You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use. You allow them to produce 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;
- BSB He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from 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,
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 136:25Who gives food to every creature; for his loving kindness endures forever.
- Ps 147:8–9who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains.
- Ps 145:15–16The eyes of all wait for you. You give them their food in due season.
- Job 28:5As for the earth, out of it comes bread; Underneath it is turned up as it were by fire.
- 1 Cor 3:7So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
- Gen 9:3Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you.
- Gen 1:11–12God said, “Let the earth yield grass, herbs yielding seeds, and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind, with their seeds in it, on the earth”; and it was so.
- Gen 3:18It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.
- Job 38:27to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to grow?
- Gen 1:29–30God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food.
- Joel 2:22Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength.
- Jer 14:5–6Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes her young, because there is no grass.
- 1 Kgs 18:5Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land, to all the springs of water, and to all the brooks. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, that we not lose all the animals.”
- Gen 2:9Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- Gen 2:5No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
- Gen 4:12From now on, when you till the ground, it won’t yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.