Bible Strands
Psalms 104:14
He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth:
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the worshiping community within a continuous hymn of divine providence, positioned immediately after a description of God watering the mountains and before a catalog of human provisions like wine and oil. This moment occurs during a poetic meditation on God’s active sustenance of the earth.
The words — מַצְמִיחַ (matz.Mi.ach) literally means "causing to grow," and עֵשֶׂב ('e.sev) translates directly as "vegetation" or "grass." These terms anchor the verse’s focus on God’s deliberate agricultural provision rather than passive natural processes.
The thread — The motif of God causing grass to grow and supplying food appears in Psalms 147:8, which parallels the rain and hillside vegetation imagery, and in Psalms 136:25, which declares God gives food to every creature. Job 28:5 also references food emerging from the earth, though it contrasts earthly origins with divine wisdom.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize agricultural provision as a direct divine act rather than an autonomous natural cycle. It calls for practical gratitude toward the daily sustenance of both livestock and human labor.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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;
Cross-references
- Psalms 136:25 He gives food to every creature. His loving devotion endures forever.
- Psalms 147:8 who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the hills.
- Job 28:5 Food may come from the earth, but from below it is transformed as by fire.
- Psalms 145:15 The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.
- Genesis 9:3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you; just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you all things.
- 1 Corinthians 3:7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
- Genesis 1:11 Then 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.
- Genesis 3:18 Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
- Genesis 1:29 Then 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.
- Job 38:27 to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?