7. Praise Jehovah! ye creatures from the earth, [298] dragons, [299] and all deeps.8. Fire and hail, snow and ice, breath of the storm doing his word.9. Mountains, and all hills; fruitful tree, and all cedars.10. Wild beasts, and all cattle; reptile, and winged fowl. 7. Praise Jehovah, etc. He now comes to the lower parts of the world; although deviating at the same time from the exact order, he mixes up such things as are produced in the air -- lightning's, snow, ice, and storms. These should rather have been placed among the former class, but he has respect to the common apprehension of men. The scope of the whole is, that wherever we turn our eyes we meet with evidences of the power of God. He speaks first of the whales; for, as he mentions the abysses or deeps immediately afterwards, I have no doubt that by tnynym, tanninim, he means fishes of the sea, such as whales. It is only reasonable to think that matter for praising God should be taken from the sea, which is fraught with so many wonders. He then ascends to hail, snows, and storms, which he says fulfill the word of God; for it is not by an effect of chance that the heavens are clouded, or that a single drop of rain falls from the clouds, or that the thunders rage, but one and all of these changes depend upon the secret will of God, whether he will show his goodness to the children of men in irrigating the earth, or punish their sins by tempest, hail, or other calamities. The passage contains instruction of various kinds, as, for example, that when dearth impends, however parched the earth may be by long continued heat, God can promptly send rain which will remove the drought at his pleasure. If from incessant rains, on the other hand, the seed rot in the ground, or the crops do not come to maturity, we should pray for fair weather. If we are alarmed by thunder, we are taught to pray to God, for as it is he who sends it in his anger, so he can still all the troubled elements. And we are not to take up the narrow view of this truth which irreligious men advocate, that things in nature merely move according to the laws impressed upon them from the beginning, while God stands by idle, but are to hold firmly that God watches over his creatures, and that nothing can take place without his present disposal, as we have seen, Psalm 104:4 that "he maketh the winds his messengers, Footnotes: [298] "Laudate Iehovam e terra." -- Lat. "Louez le Seigneur, vous creatures de la terre." -- Fr. [299] "Ou, balenes." -- Fr. marg. "Or, whales." |
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