104:4 maketh his angels. Prior to man’s creation, however, God made the angels, evidently on the first day of creation week, after He Himself had entered His universe and began to move therein by the Spirit. Some translators have read this statement as: “God made the winds His messengers, and the fires His servants.” The inspired New Testament writer of Hebrews, however, quoted it properly: “And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire” (Hebrews 1:7). The angels are spiritual (rather than physical) beings, though they can assume quasi-physical bodies on occasion. Angels are commonly associated in Scripture with the stars, possibly because their dwellings are normally in the stars (which are, of course, “flaming fires”). Compare Judges 5:20; Job 38:7; Isaiah 14:12,14; Revelation 1:20; 12:3-9.

104:5 foundations of the earth. The earth’s “matter”—that is, the “dust of the earth,” or its physical elements—was created on the first day of creation week, evidently suspended in the pervasive waters. The earth’s foundations, solid, continental blocks of material, were not laid until the third day, rising thence out of the waters. Once formed, this planet earth was destined to continue forever.