Praise the Lord from the heavens and the earth!
[Psalms 148]
During the Wednesday prayer meeting last week, we learned that praising God is good, pleasant and fitting because the Lord is building His church based on the words of Psalm 147 (v. 1). In building the true church, the saints who fear God and seek God's lovingkindness, the Lord (1) gathers the scattered and heals the wounded, (2) sustains the humble, and (3) provides the things we need, (4) protects us, and (5) sends and reveals His word to us. Therefore, we must praise God. We have learned that this is good, pleasant, and fitting in the sight of the Lord.
If we look at Psalms 148:1a, 7a, this is what the Bible says: “Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD from the heavens … Praise the LORD from the earth.” The Bible is saying that everything in the heavens or on the earth should praise God. Here, all things in the heavens (vv. 1-6) refer to “all his angels” and “all his heavenly hosts” (v. 2). In other words, the Bible is saying that all the Lord’s angels in the heavens should praise God. Besides all His angels, the Bible is saying that “sun and moon” and “shining stars” should praise the Lord (v. 3) and “highest heavens” and “waters above the skies” should praise Him (v. 4). Here, “highest heavens” refers to ‘the highest celestial world’ and “waters above the skies” refers to ‘water in the clouds’ (Park). In a word, the Bible is saying that everything in the heavens, all beings in the heavens or in the skies or in the clouds should praise the Lord. We can imagine a little bit of all the angels praising God in heaven. Of course, the angels mentioned here don’t refer to the fallen angels, Satan and his fallen angels. Of course they should also praise the Lord. But these fallen angels will never praise Him because they are against the Lord. All the Lord’s angers and all His heavenly hosts mentioned in verse 2 are the angels without sins and they praise the Lord. When we imagine these angels are absorbed in in this praise, how excited we can be when we think about becoming like angels on the day of Jesus' return, wearing sinless spiritual and glorious bodies and giving praise to the holy God. In prayer and expectation, we are eagerly waiting for that day to come soon. But the hard part we can imagine is that the sun and moon, shining stars, highest heavens and waters above the skies are praising the Lord. Of course, since these are all creatures created by God, they should praise their Creator God. But it is true that I don't understand how these things can praise God. However, the thought that arose in my mind as I was reading Dr. Park's commentary on these verses is that sun, moon, stars and all of them are praising their Creator God through their existence. Of course, this isn’t what we think of praising God with the mouth. We usually use pianos and instruments to open our mouths and sing out our praises to Him. But sun, moon, starts and so on cannot praise like that. Therefore, they praise God, unlike us, the humans. When we think about it from this point of view, I think we can understand the words that the sun, moon, and stars and so on praise God. The important thing is not how to sing, but that everything in the heavens should praise God. Why is that so? What is the reason? Look at verse 5-6: “Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created. He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.” The reason why all things in the heavens should praise God is because God commanded them and they were created by Him. In other words, since God made all the things in the heavens, such as angels, sun, moon, stars, and so on by His Word, and set them in place for ever and ever, they must praise the Lord. The psalmist says that not only must all things in the heavens praise God, but also all things on the earth must praise God (vv. 7-14). He urges great sea creatures and all ocean depths (v. 7), lightening and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds (v. 8), mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars (v. 9), and wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds (v. 10) to praise the Lord. And he urges kings of the earth and all nations, princes and all rulers on earth (v. 11), and young men and maidens, old men and children (v. 12) to praise the Lord. This is to say that all creatures, people and all natural objects on the earth should praise the Lord. Here, the word that all natural objects on the earth should praise the Lord is same as sun, moon, and stars and so on to praise the Lord by just remaining as they are. Because they were created under the sovereignty of Creator God, they are praising the Lord and His greatness by inhabiting on this earth just as they are as God’s creations (Park). It seems like the psalmist is urging every human beings on the earth to praise the Lord since even those creations without reason are praising Him in their own way. (Park Yoon-sun). That is why all the believers or even nonbelievers should praise the Lord (Park). In particular, the psalmist is telling “his people” or “all his saints”, His chosen people who are close to His heart, to praise the Lord (v. 14). What is the reason? The reason is because “He has raised up for his people a horn” (v. 14). In other words, because God has saved all of us, all believers should praise God. We are saints saved by God. We are God's people and children who are close to His heart. We are God's people who have become new creation in Christ Jesus. Therefore, as the saved children of God, we must praise the Lord of salvation.
The psalmist exhorts, “Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens” (v. 13). Everything in the heavens or on the earth must praise Lord’s name. What is the reason? The reason is because His name alone is exalted. This is because His splendor is above the earth and the heavens. Let us all praise the greatness of the Lord.
Wanting to praise the greatness of the Lord as much as possible until my last breath on this earth,
James Kim
(Wishing to sing the praise of His salvation forever)