Abstract Psalm 104 contains some signs that its author perceived the cosmos as a temple (e.g., the earth as a building with covering v. 2b, set on pillars v. 5a), but scholars do not typically cite this psalm as a prominent example of the cosmos-as-temple metaphor. Indeed, although many interpreters now assume that this image of the cosmos pervades the Hebrew Bible, in Ps 104 it is more assumed than demonstrated. In this essay I will argue that Ps 104:16–18, which depicts inaccessible regions of the earth, contains evidence of a correspondence between cosmos and temple that scholars have not fully recognized. Namely, the language concerning the “trees of the Lord” (v. 16a) as the “cedars of Lebanon that he planted” (v. 16b) echoes references to trees in the temple (Ps 92:13–14), and the description of birds in verse 17 shares language with Ps 84:4, which speaks of the birds nesting near the altars. This reading of Ps 104 intends to add to our understanding of the psalm as testimony to divine care over the wild parts of the earth, and to expand the catalog of texts that depict the cosmos as temple.
Jerome F. D. Creach (Sun,) studied this question.