Psalm 148:7

Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Earth·—The invocation now passes downwards, and the first sound of terrestrial praise is to come, according to the order of Creation in Genesis 1, from the sea-monsters (for which see Note, Psalm 74:13; Psalm 91:13), the “deeps” being added to include all great waters in which such creatures are found.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 148:7. Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps — “From heaven above the psalmist descends to the deep beneath, which, while it proclaims the power, observes the laws and decrees of him who made it, and poured it abroad. And the same may be said of its enormous inhabitants, which are under the command of Jehovah, and of none but him.” By dragons here, we may either understand serpents, which abide in the deep caverns or holes of the earth; or, rather, whales, crocodiles, and other sea monsters, which dwell in the depths of the sea, or of rivers, and are often intended by the word תנינים, here rendered dragons.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

148:7-14 Even in this world, dark and bad as it is, God is praised. The powers of nature, be they ever so strong, so stormy, do what God appoints them, and no more. Those that rebel against God's word, show themselves to be more violent than even the stormy winds, yet they fulfil it. View the surface of the earth, mountains and all hills; from the barren tops of some, and the fruitful tops of others, we may fetch matter for praise. And assuredly creatures which have the powers of reason, ought to employ themselves in praising God. Let all manner of persons praise God. Those of every rank, high and low. Let us show that we are his saints by praising his name continually. He is not only our Creator, but our Redeemer; who made us a people near unto him. We may by the Horn of his people understand Christ, whom God has exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, who is indeed the defence and the praise of all his saints, and will be so for ever. In redemption, that unspeakable glory is displayed, which forms the source of all our hopes and joys. May the Lord pardon us, and teach our hearts to love him more and praise him better.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Praise the Lord from the earth - From among those who dwell on the earth. In respect to terrestrial objects, let these also unite in the praise of God.

Ye dragons - On the meaning of this word, see Psalm 91:13, note; Isaiah 13:22, note. The word may mean a great fish, a whale, a sea monster, or a serpent. It would seem to refer here to whales and sea monsters. See the notes at Revelation 12:3.

And all deeps - All that are in the depths of the sea. Not merely the "dragons" or sea monsters, but all that inhabit the oceans.

Psalm 148:7-12.(Compare 1 Chronicles 16:31; Habakkuk 3:10-11.)

The cedars of Lebanon - (note, Isaiah 10:34). The cedars of Lebanon were much celebrated for building; and it is not impossible that the king of Babylon had obtained timber from that mountain with which to construct his palaces at Babylon. They are now represented as rejoicing that he is fallen, since they would be safe and undisturbed. A similar figure of speech occurs in Virgil, "Ecl." v. 68:

Peace, peace, mild Daphnis loves; with joyous cry.

continued...

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7-10. The call on the earth, as opposed to heaven, includes seas or depths, whose inhabitants the dragon, as one of the largest (on leviathan, see on [636]Ps 104:26), is selected to represent. The most destructive and ungovernable agents of inanimate nature are introduced.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Either,

1. Dragons and serpents, which abide in the deep caverns and holes of the earth; or,

2. Whales or other sea-monsters, which dwell in the depths of the sea, which are oft called by this name, as Job 7:12 Ezekiel 29:3, and elsewhere, as the word here rendered

deeps is most commonly used concerning the sea.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Praise the Lord from the earth,.... Let his praise resound from all creatures on earth, and reach him in the highest heavens; this phrase comprehends all terrestrial beings afterwards particularly mentioned; all in the terraqueous globe, all that arise from it, are upon it, or within it;

ye dragons, and all deeps; either land dragons, or rather sea dragons, the water or sea being the proper place of them, Psalm 44:19; these, as cruel, as poisonous, and pernicious as they are, are made to honour and praise the Lord, Isaiah 43:20; and such as are mystically signified by, them, as Satan, tyrannical and persecuting princes, and antichristian ones, as Pharaoh king of Egypt, Rome Pagan and Papal; out of whom the Lord has or will get himself praise in the deliverance of his people from them, and in the destruction of them, and in the confessions they have been obliged to make of him, Revelation 12:3; these seem to be set in contrast with the angels. The word is used for the great whales the Lord made, which are thought to be the same with the "leviathan" of Job; of whom so many things are said, which declare the power and wisdom of God in the formation of it, Genesis 1:21, &c. and these may be put for the innumerable creatures in the sea, which in their way show forth the praise and glory of God, Psalm 102:24; as "all deeps" do, deep waters, especially the depths of the sea, and the inhabitants of them; where the wonders of God are to be seen, and give occasion to those that go down to the sea in ships to praise his name, Psalm 107:23.

Geneva Study Bible

Praise the LORD from the earth, ye {e} dragons, and all deeps:

(e) Meaning the great and monstrous fishes, as whales and such like.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. dragons, and all deeps] The sea-monsters of Genesis 1:21, and the depths of ocean which they were supposed to inhabit[90].

[90] Robertson Smith (Rel. of the Semites, p. 161) suggests that the tannîn is a personification of the waterspout.

7–13. Let earth and all that is therein praise Jehovah for the revelation of His majesty.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Praise the Lord from the earth. The counterpart of the clause in ver. 1, "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens." Earth must join with heaven in the praise of God. Ye dragons; or, "ye sea-monsters" (comp. Psalm 74:13, where the same word is used). Hengstenberg translates by "whales;" but all the greater sea-animals are probably included. And all deeps. The extreme "ocean depths" are meant - "lower deeps," in certain parts of what was commonly known as "the great deep" (Psalm 36:6). Psalm 148:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The call to the praise of Jahve is now turned, in the second group of verses, to the earth and everything belonging to it in the widest extent. Here too מן־הארץ, like מן־השּׁמים, Psalm 148:1, is intended of the place whence the praise is to resound, and not according to Psalm 10:18 of earthly beings. The call is addressed in the first instance to the sea-monsters or dragons (Psalm 74:13), i.e., as Pindar (Nem. iii. 23f.) expresses it, θῆρας ἐν πελάγεΐ ὑπερο'χους, and to the surging mass of waters (תּהמות) above and within the earth. Then to four phenomena of nature, coming down from heaven and ascending heavenwards, which are so arranged in Psalm 148:8, after the model of the chiasmus (crosswise position), that fire and smoke (קטור), more especially of the mountains (Exodus 19:18), hail and snow stand in reciprocal relation; and to the storm-wind (רוּח סערה, an appositional construction, as in Psalm 107:25), which, beside a seeming freeness and untractableness, performs God's word. What is said of this last applies also to the fire, etc.; all these phenomena of nature are messengers and servants of God, Psalm 104:4, cf. Psalm 103:20. When the poet wishes that they all may join in concert with the rest of the creatures to the praise of God, he excepts the fact that they frequently become destructive powers executing judicial punishment, and only has before his mind their (more especially to the inhabitant of Palestine, to whom the opportunity of seeing hail, snow, and ice was more rare than with us, imposing) grandeur and their relatedness to the whole of creation, which is destined to glorify God and to be itself glorified. He next passes over to the mountains towering towards the skies and to all the heights of earth; to the fruit-trees, and to the cedars, the kings among the trees of the forest; to the wild beasts, which are called חחיּה because they represent the most active and powerful life in the animal world, and to all quadrupeds, which, more particularly the four-footed domestic animals, are called בּהמה; to the creeping things (רמשׂ) which cleave to the ground as they move along; and to the birds, which are named with the descriptive epithet winged (צפּור כּנף as in Deuteronomy 4:17, cf. Genesis 7:14; Ezekiel 39:17, instead of עוף כּנף, Genesis 1:21). And just as the call in Psalm 103 finds its centre of gravity, so to speak, at last in the soul of man, so here it is addressed finally to humanity, and that, because mankind lives in nations and is comprehended under the law of a state commonwealth, in the first instance to its heads: the kings of the earth, i.e., those who rule over the earth by countries, to the princes and all who have the administration of justice and are possessed of supreme power on the earth, then to men of both sexes and of every age.

All the beings mentioned from Psalm 148:1 onwards are to praise the Name of Jahve; for His Name, He (the God of this Name) alone (Isaiah 2:11; Psalm 72:18) is נשׂגּב, so high that no name reaches up to Him, not even from afar; His glory (His glorious self-attestation) extends over earth and heaven (vid., Psalm 8:2). כּי, without our being able and obliged to decide which, introduces the matter and the ground of the praise; and the fact that the desire of the poet comprehends in יהללוּ all the beings mentioned is seen from his saying "earth and heaven," as he glances back from the nearer things mentioned to those mentioned farther off (cf. Genesis 2:4). In Psalm 148:14 the statement of the object and of the ground of the praise is continued. The motive from which the call to all creatures to Hallelujah proceeds, viz., the new mercy which God has shown towards His people, is also the final ground of the Hallelujah which is to sound forth; for the church of God on earth is the central-point of the universe, the aim of the history of the world, and the glorifying of this church is the turning-point for the transformation of the world. It is not to be rendered: He hath exalted the horn of His people, any more than in Psalm 132:17 : I will make the horn of David to shoot forth. The horn in both instances is one such as the person named does not already possess, but which is given him (different from Psalm 89:18, Psalm 89:25; Psalm 92:11, and frequently). The Israel of the Exile had lost its horn, i.e., its comeliness and its defensive and offensive power. God has now given it a horn again, and that a high one, i.e., has helped Israel to attain again an independence among the nations that commands respect. In Psalm 132, where the horn is an object of the promise, we might directly understand by it the Branch (Zemach). Here, where the poet speaks out of his own present age, this is at least not the meaning which he associates with the words. What now follows is an apposition to ויּרם קרן לעמּו: He has raised up a horn for His people - praise (we say: to the praise of; cf. the New Testament εἰς ἔπαινον) to all His saints, the children of Israel, the people who stand near Him. Others, as Hengstenberg, take תּהלּה as a second object, but we cannot say הרים תּהלּה. Israel is called עם קרבו, the people of His near equals of His nearness or vicinity (Kster), as Jerusalem is called in Ecclesiastes 8:10 מקום קדושׁ instead of קדשׁ מקום (Ew. 287, a, b). It might also be said, according to Leviticus 10:3, עם קרביו, the nation of those who are near to Him (as the Targum renders it). In both instances עם is the governing noun, as, too, surely גּבר is in גּבר עמיתי ni, Zechariah 13:7, which need not signify, by going back to the abstract primary signification of עמית, a man of my near fellowship, but can also signify a man of my neighbour, i.e., my nearest man, according to Ew. loc. cit. (cf. above on Psalm 145:10). As a rule, the principal form of עם is pointed עם; and it is all the more unnecessary, with Olshausen and Hupfeld, to take the construction as adjectival for עם קרוב לו. It might, with Hitzig after Aben-Ezra, be more readily regarded as appositional (to a people, His near, i.e., standing near to Him). We have here an example of the genitival subordination, which is very extensive in Hebrew, instead of an appositional co-ordination: populo propinqui sui, in connection with which propinqui may be referred back to propinquum equals propinquitas, but also to propinquus (literally: a people of the kind of one that is near to Him). Thus is Israel styled in Deuteronomy 4:7. In the consciousness of the dignity which lies in this name, the nation of the God of the history of salvation comes forward in this Psalm as the leader (choragus) of all creatures, and strikes up a Hallelujah that is to be followed by heaven and earth.