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25 [24] Yahweh, how manifold are your works! *
in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
26 [25] Yonder is the great and wide sea with its living things too many to number, *
creatures both small and great.
27 [26] There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan, *
which you have made for the sport of it.
28 [27] All of them look to you *
to give them their food in due season.
29 [28] You give it to them; they gather it; *
you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
30 [29] You hide your face, and they are terrified; *
you take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust.
31 [30] You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; *
and so you renew the face of the earth.
32 [31] May the glory of Yahweh endure forever; *
may Yahweh rejoice in all his works.
33 [32] He looks at the earth and it trembles; *
he touches the mountains and they smoke.
34 [33] I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live; *
I will praise lelohay while I have my being.
35 [34] May these words of mine please him; *
I will rejoice in Yahweh.
37 [35] Bless Yahweh, O my soul. *
Hallu-YAH!
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This is the Psalm that will be read aloud in unison or sung by a cantor on Pentecost Sunday, all Years, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. It will follow the First Lesson choice, which can be the mandatory Acts selection, where the Spirit filled the Apostles with the ability to speak in foreign languages, attracting the attention of the pilgrims in Jerusalem for the Shavuot festival. We read: “All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”’ If the First Lesson comes from Genesis, we will then read, They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.”’ Following the first two readings, the New Testament selection will either be the Acts mandatory reading, or one from Paul’s letter to the Romans. In that he wrote, “When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ”. All will accompany the Gospel selection from John, where we are told Jesus told his disciples, “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”
I have written my views on these selected verses from Psalm 104 twice before, when they were sung in Years A and B. Those commentaries can be viewed by clicking on these links: “Pentecost Sunday 2020 – Part III (Psalm 104)” and “Harpooning the Leviathan” (2021). Both do well in explaining the words of David. Rather than restate what has been written before, I will only focus now on how this song of praise relates to the Year C readings that accompany it, as the grand finale to the Easter season.
The three unique reading selections for Pentecost Year C are those from: Genesis 11; Romans 8; and, John 14. Two of those three will be read aloud, along with the standards from Acts 2 and this Psalm 104. The Genesis reading places focus on the tendency of mankind to fall away from Yahweh, no matter how closely related they are by physical blood (lineage) to most holy men. The ones of Genesis 11 are all descendants of Noah; but they are headstrong for a self-identity that rejects a life devoted to serving Yahweh. That is until they realize the errors of their ways of self. The key words to understand in that reading are when we read “Yahweh descended.” This is relative to the Spirit made by Yahweh to possess souls (His Son – Adam-Jesus), who would confuse the brains of those who thought they knew it all, in a similar manner that Jesus confused the thinking of the Temple elite in Jerusalem.
In the Romans reading, Paul made it clear that those “led by the Spirit are the children of God.” That says, without being written, the vast majority that reject God and do not receive His Spirit are not His children. This is the error of thinking that makes so many Christians today think they are saved, simply because Jesus died on a cross thousands of years ago, knowing mankind was too weak to make such a sacrifice. That rubbish is like trying to build a tower to heaven, which cannot be done physically. When we read Paul say, “it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,” “our spirit” is each individual’s soul. Paul said to be a child of Yahweh, able to truthfully call Him “Father,” then one’s soul must be filled with “the very Spirit” that allows one to know that relationship. Paul wrote of a divine possession that must take place; and, people reject that Spirit by believing in false ideas that say, “Jesus did all the work, so you don’t have to do any work at all.” That denies the reason we always read on Pentecost from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles.
In the John reading, a drunken Philip has been moved by his possessing spirit (a taste of Jesus’ soul before the real deal would come on Pentecost) to ask Jesus, “Where does your father live?” When Jesus said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” that question confirms what Paul wrote, as Jesus’ soul was divinely possessed by Yahweh’s Spirit. Jesus then repeated, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” then adding: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.” That is an explanation that the sacrifice Jesus is about to make (being killed) will release his soul to fully fill the souls of his disciples. That foretold that their coming divine possession (on Pentecost Sunday) would make them all become Jesus reborn, each sent out into ministry, just as Jesus had been out in ministry.
When those clear themes of spiritual possession are seen, David’s Psalm 104 is the one that has him dwell on the Leviathan. Where David wrote, “Yahweh, how manifold are your works!” that says “many are the Acts of Yahweh,” with the NRSV saying “creatures,” when the word written in Hebrew means “possessions.” The Hebrew root word “qinyan” means, “something gotten or acquired, acquisition,” where the implication is “goods, possessions, or property.” Because Yahweh is wholly Spiritual, His “acquisitions” in the material realm are souls animating bodies of matter. It is this element of “possession” that led David to speak of the “sea dragon” or “sea serpent” that swam among the “sea” of “living things,” which are souls.
When David sang [NRSV translation], “There move the ships, and there is that Leviathan, which you have made for the sport of it,” the “ships” refers more to the “sailors,” rather than the lifeless crafts they man. This becomes a statement that parallels who Jesus said to Simon (Peter), James and John (of Zebedee), who were “sailors” as fishermen, told by Jesus, “I will make you fishers of men (meaning “men’s souls”). This becomes Jesus says his divine possessing soul within the souls of his apostles would be like the Leviathan David sang of, where the soul of Jesus was created by Yahweh “for the sport” of saving men’s souls from other equally possessing ‘Leviathans’ that swam among a sea of souls.
When David sang [NRSV], “All of them look to you to give them their food in due season,” this is like the bait on a fishhook. It says a fish can only be caught when it is ready to receive the spiritual food dangled in the water before it. When an apostle is filled with the Spirit of Yahweh and has the soul of Jesus resurrected within its soul, this becomes the bait, while the apostle is merely the hook. A hook alone will catch nothing; but when the hook holds the truth of the Word, a soul ready to sacrifice itself for salvation will ‘take the bait’ … ‘hook, line, and sinker.’
This receipt of the Spirit is then the larger fish eating the smaller ones whole. That physical reality is reversed in the spiritual truth. Rather than being swallowed whole, it is the soul that swallows whole the ‘Leviathan’ of Jesus’ soul. The soul dies in that transaction (given salvation and eternal life beyond the flesh), while it remains to animate its flesh as Jesus reborn. This is the meaning behind David then singing, “You give it to them; they gather it; you open your hand, and they are filled with good things.” “You give” and “they gather,” as “filled with good things” is a verse singing of divine oneness, where two are merged together as one, with the giver the new Lord and Master, leading the “gatherer” to “good” Acts.
For a soul alone in a sea of soul, which are all lost, given their freedom to find a home in the material world, to have David sing, “You hide your face, and they are terrified; you take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust,” the “face” of Yahweh is His Son. In the First Commandment [the first vow of divine marriage], a bride soul agrees, “I will not wear any other face before my Yahweh than His face” [where “panim” is the key Hebrew word to discern). A bride wears a veil to hide her face, only lifting it up after married, so her face is then that as a wife possessed by her husband. To “hide your face” speaks of a soul afraid to take the bait of truth and sacrifice self for a new face. Yahweh does not ever hide His face. The “terror” is brought on by one’s fear of submission of self, to a higher cause. To “hide one’s face” from marriage to Yahweh, so one will not wear the face of His Son (the possessing soul within one’s soul), then death takes away one’s “breath” that is a soul in a body of flesh, making the flesh return to dust, while the soul is judged as a failure (thrown back into the sea).
When David sang of the alternate taking place: “You send forth your Spirit, and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth,” this sings of a soul submitting to Yahweh, receiving the Spirit of Yahweh in divine union, so a new self is “created.” The “earth” is one’s body of flesh, which takes on a new “face,” which is that of one possessed by Jesus. This leads one to become a “sailor” who helps Yahweh in ministry, fishing for men’s souls to marry Yahweh.
This ministry is the meaning found in David singing [NRSV], “May the glory of Yahweh endure forever; may Yahweh rejoice in all his works.” The “glory of Yahweh” is the soul He created in Adam-Jesus. That “honor, renown, glory” endures “forever” as the soul that allows souls eternal life, while never dying, as long as more men’s souls are caught and the continuation of Jesus reborn lasts. The ”sport” of the “Leviathan” created by Yahweh never ceases through the dead continuously being raised to salvation. The “rejoicing” is then done by those souls possessed by Jesus’ soul, who sing songs of praise by doing the Acts of the Apostles.
All of these verses sing of divine possession and the saving of soul by Yahweh. The name “Jesus” means “Yahweh Will Save.” This was found occurring after Noah’s death, after the sea of soul began to think they were gods, as nothing more than fish with tiny brains in a sea of lostness. Yahweh sent His Son to descend upon that school of fish and string them on a line as Yahweh’s catch. When Paul sat constrained in a Roman prison, he wrote that he had long before been caught by Yahweh, when His Son came and asked him why he persecuted Jesus. Jesus told his disciples that just as his soul was possessed by Yahweh, so too would their souls be possessed by Him, likewise being Jesus in the Father and the Father in Jesus reborn. That ability to call Yahweh “Father” made all souls [in the flesh of male and female bodies] brothers, all in the name of “Jesus.” Thus, this song of praise sys David also knew this possessing Spirit and the divine Son whose face David wore. All of Israel would become the fish caught and transformed into ministers for Yahweh.
As the Psalm to be sung aloud on Pentecost Sunday, when the lessons of being raised from the dead [the Easter message] must still be heeded, the “sport of the Leviathan” becomes the challenge placed before all Apostles, before they enter ministry. It is one thing to be caught and saved; but it is another thing to become the bait dangled on a hook, for the sport of saving souls. To enter ministry one must become the Leviathan of Yahweh, in the name of His Son, because that is the only way one is capable of feeding lost souls the truth, so they will take that bait and be saved.