The Egyptian Hymn says, “In the underworld you make a Nile” (v.9). This shows a connection to Native American Indian mound culture. The Indians had a belief in the upper world and lower world. The lower world represented earth and water. This belief was expressed in the Indian mounds by the building of water spirits, which looked like panthers and lizards. It’s interesting that in this Hymn the Nile River represents the Egyptian underworld. Psalm 104 has a unified in verse 6 it seems to mention how God unified the earth. God also blocked movement between worlds in verse 9. Verse nine says “a boarder you fixed so they could not cross, so they could not come back to cover the earth”. This shows a significant difference from the Egyptian hymn, which mentions nothing about a boarder.
The other striking difference between the hymns and Psalm 104 is the end. The Egyptian hymn ends with a tribute to “the Lord of the Two Lands” who is clearly Akhenaten. It seems as if the Egyptians are worshiping their king almost as much as they worship Aten. The Hymn says, “Who has come forth from your body”. They believe that Akhenaten is an incarnation of Aten. Worshiping the King stands in stark contrast to Psalm 104 where they have the lack of a king and are preying to God because they can’t believe in a king. In Psalm 104 it says, “may the lords glory be forever” where as in the Hymn to Aten it says “ Lord of the two lands… Living and young, forever and ever.” This is a very different message while Psalm 104 focuses on the Lord, the Hymn to Aten ends by focusing on their king.
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