Psalm 148:1

Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(1) From the heavens . . . in the heights.—Some would render ye of the heavens, but the parallelism is in favour of the Authorised Version. “Heavens” and “heights” in this verse, and “angels” and “hosts” in the next, are analogously parallel. The heights contain the heavens (comp. Job 16:19; Job 25:2), as the hosts embrace the angels or messengers of God (Joshua 5:14); the larger term being in such case placed synthetically last. The prepositions thus keep their full meaning. From the heavens, or from a choir in the heights, comes the burst of angelic praise.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 148:1-2. Praise ye the Lord — Bishop Lowth, speaking of the origin of this divine ode, observes, “that it had its birth from the most pleasing affections of the human soul, joy, love, admiration.” “If we contemplate man,” says he, “newly created, such as the sacred Scriptures exhibit him to us, endued with the perfect power of reason and speech; neither ignorant of himself nor of God; conscious of the divine goodness, majesty, and power; no unworthy spectator of the beautiful fabric of the universe, the earth, and the heavens; can we suppose that, at the sight of all these things, his heart would not so burn within him, that his mind, carried away by the warmth of his affections, would, of its own accord, pour itself forth in the praise of his Creator, and glow into that impetuosity of speech, and that exultation of voice, which almost necessarily follows such emotions of mind. This seems to have been exactly the case with the contemplative author of this beautiful Psalm, wherein all created things are called upon to celebrate together the glory of God. Praise ye the Lord, &c., a hymn which our Milton, by far the most divine of poets, after the sacred ones, hath most elegantly imitated, and very aptly given to Adam in paradise: see Paradise Lost, book 5. ver. 153, &c. Indeed, we can scarcely conceive rightly of that primeval and perfect state of man, unless we allow him some use of poetry, whereby he might worthily express, in hymns and songs, his piety and affection toward God.” See the 25th Prelection. Praise the Lord from the heavens — Let his praises be begun by the host of heaven, which he particularly expresses in the following verses. Praise him in the heights — In those high and heavenly places. Praise ye him, all his angels — He invites the angels here, and inanimate creatures afterward, to praise God, not as if the former needed, or the latter were capable of receiving his exhortation, but only by a poetical figure, the design whereof was, that men, by this means, might be more excited to this duty. Praise him, all his hosts — The angels, as in the former clause, called hosts, here and 1 Kings 22:19, on account of their vast number, excellent order, and perfect subjection to their general the Lord of hosts.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

148:1-6 We, in this dark and sinful world, know little of the heavenly world of light. But we know that there is above us a world of blessed angels. They are always praising God, therefore the psalmist shows his desire that God may be praised in the best manner; also we show that we have communion with spirits above, who are still praising him. The heavens, with all contained in them, declare the glory of God. They call on us, that both by word and deed, we glorify with them the Creator and Redeemer of the universe.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Praise ye the Lord - See the notes at Psalm 146:1.

Praise ye the Lord from the heavens - On the part of the heavens. Let those who dwell in heaven begin the song.

Praise him in the heights - All that are in the heights; to wit, in the highest parts of the universe, or the heavens.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

PSALM 148

Ps 148:1-14. The scope of this Psalm is the same as that of the preceding.

1. heavens [and] heights—are synonymous.

The Treasury of David

1 Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise a him in the heights.

2 Praise ye him, all his angels' praise ye him, all his hosts.

3 Praise ye him, sun and moon - praise him, all ye stars of light.

4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded, and they were created.

6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass.

7 Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps

8 Fire, and haft; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word;

9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars;

10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth,

12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children;

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.

14 He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the Lord.

continued...THE ARGUMENT.

The nature of this Psalm is for substance the same with the former, containing an invitation to all the creatures to praise God for his manifold blessings.

The psalmist exhorteth all celestial and terrestrial creatures, especially man, to praise God for his favour and mercy to his church.

From the heavens; all the host of heaven, which he particularly expresseth in the following verses.

In the heights; in those high and heavenly places.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Praise ye the Lord,.... Or, hallelujah: which, in some versions, and with some interpreters, is the title of the psalm; expressive of the subject matter of it, the praise of the Lord; and is an exhortation of all creatures to it;

praise ye the Lord from the heavens; that is, those that are of the heavens; let their praises of the Lord, of his perfections, works, and benefits, resound from thence; the angels of heaven particularly, who have their habitation and residence there, and sometimes descend from thence on special business, by the order and appointment of their great Creator and Master: so the Targum,

"praise the Lord, ye holy creatures from heaven.''

Though some take the phrase, "from heaven", to be descriptive of the Lord, the object of praise, who is the Lord from heaven; the character of Christ, the second Adam, 1 Corinthians 15:47; who is from above; came down from heaven to do the will of God; and was in heaven, as to his divine Person, while here on earth in human nature, working out the salvation of men; for which he justly deserves the praise of all in heaven and in earth. But as all creatures are distinguished in this psalm into celestial and terrestrial, called upon to praise the Lord; this seems to be the general character of the celestial ones, persons, bodies, and things; as the phrase "from the earth", Psalm 148:7, includes all in the terraqueous globe;

praise him in the heights; either in the highest heavens where he dwells, or with the highest notes of praise that can be raised; see Psalm 149:6. The Targum is,

"praise him, all the hosts of angels on high:''

or the high hosts of angels: but these are particularly mentioned in Psalm 148:2.

Geneva Study Bible

Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. from the heavens] The anthem of praise is to ring out from heaven above, and to be answered from the earth below (Psalm 148:7).

in the heights] Of heaven (Job 16:19; Job 25:2).

1–6. Let the heavens and all that is in them praise Jehovah their Creator.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 1. - Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens; i.e. beginning at the heavens, making them the primary source from which the praises are to be drawn (comp. ver. 7). Praise him in the heights; in excelsis (Vulgate). In the upper tenons, or the most exalted regions of his creation. Psalm 148:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The call does not rise step by step from below upwards, but begins forthwith from above in the highest and outermost spheres of creation. The place whence, before all others, the praise is to resound is the heavens; it is to resound in the heights, viz., the heights of heaven (Job 16:19; Job 25:2; Job 31:2). The מן might, it is true, also denote the birth or origin: ye of the heavens, i.e., ye celestial beings (cf. Psalm 68:27), but the parallel בּמּרומים renders the immediate construction with הללוּ more natural. Psalm 148:2-4 tell who are to praise Jahve there: first of all, all His angels, the messengers of the Ruler of the world - all His host, i.e., angels and stars, for צבאו (Chethמb) or צבאיו (Kerמ as in Psalm 103:21) is the name of the heavenly host armed with light which God Tsebaoth commands (vid., on Genesis 2:1), - a name including both stars (e.g., in Deuteronomy 4:19) and angels (e.g., in Joshua 5:14., 1 Kings 22:19); angels and stars are also united in the Scriptures in other instances (e.g., Job 38:7). When the psalmist calls upon these beings of light to praise Jahve, he does not merely express his delight in that which they do under any circumstances (Hengstenberg), but comprehends the heavenly world with the earthly, the church above with the church here below (vid., on Psalm 29:1-11; Psalm 103), and gives a special turn to the praise of the former, making it into an echo of the praise of the latter, and blending both harmoniously together. The heavens of heavens are, as in Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27, Sir. 16:18, and frequently, those which lie beyond the heavens of the earth which were created on the fourth day, therefore they are the outermost and highest spheres. The waters which are above the heavens are, according to Hupfeld, "a product of the fancy, like the upper heavens and the whole of the inhabitants of heaven." But if in general the other world is not a notion to which there is no corresponding entity, this notion may also have things for its substance which lie beyond our knowledge of nature. The Scriptures, from the first page to the last, acknowledge the existence of celestial waters, to which the rain-waters stand in the relation as it were of a finger-post pointing upwards (see Genesis 1:7). All these beings belonging to the superterrestrial world are to praise the Name of Jahve, for He, the God of Israel, it is by whose fiat (צוּה, like אמר in Psalm 33:9)

(Note: The interpolated parallel member, αὐτὸς εἶπε καὶ ἐγενήθησαν, here in the lxx is taken over from that passage.))

the heavens and all their host are created (Psalm 33:6). He has set them, which did not previously exist, up (העמיד as e.g., in Nehemiah 6:7, the causative to עמד in Psalm 33:9, cf. Psalm 119:91), and that for ever and ever (Psalm 111:8), i.e., in order for ever to maintain the position in the whole of creation which He has assigned to them. He hath given a law (חק) by which its distinctive characteristic is stamped upon each of these heavenly beings, and a fixed bound is set to the nature and activity of each in its mutual relation to all, and not one transgresses (the individualizing singular) this law given to it. Thus ולא יעבר is to be understood, according to Job 14:5, cf. Jeremiah 5:22; Job 38:10; Psalm 104:9. Hitzig makes the Creator Himself the subject; but then the poet would have at least been obliged to say חק־נתן למו, and moreover it may be clearly seen from Jeremiah 31:36; Jeremiah 33:20, how the thought that God inviolably keeps the orders of nature in check is expressed θεοπρεπῶς. Jeremiah 5:22, by way of example, shows that the law itself is not, with Ewald, Maurer, and others, following the lxx, Syriac, Italic, Jerome, and Kimchi, to be made the subject: a law hath He given, and it passes not away (an imperishable one). In combination with חק, עבר always signifies "to pass over, transgress."