Hebrews is replete with quotations from the psalms. And maybe sometimes it seems like they've just been reached for as a repository of useful quotes. But, no, there's surely always more going on than that. We maybe just need to dig a little deeper.
Take Psalm 104 for instance. It makes an appearance in Hebrews 1 - only briefly and pretty routinely. The writer is arguing for the Son's superiority to angels and uses Psalm 104:4 to contrast what is said about angels there to what is said about the Son in Psalm 45. So far, so expected.
But is there any deeper reason for the selection of Psalm 104? Perhaps there is. That psalm in its place within the psalter acts as a prelude to the double-barrelled reciting of covenant history in Psalms 105 and 106. There, the history of Israel, from the call of Abraham to the wanderings in the wilderness, follows on from the celebration of creation in Ps.104.
And what follows in the next chapters of Hebrews? Especially in chapters 3 and 4, the focus is on Israel and their history, in particular the wilderness generation (through the lens of Psalm 95).
A simple collocation of ideas? Possibly. Neither Psalm 105 nor 106 is quoted in Hebrews, after all. But maybe it's further evidence for just how much the psalms helped forge the theological framework of the NT and its understanding of salvation history.
That would get my vote.
