Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 104:35

"Let sinners be consumed out of the earth. And let the wicked be no more. Bless Jehovah, O my soul. Praise ye Jehovah." — Psalms 104:35 (ASV)

Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth - Compare to Psalms 37:38. This might properly be rendered, “Consumed are the sinners out of the earth,” expressing a fact and not a desire. It may have been prompted by the psalmist's feeling that such an event would occur—that is, that the time would come when sin would no longer abound, but when the world would be filled with righteousness, and all the dwellers on the earth would praise God. The word translated “consumed”—from תמם tâmam—properly means to complete, to perfect, to finish, to cease.

It does not mean “consume” in the sense of being burned up—as our word means—or destroyed, but merely to come to an end, to cease, to pass away. That is, let the time soon come, or the time will soon come, when there will be no sinners on the earth, but when all the inhabitants of the earth will worship and honor God.

The “connection” here seems to be this: The psalmist was himself so filled with the love of God, and with admiration of his works, that he desired that all might share the same feeling. He looked forward, therefore, as those who love God must do, to the time when all dwellers on earth would see his glory, and when there would be no one who did not adore and love him.

All that is fairly implied in the psalmist's wish here would be accomplished if all sinners were converted, and if, in that sense, there would be no more transgressors in the world.

And let the wicked be no more - Let there not be any more wicked persons; let the time come when there will be no bad people on the earth, but when all will be righteous. In this prayer all persons could properly unite.

Bless thou the Lord, O my soul - The psalm closes (as Psalm 103 does) as it began. The psalmist began with the expression of a purpose to bless God; it closes with the same purpose, confirmed by a survey of the wonderful works of God.

Praise ye the Lord - Hebrew, Hallelu-jah. The psalmist expresses the earnest desire of a truly pious heart. In looking upon a world so beautiful, so varied in its works, so full of the expressions of the wisdom and goodness of God—a world where all the lower creation so completely fulfills the purpose of the Creator—he desires that man, the noblest of all the works of God, would unite with the world around and beneath him in carrying out the great purpose of creation, so that he might, in his own proper place and according to the powers with which he is endowed, acknowledge God.

How beautiful—how sublime—would be the spectacle on earth if man accomplished the purpose of his creation and filled his place, as well as the springs, the hills, the trees, the birds, the wild goats, the moon, the sun, the young lions, and the inhabitants of the great and wide sea do in their spheres!

Oh, let the time come when on earth there will be harmony in all the works of God, and when all creatures here will carry out the purpose that was contemplated when God called the earth into existence.