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;

PSALMS 104:14KJV
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Psalms 104:14 (KJV)

What does Psalms 104:14 mean?

Psalms 104:14 says that God makes grass grow for animals and plants for people to use, so that people can get food from the earth. The verse highlights God’s ongoing care for both animals and humans by providing what they need to live.

In this psalm, the writer is praising God for how He orders and sustains the natural world. The verse comes in a section describing how God provides for all living things, showing the connection between creation and daily life. The focus is on God’s active role in making sure both animals and people have what they need through the natural processes He set in place.

The Hebrew behind Psalms 104:14

  • "grass" (חָצִיר, chatsir): This word refers to common grass or green plants, especially as food for livestock. It emphasizes that God provides even for animals, not just humans.
  • "herb" (עֵשֶׂב, esev): This word often means any green plant or vegetation, especially those useful to humans. It highlights the variety of plants given for people’s use, not just for eating but for other needs.
  • "service" (עֲבֹדָה, avodah): This word means work or service. Here, it points to the idea that plants are given for people’s work or benefit, showing that human labor and God’s provision work together.
  • "food" (לֶחֶם, lechem): While often translated as "bread," this word broadly means food or sustenance. It underlines that God’s provision from the earth is what sustains human life.

Why Psalms 104:14 matters

  • Psalms 104:14 clarifies that God’s care includes both animals and humans, showing a balanced concern for all creation, not just people.
  • The verse emphasizes that human work (using plants) is part of God’s design, not separate from His provision, which can correct the idea that only miraculous or supernatural acts are God’s work.
  • In the flow of the psalm, this verse connects the natural world’s cycles to God’s ongoing involvement, helping readers see everyday life as part of God’s creative order.

Where else these words appear

“grass” Hebrew H2682 · used in 20 verses

  • Numbers 11:5 We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick:
  • Psalms 90:5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
  • Isaiah 35:7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

“grow” Hebrew H6779 · used in 32 verses

  • Genesis 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
  • 2 Samuel 23:5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.
  • Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

“herb” Hebrew H6212 · used in 32 verses

  • Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
  • Exodus 10:15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
  • Psalms 105:35 And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.

“service” Hebrew H5656 · used in 125 verses

  • Genesis 29:27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
  • Numbers 4:30 From thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old shalt thou number them, every one that entereth into the service, to do the work of the tabernacle of the congregation.
  • 1 Chronicles 23:24 These were the sons of Levi after the house of their fathers; even the chief of the fathers, as they were counted by number of names by their polls, that did the work for the service of the house of the LORD, from the age of twenty years and upward.