. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Bless my soul Yahwe
Praise ye Yahwe.
Verses 33, 34, 35cd.
Again it may be noted that the petition in verse 35ab: “Let sinners be consumed, out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more,” has no real organic connection with the hymn, and certainly the concluding “Hallelujah” may well be an addition.
The analysis of the body of the hymn is clear. Verses 1-4 praise the God of heaven; verses 5-9, the God of creation; verses 10-18, the God of the earth, the domestic animals, and man; verses 19-21, the God of the night; verses 22-24, the God of the day; verses 25-26, the God of the sea; verses 27-30, the God who giveth life to everything that liveth. The body of the hymn then culminates in the pious wish that Yahwe’s glory may endure forever and that the mighty God may rejoice in his works, even he who causes the earthquake and the volcanic eruption. Here also comes the petition, but a petition has really no place in a genuine Hebrew hymn of praise.
It is clear that Psalm 104 is predominatingly and essentially a hymn of praise. Yet it has in its use of the second person; in the presence of the petition; and perhaps also in its length, since it is a nature hymn, features that seem unhebraic. It is perhaps also significant that its close resemblance to the famous Egyptian hymn of Pharaoh Iknaton has often been observed. We have, it would seem, in Psalm 104 a very probable example of the influence of foreign literature, Egyptian, Assyrian, or both.
Psalm 8 might be considered an impressionistic soliloquy of the starry night, were it not dominated by the thought of God, and addressed directly to God. It begins with an exclamation for the psalmist is overwhelmingly impressed with the realization of the glory of God:
Yahwe our God,
How sublime is thy name in all the earth,