21 The young lions go thundering after their food; searching for their meat from God. 22 The sun comes up, and they come together, and go back to their secret places to take their rest. 23 Man goes out to his work, and to his business, till the evening. 24 O Lord, how great is the number of your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of the things you have made. 25 There is the great, wide sea, where there are living things, great and small, more than may be numbered. 26 There go the ships; there is that great beast, which you have made as a plaything. 27 All of them are waiting for you, to give them their food in its time. 28 They take what you give them; they are full of the good things which come from your open hand. 29 If your face is veiled, they are troubled; when you take away their breath, they come to an end, and go back to the dust.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 104:21-29
Commentary on Psalm 104:19-30
(Read Psalm 104:19-30)
We are to praise and magnify God for the constant succession of day and night. And see how those are like to the wild beasts, who wait for the twilight, and have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Does God listen to the language of mere nature, even in ravenous creatures, and shall he not much more interpret favourably the language of grace in his own people, though weak and broken groanings which cannot be uttered? There is the work of every day, which is to be done in its day, which man must apply to every morning, and which he must continue in till evening; it will be time enough to rest when the night comes, in which no man can work. The psalmist wonders at the works of God. The works of art, the more closely they are looked upon, the more rough they appear; the works of nature appear more fine and exact. They are all made in wisdom, for they all answer the end they were designed to serve. Every spring is an emblem of the resurrection, when a new world rises, as it were, out of the ruins of the old one. But man alone lives beyond death. When the Lord takes away his breath, his soul enters on another state, and his body will be raised, either to glory or to misery. May the Lord send forth his Spirit, and new-create our souls to holiness.