104:26 The ships travel there,
and over here swims the whale 1 you made to play in it.
104:27 All of your creatures 2 wait for you
to provide them with food on a regular basis. 3
104:28 You give food to them and they receive it;
you open your hand and they are filled with food. 4
104:29 When you ignore them, they panic. 5
When you take away their life’s breath, they die
and return to dust.
104:30 When you send your life-giving breath, they are created,
and you replenish the surface of the ground.
104:31 May the splendor of the Lord endure! 6
May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made! 7
104:32 He looks down on the earth and it shakes;
he touches the mountains and they start to smolder.
104:33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I exist! 8
104:34 May my thoughts 9 be pleasing to him!
I will rejoice in the Lord.
104:35 May sinners disappear 10 from the earth,
and the wicked vanish!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
Praise the Lord!
1 tn Heb “[and] this Leviathan, [which] you formed to play in it.” Elsewhere Leviathan is a multiheaded sea monster that symbolizes forces hostile to God (see Ps 74:14; Isa 27:1), but here it appears to be an actual marine creature created by God, probably some type of whale.
2 tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.
3 tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”
4 tn Heb “they are satisfied [with] good.”
5 tn Heb “you hide your face, they are terrified.”
6 tn Heb “be forever.”
7 tn Or “rejoice in his works.”
8 tn Heb “in my duration.”
9 tn That is, the psalmist’s thoughts as expressed in his songs of praise.
10 tn Or “be destroyed.”