Exegetical analysis of Psalm 104:8 and its possible implications for interpreting the geological record

This paper performs a detailed exegesis of Psalm 104:8 and its context (Psalm 104:5–10) in the original Hebrew to identify the timing and nature of the events about which the psalmist writes. The exegetical analysis includes the text’s poetic structure and devices, as well as its grammar and vocabulary. That interpretive process results in some significant implications. The analysis of Psalm 104:8 in its context supports a possible reference to a global cataclysmic Flood. Therefore, the psalmist’s declaration that “The mountains rose; the valleys sank down” might correspond with tectonic activity during and after the Flood. “To the place which You established for them” indicates the configuration of the earth’s surface after an uplift of mountains and lowering of valleys.