Psalm CXLVIII
Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise 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 nuule a decree
which shall not pass.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word: y Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars:
10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:
1 1 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 cxaltcth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; Even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him.
Praise yc the Lord.
Ff
450 PSALM cxLviii. — Israel’s adoration of him who has
itffpsai”^’ Apociypha has borrowed from this Psahn the supposed The tone and ^°^S f the three Hebrew youths in the fiery furnace. It is plan, Israel’s uncontrollable burst of praise at the thought of him
who makes them “a people near to him;” a priestly people (see Levit. x. 3; Ezek. lxii. 13; Deut. iv. 7; and Num. xvi. 5-9). How they rejoice before him in the latter day; restored from their wanderings! One great deed of a benefactor excites us to draw the attention of others to him, and inclines us to dwell upon all that is in him; and so it is here with Israel in this “Hallelujah.” They call for praise “from the heavens;” they bid those “in the heights” give praise; “all angels,” of whatever rank, “all his hosts,” with one accord. Sun at noon, moon at midnight, stars so bright (the visible host of the sky, as the angels are the invisible), “heaven of heavens,” where is the orbit of the planet and the path of the comet, and the track of every star; “waters above the heaven,” or firmament,* the clouds of the sky — unite ye in one song of praise! Do ye wonder at this summons? Why should ye? (Gen. i 7.)
“For he commanded and they were created,^’ —
Yes, even angels; for, as Augustine says, in Psa. lxxi. 1 9, “Ne putes hominem solum pertinere ad gratiam Dei. Quid erat Angelus antequam fieret? Quid est angelus, si deserat qui creavit?” Again, then, he takes up the call — and now it is as if one from heaven looked down to earth and summoned it to praise, as before it was one on earth looking upward to heaven. “Praise ye Jehovah /rom the earth!” Ye sea-monsters, ox great ivhales (Gen. i. 21), and ye floods wherein they swim; heat and cold, white snow and dark smoke (Gen. xix. 20; Psa. cxix. 83, Hengstenberg); strong wind that, amid apparent anarchy, dost his will; mountaAns, and more lowly hills, diversifying the face of earth; ye palms and pomegranates, fruit-trees, ye firs and pines, “cedars of every kind;” wild beasts and tame; reptiles ^wdfoiuls of every wing, whether small as the wren, or majestic as the eagle — unite in one song of praise! All the more because ye, too, shall be delivered
1- Th
third heaven
lis is the /?)•.«< Aeai’ejis, the sky; lq frcoiid is that just mentioned; the :avens was called upon in verses 1, 2.
from the bondage of corruption, and have your share in the millennial liberty of the sons of God, (Rom. viii, 2 1 ).
As in creation, so here, man appears on the scene last of all, just because chief of all.
“Kings of earth, mid all ye tribes,
Princes, and all earth’s judges.’”
Young men, who are in your strength; maide?is in your beauty; old men, with lips of age dropping wisdom; children, who can only lisp his name — all of you join, for there is no name exalted but his alone. “His beauty is over earth and heaven” — his beauty (lin, Psa. cxlv. 5), his splendour, sheds its beams now over the earth as well as heaven. For the times of refreshing are come.
And of all men, none should so extol him as his peculiar people Israel. For,
“HeTiatli raised up a horn for his people.” He has fulfilled the words of Zechariah, (Luke i. 69). Messiah has come; Messiah, with all the blessings purchased at his first coming, is now made known to Israel, and has pushed Israel’s enemies off the field. And he who is this horn is “the theme of praise” to the peculiar people, and to all saints besides, wherever found, though none have more reason than Israel to adore and love him who saves the chief of sinners, and in sovereignty exalts the stiffnecked people to pre-eminence among the nations, making them a people ii’lp “His intimate friend,’” as Psa. xxxviii. 12; lxxv. 2; Job xix. 14.
“The theme of praise (as Dent. x. 21,’T[/l’j)nri KIH) ‘« all his saints. To the children of Israd, a people near to him /”’ “Hallelujah I”
Surely the “great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Hallelujah!” (Rev. xix. ]) will present an appropriate response to the call in verses 1-6. And not less does their summons to men on earth (Rev. xix. 5, 6) accord with the call in verses 7-13. Indeed, there is the very tone and energy of heaven in this glorious burst of praise —
Israel’s rapturous hurst of ad oration to Him upho makes them a people near to him.