John Calvin Commentary Psalms 104:25

"Yonder is the sea, great and wide, Wherein are things creeping innumerable, Both small and great beasts." — Psalms 104:25 (ASV)

Great is this sea, and wide in extent. After discussing the evidence of God’s glory that the earth provides, the prophet then delves into the sea, teaching us that it is a new mirror in which divine power and wisdom can be observed.

Even if the sea were uninhabited by fish, the mere sight of its vastness would inspire our wonder, especially when it swells with winds and storms at one moment, and is calm and unruffled at another.

Furthermore, although navigation is an art acquired by human skill, it still depends on God’s providence, who has granted people passage through the mighty deep.

But the abundance and variety of fish greatly enhance God’s glory in the sea. Of these, the Psalmist especially celebrates the leviathan or the whale because this animal, even if it were the only one, offers us sufficient, indeed, more than sufficient, proof of the awesome power of God; and for this reason, we have a lengthy account of it in the book of Job.

Since its movements not only throw the sea into great agitation but also alarm people, the prophet, by the word sport, suggests that these movements are merely sport from God’s perspective; as if to say, the sea is given to the leviathans as a field in which to exercise themselves.