“Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 104:1 Mean?
The psalmist opens Psalm 104 with the most majestic self-address in the Psalter: "Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty." The worship begins as internal command (soul, bless!) and immediately becomes external declaration (God, you are great!). The interior motivation produces the exterior proclamation.
The word "very" (meod — exceedingly, to the utmost, with maximum intensity) modifies "great" (gadal — to be large, to be magnificent, to be significant beyond measure). The greatness isn't moderate. It's extreme. The meod-gadal combination means God's greatness exceeds every category of measurement. The adjective that should quantify instead overflows.
The clothing metaphor — "clothed with honour and majesty" (hod ve-hadar — splendor and beauty, glory and magnificence) — presents God's attributes as his garments. Honor and majesty are what God wears. The visual presentation of God isn't a body — it's attributes worn as clothing. What you see when you see God is honor dressed in majesty.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Why does the psalmist command his own soul to worship before describing creation?
- 2.What does 'very great' (exceeding every category) add to 'great' — and why isn't 'great' enough?
- 3.How does God being 'clothed with honour and majesty' (attributes as garments) describe his visible appearance?
- 4.Has your soul blessed the LORD today — and does the internal worship precede the external description?
Devotional
Bless the LORD, O my soul. The psalm begins with a command directed inward: soul, worship. Before the creation hymn unfolds, before the mountains and seas and animals parade through the verses — the psalmist talks to himself. Soul: bless. The internal worship precedes the external catalogue.
The 'very great' (meod gadal) is the highest volume setting available in Hebrew: exceedingly large, beyond measurement, transcending categories. The psalmist doesn't say God is great (which would be sufficient). He says very great (which means sufficient wasn't sufficient). The language strains under the weight of what it's trying to describe.
The clothing — honor and majesty — presents God's visible appearance as attributes worn like garments. When you encounter God, you don't see a body first. You see honor first. You see majesty first. The attributes are the appearance. The character is the clothing. God's 'look' is his nature made visible.
Psalm 104 is the Bible's greatest creation hymn — a forty-verse tour of everything God made, from light (verse 2) to Leviathan (verse 26). But before any created thing is described, the Creator is worshipped. The poem about creation begins with the adoration of the Creator because the creation only makes sense in the context of its source.
The internal command to the soul is the prerequisite: before your mouth describes what God made, your soul must worship who God is. The creation hymn that follows is genuine praise because the internal worship that precedes it is genuine. The order matters: soul-blessing first. Creation-cataloguing second. The worship funds the description.
Has your soul blessed the LORD today — before you catalogued what he's done?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,.... As for the blessings of grace and mercy expressed in the preceding psalm, so on account…
Bless the Lord, O my soul - See Psa 103:1. O Lord my God, thou art very great - This is a reason why the psalmist calls…
When we are addressing ourselves to any religious service we must stir up ourselves to take hold on God in it (Isa…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture