Psalm 148:5

Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 148:5-6. Let them praise the name of the Lord — “Who hath set forth his most transcendent wisdom, power, and magnificence in such a variety of stupendous works, that there is not the smallest of them, but ministers such matter of praise and admiration to those who attentively consider them, that they cannot but wish, with the psalmist here, that every one of them were able to tell us how much skill he hath shown in its contrivance; or that we were able to find it out and comprehend it.” He commanded, and they were created — They owe their existence wholly to his will and pleasure. He hath also established them for ever and ever — To the end of the world. They are, by his superintending and watchful providence, constantly preserved and continued. He made a decree, &c. — “That is, prescribed rules to the heavens, the stars, and other creatures, as to their situation, motion, and influence; which, though inanimate, they never transgress.” — Dodd.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

148:1-6 We, in this dark and sinful world, know little of the heavenly world of light. But we know that there is above us a world of blessed angels. They are always praising God, therefore the psalmist shows his desire that God may be praised in the best manner; also we show that we have communion with spirits above, who are still praising him. The heavens, with all contained in them, declare the glory of God. They call on us, that both by word and deed, we glorify with them the Creator and Redeemer of the universe.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them praise the name of the Lord - That is, Let them praise Yahweh himself - the name being often put for the person or thing referred to.

For he commanded, and they were created - He showed his great power by merely speaking, and they came at once into being. Compare Psalm 33:6, note; Psalm 33:9, note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. praise the name—as representing His perfections.

he commanded—"He" is emphatic, ascribing creation to God alone.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They owe their being wholly to God’s good will.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them praise the name of the Lord,.... Set forth the glory of the nature and perfections of God, and celebrate the praise of them; even all celestial creatures, the angels, the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; the heavens, and the haven of heavens, and the waters above them; and that for the following reasons;

for he commanded, and they were created; they are all his creatures, and therefore should praise him: he is the "Father of spirits", of angelic spirits, as well as the spirits of men; and the "Father of lights", of all the luminaries of the heavens; and he has made the heavens themselves, and all their hosts, and the firmament dividing the waters above and below; and all this by an almighty "fiat", at a word of command; he spoke, and they came into being at once, Hebrews 12:9, James 1:17.

Geneva Study Bible

Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. for HE commanded] HE is emphatically expressed. Cp. Psalm 33:9, whence also comes the addition of the LXX, which is retained in P.B.V., HE spake the word, and they were made.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - Let them praise the Name of the Lord. Frequent changes of person, when no doubt can arise as to the meaning, are a sort of Hebrew idiom. They give liveliness and variety. For he commanded, and they were created (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 15, etc.). All creation sprang into being at the word of God (Psalm 33:8). Psalm 148:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The call does not rise step by step from below upwards, but begins forthwith from above in the highest and outermost spheres of creation. The place whence, before all others, the praise is to resound is the heavens; it is to resound in the heights, viz., the heights of heaven (Job 16:19; Job 25:2; Job 31:2). The מן might, it is true, also denote the birth or origin: ye of the heavens, i.e., ye celestial beings (cf. Psalm 68:27), but the parallel בּמּרומים renders the immediate construction with הללוּ more natural. Psalm 148:2-4 tell who are to praise Jahve there: first of all, all His angels, the messengers of the Ruler of the world - all His host, i.e., angels and stars, for צבאו (Chethמb) or צבאיו (Kerמ as in Psalm 103:21) is the name of the heavenly host armed with light which God Tsebaoth commands (vid., on Genesis 2:1), - a name including both stars (e.g., in Deuteronomy 4:19) and angels (e.g., in Joshua 5:14., 1 Kings 22:19); angels and stars are also united in the Scriptures in other instances (e.g., Job 38:7). When the psalmist calls upon these beings of light to praise Jahve, he does not merely express his delight in that which they do under any circumstances (Hengstenberg), but comprehends the heavenly world with the earthly, the church above with the church here below (vid., on Psalm 29:1-11; Psalm 103), and gives a special turn to the praise of the former, making it into an echo of the praise of the latter, and blending both harmoniously together. The heavens of heavens are, as in Deuteronomy 10:14; 1 Kings 8:27, Sir. 16:18, and frequently, those which lie beyond the heavens of the earth which were created on the fourth day, therefore they are the outermost and highest spheres. The waters which are above the heavens are, according to Hupfeld, "a product of the fancy, like the upper heavens and the whole of the inhabitants of heaven." But if in general the other world is not a notion to which there is no corresponding entity, this notion may also have things for its substance which lie beyond our knowledge of nature. The Scriptures, from the first page to the last, acknowledge the existence of celestial waters, to which the rain-waters stand in the relation as it were of a finger-post pointing upwards (see Genesis 1:7). All these beings belonging to the superterrestrial world are to praise the Name of Jahve, for He, the God of Israel, it is by whose fiat (צוּה, like אמר in Psalm 33:9)

(Note: The interpolated parallel member, αὐτὸς εἶπε καὶ ἐγενήθησαν, here in the lxx is taken over from that passage.))

the heavens and all their host are created (Psalm 33:6). He has set them, which did not previously exist, up (העמיד as e.g., in Nehemiah 6:7, the causative to עמד in Psalm 33:9, cf. Psalm 119:91), and that for ever and ever (Psalm 111:8), i.e., in order for ever to maintain the position in the whole of creation which He has assigned to them. He hath given a law (חק) by which its distinctive characteristic is stamped upon each of these heavenly beings, and a fixed bound is set to the nature and activity of each in its mutual relation to all, and not one transgresses (the individualizing singular) this law given to it. Thus ולא יעבר is to be understood, according to Job 14:5, cf. Jeremiah 5:22; Job 38:10; Psalm 104:9. Hitzig makes the Creator Himself the subject; but then the poet would have at least been obliged to say חק־נתן למו, and moreover it may be clearly seen from Jeremiah 31:36; Jeremiah 33:20, how the thought that God inviolably keeps the orders of nature in check is expressed θεοπρεπῶς. Jeremiah 5:22, by way of example, shows that the law itself is not, with Ewald, Maurer, and others, following the lxx, Syriac, Italic, Jerome, and Kimchi, to be made the subject: a law hath He given, and it passes not away (an imperishable one). In combination with חק, עבר always signifies "to pass over, transgress."