Psalms 104:24

104:24 How many living things you have made, O Lord! ¹ 

You have exhibited great skill in making all of them; ² 

the earth is full of the living things you have made.

Psalms 119:64

119:64 O Lord, your loyal love fills the earth.

Teach me your statutes!

Psalms 145:15-16

145:15 Everything looks to you in anticipation, ³ 

and you provide them with food on a regular basis. ⁴ 

145:16 You open your hand,

and fill every living thing with the food they desire. ⁵ 

Matthew 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like ⁶  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Acts 14:17

14:17 yet he did not leave himself without a witness by doing good, ⁷  by giving you rain from heaven ⁸  and fruitful seasons, satisfying you ⁹  with food and your hearts with joy.” ¹⁰ 

¹ tn Heb “How many [are] your works, O Lord.” In this case the Lord’s “works” are the creatures he has made, as the preceding and following contexts make clear.

² tn Heb “all of them with wisdom you have made.”

³ tn Heb “the eyes of all wait for you.”

⁴ tn Heb “and you give to them their food in its season” (see Ps 104:27).

⁵ tn Heb “[with what they] desire.”

⁶ tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.

⁷ tn The participle ἀγαθουργῶν (agaqourgwn) is regarded as indicating means here, parallel to the following participles διδούς (didou") and ἐμπιπλῶν (empiplwn). This is the easiest way to understand the Greek structure. Semantically, the first participle is a general statement, followed by two participles giving specific examples of doing good.

⁸ tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

⁹ tn Grk “satisfying [filling] your hearts with food and joy.” This is an idiomatic expression; it strikes the English reader as strange to speak of “filling one’s heart with food.” Thus the additional direct object “you” has been supplied, separating the two expressions somewhat: “satisfying you with food and your hearts with joy.”

¹⁰ sn God’s general sovereignty and gracious care in the creation are the way Paul introduces the theme of the goodness of God. He was trying to establish monotheism here. It is an OT theme (Gen 8:22; Ps 4:7; 145:15-16; 147:8-9; Isa 25:6; Jer 5:24) which also appears in the NT (Luke 12:22-34).