He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
Parallel translations
- WEB He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth:
- KJV He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;
- NKJV He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the service of man, That he may bring forth food from the earth,
- NASB ¶He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, And vegetation for the labor of mankind, So that they may produce food from the earth,
- NLT You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use. You allow them to produce food from the earth—
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God causes grass to grow for livestock and plants for people to cultivate, bringing food from the earth. He provides for both beast and man through ordinary means.
Overview
The psalmist praises God's provision of food, joining the grass for cattle and crops for human labor. God works through the cycles of nature and the toil of people to feed His creatures. This daily bread comes from the Father's hand and points to Christ, the true Bread from heaven.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Ps 136:25He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever.
- Ps 147:8–9who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.
- Ps 145:15–16The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Job 28:5Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.
- 1 Cor 3:7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
- Gen 9:3Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.
- Gen 1:11–12Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind.” And it was so.
- Gen 3:18Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
- Job 38:27to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?
- Gen 1:29–30Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit contains seed. They will be yours for food.
- Joel 2:22Do not be afraid, O beasts of the field, for the open pastures have turned green, the trees bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine yield their best.
- Jer 14:5–6Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.
- 1 Kgs 18:5Then Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to every spring and every valley. Perhaps we will find grass to keep the horses and mules alive so that we will not have to destroy any livestock.”
- Gen 2:9Out of the ground the LORD God gave growth to every tree that is pleasing to the eye and good for food. And in the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- Gen 2:5Now no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprouted; for the LORD God had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground.
- Gen 4:12When you till the ground, it will no longer yield its produce to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 104:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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