What, then, are the characteristics of this psalm that make it useful to read with animals in the Anthropocene? Here I note five distinct, but interwoven, features:
Interrelatedness of the Created World
Psalm 104 represents the created world in an ecological fashion as a tapestry of interrelated features rather than simply the outcome of a series of steps that took place long ago. Like other creation texts, the poem describes several actions taken by God in the past that allow the present flourishing of life on earth to take place, e.g., setting the earth on its foundations (104:5), covering the earth with the “deep” (104:6), assigning the waters to specific places (104:8), setting limits on where those waters may go (104:9), and making the moon and darkness alongside the sun and light (104:19–20). Most of the poem, however, describes elements of the world that can be seen in the present of the psalmist. Among these elements, phenomena created in the past, such as water, light and sun, and darkness and moon, continue to exist. More significantly for my purposes here, multiple species of animals appear throughout this psalm: wild asses (104:11), birds (104:12, 17) including the stork (104:17), cattle or other grass-eating beasts (104:14), mountain goats or ibexes (104:18), hyraxes (104:18), lions (104:21), water animals including the great beast Leviathan (104:26), and, more generally, the “living creatures” of field (104:11), forest (104:20), and sea (104:25).
18 These animals do not exist independently of other elements of creation but depend upon them. For example, while God may have created waters in the past and put them in their appropriate places (104:8–9), now these waters sustain the animals both directly (104:11) and indirectly, when they nourish the trees in which birds live and sing (104:12, 16-17). So too, while God created moon and darkness, alongside sun and light, in the past, now these serve to mark the times in which non-human animals as well as humans live (104:19–23). Thus, all parts of creation exist in relation to one another.
As James L. Mays notes in a brief but beautiful reflection on Psalm 104, here all the elements of creation “are interrelated in the great web of the works of the Lord.”
19 This representation of the world around us as a “web” of “interrelated” components, relying upon one another rather than existing as independent entities, is far more consistent with contemporary ecological thinking than a sequence of distinct creative acts such as we find in Genesis 1. As Morton argues, the ecological perspectives we need today emphasize “a vast, sprawling mesh of interconnection without a definite center or edge. It is radical intimacy, coexistence with other beings, sentient and otherwise….”
20 While application of such a statement to Psalm 104 would need to be qualified by the fact that God does serve as a kind of “center” here, there is surely no other part of the Bible that goes as far as Psalm 104 in portraying the world as “a vast, sprawling mesh of interconnection” characterized by “coexistence with other beings, sentient and otherwise,” including multiple species of animals. Together with the speeches of God in Job, Psalm 104 underscores more than other parts of the Bible the biodiversity of creatures that scientists insist is crucial for the health of life on earth. As Arthur Walker-Jones points out, “in comparison to the more famous versions of creation in Genesis 1–3, Psalm 104 is far more ecological.”
21A Time and Place for All Creation
Psalm 104 represents the created world as an assemblage of diverse places and recurring times in which multiple species of animals are given room to carry out their distinctive ways of living. Psalm 104 points to a variety of terrains that can be found on the earth, including the sea or deep (104:3, 6–9, 25–26), mountains (104:8, 10, 13, 18), valleys (104:8, 10), springs or streams (104:10, 12), trees (104:12, 16–17), fields of grass and other plants (104:14), and rocks (104:18). Significantly, these settings do not simply illustrate the geography of creation. Rather, in addition to demonstrating the power of God, they provide places where animals can live, as noted above with the references to birds found in trees alongside the streams. Indeed, several of these terrains are referred to explicitly as spaces that are “for” animals: the grass is “for” the cattle and other grazing animals (104:14), the mountains are “for” the mountain goats or ibexes (104:18a), and the rocks are “for” the hyraxes (104:18b). The language of habitation appears as well: birds have a “dwelling” in the branches alongside the steams (104:12), birds have “nests,” and storks have a “house” in the trees (104:17), hyraxes have a “refuge” in the rocks (104:18), and lions have their own “dwelling places” (104:22, sometimes translated “dens”). Over in the sea one finds “creeping things without number, living things small and great” (104:25), including the great Leviathan (104:26). All of the animals have been given particular places to live by God, places suitable for their ways of living and rightly recognized by some biblical scholars as “habitat.”
22Moreover, some of the animals have been assigned specific times in which to carry out their lives. Light and darkness, and sun and moon, do not exist solely for themselves but also to mark time for animals. When darkness falls, “and it is night, all the living things of the forest come creeping out in it” (104:20). In particular, this is when “the young lions roar for prey, seeking from God their food” (104:21). The situation changes, however, when the sun comes out. At that point lions “lie down in their dwelling places” (104:22) and “humans go out to their work, and to their labor until the evening” (104:23).
I will return to humans below. For the moment, however, I want to underscore the significance
for animals of this attention to place and time. Today, “place” has become one of the most important considerations among animal studies scholars who focus on matters of extinction.
23 Habitat destruction by humans is one of the leading causes of the increases in endangered species, and the extinctions that are now being seen globally. Animals have evolved to live not simply in any available space whatsoever, but in very particular types of habitat that are required for animals to meet their species-specific needs. As human populations and development have grown, there is simply not enough space left for some species to flourish or even survive in their species-specific ways. Moreover, some animals, such as certain species of birds or sea turtles, are attached not simply to particular types of habitat but to very specific sites, returning for example to their own place of birth in order to reproduce. As humans transform these places for our use, they often become unavailable to the animals who rely on them.
The significance of “time” for animals is perhaps less obvious, since animals are sometimes assumed to live in a kind of timeless present. Yet time, too, has become an important topic for scholars of animal studies, who note for example how the lives of both individual animals and species, including humans, are formed as “multispecies knots” at the embodied intersection of “sequence” (animals evolve over time, and many of them are taught by their forebears) and “synchrony” (animal lives are shaped by interactions with other individuals and other species living in the same particular time and place).
24 The killing of an animal upon whom others rely, for example a mother bear whose cubs have not yet been taught how to survive, or the gradual extinction of a species over time, as individual members of a species struggle to survive under increasingly challenging conditions, are thus temporal as well as ecological tragedies. From another temporal perspective, animal scientists note that many animals, especially mammals, who are normally active during the day have had to become more nocturnal in order to avoid interference from, and conflicts with, humans.
25 Though this change allows individual animals to continue living, it also creates uncertain consequences for entire ecosystems.
When read against the background of these contemporary concerns about animals, place, and time, Psalm 104 is remarkable. Contrary to the assumption that any space on earth is in principle available to humans and our projects, even if we displace animals in the process, the psalm asserts that some places are “for” the animals, rather than for us. Contrary to the assumption that humans can monopolize all times for our projects, even if we disrupt animal lives, the psalm reminds us that there are times for animals, and times for humans. More astonishing still, these distinctions between places and times that are for us, and places and times that are for animals, have been established by God.
Importance of the Sea
Alongside other habitats, Psalm 104 recognizes “the sea, great and wide” (104:25) as a place teeming with life. It might seem strange that I have singled out the sea here, since I have mentioned the waters already as one of several places designated by God for animals in Psalm 104. In recent years, however, scientists have noted with increasing concern that life in the world’s oceans and other waterways is facing particular challenges that have previously not been seen, such as overfishing and the collapse of marine food chains, the “accidental” but routine extermination of “bycatch” (animals not targeted as food but nonetheless killed by industrial fishing, including dolphins, sea turtles, sea birds, and others), pollution and industrial runoff, acidification and drought associated with climate change, and other factors caused by humans. Such challenges are all too easy to ignore, since the invisibility of most underwater life encourages acceptance of the myth of “the inexhaustible sea,” which humans can continue to harvest for our own purposes.
26Although the writer of Psalm 104 could not envision these contemporary crises, the emphases of the hymn are surprisingly relevant to them. Like a number of other biblical and ancient Near Eastern texts, Psalm 104 highlights the relationship between God and the waters. We do find a hint, here, of the conflict between God and the primeval waters and their mythological denizens that is more pronounced in other biblical texts such as Ps 74:13–15, Isa 51:9–10, or Job 38:8–11, as well as non-biblical literature. God does not create the waters in Psalm 104 or calmly separate them as in Gen 1:7. Rather, God gives a “rebuke” to waters that already exist, a rebuke that causes them to “flee” (104:7). The waters “went up to the mountains” and “went down to the valleys,” retreating behind boundaries that God has given them and beyond which they may not pass (104:8–9). As Patrick Miller perceptively notes, the waters “scurry away to their proper homes like frightened animals.”
27 Though God may be in control of the waters, they clearly have a life of their own. Thus Psalm 104 fits within the ancient Near Eastern tradition of personifying the waters as forces of chaos potentially opposed to God and dangerous for life.
Yet this is not the whole story. Although the theme of conflict between God and the waters is more noticeable here than in Genesis 1, Psalm 104 tones down that theme in comparison with other biblical texts such as Psalm 74.
28 As noted already, the waters in Psalm 104 nurture particular species of animals such as the wild ass, which traditionally lives in dry places, as well as the trees in which birds live and sing. More significantly, when the sea comes into view again in v. 25, the emphasis is on the living creatures that are found there, “creeping things without number, living things small and great” (104:25). Although the great sea creature Leviathan appears here, he lacks the fierceness that characterizes him in Ps 74:14, Isa 27:1, and Job 40:25–41:3 (English 41:1–11). Instead of being represented as a formidable opponent, Leviathan “plays” in the sea (104:26). As Miller in particular notes, this portrait of a playful Leviathan contributes to an emphasis within Psalm 104 on pleasure and joy.
29 Alone among biblical texts, moreover, Ps 104:26 explicitly claims that God “formed” or “made” Leviathan, using the same verb that is applied to God’s creation of both humans and animals from the soil in Genesis 2:7–8, 19. Of course, the presence of humans on the sea is also acknowledged, in the form of “ships” that “go” upon it (104:26). But the emphasis here clearly falls upon the “innumerable” (104:25) creatures who make the sea their home. While the survival of these creatures is, today, under significant threat from humans, Psalm 104 reminds us that God formed them, not for our benefit, but rather to play in the sea.
God Sustains All Creatures
Psalm 104 underscores the role that God plays in sustaining all creatures with food and drink. As many commentators have noted, God in Psalm 104 is especially focused on the feeding and watering of a diverse collection of animals. God “gives drink to all the living things of the field,” so that “the wild asses quench their thirst” (104:11). God “makes grass to grow for the animals, and vegetation for cultivation by humans, to bring forth food from the earth” (104:14).
The lions, moreover, appear to know that God supplies them with prey, and they roar for it in the night (104:21), almost as if in prayer. As Miller observes, this assertion about the relationship between great carnivores and God prevents our reading Psalm 104 in a “romanticized” fashion. Not unlike parts of Job, Psalm 104 “incorporates the understanding of a food chain that pits animal against animal.”
30After laying out what Levenson calls this “panorama of the natural world”
31 (which, however, includes humans within it), the psalmist refers to “God’s provisioning for life”
32 again as part of a summary statement of praise to God about the dependence of all creatures on God:
These all look to you to give their food in its season.
You give to them, and they gather it up.
You open your hand, and they are satisfied with good things.
You hide your face, and they are dismayed.
You take away their breath, and they die, and return to the dust.
You send out your breath, and they are created,
And you renew the face of the soil. (104:27–30)
It is crucial to note that God here, as elsewhere in Psalm 104, has a direct relationship with animals, human and non-human alike. They all rely upon God for sustenance, and God provides it. Indeed, God’s relationship not only with animals but also the earth is apparent from the use of the word
rûaḥ, which appears in vv. 29 and 30. Many translations render this word as “breath” in v. 29, where it refers to the
rûaḥ of the animals, and as “spirit” in v. 30, where it refers to the
rûaḥ of God. Although both translations are possible, this bifurcated way of rendering the word in English obscures the close relations among God, animals, and soil that are represented in these consecutive verses. The breath or spirit of God flows from God to the animals, and returns from the animals to God; but it also renews the ground, or what we might translate with Ted Hiebert as “arable soil” (
’ădāmâ) [104:30]),
33 apparently making it fertile for the growth of plants that humans and other animals rely upon for food (104:14). Thus, while we often refer to Psalm 104 as a “creation” text, it might be more appropriate to say with James Barr that the emphasis falls on “
sustenance, support, provision” of God’s creatures; “it is the
continuance of life that is emphasized.”
34 God intends for animal life to flourish on earth and takes action for its continuation, as is clear also from the preservation of all species, or “kinds,” of animals in the flood story.
35Theocentric Portrait of Creation
Psalm 104 provides us with a picture of creation that is not anthropocentric, but rather theocentric. Humans play a role in Psalm 104, but we are merely one of God’s creatures among others, with no privileged position. Humans are first mentioned in the second half of v. 14, after “all the living creatures of the field” (104:11a), wild asses (104:11b), birds (104:12), and cattle or other grass-eating animals (104:14a) have already appeared. Although this sequence resembles Genesis 1, inasmuch as animals appear before humans, Psalm 104 returns to non-human animals after referring to humans.
When humans do appear in the hymn, moreover, they often stand in parallel to other animals. In the second part of v. 14, human ingestion of plants (in an apparently vegetarian diet that recalls the diet of humans in Genesis prior to the flood), and our enjoyment of wine, oil, and bread in v. 15, follows immediately after the ingestion of grass by other animals in the first part of v. 14, and is followed immediately by references to the birds who inhabit the cedars of Lebanon in vv. 16 and 17. The reappearance of humans in v. 23, where they go out to work until the evening, follows immediately after the reference to lions who call out to God for prey in the night but return to their dwelling places when the sun rises. The reference to ships in v. 26 stands in parallel to the reference to Leviathan in the same verse and follows immediately after references to the teeming life that inhabits the sea in v. 25.
Humans are, moreover, surely included in the multitude of creatures who depend upon God’s provisioning and breath/spirit in vv. 27-–30. If birds sing in v. 12, and lions roar in v. 21, so also humans sing in vv. 33–34. There is no hint, in this hymn, of any exalted position for humans such as we find in Genesis 1 or Psalm 8. As Elizabeth Johnson observes in her theological reading of it, Psalm 104 contains “no trace of a mandate for human dominion. It is a theocentric depiction of the world” that “stands as a counterweight to mastery carried out on the assumption that humans have a right to rule other species.”
36Ironically, as Johnson also notes, the one place in Psalm 104 where something like human exceptionalism does appear, without any parallel among animals, is the first half of v. 35. Here we find the appeal, “Let sinners disappear from the earth, and the wicked again be no more.” This sudden reference to human wickedness might seem out of place. After all, the emphasis throughout the rest of this psalm has been upon joyfulness and pleasure, not only on the part of humans (104:15, 33–34) and other creatures, such as the singing birds and playful Leviathan, but even on the part of God (104:31). Partly for this reason, Johnson and others suggest that the nature of the wickedness in view here should be understood in the context of the psalm as a whole. Sin can be understood in this hymn as sin against God’s creation and the creatures that inhabit it, and sinners as those who, in Miller’s words “interfere with God’s good provision for each creature, who tear down the trees in which the birds sing, who destroy Leviathan playing in the ocean, who poke holes in the heavenly tent, who let loose the forces of nature that God has brought under control in the very creation of the world.”
37In the context of the Anthropocene, that judgment arguably characterizes most of us, even if we are not entirely aware of the ecological consequences of our actions. In an otherwise beautiful poem, the reference to human evil in 104:35 may remind us of Jer 12:4 (“How long will the land mourn, and the vegetation throughout the field dry up? Because of the wickedness of those who live in it, the animals and the birds are swept away”) or the reflection on human sin in Hos 4:3 (“Therefore the earth mourns, and everything that lives on it withers. Also the living creatures of the field, and the birds in the skies, and even the fish in the sea are disappearing”).