Psalms 104:2

Stretching out the heaven like a skin. This means that from the beginning God stretched out the heaven, just as when someone opens a scroll and again rolls it back up, as is written elsewhere: "And the heaven shall be rolled up like a scroll."

The sky that you behold, O man [a listener who is a sensible person], made completely of air, carries many waters and is not itself supported by anything else, since a mere command hung it up and the sole force of a precept supports it. …

Others [unspecified pagan philosophers], however, have imagined the heavens to have the form of a hemisphere, because the inspired David says, "Who stretches out the heaven like a pavilion" which means a tent; and the blessed Isaiah: "He that establishes the heavens like a vault"; and because the sun, the moon and the stars, when they set, go round the earth from west to north and return again to the east. However, whichever way it may be, all things have been made and established by the command of God and have their foundation in the divine will and desire. "For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. He has established them for ever, and for ages of ages; he has made a decree, and it shall not pass away."

17 ); he dwells in light ( 1 Tim. vi. 16 ); he clothes himself with it. The residence of his glory is in the highest heaven, that light which was created the first day, Gen. i.

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Thick clouds are a covering to him. The vastness of this pavilion may lead us to consider how great, how very great, he is that fills heaven and earth. He has his chambers, his upper rooms (so the word signifies), the beams whereof he lays in the waters, the waters that are above the firmament (

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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, or by the essential Word of God.

light--is a figurative representation of the glory of the invisible God (Mt 17:2; Its use in this connection may refer to the first work of creation (Ge 1:3). stretchest out the heavens--the visible heavens or sky which cover the earth as a curtain (Isa 40:12).

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Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: wrapping the light about him as a monarch puts on his robe. The conception is sublime: but it makes us feel how altogether inconceivable the personal glory of the Lord must be; if light itself is but his garment and veil, what must be the blazing splendour of his own essential being! We are lost in astonishment, and dare not pry into the mystery lest we be blinded by its insufferable glory. Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain—within which he might dwell. Light was created on the first day and the firmament upon the second, so that they fitly follow each other in this verse. Oriental princes put on their glorious apparel and then sit in state within curtains, and the Lord is spoken of under that image: but how far above all comprehension the figure must be lifted, since the robe is essential light, to which suns and moons owe their brightness, and the curtain is the azure sky studded with stars for gems. This is a substantial argument for the truth with which the psalmist commenced his song, "O Lord my God, thou art very great."

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, Gen 15:17; and to Moses when he appointed him to bring the people out of Egypt, Exo 3:2; and when he gave him his law on Sinai, Exo 19:18. Moses calls God a consuming fire, Deu 4:24. When Christ was transfigured on the mount, his face shone like the sun, and his garment was white as the light, Mat 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. […]

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment - Referring to the first work of creation Gen 1:3, “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” He seemed to put on light as a garment; he himself appeared as if invested with light. It was the first “manifestation” of God. He seemed at once to have put on light as his robe. Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain - As an expanse spread over us. The word used here means a curtain or hanging, so called from its tremulous motion, from a word meaning to tremble. Thus it is applied to a curtain before a door; to a tent, etc. It is applied here to the heavens, as they seem to be “spread out” like the curtains of a tent, as if God had spread them out for a tent for himself to dwell in. See the notes at Isa 40:22.