Psalm 104 · a question people ask
Is Psalm 104 retelling Genesis 1?
The psalm doesn't name Genesis 1, and it counts no days. What the two share is words. In Hebrew the psalm's light (104:2), the deep (104:6), plants (104:14), seasons (104:19), darkness and night (104:20) and are created (104:30) are words Genesis 1 has too: "Darkness was on the surface of the deep" (Genesis 1:2), "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), "herbs yielding seeds" (Genesis 1:11), "let them be for signs to mark seasons" (Genesis 1:14), and "God created" (Genesis 1:1). The psalm also says things Genesis 1 doesn't: "The waters stood above the mountains" (104:6), "At your rebuke they fled" (104:7), "There the ships go" (104:26), and "Man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening" (104:23). Psalm 74's notes set Genesis 1:14's words beside that psalm the same way (Psalm 74:16). These notes set the words side by side and don't say more about how the two fit together.
The verses
“He covers himself with light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.”
“You covered it with the deep as with a cloak. The waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled. At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.”
“He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:”
“He appointed the moon for seasons. The sun knows when to set. You make darkness, and it is night, in which all the animals of the forest prowl.”