The song is one and indivisible. It seems almost
impossible to expound it in detail, for a living poem is not to
be dissected verse by verse. It is a song of nature and of
grace. As a flash of lightning flames through space, and enwraps
both heaven and earth in one vestment of glory, so doth the
adoration of the Lord in this Psalm light up all the universe,
and cause it to glow with a radiance of praise. The song begins
in the heavens, sweeps downward to dragons and all deeps, and
then ascends again, till the people near unto Jehovah take up
the strain. For its exposition the chief requisite is a heart on
fire with reverent love to the Lord over all, who is to be
blessed for ever.
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Praise ye the LORD. Whoever ye may be
that hear this word, ye are invited, entreated, commanded, to
magnify Jehovah. Assuredly he has made you, and, if for nothing
else, ye are bound, upon the ground of creatureship, to adore
your Maker. This exhortation can never be out of place, speak it
where we may; and never out of time, speak it when we may.
Praise ye the LORD from the heavens. Since ye are nearest to the
High and Lofty One, be ye sure to lead the song. Ye angels, ye
cherubim and seraphim, and all others who dwell in the precincts
of his courts, praise ye Jehovah. Do this as from a starting
point from which the praise is to pass on to other realms. Keep
not your worship to yourselves, but let it fall like a golden
shower from the heavens on men beneath. Praise him in the
heights. This is no vain repetition; but after the manner of
attractive poesy the truth is emphasized by reiteration in other
words. Moreover, God is not only to be praised from the
heights, but in them: the adoration is to be perfected in
the heavens from which it takes its rise. No place is too high
for the praises of the most High. On the summit of creation the
glory of the Lord is to be revealed, even as the tops of the
highest Alps are tipped with the golden light of the same sun
which glads the valleys. Heavens and heights become the higher
and the more heavenly as they are made to resound with the
praises of Jehovah. See how the Psalmist trumpets out the word
"PRAISE." It sounds forth some nine times in the first
five verses of this song. Like minute-guns, exultant
exhortations are sounded forth in tremendous force—Praise!
Praise! Praise! The drum of the great King beats round the
world with this one note—Praise! Praise! Praise!
"Again they said, Hallelujah." All this praise is
distinctly and personally for Jehovah. Praise not his servants
nor his works; but praise HIM. Is he not worthy of all possible
praise? Pour it forth before HIM in full volume; pour it only
there!
Verse 2. Praise ye him, all his angels. Living
intelligences, perfect in character and in bliss, lift up your
loudest music to your Lord, each one, of you. Not one bright
spirit is exempted from this consecrated service. However many
ye be, O angels, ye are all his angels, and therefore ye
are bound, all of you, to render service to your Lord. Ye have
all seen enough of him to be able to praise him, and ye have all
abundant reasons for so doing. Whether ye be named Gabriel, or
Michael, or by whatever other titles ye are known, praise ye the
Lord. Whether ye bow before him, or fly on his errands, or
desire to look into his covenant, or behold his Son, cease not,
ye messengers of Jehovah, to sound forth his praise while ye
move at his bidding. Praise ye him, all his hosts. This includes
angelic armies, but groups with them all the heavenly bodies.
Though they be inanimate, the stars, the clouds, the lightnings,
have their ways of praising Jehovah. Let each one of the
countless legions of the Lord of hosts show forth his glory; for
the countless armies are all his, his by creation, and
preservation, and consequent obligation. Both these sentences
claim unanimity of praise from those in the upper regions who
are called upon to commence the strain—"all his
angels, all his hosts." That same hearty oneness
must pervade the whole orchestra of praising ones; hence,
further on, we read of all stars of light, all deeps, all hills,
all cedars, and all people. How well the concert begins when all
angels, and all the heavenly host, strike the first joyful
notes! In that concert our souls would at once take their part.
Verse 3. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him,
all ye stars of light. The Psalmist enters into detail as to
the heavenly hosts. As all, so each, must praise the God of each
and all. The sun and moon, as joint rulers of day and night, are
paired in praise: the one is the complement of the other, and so
they are closely associated in the summons to worship. The sun
has his peculiar mode of glorifying the Great Father of lights,
and the moon has her own special method of reflecting his
brightness. There is a perpetual adoration of the Lord in the
skies: it varies with night and day, but it ever continues while
sun and moon endure. There is ever a lamp burning before the
high altar of the Lord. Nor are the greater luminaries allowed
to drown with their floods of light the glory of the lesser
brilliants, for all the stars are bidden to the banquet of
praise. Stars are many, so many that no one can count the host
included under the words, "all ye stars"; yet no one
of them refuses to praise its Maker. From their extreme
brilliance they are fitly named "stars of light"; and
this light is praise in a visible form twinkling to true music.
Light is song glittering before the eye instead of resounding in
the ear. Stars without light would render no praise, and
Christians without light rob the Lord of his glory. However
small our beam, we must not hide it: if we cannot be sun or moon
we must aim to be one of the "stars of light", and our
every twinkling must be to the honour of our Lord.
Verse 4. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens. By
these are meant those regions which are heavens to those who
dwell in our heavens; or those most heavenly of abodes where the
most choice of spirits dwell. As the highest of the highest, so
the best of the best are to praise the Lord. If we could climb
as much above the heavens as the heavens are above the earth, we
could still cry out to all around us, "Praise ye the
Lord." There can be none so great and high as to be above
praising Jehovah. And ye waters that be above the heavens. Let
the clouds roll up volumes of adoration. Let the sea above roar,
and the fulness thereof, at the presence of Jehovah, the God of
Israel. There is something of mystery about these supposed
reservoirs of water; but let them be what they may, and as they
may, they shall give glory to the Lord our God. Let the most
unknown and perplexing phenomena take up their parts in the
universal praise.
Verse 5. Let them praise the name of the LORD; for
he commanded, and they were created. Here is good argument:
The Maker should have honour from his works, they should tell
forth his praise: and thus they should praise his name—by
which his character is intended. The name of JEHOVAH is written
legibly upon his works, so that his power, wisdom, goodness, and
other attributes are therein made manifest to thoughtful men,
and thus his name is praised. The highest praise of God is to
declare what he is. We can invent nothing which would magnify
the Lord: we can never extol him better than by repeating his
name, or describing his character. The Lord is to be extolled as
creating all things that exist, and as doing so by the simple
agency of his word. He created by a command; what a power is
this! Well may he expect those to praise him who owe their being
to him. Evolution may be atheistic; but the doctrine of creation
logically demands worship; and hence, as the tree is known by
its fruit, it proves itself to be true. Those who were created
by command are under command to adore their Creator. The voice
which said "Let them be", now saith "Let them
praise."
Verse 6. He hath also stablished them for ever and
ever. The continued existence of celestial beings is due to
the supporting might of Jehovah, and to that alone. They do not
fail because the Lord does not fail them. Without his will these
things cannot alter; he has impressed upon them laws which only
he himself can change. Eternally his ordinances are binding upon
them. Therefore ought the Lord to be praised because he is
Preserver as well as Creator, Ruler as well as Maker. He hath
made a decree which shall not pass. The heavenly bodies are
ruled by Jehovah's decree: they cannot pass his limit, or
trespass against his law. His rule and ordination can never be
changed except by himself, and in this sense his decree
"shall not pass": moreover, the highest and most
wonderful of creatures are perfectly obedient to the statutes of
the Great King, and thus his decree is not passed over. This
submission to law is praise. Obedience is homage; order is
harmony. In this respect the praise rendered to Jehovah from the
"bodies celestial" is absolutely perfect. His almighty
power upholds all things in their spheres, securing the march of
stars and the flight of seraphs; and thus the music of the upper
regions is never marred by discord, nor interrupted by
destruction. The eternal hymn is for ever chanted; even the
solemn silence of the spheres is a perpetual Psalm.
Verse 7. Praise the LORD from the earth. The
song descends to our abode, and so comes nearer home to us. We
who are "bodies terrestrial", are to pour out our
portion of praise from the golden globe of this favoured planet.
Jehovah is to be praised not only in the earth but from
the earth, as if the adoration ran over from this planet into
the general accumulation of worship. In Ps 148:1 the song was
"from the heavens"; here it is "from the
earth": songs coming down from heaven are to blend with
those going up from earth. The "earth" here meant is
our entire globe of land and water: it is to be made vocal
everywhere with praise. Ye dragons, and all deeps. It would be
idle to inquire what special sea monsters are here meant; but we
believe all of them are intended, and the places where they
abide are indicated by "all deeps." Terrible beasts or
fishes, whether they roam the earth or swim the seas, are bidden
to the feast of praise. Whether they float amid the teeming
waves of the tropics, or wend their way among the floes and
bergs of polar waters, they are commanded by our sacred poet to
yield their tribute to the creating Jehovah. They pay no service
to man; let them the more heartily confess their allegiance to
the Lord. About "dragons" and "deeps" there
is somewhat of dread, but this may the more fitly become the
bass of the music of the Psalm. If there be aught grim in
mythology, or fantastic in heraldry, let it praise the
incomprehensible Lord.
Verse 8. Fire and hail. Lightning and
hailstones go together. In the plagues of Egypt they cooperated
in making Jehovah known in all the terrors of his power. Fire
and ice morsels are a contrast in nature, but they are combined
in magnifying the Lord. Snow and vapours. Offsprings of cold, or
creations of heat, be ye equally consecrated to his praise.
Congealed or expanded vapours, falling flakes or rising clouds,
should, rising or falling, still reveal the praises of the Lord.
Stormy winds fulfilling his word. Though rushing with
incalculable fury, the storm wind is still under law, and moves
in order due, to carry out the designs of God. It is a grand
orchestra which contains such wind instruments as these! He is a
great leader who can keep all these musicians in concert, and
direct both time and tune.
Verse 9. Mountains, and all hills. Towering
steeps and swelling knolls alike declare their Creator.
"All hills" are to be consecrated; we have no longer
Ebal and Gerizim, the hill of the curse and the hill of the
blessing, but all our Ebals are turned to Gerizims. Tabor and
Hermon, Lebanon and Carmel, rejoice in the name of the Lord. The
greater and the lesser mounts are one in their adoration. Not
only the Alps and the mountains of the Jura thunder out his
praise; but our own Cotswolds and Grampians are vocal with songs
in his honour. Fruitful trees, and all cedars. Fruit trees and
forest trees, trees deciduous or evergreen, are equally full of
benevolent design, and alike subserve some purpose of love;
therefore for all and by all let the great Designer be praised.
There are many species of cedar, but they all reveal the wisdom
of their Maker. When kings fell them, that they may make beams
for their palaces, they do but confess their obligation to the
King of trees, and to the King of kings, whose trees they are.
Varieties in the landscape are produced by the rising and
falling of the soil, and by the many kinds of trees which adorn
the land: let all, and all alike, glorify their one Lord. When
the trees clap their hands in the wind, or their leaves rustle
in the gentle breath of Zephyr, they do to their best ability
sing out unto the Lord.
Verse 10. Beasts, and all cattle. Animals
fierce or tame; wild beasts and domestic cattle; let all these
show forth the praises of Jehovah. Those are worse than beasts
who do not praise our God. More than brutish are those who are
wilfully dumb concerning their Maker. Creeping things, and
flying fowl. The multitudes that throng the earth and the air;
insects of every form and birds of every wing are called upon to
join the universal worship. No one can become familiar with
insect and bird life without feeling that they constitute a
wonderful chapter in the history of divine wisdom. The minute
insect marvellously proclaims the Lord's handiwork: when placed
under the microscope it tells a wondrous tale. So, too, the bird
which soars aloft displays in its adaptation for an aerial life
an amount of skill which our balloonists have in vain attempted
to emulate. True devotion not only hears the praises of God in
the sweet song of feathered minstrels, but even discovers it in
the croaking from the marsh, or in the buzz of "the blue
fly which singeth in the window pane." More base than
reptiles, more insignificant than insects, are songless men.
Verse 11. Kings of the earth, and all people:
princes, and all judges of the earth. Now the poet has
reached our own race, and very justly he would have rulers and
subjects, chieftains and magistrates, unite in worshipping the
sovereign Lord of all. Monarchs must not disdain to sing, nor
must their people refrain from uniting with them. Those who lead
in battle and those who decide in courts must neither of them
allow their vocations to keep them from reverently adoring the
Chief and Judge of all. All people, and all judges, must praise
the Lord of all. What a happy day it will be when it is
universally acknowledged that through our Lord Jesus, the
incarnate Wisdom, "kings reign and princes decree
justice"! Alas, it is not so as yet! kings have been
patrons of vice, and princes ringleaders in folly. Let us pray
that the song of the Psalmist may be realized in fact.
Verse 12. Both young men, and maidens; old men, and
children. Both sexes and all ages are summoned to the
blessed service of song. Those who usually make merry together
are to be devoutly joyful together: those who make up the ends
of families, that is to say, the elders and the juveniles,
should make the Lord their one and only end. Old men should by
their experience teach children to praise; and children by their
cheerfulness should excite old men to song. There is room for
every voice at this concert: fruitful trees and maidens, cedars
and young men, angels and children, old men and judges—all may
unite in this oratorio. None, indeed, can be dispensed with: for
perfect Psalmody we must have the whole universe aroused to
worship, and all parts of creation must take their parts in
devotion.
Verse 13. Let them praise the name of the LORD.
All that is contained in the name or character of Jehovah is
worthy of praise, and all the objects of his creating care will
be too few to set it forth in its completeness. For his name
alone is excellent. It alone deserves to be exalted in praise,
for alone it is exalted in worth. There is none like unto the
Lord, none that for a moment can be compared unto him. His
unique name should have a monopoly of praise. His glory is above
the earth and heaven: it is therefore alone because it surpasses
all others. His royal splendour exceeds all that earth and
heaven can express. He is himself the crown of all things, the
excellency of the creation. There is more glory in him
personally than in all his works united. It is not possible for
us to exceed and become extravagant in the Lord's praise: his
own natural glory is infinitely greater than any glory which we
can render to him.
Verse 14. He also exalteth the horn of his people.
He hath made them strong, famous, and victorious. His goodness
to all his creatures does not prevent his having a special
favour to his chosen nation: he is good to all, but he is God to
his people. He lifts up the down trodden, but he in a peculiar
manner lifts up his people. When they are brought low he raises
up a horn for them by sending them a deliverer; when they are in
conflict he gives them courage and strength, so that they lift
up their horn amid the fray; and when all is peaceful around
them, he fills their horn with plenty, and they lift it up with
delight. The praise of all his saints. He is their glory: to him
they render praise; and he by his mercy to them evermore gives
them further reasons for praise, and higher motives for
adoration. He lifts up their horn, and they lift up his praise.
He exalts them, and they exalt him. The Holy One is praised by
holy ones. He is their God, and they are his saints; he makes
them blessed, and they bless him in return.
Even of the children of Israel. The Lord knoweth them that
are his. He knows the name of him with whom he made a covenant,
and how he came by that name, and who his children are, and
where they are. All nations are bidden in Ps 148:11 to praise
the Lord; but here the call is specially addressed to his elect
people, who know him beyond all others. Those who are children
of privilege should be children of praise. A people near unto
him, near by kin, and near by care; near as to manifestation and
near as to affection. This is a highly honourable description of
the beloved race; and it is true even more emphatically of the
spiritual Israel, the believing seed. This nearness should
prompt us to perpetual adoration. The Lord's elect are the
children of his love, the courtiers of his palace, the priests
of his temple, and therefore they are bound beyond all others to
be filled with reverence for him, and delight in him. Praise ye
the Lord, or, Hallelujah. This should be the Alpha and
Omega of a good man's life. Let us praise God to the end, world
without end. The field of praise which lies before us in this
Psalm is bounded at beginning and end by landmarks in the form
of Hallelujahs, and all that lieth between them is every word of
it to the Lord's honour. Amen.
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Psalms 148:1 to 150:6. The last three Psalms are a
triad of wondrous praise, ascending from praise to higher
raise until it becomes "joy unspeakable and full of
glory"—exultation which knows no bounds. The joy
overflows the soul, and spreads throughout the universe; every
creature is magnetized by it, and drawn into the chorus. Heaven
is full of praise, the earth is full of praise, praises rise
from under the earth, "everything that hath breath"
joins in the rapture. God is encompassed by a loving, praising
creation. Man, the last in creation, but the first in song,
knows not how to contain himself. He dances, he sings, he
commands all the heavens, with all their angels, to help him,
"beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying
fowl" must do likewise, even "dragons" must not
be silent, and "all deeps" must yield contributions.
He presses even dead things into his service, timbrels,
trumpets, harps, organs, cymbals, high sounding cymbals, if by
any means, and by all means, he may give utterance to his love
and joy.—John Pulsford.
Whole Psalm. In this splendid anthem the Psalmist
calls upon the whole creation, in its two great divisions
(according to the Hebrew conception) of heaven and earth, to
praise Jehovah: things with and things without life, beings
rational and irrational, are summoned to join the mighty chorus.
This Psalm is the expression of the loftiest devotion, and it
embraces at the same time the most comprehensive view of the
relation of the creature to the Creator. Whether it is
exclusively the utterance of a heart filled to the full with the
thought of the infinite majesty of God, or whether it is also an
anticipation, a prophetic forecast, of the final glory of
creation, when at the manifestation of the sons of God, the
creation itself also shall be redeemed from the bondage of
corruption (Ro 8:18-23), and the homage of praise shall indeed
be rendered by all things that are in heaven and earth and under
the earth, is a question into which we need not enter.—J.J.
Stewart Perowne.
Whole Psalm. Milton, in his Paradise Lost (Book 5,
line 153, & c.), has elegantly imitated this Psalm, and put
it into the mouth of Adam and Eve as their morning hymn in a
state of innocency.—James Anderson.
Whole Psalm. Is this universal praise never to be
realized? is it only the longing, intense desire of the
Psalmist's heart, which will never be heard on earth, and can
only be perfected in heaven? Is there to be no jubilee in which
the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing, and
all the trees of the field shall clap their hands? If there is
to be no such day, then is the word of God of none effect; if no
such universal anthem is to swell the chorus of heaven and to be
reechoed by all that is on earth, then is God's promise void. It
is true, in this Psalm our translation presents it to us as a
call or summons for every thing that hath or hath not breath to
praise the Lord—or as a petition that they may praise; but it
is in reality a prediction that they shall praise. This
Psalm is neither more nor less than a glorious prophecy of that
coming day, when not only shall the knowledge of the Lord be
spread over the whole earth, as the waters cover the sea, but
from every created object in heaven and in earth, animate and
inanimate, from the highest archangel through every grade and
phase of being, down to the tiniest atom—young men and
maidens, old men and children, and all kings and princes, and
judges of the earth shall unite in this millennial, anthem to
the Redeemer's praise.—Barton Bouchier.
Verse 1. Praise ye the Lord, etc. All things
praise, and yet he says, "Praise ye." Wherefore
doth he say, "Praise ye", when they are
praising? Because he delighteth in their praising, and therefore
it pleaseth him to add, as it were, his own encouragement. Just
as, when you come to men who are doing any good work with
pleasure in their vineyard or in their harvest field, or in some
other matter of husbandry, you are pleased at what they are
doing, and say, "Work on", "Go on"; not that
they may begin to work, when you say this, but, because you are
pleased at finding them working, you add your approbation and
encouragement. For by saying, "Work on", and
encouraging those who are working, you, so to speak, work with
them in wish. In this sort of encouragement, then, the Psalmist,
filled with the Holy Ghost, saith this.—Augustine.
Verse 1. The thrice repeated exhortation, "Praise...Praise
...Praise", in this first verse is not merely
imperative, nor only hortative, but it is an exultant
hallelujah.—Martin Geier.
Verse 1. From the heavens: praise him in the
heights. Or, high places. As God in framing the world begun
above, and wrought downward, so doth the Psalmist proceed in
this his exhortation to all creatures to praise the Lord.—John
Trapp.
Verse 1. Praise him in the heights. The
principle applied in this verse is this, that those who have
been exalted to the highest honours of the created universe,
should proportionately excel in their tribute of honour to him
who has exalted them.—Hermann Venema.
Verse 1. Bernard, in his sermon on the death of his
brother Gerard, relates that in the middle of his last night on
earth his brother, to the astonishment of all present, with a
voice and countenance of exultation, broke forth in the words of
the Psalmist Praise the Lord of heaven, praise him in the
heights!
Verse 2. Praise ye him, all his angels. Angels
are first invoked, because they can praise God with humility,
reverence, and purity. The highest are the humblest, the leaders
of all created hosts are the most ready themselves to obey.—Thomas
Le Blanc.
Verse 2. Praise ye him, all his angels. The
angels of God were his first creatures; it has even been thought
that they existed prior to the inanimate universe. They were
already praising their Maker before the light of day, and they
have never ceased their holy song. Angels praise God best in
their holy service. They praised Christ as God when they sang
their Gloria in Excelsis at the Incarnation, and they
praised him as man when they ministered to him after his
temptation and before his crucifixion. So also now angels praise
the Lord by their alacrity in ministering to his saints.—John
Lorinus.
Verse 2. Praise ye him, all his hosts. That is,
his creatures (those above especially which are as his cavalry)
called his "hosts", for,
1. Their number;
2, their order;
3. their obedience.—John Trapp.
Verse 3. Praise ye him, sun and moon, etc. How
does the sun specially praise Jehovah?
1. By its beauty. Jesus son of Sirach calls it the
"globe of beauty."
2. By its fulness. Dion calls it "the image of the Divine
capacity."
3. By its exaltation. Pliny calls it caeli rector,
"the ruler of heaven."
4. By its perfect brightness. Pliny adds that it is "the
mind and soul of the whole universe."
5. By its velocity and constancy of motion. Martian calls it
"the Guide of Nature."
God the Supreme was depicted by the ancients holding in his
hand a wreath of stars, to show the double conception, that they
both obey and adorn him.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verses 3-4. Let the sun, the fount of light, and
warmth, and gladness, the greater light which rules the day, the
visible emblem of the Uncreated Wisdom, the Light which lighteth
every man, the centre round whom all our hopes and fears, our
wants and prayers, our faith and love, are ever moving,—let
the moon, the lesser light which rules the night, the type of
the Church, which giveth to the world the light she gains from
the Sun of Righteousness,—let the stars, so vast in their
number, so lovely in their arrangement and their brightness,
which God hath appointed in the heavens, even as he hath
appointed his elect to shine for ever and ever,—let all the
heavens with all their wonders and their worlds, the depths of
space above, and the waters which are above the firmament, the
images of God's Holy Scripture and of the glories and the
mysteries contained therein,—let these ever praise him who
made and blessed them in the beginning of the creation.—J.W.
Burgon.
Verses 3-4.
Praise him, thou golden tressed sun;
Praise him thou fair and silver moon,
And ye bright orbs of streaming light;
Ye floods that float above the skies,
Ye heav'ns, that vault o'er vault arise,
Praise him, who sits above all height.
—Richard Mant.
Verse 4. Paise him, ye heavens of heavens, etc.
From the heavenly inhabitants the poetic strain passes in
transition to the heavens themselves. There are orders of
heavens, ranks and heights supreme, and stages and degrees of
lower altitude. This verse sublimely traverses the immensities
which are the home of the most exalted dignities who wait on
Deity, and then it descends to the firmament where the meteors
flash forth, and where the heavens stoop to lift the clouds that
aspire from earth. And the idea sustained is that all these vast
realms, higher and lower, are one temple of unceasing praise.—Herman
Venema.
Verse 4. The ancients thought there was an ethereal
and lofty ocean in which the worlds floated like ships in a
sea.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verses 5-6. This is the account of creation in a
word—He spake; it was done. When Jesus came, he went
everywhere showing his Divinity by this evidence, that his word
was omnipotent. These verses declare two miracles of God's Will
and Word, viz., the creation and consolidation of the earth.
Jehovah first produced matter, then he ordered and established
it.—John Lorinus.
Verse 6. He hath also stablished there for ever and
ever, etc. Here two things are set before us, the permanence
and the cosmic order of creation. Each created thing is not only
formed to endure, in the type or the development, if not in the
individual, but has its place in the universe fixed by God's
decree, that it may fulfil its appointed share of working out
his will. They raise a question as to the words "for
ever and ever", how they can be reconciled with the
prophecy, Isa 65:17: "Behold, I create new heavens and a
new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into
mind"; a prophecy confirmed by the Lord himself, saying,
"Heaven and earth shall pass away", and seen fulfilled
in vision by the beloved disciple. Mt 5:18 Re 21:1. And they
answer that just as man dies and rises again to incorruption,
having the same personality in a glorified body, so will it be
with heaven and earth. Their qualities will be changed, not
their identity, in that new birth of all things.—Neale and
Littledale.
Verse 6. For ever and ever.
My heart is awed within me, when I think
Of the great miracle which still goes on,
In silence, round me—the perpetual work
Of thy creation, finished, yet renewed,
For ever.—William Cullen Bryant, 1794-1878.
Verse 6. He hath made a decree, etc. Rather, He
hath made an ordinance, and will not transgress it. This is
more obvious and natural than to supply a new subject to the
second verb, "and none of them transgress it." This
anticipates, but only in form, the modern scientific doctrine of
the inviolability of natural order. It is the imperishable
faithfulness of God that renders the law invariable.—A.S.
Aglen.
Verse 7. Dragons. The word tanninim,
rendered "dragons", is a word which may denote
whales, sharks, serpents, or sea monsters of any kind (Job 7:1
Eze 29:3).—John Morison.
Verse 7. Sea monsters, in Revised Version.
Fishes constrain our admiration, as a created wonder, by the
perfection of their form, their magnitude, their adaptation to
the element they inhabit, and their multitude. Thus their very
nature praises the Creator.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verses 7-8. He calls to the deeps, dire, hail,
snow, mountains, and hills, to bear a part in this work of
praise. Not that they are able to do it actively, but to show
that man is to call in the whole creation to assist him
passively, and should have so much charity to all creatures as
to receive what they offer, and so much affection to God as to
present to him what he receives from him. Snow and hail
cannot bless and praise God, but man ought to bless God for
those things, wherein there is a mixture of trouble and
inconvenience, something to molest our sense, as well as
something that improves the earth for fruit.—Stephen
Charnock.
Verses 7-10. Here be many things easy to be
understood, they are clear to every eye; as when David doth
exhort "kings" and "princes", "old
men" and "babes" to praise God; that is easy to
be done, and we know the meaning as soon as we look on it; but
here are some things again that are hard to be understood, dark
and obscure, and they are two:
First, in that David doth exhort dumb, unreasonable, and
senseless creatures to praise God, such as cannot hear, at
least cannot understand. Doth the Holy Ghost in the gospel bid
us avoid impertinent speeches, and vain repetitions, and shall
we think he will use them himself? No, no. But,
Secondly, not only doth he call upon these creatures, but
also he calls upon the deeps and the seas to
praise God; these two things are hard to be conceived. But to
give you some reasons.
The first reason may be this, why David calls upon the
unreasonable creatures to perform this duty,—He doth his
duty like a faithful preacher, whether they will hear or no
that he preaches to, yet he will discharge his soul: a true
preacher, he speaks forth the truth, and calls upon them to
hear, though his auditors sleep, are careless, and regard it
not. So likewise doth David, in this sense, with these
creatures; he doth his duty, and calls upon them to do it,
though they understand not, though they comprehend it not. And
likewise he doth it to show his vehement desire for all
creatures to praise God.
The second reason may be this: he doth it craftily, by
way of policy, to incite others to perform this duty, that if
such creatures as they ought to do this, then those that are
above them in degree have more cause, and may be ashamed to
neglect it; as an ill governed master, though he stay himself at
home, yet he will send his servants to church: so David, being
conscious of his own neglect, yet he calls upon others not to be
slack and negligent: though he came infinitely short of that he
should do, yet he shows his own desire for all creatures to
perform this duty.
But if these reasons will not satisfy you, though they have
done many others, a third reason may be this: to set forth
the sweet harmony that is among all God's creatures; to show
how that all the creatures being God's family, do with one
consent speak and preach aloud God's praise; and therefore he
calls upon some above him, some below him, on both sides,
everywhere, to speak God's praise; for every one in their place,
degree, and calling, show forth, though it be in a dumb sense
and way, their Creator's praise.
Or, fourthly and lastly, which I think to be a good reason: zeal
makes men speak and utter things impossible; the fire of
zeal will so transport him that it will make him speak things
unreasonable, impossible, as Moses in his zeal desired God, for
the safety of Israel, "to blot his name out of his
book"; and Paul wished himself "anathema",
accursed or separate from Christ, for his brethren's salvation,
which was a thing impossible, it could not be.—John Everard,
in "Some Gospel Treasures," 1653.
Verses 7-10. The ox and the ass acknowledge their
master. The winds and the sea obey him. It should seem that as
there is a religion above man, the religion of angels, so there
may be a religion beneath man, the religion of dumb creatures.
For wheresoever there is a service of God, in effect it is a
religion. Thus according to the several degrees and difference
of states—the state of nature, grace, and glory—religion may
likewise admit of degrees.—G.G., in a sermon entitled
"The Creatures Praysing God," 1662.
Verse 8. This verse arrays in striking order three
elements that are ever full of movement and power—ignea,
aquea, aërea; fire (or caloric), water (or vapour), and air
(or wind). The first includes meteors, lightnings and thunders;
the second, snow, hoar frost, dew, mist and rain; the third,
breezes, tempests and hurricanes.—Hermann Venema.
Verse 8. Fire and hail. These are contrasted
with one another. Snow and mist. The mist is the vapour
raised by the heat of the sun, and therefore suitably contrasted
with the snow, which is the effect of cold. "Stormy
wind" (Ps 107:25), which accompanies the changes of
temperature in the air.—James G. Murphy.
Verse 8. Snow. As sure as every falling flake
of winter's snow has a part in the great economy of nature, so
surely has every Word of God which falls within the sanctuary
its end to accomplish in the moral sphere. I have stood on a
winter day and seen the tiny flakes in little clouds lose
themselves one by one in the rushing river. They seemed to die
to no purpose—to be swallowed up by an enemy which ignored
both their power and their existence. And so have I seen the
Word of God fall upon human hearts. Sent of God, from day to day
and from year to year, I have seen it dropping apparently all
lack of results into the fierce current of unbelief—into the
fiercer gulf stream of worldliness which was sweeping through
the minds and the lives of the hearers. But as I stood upon the
river's bank and looked upon what seemed to be the death of the
little fluttering crystal, a second thought assured me that it
was but death into life, and that every tiny flake which wept
its live away in the rushing waters, became incorporate with the
river's being. So when I have seen the Word of God fall
apparently fruitless upon the restless, seething, rushing
current of human life, a recovered faith in the immutable
declaration of God has assured me that what I looked upon was
not a chance or idle death, but rather the falling of the
soldier, after that he had wrought his life force into the
destiny of a nation and into the history of a world. And so it
must ever be. The Word of God ever reaches unto its end.—S.S.
Mitchell, in a Sermon entitled "The Coming of the Snow and
the Coming of the Word," 1884.
Verse 8. The stormy wind is the swift messenger
of God, Ps 147:15. The hurricane fulfils the divine command. See
Mt 8:27. "Even the winds and the sea obey him." The "wind"
is the minister of judgment. See Eze 13:13. The words of this
verse have special use; for men are exceedingly apt to ascribe
the violence of tempests to blind chance.—Martin Geier.
Verse 8. The half learned man is apt to laugh at the
simple faith of the clown or savage, who tells us that rain
comes from God. The former, it seems, has discovered that it is
the product of certain laws of air, water, and electricity. But
truly the peasant is the more enlightened of the two, for he has
discovered the main cause, and the real Actor, while the other
has found only the second cause, and the mere instrument. It is
as if a friend were to send us a gift of ingenious and beautiful
workmanship, and just as our gratitude was beginning to rise to
the donor, some bystanders were to endeavour to damp it all, by
telling us that the gift is the product of certain machinery he
had seen.—James MacCosh, 1811.
Verse 9. Mountains and all hills, etc. The
diversifying of the face of the earth with higher and lower
parts, with mountains, hills, and valleys, and the adorning of
the face thereof with trees of varied sorts, contributes much to
the praise of God.—David Dickson.
Verse 9. Mountains and all hills. What voices
have the hills! How solemn the sounds of the mountains from
their sublime solitudes! The mountains thunder, and the hills
reecho; but they speak peace and send down plenty to the vales
in running rivulets.—Thomas Le Blanc.
Verse 9. Fruitful trees and all cedars. The
praise of God is in the rustling voices of the trees. They
fulfil his purpose in giving fruit to refresh, and shelter and
shadow for a covert, and their murmur is the soft cadence that
chants mercy and grace. In India, the ancients reported that the
trees were worshipped as divine, and death was a penalty awarded
to those who cut them down. In classic mythology the groves were
the homes of gods. Jehovah decreed that an ark of safety for
man, and also a temple for himself, should be constructed of
wood. Thus more than any other created things, the trees of the
wood have redounded to his glory.—Le Blanc.
Verse 9. Fruitful trees. Rather fruit trees;
the fruit bearing tree being representative of one division of
the vegetable world, planted and reared by man; the
"cedars" of the other, which are (Ps 104:16) of God's
own plantation. So in Ps 148:10 we have wild animals and domesticated
animals.—A.S. Aglen.
Verse 9. Trees.
All creatures of the eternal God but man,
In several sorts do glorify his name;
Each tree doth seem ten thousand tongues to have,
With them to laud the Lord omnipotent;
Each leaf that with wind's gentle breath doth wave,
Seems as a tongue to speak to that intent,
In language admirably excellent.
The sundry sorts of fragrant flowers do seem
Sundry discourses God to glorify,
And sweetest volumes may we them esteem;
For all these creatures in their several sort
Praise God, and man unto the same exhort.
—Peter Pett, 1599.
Verse 9. All cedars. Beautiful indeed is the
pine forest in all seasons: in the freshness of spring, when the
gnarled boughs are penetrated and mollified by the soft wind and
the warm sun, and, thrilled with new life, burst out into
fringes and tassels of the richest green, and cones of the most
tender purple; beautiful in the sultry summer, when among its
cool, dim shadows the heated hours all day sing vespers, while
the open landscape is palpitating in the scorching heat;
beautiful in the sadness of autumn, when its unfading verdure
stands out in striking relief amid changing scenes, that have no
sympathy with anything earthly save sorrow and decay, and
directs the thoughts to the imperishableness of the heavenly
Paradise; beautiful exceedingly in the depth of winter, when the
tiers of branches are covered with pure, unsullied wreaths of
snow, sculptured by the wind into curves of exquisite grace. It
is beautiful in calm, when the tree tops scarce whisper to each
other, and the twitter of the golden wren sounds loud in the
expectant hush; it is more than beautiful in storm, when the
wild fingers of the wind play the most mournful music on its
great harp strings, and its full diapason is sublime as the roar
of the ocean on a rock bound shore. I do not wonder that the
northern imagination in heathen times should have invested it
with awe and fear as the favourite haunt of Odin and Thor; or
that, in after times, its long rows of trunks, vanishing in the
dim perspective, should have furnished designs for the aisles of
Christian temples, and the sunset, burning among its fretted
branches, should have suggested the gorgeous painted window of
the cathedral. It looks like a place made for worship, all its
sentiments and associations seem of a sacred and solemn
character. Nature, with folded hands, as Longfellow says, seems
kneeling there in prayer. It certainly reminds us in various
ways of the power, wisdom, and goodness of him who thus spake by
the mouth of his prophet: "I will plant in the wilderness
the cedar, the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree
together: that they may see, and know, and consider, and
understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this,
and the Holy One of Israel hath created it."—Hugh
Macmillan, in "Bible Teachings in Nature," 1867.
Verse 10. Creeping things. In public worship
all should join. The little strings go to make up a concert, as
well as the great.—Thomas Goodwin.
Verse 10. Flying fowl. Thus the air is vocal.
It has a hallelujah of its own. The "flying fowl"
praise him; whether it be "the stork that knoweth her
appointed time" (Jer 8:7), or "the sparrow alone upon
the housetop" (Ps 102:7), or "the raven of the
valley" (Pr 30:17), or the eagle "stirring up her
nest, and fluttering over her young" (De 32:11), or the
turtle making its voice to be heard in the land (So 2:12), or
the dove winging its way to the wilderness (Ps 105:6). This is
creation's harp (truer and sweeter than Memnon's) which each
sunrise awakens, "turning all the air to music."—Horatius
Bonar, in "Earth's Morning; or, Thoughts on Genesis,"
1875.
Verse 11. Kings of the earth, and all people;
princes. As kings and princes are blinded by the dazzling
influence of their station, so as to think the world was made
for them, and to despise God in the pride of their hearts, he
particularly calls them to this duty; and, by mentioning them
first, he reproves their ingratitude in withholding their
tribute of praise when they are under greater obligations than
others. As all men originally stand upon a level as to
condition, the higher persons have risen, and the nearer they
have been brought to God, the more sacredly are they bound to
proclaim his goodness. The more intolerable is the wickedness of
kings and princes who claim exemption from the common rule, when
they ought rather to inculcate it upon others, and lead the way.
He could have addressed his exhortation at once summarily to all
men, as indeed he mentions people in general terms; but
by thrice specifying princes he suggests that they are
slow to discharge the duty, and need to be urged to it.—John
Calvin.
Verse 11. "Kings of the earth";
"judges of the earth"; these are not proud but
humiliating titles; for earthly kings and earthly
judges will not be kings and judges long.
Verse 12. Both young men, and maidens; old men, and
children. The parties are mentioned by couples, being tied
two and two together. "Young men and maidens; old men
and children." And here is a double caveat;
first, against presumption; and secondly, against despair.
First, that the younger sort might desire to praise God, they
are exhorted to address themselves to the service of God, to
remember their Creator in the days of their youth. Secondly, for
aged men, that they might not doubt of the acceptation of their
service, our Prophet exhorts them also. For the first, you know,
David calls upon the sun and the moon to praise God. Should the
sun reply, I will not do it in the morning, or at noon time, but
when I am about to set? or the moon reply, I will not in the
full, but in the wane? or the tree, not in the spring time, or
in the summer, but at the fall of the leaf? So likewise, thou
young man, defer not the time of praising God: take the swing of
thy youth, and do not defer to apply thyself to the service of
God till thy old age; but remember that for all these things
thou shalt come to judgment. He that styles himself by the title
I AM, cares not for I will be, or I have been, but he
that is at this present: take heed, therefore, thou strong and
lusty young man: the Devil that holds thee now will every day
tie a new cord about thee. Consider this, you that are yet
young, whom the morning sun of light adorns with his glorious
rays: everyone doth not live to be old. Let us not procrastinate
in God's service; for the longer we defer to serve God, the
farther God's grace is distant from us, and the dominion of
Satan is more strengthened in our hearts; the more we delay, the
more is our debt, the greater our sin, and the less our grace. I
will commend this lesson unto all. He that doth not repent today
hath a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in. I
shall conclude with a hearty exhortation for us all, of what
sex, age, and degree soever; I could wish that all our lives
might end like this book of Psalms, in blessing and praising
Almighty God.—Thomas Cheshire, in "A Sermon preached,
in Saint Paule's Church," 1641.
Verse 12. Old men. Think not, ye who are now near the end of
life, that your tongues may without blame be silent in the
praises of the Lord, because you are come to those years in
which men say, they "have no pleasure in them." Were
you not frequently praising God when you were children and young
men? Have you less, or have you not greater, reason now to
praise God than in those early days of life? Old men ought to be
better qualified than young persons to show forth the glory both
of the perfections and works of God, because they have enjoyed
more time, and more abundant opportunities than their juniors,
for attaining the knowledge of God, and of those glorious
perfections and works which furnish us with endless materials
for praise. "Days should speak, and the multitude of years
should teach wisdom." The heavens are constantly declaring
"the glory of God, and the firmament showeth forth his
handy work. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night
showeth knowledge." Have you, then, lived twenty thousand
days and twenty thousand nights? What deep impressions ought to
be made upon your spirits, of those wonders which have been
preached in your ears or eyes, ever since you could use your
bodily senses as ministers to your intellectual powers! All the
works of God praise him, by showing forth how wonderful in
power, and goodness, and wisdom, the Creator is. Your tongues
are indeed inexcusable, if they are silent in the praises of him
whose glory is proclaimed by every object above or around them,
and even by every member of their own bodies, and every faculty
of their souls. But old men are doubly inexcusable, if they are
inattentive to those precious instructions which are given them
by all the works of God which they have seen, or of which they
have been informed, every day since the powers of their rational
natures began to operate.
But old men in this highly favoured land have been blessed
with more excellent instructions than those which are given them
by the mountains and fruitful valleys, by the dragons of the
desert or the deep, or by the fowls of heaven, and the beasts of
the earth, or by the sun and stars of heaven. For many more
years than young men or maidens you have been learners, or you
are very blamable if you have not been at the school of Christ.
You were early taught to read the Word of God. In the course of
fifty or sixty years, you have probably heard six thousand
religious discourses from the ministers of Christ, not to
mention other excellent means you have enjoyed for increasing in
the knowledge of God. "For the time", says Paul to the
Hebrew Christians, "ye might have been teachers." May
I not say the same to all aged Christians, who have had the
Bible in their possession, and have enjoyed opportunities of
frequenting the holy assemblies from their earliest days? May it
not be expected that your hearts and your mouths will be filled
with the praises of God, not only as your Maker, but as your
Redeemer? But there are many things more especially relating to
themselves, which should induce the aged to abound in this duty
of praise to God. Consider how long you have lived. Is not every
day of life, and even every hour, and every moment, an
undeserved mercy? You might have been cut off from the breast
and the womb, for you were conceived in iniquity and born in
sin. How many of your race have been cut off before they could
distinguish between their right hand and their left, before they
could do good or evil! Since you were moral agents, not a day
has passed in which you were not chargeable with many sins. What
riches of long suffering is manifested in a life of sixty or
seventy years! If you have lived in a state of sin all that
time, have you not reason to be astonished, that you are not
already in a condition which would for ever render it impossible
for you to utter the voice of praise? Give glory, therefore, to
that God who has still preserved you alive.
Consider with what mercies your days have been filled up.
God's mercies have been new to you every morning, although every
day you have sinned against him. Reflections on your own conduct
through life will suggest to you many reasons for praise and
thanksgiving. But on this part of the subject it is proper to
put you in mind of the two great classes into which men are
divided: saints and sinners. If you belong to the former class,
who is it that has made you to differ from others? Give thanks
to him who delivered you from the power of darkness and
translated you into the kingdom of his dear Son. Have you been
enabled to do some good works in the course of your lives? For
every one of them bless God, who wrought "in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure." Have any of your
endeavours been successful to bring about the reformation of any
of your fellow men, or to promote their spiritual welfare? What
sufficient thanks can you render to God for making you the
humble ministers of his grace? But there are too many of the old
who have no reason to think that they have yet passed from death
to life. These, certainly, are very unfit to praise God, and
will not be able to praise him with their hearts, unless that
change pass upon them, without which no man shall ever enter
into the kingdom of heaven. Yet, surely, they have great reason
to praise the Lord; and they may see good reason for it,
although they cannot carry their knowledge into practice. You
have, indeed, greater reason to praise God that you are in the
land of the living, than those who are in a better state;
because, if you were deprived of your present life, nothing is
left for you but the terrors of eternal death. Bless God, ye who
have lived fifty or sixty years in sin, and have been all along
spared in a world so full of mercy. You are still called by the
gospel to receive that salvation which you have long treated
with contempt.—Condensed from a Sermon by George Lawson
(1749-1820), entitled, "The Duty of the Old to praise
God."
Verse 12. Old men and children. It is
interesting always to see a friendship between the old and the
young. It is striking to see the aged one retaining so much of
freshness and simplicity as not to repel the sympathies of
boyhood. It is surprising to see the younger one so advanced and
thoughtful, as not to find dull the society of one who has
outlived excitability and passion.—Frederick William
Robertson.
Verses 12-13. The Psalms are church songs, and all who
belong to the church are to sing them. Both young men, and
maidens; old men, and children; let them praise the name of the
LORD. The ripe believer who can triumph in the steadfast
hope of God's glory, is to lend his voice to swell the song of
the church when she cries to God out of the depths; and the
penitent, who is still sitting in darkness, is not to refrain
his voice when the church pours out in song her sense of God's
love. The whole church has fellowship in the Psalms.—William
Binnie, in "The Psalms, their History, Teachings, and
Use," 1870.
Verses 12-13. Old men...Let them praise the name of
the LORD. It is a favourite speculation of mine that if
spared to sixty we then enter on the seventh decade of human
life, and that this, if possible, should be turned into the
Sabbath of our earthly pilgrimage and spent sabbatically, as if
on the shores of an eternal world, or in the outer courts, as it
were, of the temple that is above, the tabernacle in heaven.—Thomas
Chalmers.
Verse 13. Let them praise. Exactly as at the
close of the first great division of the anthem (Ps 148:5), and,
in the same way as there, the reason for the exhortation follows
in the next clause. But it is a different reason. It is no
longer because he has given them a decree, bound them as
passive, unconscious creatures by a law which they cannot
transgress. (It is the fearful mystery of the reasonable will
that it can transgress the law.) It is because his name is
exalted, so that the eyes of men can see, and the hearts and
tongues of men confess it; it is because he has graciously
revealed himself to, and mightily succoured, the people whom he
loves, the nation who are near to him. If it be said that what
was designed to be a Universal Anthem is thus narrowed at its
close, it must be remembered that, however largely the glory of
God was written on the visible creation, it was only to the Jew
that any direct revelation of his character had been made.—J.J.
Stewart Perowne.
Verse 13. The name of Jehovah. Jehovah is a
name of great power and efficacy, a name that hath in it five
vowels, without which no language can be expressed; a name that
hath in it also three syllables, to signify the Trinity of
Persons, the eternity of God, One in Three, and Three in One; a
name of such dread and reverence amongst the Jews, that they
tremble to name it, and therefore they use the name Adonai
(Lord) in all their devotions. And thus ought every one to stand
in awe, and sin not by taking the name of God in vain; but to
sing praises, to honour, to remember, to declare, to exalt, and
bless it; for holy and reverend, only worthy and excellent is
his name.—Rayment, 1630.
Verse 14. His people, the praise of all his saints.
But among all, one class in particular is called on to praise
him, for they have an additional motive for so doing, namely, "his
people", and "his saints." As man
above all the creatures, so among men his elect or chosen, who
are the objects of his special grace, and, above all, of his
redeeming love. He also exalteth the horn of his people—exalts
them, one and all, from the death of sin to the life of
righteousness, and consequent on this, from the dust of earth to
the glory of heaven. "The praise of all his
saints"; and, yet again, among them, of one people in
particular—"even of the children of Israel, a people
near unto him." "Near to him" of old, and yet
again to be—yea, nearest of all the peoples of the
earth—when he recalls them from their dispersion, and again
places his name and his throne among them. HALLELUJAH—PRAISE
YE THE LORD.—William De Burgh.
Verse 14. A people near unto him. Jesus took
our nature, and became one with us; thus he is "near"
unto us; he gives us his Holy Spirit, brings us into union with
himself, and thus we are near to him. This is our highest honour,
an unfailing source of happiness and peace. We are near to him
in point of relation, being his children; near to him in point
of affection, being loved with an everlasting love; we
are near to him in point of union, being members of his
body, of his flesh, and of his bones; we are near to him in
point of fellowship, walking with him as a man walketh
with his friend; we are near to him in point of attention,
being the objects of his daily, hourly, tender care; we shall
soon be near to him in point of locality, when our
mansion is prepared, for we shall depart to be with Christ,
which is far better. We are near to him when poor, and when
deeply tried; and if ever nearer at one time than another, we
shall be nearest to him in death. If we are near unto him, he
will sympathize with us in all our sorrows, assist us in all our
trials, protect us in all our dangers, hold intercourse with us
in all our lonely hours, provide for us in all seasons of
necessity, and honourably introduce us to glory. Let us realize
this fact daily—we are near and dear to our God.—James
Smith.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Whole Psalm.
1. What is implied in the invitation to the natural creation
to praise God.
a) That praise is due to God on its account.
b) That it is due from those for whose benefit it was
created.
c) That it is a reproof to those who do not praise God who
are actually capable of it. "If these should hold their
peace, the stones would immediately cry out."
2. What is implied in the invitation to innocent beings to
praise God. "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise ye
him all his angels, praise ye him all his hosts": Ps
148:1-2.
a) That they owe their creation in innocence to God.
b) That they owe their preservation in innocence to him.
c) That they owe the reward of their innocence to him.
3. What is implied in the invitation to fallen beings to
praise God: "Kings of the earth and all people", etc.:
Ps 148:11-13.
a) That God is merciful and ready to forgive. "Not
willing that any should perish", etc. They would not be
called upon to praise God if they were irrecoverably lost. Our
Lord would not when on earth accept praise from an evil spirit.
b) That means of restoration from the fall are provided by
God for men. Without this they would have no hope, and could
offer no praise.
4. What is implied in the invitation to the redeemed to
praise God: Ps 148:14.
a) That God is their God.
b) That all his perfections are engaged for their present and
eternal welfare.—G.R.
Verse 1. Praise ye the Lord.
1. The Voice—of Scripture, of nature, of grace, of duty.
2. The Ear on which it rightly falls—of saints and sinners,
old and young, healthy and sick. It falls on our ear.
3. The Time when it is heard. Now, ever, yet also at special
times.
4. The Response which we will give. Let us now praise with
heart, life, lip.
Verse 1. (second and third clauses).
1. The character of the praises of heaven.
2. How far they influence us who are here below.
3. The hope which we have of uniting in them.
Verse 2.
1. The angels as praiseful servants.
2. The other hosts of God, and how they praise him.
3. The rule without exception: "all—all."
Imagine one heavenly being living without praising the Lord!
Verse 3.
1. God's praise continual both day and night.
2. Light the leading fountain of this praise.
3. Life behind all, calling for the praise.
Verses 5-6. Creation and conservation, two chief
reasons for praise.
Verse 7. God's praise from dark, deep, and mysterious
things.
Verse 8. Canon Liddon preached in St. Paul's on Sunday
afternoon, December 23, 1883, and took for his text Ps 148:8, Wind
and storm fulfilling his word. He spoke of the divine use of
destructive forces.
1. In the physical world we see wind and storm fulfilling
God's word.
a) The Bible occasionally lifts the veil, and shows us how
destructive forces of Nature have been the servants of God.
b) Modern history illustrates this vividly.
2. In the human, spiritual, and moral world, we find new and
rich application of the words of the text.
a) In the State we see the storm of invasion and the storm of
revolution fulfilling God's word.
b) In the Church we see the storm of persecution and the
storm of controversy fulfilling God's word.
c) In the experience of individual life we see outward
troubles, and inward storms of religious doubts fulfilling God's
word.—The Contemporary Pulpit, 1884.
Verse 9. Trees. The glory of God as seen in
trees.
Verse 10. The wildest, the quietest, the most
depressed, and the most aspiring should each have its song.
Verses 11-18.
1. The universal King. Alone in excelling. Supreme in glory.
2. The universal summons. Of all nations, ranks, classes and
ages. Foreshadowing the Judgment.
3. The universal duty: praise,—constant, emphatic,
growing.—W.B.H.
Verse 12. God to be served by strength and beauty,
experience and expectation.
Verse 12. And children. A Children's Address.
1. Where the children are found (Ps 148:11-12). In royal and
distinguished society: yet not lost or overlooked.
2. What they are called to. "Praise the Lord." Even
they have abundant reason.
3. What are the lessons of the subject?
a) Children should come up with their parents on the Sabbath.
b) Children should unite in heart and voice in God's praises.
c) Children should seek fitness for this praise by believing in
Christ.—W.B.H.
Verse 14. The Favoured People and their God.
1. What he does for them.
2. What he makes them: "Saints."
3. Who they are: "Children of Israel."
4. Where they are: "Near unto him."
5. What they do for him: "Praise ye the Lord."