148:1 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the
heights!
148:2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host!
148:3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars!
148:4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
148:5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.
148:6 He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be
passed.
148:7 Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps,
148:8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command!
148:9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!
148:10 Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!
148:11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!
148:12 Young men and women alike, old and young together!
148:13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his glory
is above earth and heaven.
148:14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the
people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the LORD!
The whole creation including the sun, moon, stars and
even creeping things all sing praise to God. Even the rocks and tree,
everything sings praises to God, who we as Christians know, raised the
crucified one from the dead. All are saved. Salvation is universal.
Sam Platts
For this psalmist, everything in the universe is under God's care and command. The purpose of all creation is to praise God, for God is the great creator of all.
Curious how even the creatures of that historically chaotic "sea" are commissioned to praise the God who both creates the waters (historic metaphore for chaos)AND who brings sense and order to the chaos (...in the case of Revelation 21 the waters are done away with).
Do you think there's room here to claim the 'already' of the psalmist's praises from the deeps even as the 'not yet' of the Revelation's suggestion that the chaos has still got some reforming before the praises have outsung the fears.
Perry in Kitchener/Waterloo
In a not too long ago advertisement about margerine, when discovering that it wasn't butter, a crowed figure in the advertisement proclaimed, "It is not nice to fool mother nature." and then cause thunder to roar.
Recently in Itica Illinois, when members of his congregation asked why God had allowed the tornado to devastate their community, the cleric suggested that it was a trick of mother nature (I hope I'm no misquoting him.)
In this Psalm, there is the praise of God by all aspect of nature. Not knowing the theology of the original maker or makers of this psalm, is there a suggestion that "mother nature" is subject to Yahweh? Just a thoughtful
election for this festival of the Christian Home Sunday (United Methodist) and the honoring of motherhood throughout our country.
Shalom
Bammamma
In this Psalm, we can catch the excitement of the call to worship God. Notice the cinematic movement, how it starts from the heavens and panning downward to earth and all the creation + creature on earth.
Then suddenly in v.14 the author introduced the cause for the call of praises: "a horn for his people" (the Messiah?), His faithfulness, and the people (of Israel = of God?) who are close to Him.
It's a glorious vision worth living and dying for.
Coho, Midway City.
