This psalm in the Syriac, the Arabic, the Greek, and the Latin versions, is ascribed to David, but on what authority is now unknown. That it "may" have been composed by him cannot be doubted, but there is no certain evidence that he was the author. In the Hebrew, it has no title, and there is nothing in the psalm itself which would furnish any indication as to its authorship.
The occasion on which the psalm was composed is unknown, and cannot now be ascertained. Rosenmuller and Hengstenberg suppose that it was at the time of the return from the Babylonian exile, and that it was intended to be used at the re-dedication of the temple. But it has no special applicability to such a service; it has no such local references as would fix it to that time; it has nothing which would make it inappropriate at "any" time, or in "any public service. It is such a psalm as might be composed at any period of the world, or in any country, where there was an intelligent view and a careful observation of the works of God. It implies, indeed, such a knowledge of the fact that God made the world as could be obtained only by revelation; but it evinces also a power of close observation; a large acquaintance with the creation around us; a relish for the scenes of nature; as well as a rich poetic faculty, and a power of description, adapted to place such scenes before the mind as realities, and to make us feel, in reading it, that we are in the very midst of the things which are described - so that they seem to live and move before our eyes.
The psalm was probably founded on the record of the creation in Genesis. 1; with a design to show that the order of the creation, as there described, "was adapted to the purposes which were intended, and was carried out in the providential arrangements now existing on the earth;" or, that, taking the order of the creation as described there, the existing state of things furnished an illustration of the wisdom and benevolence of that order. Accordingly, in the psalm, it was convenient for the writer to follow substantially the "order" observed in Genesis. 1 in narrating the creation of the world; and he states, under each part, the "acting out" of that order in existing things; creation in its being actually carried out, or in its results - the creation "developing itself" in the varied and wonderful forms of being - of vegetable and animal life - of beauty, of harmonious movement, of ceaseless activity - on the land, in the air, and in the waters. Accordingly there is in the psalm:
I. An allusion to the work of the "first" day, Psalm 104:2-5 (compare Genesis 1:1-5): to the stretching out of the heavens as a curtain; to the source of light - "who coverest thyself with light as with a garment;" - to the laying of the foundations of the earth to abide forever; to God as Creator of all things, with the additional ideas of his being clothed with honor and majesty; making the clouds his chariot; walking upon the wings of the wind; making the winds his messengers, and flames of fire his ministers.
II. An allusion to the work of the "second" day, Psalm 104:6-9 (compare Genesis 1:6-8). Here it is the separation of the waters - the power exerted on the waters of the earth; in Genesis, the dividing of the waters above from those on the earth; in the psalm, the poetic images of the deep covering the earth as with a garment; the waters climbing up the mountains, and rolling down into the valleys, until they found the place appointed for them, a boundary which they could not pass so as to return again and cover the earth.
III. An allusion to the work of the "third" day, Psalm 104:10-18 (compare Genesis 1:9-13). In Genesis, the waters gathering together; the dry land appearing, and the earth yielding grass, and herbs, and fruit trees - the creation of vegetables; in the psalm, the springs running into the valleys, and winding among the hills - giving drink to the beasts, and quenching the thirst of wild asses - furnishing a lace for the fowls to build their nests, causing the grass to grow for the cattle, and herbs for the service of man - supplying him wine to make him glad, and oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen his heart - bringing forth the trees of the Lord, the cedars of Lebanon for the birds to make their nests, and the fir trees for the stork - making the hills a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies: that is, the work of creation on the third day is seen by the eye of the psalmist not "as" mere "creation," but in the "result," as enlivened and animated by all these varied forms of life, activity, and beauty which had been spread over the earth as the "consequence" of this part of the work of creation.
IV. An allusion to the work of the "fourth" day, Psalm 104:19-23 (compare Genesis 1:14-19). Here, as in the previous divisions of the psalm, it is not a reference to the mere "creation" - to the power evinced - but to the creation of the sun and moon "as seen in the effects" produced by them - the living world as it is influenced by the sun and moon: the seasons - the alternations of day and night. Thus Psalm 104:20, at night, when the sun has gone down, all the beasts of the forest are seen creeping forth; the lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God; and again when the sun arises Psalm 104:22-23, they are seen gathering themselves together, and retiring to their dens, and man is seen going forth to his work and to his labor until the evening. It is thus not the original act of creation which is before the mind of the psalmist, but that act in its development, or when it is seen what God contemplated by it, or what he intended that in this respect the world should be when he made the sun, the moon, and the stars.
V. An allusion to the work of the "fifth" day, Psalm 104:24-30 (compare Genesis 1:20-23); the creation of "life" in the waters, and in the air; as the fowls of heaven - the whales, etc. Here, too, the psalmist sees all this as it is - or developed on the sea, and in the air. In the sea there are things creeping innumerable, small and great; there are the ships; there is leviathan; there is everywhere animated life; there are beings innumerable all dependent on God; there are the processes of renewing, creating, destroying, continually going on - a moving scene, showing the "effect of life" as it is produced by God.
VI. It is remarkable, however, that the allusion to the successive days of the work of creation, so obvious in the other parts of the psalm, seems to close here, and there is no distinct reference to the sixth day, or the seventh - to the creation of "man" as the crowning work, and to the "rest" provided for man in the appointment of the Sabbath. The purpose of the psalmist seems to have been to celebrate the praises of God in the varied scene - the panorama passing before the eye in the works of "nature." The purpose did not seem to be to contemplate "man" - his creation - his history - but "nature," as seen around us. The remainder of the psalm, therefore, is occupied with a description of the glory of the Lord "as thus manifested;" the works of God as suited to fill the mind with exalted views of his greatness, and with a desire that his reign may be universal and perpetual, Psalm 104:31-35.

The majesty and power of God manifested in the creation of the heavens and the atmosphere, Psalm 104:1-3; of the earth and sea, Psalm 104:4-9; of the springs, fountains, and rivers, Psalm 104:10-13; of vegetables and trees, Psalm 104:14-18; of the sun and moon, Psalm 104:19; of day and night, and their uses, Psalm 104:20-23; of the riches of the earth, Psalm 104:24; of the sea, its inhabitants, and its uses, Psalm 104:25, Psalm 104:26; of God's general providence in providing food for all kinds of animals, Psalm 104:27-31; of earthquakes and volcanoes, Psalm 104:32. God is praised for his majesty, and the instruction which his works afford, Psalm 104:33, Psalm 104:34. Sinners shall be destroyed, Psalm 104:35.
This Psalm has no title either in the Hebrew or Chaldee; but it is attributed to David by the Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac. It has the following title in the Septuagint, as it stands in the Complutensian Polyglot: Ψαλμος τῳ Δαυιδ ὑπερ της του κοσμου συστασεως "A Psalm of David concerning the formation of the world." The Syriac says it is "A Psalm of David when he went with the priests to adore the Lord before the ark." It seems a continuation of the preceding Psalm; and it is written as a part of it in nine of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS. It is properly a poem on the works of God in the creation and government of the world; and some have considered it a sort of epitome of the history of the creation, as given in the book of Genesis.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 104
This psalm, though without a title, was probably written by David, since it begins and ends as the former does, as Aben Ezra observes; and to him the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, ascribe it. The inscription of the Syriac version is,
"a psalm of David, when he went to worship before the ark of the Lord with the priests; and as to us, it teaches us confession and prayer; and intimates to us the constitution of the beginning of the creatures; and declares some things concerning the angels.''
Some copies of the Septuagint version have it,
"a psalm of David concerning the constitution of the world;''
which indeed is the subject matter of it; for it treats of the creation of all things, of the heavens and the earth, and of all creatures in them; and of the providence of God in taking care of them. Christ is the divine Person addressed and described throughout the whole, as appears from the quotation of Psalm 104:5 and the application of it to him in Hebrews 1:7.

(Psalm 104:1-9) God's majesty in the heavens, The creation of the sea, and the dry land.
(Psalm 104:10-18) His provision for all creatures.
(Psalm 104:19-30) The regular course of day and night, and God's sovereign power over all the creatures.
(Psalm 104:31-35) A resolution to continue praising God.

Hymn in Honour of the God of the Seven Days
With Bless, O my soul, Jahve, as Ps 103, begins this anonymous Psalm 104 also, in which God's rule in the kingdom of nature, as there in the kingdom of grace, is the theme of praise, and as there the angels are associated with it. The poet sings the God-ordained present condition of the world with respect to the creative beginnings recorded in Genesis 1:1; and closes with the wish that evil may be expelled from this good creation, which so thoroughly and fully reveals God's power, and wisdom, and goodness. It is a Psalm of nature, but such as not poet among the Gentiles could have written. The Israelitish poet stands free and unfettered in the presence of nature as his object, and all things appear to him as brought forth and sustained by the creative might of the one God, brought into being and preserved in existence on purpose that He, the self-sufficient One, may impart Himself in free condescending love - as the creatures and orders of the Holy One, in themselves good and pure, but spotted an disorganized only by the self-corruption of man in sin and wickedness, which self-corruption must be turned out in order that the joy of God in His works and the joy of these works in their Creator may be perfected. The Psalm is altogether an echo of the heptahemeron (or history of the seven days of creation) in Genesis 1:1. Corresponding toe the seven days it falls into seven groups, in which the מאד הנה־טוב of Genesis 1:31 is expanded. It is not, however, so worked out that each single group celebrates the work of a day of creation; the Psalm has the commingling whole of the finished creation as its standpoint, and is therefore not so conformed to any plan. Nevertheless it begins with the light and closes with an allusion to the divine Sabbath. When it is considered that Psalm 104:8 is only with violence accommodated to the context, that Psalm 104:18 is forced in without any connection and contrary to any plan, and that Psalm 104:32 can only be made intelligible in that position by means of an artificial combination of the thoughts, then the supposition of Hitzig, ingeniously wrought out by him in his own way, is forced upon one, viz., that this glorious hymn has decoyed some later poet-hand into enlarging upon it.