most commonly signifies, i.e. who made them like the winds, powerful, and active, and nimble in executing God’ s pleasure. Or, who useth and governeth those glorious creatures at his pleasure, even as he commands the senseless winds. A flaming fire; or, like a flaming fire; the note of similitude being here understood, as it is , and oft elsewhere; to which he compares the angels for their irresistible force, and great agility and fervency in the execution of God’ s commands. Or the sense is, Who sometimes clotheth his angels with subtile bodies of wind, or air, or of fire, as he sees fit. And the angels may not unfitly be mentioned in this place amongst and in the close of those works of God which were done in the heavens, of which he hath hitherto spoken, ,3 because they were made at the same time when the heavens were made, and for the same uses and purposes, and because they are commonly employed by God in managing the clouds, and winds, and meteors, to accomplish God’ s designs by them. But this verse is otherwise rendered, both by Jewish and some Christian interpreters, and that very agreeably to the Hebrew text, He maketh the winds his angels, and the flame or flames of fire (i.e. the lightning and thunder, and other fiery meteors in the air) his ministers; he maketh use of them no less than of the holy angels, and ofttimes for the same purposes, and they do as certainly and readily obey all his commands as the blessed angels themselves do. This interpretation may seem most agreeable to the scope of the Psalm, and to the context, wherein he is speaking of the evil works of God. The only difficulty is, that this seems to invalidate the allegation and argument of the apostle, who expounds it of the angels, . But indeed it doth not; for (to say nothing of other solutions given by other men) when the psalmist saith that God maketh or useth the winds as his angels, &c., he plainly signifies that the angels are God’ s ministers or servants, no less than the winds; and that is sufficient to justify the apostle’ s argument, and to prove the pre-eminency of Christ above the angels; which is the apostle’ s design in that place.

Psalms 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:Ver. 4. Who maketh his angels spirits] Immaterial substances, fit to attend upon the Father of spirits, and with speed to move suddenly and invisibly into most remote parts. His ministers a flaming fire] Seraphims they are called for their burning zeal, like so many heavenly salamanders; as also for their irresistible power; the angel that destroyed Sennacherib’ s army is held to have done it by burning them within, although it appeared not outwardly, as some have been burnt by lightning.

(4) Who maketh . . .—Rather, Who maketh winds His messenger A flaming fire His ministers. Or, keeping the order of the Hebrew, Who maketh His messengers of winds, And His ministers of flaming fire. This is plainly the meaning required by the context, which deals with the use made by the Divine King of the various forms and forces of Nature. Just as He makes the clouds serve as a chariot and the sky as a tent, so he employs the winds as messengers and the lightnings as servants. Taken quite alone, the construction and arrangement of the verse favours the interpretation of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 1:7, Note, New Testament Commentary). This was the traditional Jewish interpretation, and on it were founded various theories of angelic agency. But not only do the exigencies of the context set aside this interpretation, but Hebrew literature offers enough instances to show that the order in which a poet arranged his words was comparatively immaterial. Indeed, Dean Perowne has adduced two instances (Isaiah 37:26; Isaiah 60:18) of precisely similar inversion of the natural order of immediate object and predicate. (See Expositor, December, 1878.) And no difficulty need be made about the change of number in flame of fire and ministers, since even if the former were not synonymous with lightnings, its predicate might be plural. (See Proverbs 16:14, “The wrath of a king is messengers of death.”)

Verse 4. עשה מלאכיו רחות oseh malachaiv ruchoth, משרתיו אש להט mesharethaiv esh lohet. The elements are described as prompt and expedite to perform the Divine commands, like angels or ministers serving in the tabernacle; the Hebrew word משרתיו mesharethaiv being a word most common in the sacred ministrations.

4. The A.V. follows the LXX, which is quoted in Hebrews 1:7, with the change of a flaming fire into a flame of fire. The Greek like the Hebrew is ambiguous, for the word for angels may mean simply messengers, and that for spirits may mean simply winds. But it is clear that the spiritual nature of angels is not in question here, and that the right rendering is winds. The construction of the whole verse has however been the subject of much discussion. (1) If the construction of the A.V. and LXX is retained, and it is the most natural construction of the Heb. words, we may render, Who maketh his angels winds, His ministers a flaming fire, and the meaning will be that as Jehovah reveals Himself in the works of creation, so He arrays the spiritual agents and ministers who surround Him (Psalms 103:20-21) with the form of physical phenomena, the wind and the lightning. “Where men at first see only material objects and forms of nature there God is present, fulfilling His will through His servants under the forms of elemental action” (Bp Westcott on Hebrews 1:7). The Targ., adopting the same construction, paraphrases, “Who makes his messengers swift as winds, his ministers strong as fire,” but this explanation misses the connexion with the preceding verses. (2) Most commentators however think that the context demands the rendering, Who maketh winds his messengers, Flaming fire his ministers. As the clouds are Jehovah’s chariot, so winds and lightnings are His messengers and servants. The great forces of Nature are His agents, employed by Him to do His bidding. Cp. Psalms 148:8. But this rendering is not free from objection on grammatical grounds. The order of the words is decidedly against it. (3) A third possible rendering is, Who maketh his messengers of winds, His ministers of flaming fire. Jehovah forms His messengers and ministers out of winds and lightnings; He uses these natural agents for the execution of His purposes. This rendering expresses the same sense as (2), though somewhat less directly, and is free from its grammatical difficulty. The first rendering however deserves more consideration than it has generally received. It is the most natural rendering, and its connexion with the context, if less obvious than that of (2) and (3), is still real. The general purport of these verses is not to shew “how the various natural agents are appropriated to different uses by the Creator,” but how the Creator is revealed in and through the works of Creation. And as Jehovah is represented in Psalms 104:20-21 of Psalms 103, which is so closely related to this Ps., as environed by hosts of angels and ministers, it is suitable to shew here how these angels and ministers find expression in physical phenomena. On the grammatical question see Driver’s Hebrew Tenses, § 195, Obs.

Who maketh his angels spirits - The meaning here literally would be, “Who makes the winds his messengers,” or “his angels;” that is, who employs them to execute his purpose; who sends them out as

4. His angels spirits—Some have reversed the order of the Hebrew words, and translated, “Who maketh the winds his messengers, and the flaming fire his ministers;” but the apostle (Hebrews 1:7) has