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.

Hints to Preachers

Whole Psalm. -

I. What is implied in the invitation to the natural creation to praise God.

1. That praise is due to God on its account.

2. That it is due from those for whose benefit it was created.

3. 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."

II. 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:" Psalm 148:1, 19 148:2.--

1. That they owe their creation in innocence to God.

2. That they owe their preservation in innocence to him.

3. That they owe the reward of their innocence to him.

III. What is implied in the invitation to fallen beings to praise God: "Kings of the earth and all people," etc.: Psalm 148:11-13. -

1. 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.

2. 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.

IV. What is implied in the invitation to the redeemed to praise God: Psalm 148:14. -

1. That God is their God.

2. That all his perfections are engaged for their present and eternal welfare. - G. R.

Psalm 148:1. - "Praise ye the Lord."

I. The Voice - of Scripture of nature, of grace, of duty.

II. The Ear on which it rightly falls - of saints and sinners, old and young, healthy and sick. It falls on our ear.

III. The Time when it is heard. Now, ever, yet also at special times.

IV. The Response which we will give. Let us now praise with heart, life, lip.

Psalm 148:1 (second and third clauses). -

I. The character of the praises of heaven.

II. How far they influence us who are here below.

III. The hope which we have of uniting in them.

Psalm 148:2. -

I. The angels as praiseful servants.

II. The other hosts of God, and how they praise him.

III. The rule without exception: "all - all." Imagine one heavenly being living without praising the Lord!

Psalm 148:3. -

I. God's praise continual both day and night.

II. Light the leading fountain of this praise.

III. Life behind all, calling for the praise.

Psalm 148:5, Psalm 148:6. - Creation and conversation, two chief reasons for praise.

Psalm 148:7. - God's praise from dark, deep, and mysterious things.

Psalm 148:8. - Canon Liddon preached in St. Paul's on Sunday afternoon, December 23, 1883, and took for his text Psalm 148:8, "Wind and storm fulfilling his word." He spoke of the divine use of destructive forces.

I. In the physical world we see wind and storm fulfilling God's word.

1. The Bible occasionally lifts the veil, and shows us how destructive forces of Nature have been the servants of God.

2. Modern history illustrates this vividly.

II. In the human, spiritual, and moral world, we find new and rich application of the words of the text.

1. In the State we see the storm of invasion and the storm of revolution fulfilling God's word.

2. In the Church we see the storm of persecution and the storm of controversy fulfilling God's word.

3. In the experience of individual life we see outward troubles, and inward storms of religious doubts fulfilling God's word. - The Contemporary Pulpit, 1884.

Psalm 148:9. - "Trees." The glory of God as seen in trees.

Psalm 148:10. - The wildest, the quietest, the most depressed, and the most aspiring should each have its song.

Psalm 148:11-13. -

I. The universal King. Alone in excelling. Supreme in glory.

II. The universal summons. Of all nations, ranks, classes and ages. Foreshadowing the Judgment.

III. The universal duty: praise, - constant, emphatic, growing. - W. B. H.

Psalm 148:12. - God to be served by strength and beauty, experience and expectation.

Psalm 148:12. - "And children." A Children's Address.

I. Where the children are found (Psalm 148:11 and Psalm 148:12). In royal and distinguished society: yet not lost or overlooked.

II. What they are called to. "Praise the Lord." Even they have abundant reason.

III. What are the lessons of the subject?

1. Children should come up with their parents on the Sabbath.

2. Children should unite in heart and voice in God's praises.

3. Children should seek fitness for this praise by believing in Christ. - W. B. H.

Psalm 148:14. - The Favoured People and their God.

I. What he does for them.

II. What he makes them: "Saints."

III. Who they are: "Children of Israel."

IV. Where they are: "Near unto him."

V. What they do for him: "Praise ye the Lord."

Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings

Psalm 148-150

The last three Psalms are a triad of wondrous praise, ascending from praise to higher praise, 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, "every thing 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 (Romans 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 V., line 153, etc.), 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 shah 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 re-echoed 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 everything 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.

Psalm 148:1

"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.

Psalm 148:1

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.

Psalm 148:1

"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.

Psalm 148:1

"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.

Psalm 148:1

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!"

Psalm 148:2

"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.

Psalm 148:2

"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.

Psalm 148:2

"Praise ye him, all his hosts." That is, his creatures (those above especially which are as his cavalry) called his "hosts," for,

I. Their number;

II. their order;

III. their obedience. - John Trapp.

Psalm 148:3

"Praise ye him, sun and moon," etc. How does the sun specially praise Jehovah?

I. By its beauty. Jesus son of Sirach calls it the "globe of beauty."

II. By its fulness. Dion calls it "the image of the Divine capacity."

III. By its exaltation. Pliny calls it caeli rector, "the ruler of heaven."

IV. By its perfect brightness. Pliny adds that it is "the mind and soul of the whole universe."

V. 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.

Psalm 148:3, Psalm 148:4

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.

Psalm 148:3, Psalm 148:4

Praise him, thou golden-tressd sun;

Praise him, thou fair and silver moon,

And ye bright orbs of streaming light;

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...