Psalm 148:9














How poet-souls recognize the voices of nature may be illustrated by Milton's lines-

"His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow,
Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
With every plant, in sign of worship wave!" What is peculiar to the psalmist is his recognizing signs of will in nature. He conceives of "stormy wind fulfilling his Word," voluntarily fulfilling it, and so an image of himself. It is a blending of poetic and pious feeling that thus leads man to make of nature a mirror in which he sees himself.

I. MAN PUTTING HIMSELF INTO THINGS. When we are impressed with anything in nature, we, in a sort of unconscious way, say to it, "If I were you, how should I feel, and what should I do?" And then we represent it to ourselves as actually feeling what we should feel, and doing what we should do. In this way the psalmist calls on the winds to praise God, because that is what he would do if he were the wind; and he calls on the wind to fulfill God's Word, because that is what he would do if he were the wind. This is man's interpreting of nature, which is never any more than interpreting himself in the terms of nature. But manifestly this putting of ourselves into things belongs exclusively to the poetic and the pious souls. To most men nature is but a satisfaction of artistic sensibilities: all that can be observed is the beautiful in form and color. It is but the sublime side of this truth to say that God puts himself into nature to show himself to us, as we put ourselves into nature to show ourselves to him.

II. MAN INFLUENCING HIMSELF BY SEEING HIMSELF IN THINGS. Introspection is neither healthy nor effective. A man must put himself outside himself; must find a mirror of himself, and see himself in the mirror. And what he thus sees is always himself as he should be. So the projection of himself is an inspiration to himself. The psalmist seas this in the one matter of obedience. Projecting himself into the stormy wind, he is inspired to the "fulfilling of God's Word." - R.T.

Mountains and all hills.
: — In Scripture mountains are used to set forth —

I. THE PLACE OF SPECIAL COMMUNION WITH GOD. The Bible often refers to mountains as if, in a special sense, they belonged to God. Actually all things are God's — valleys as well as hills, plains as well as mountains. But I believe you never meet with God speaking of these other things as He does of mountains. He doesn't say, "My valleys," "My rivers," but He does say, "My mountains." And when we stand and look at a mountain, with its top piercing the clouds, the thought may well come to us, If the valleys and plains have been given to man, God has reserved the mountains for Himself. If man is able to scale them he is unable to live upon them. And there are some whose summits can never be reached. Yes, if we want to banish little earth-born thoughts, and cares, and troubles, if we would exclude them by the entrance of greater thoughts, then climb the mountain, go to its summit if you can, and you are likely to come back another man. It is in accord with all this that our Saviour, when He wanted His three disciples to lose sight of earth while they beheld His heavenly glory, took them away to a mountain-top. And whenever He Himself wanted to leave the world behind Him, and to find a place where He could feel His Father to be very near, and have intimate communion with Him, "He went up into a mountain to pray."

II. GOD'S GREAT POWER. The old Hebrew teachers, when they wanted to show the people how strong the arm of Jehovah was, used, in effect, to point to the mountains, and say, "Let me tell you what Jehovah can do with them." Isaiah is rich in imagery of this sort. At one time the prophet wished to make the people feel the immense disparity between themselves and God, and he asks them the significant question, "Who hath weighed the mountains in scales?" When the prophet again wishes to tell us what mighty things God has done, and especially to call attention to the quiet, easy, noiseless way that God can bring about marvellous events, how splendidly he effects this by saying, "The mountains flowed down at Thy presence"! When Jeremiah wished vividly to picture to the people the terrible judgments which his prophetic eye could see that God was about to bring upon their land because they had been rebellious, among other things he says: "I beheld the mountains, and, lo! they trembled." When Nahum seeks to make the impenitent sinner sensible of the terrors of the Lord, even though He is slow to anger, he says, "The mountains quake at Him, the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence." And Habakkuk shows that Jehovah's power is not to be trifled with when, more than once he says, "The mountains saw Thee, and they trembled." Yes, these immovable hills tremble when they see God; and what, then, will impenitent sinners do — men who take no notice of what God has to say to them; who keep their thoughts bound down to earthly things, and never acknowledge God in any of His ways?

III. GREAT ANTIQUITY AND UNCHANGEABLENESS (Habakkuk 3:6; Psalm 90:2; Isaiah 54:10).

IV. SYMBOLS OF IMMENSE OBSTACLES AND DIFFICULTIES (Matthew 17:20; 1 Corinthians 13:2).

1. The pathway of every individual life has its obstacles. Not only do we pass through cloud and sunshine, and along rough places and smooth, but sometimes we have to confront obstacles which seem to be as much beyond our power to move aside as the high mountain would be. But take courage, friend! for if you can't remove it, if you can't get it out of your way in an instant — as most of us in our impatience would like to do with all our mountain-difficulties — yet by steady and persistent effort you may master the mountain and get the right side of it by and by.

2. But mountains are put, too, in Scripture as symbols of difficulties which lie in the way of Christ's conquest of the world. The Alps lay in the way of Hannibal and Napoleon when they were seeking to conquer Italy; and vaster mountains still seem to lie in the way of Christ's conquest of the world. The unwillingness of the people to listen to the message of reconciliation is a mighty mountain in the way of the victorious march of the Saviour; and even when they listen the unbelief and cold indifference of men stand out like a vast mountain with snowy summit and ice-bound sides. We might well believe that these difficulties would never be overcome if God had not said they should be. But God can make even these icy mountains shake and tremble and melt away. The thing that is impossible with men is possible with God. Out of these very mountains God can make a way. He can convert a Saul, the persecutor and unbeliever, into Paul, the persuasive preacher. And if we have faith we shall not only climb mountains by an incessant effort, but we shall be able to put some of them out of the way (Isaiah 40:4, 5).

(J. Clarke, B. A.)

Homiletic Review.
: — The majesty of the Creator is set forth anew in the recent classification of nature's vast work of what Warren Upham, of the United States Geological Survey, terms "mountain-building." Mr. Upham says that he finds six modes of mountain construction throughout the western hemisphere; namely: folded, arched, domed, tilted, erupted, and eroded. The Appalachian-Laurentian systems are specimens of the folded mountain range; parts of the Cordilleran belt in Western United States, of the arched construction; the Henry Mountains in southern Utah, of the domed; the Sierra Nevadas, of the tilted; the Andes range, of the erupted as seen in the traces of grand volcanic-action throughout the entire extent; and lastly, the remnants of vast areas once uplifted, specimens of the eroded mode of mountain architecture.

(Homiletic Review.)

People
Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Cedars, Fruit, Fruitful, Fruit-trees, Heights, Hills, Mountains, Tree, Trees
Outline
1. The psalmist exhorts the celestial
7. The terrestrial
11. And the rational creatures to praise God

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 148:7-10

     4604   animals, nature of

Psalm 148:7-11

     7942   ministry

Library
That Worthy Name.
James ii:7. IN the second chapter of the Epistle of James the Holy Spirit speaks of our ever blessed Lord as "that worthy Name." Precious Word! precious to every heart that knows Him and delights to exalt His glorious and worthy Name. His Name is "far above every Name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." (Ephes. i:21.) It is "as ointment poured forth" (Song of Sol. i:3); yea, His Name alone is excellent (Psalm cxlviii:13). But according to His worth that blessed
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

Sexagesima Sunday Let them Praise the Name of the Lord for his Name Alone is Excellent; his Glory is Above the Earth and Heaven.
Let them praise the name of the Lord for His name alone is excellent; His glory is above the earth and heaven. Keine Schönheit hat die Welt [66]Angelus. 1657. trans. by Catherine Winkworth, 1855 Nothing fair on earth I see But I straightway think on Thee; Thou art fairest in mine eyes, Source in whom all beauty lies! When the golden sun forth goes, And the east before him glows, Quickly turns this heart of mine To Thy heavenly form divine. On Thy light I think at morn, With the earliest break
Catherine Winkworth—Lyra Germanica: The Christian Year

Universal Worship. --Ps. cxlviii.
Universal Worship.--Ps. cxlviii. Heralds of creation! cry,-- Praise the Lord, the Lord most high! Heaven and earth! obey the call, Praise the Lord, the Lord of all. For He spake, and forth from night Sprang the universe to light: He commanded,--Nature heard, And stood fast upon his word. Praise Him, all ye hosts above, Spirits perfected in love; Sun and Moon! your voices raise, Sing, ye stars! your Maker's praise. Earth! from all thy depths below, Ocean's hallelujahs flow, Lightning, Vapour,
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

Covenanting a Privilege of Believers.
Whatever attainment is made by any as distinguished from the wicked, or whatever gracious benefit is enjoyed, is a spiritual privilege. Adoption into the family of God is of this character. "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power (margin, or, the right; or, privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."[617] And every co-ordinate benefit is essentially so likewise. The evidence besides, that Covenanting
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose,
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Royal Marriage Feast.
PART I.--THE WEDDING GUESTS. "And Jesus answered, and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of
William Arnot—The Parables of Our Lord

The Fourth Commandment
Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day and hallowed it. Exod 20: 8-11. This
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Birth of Jesus Proclaimed by Angels to the Shepherds.
(Near Bethlehem, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke II. 8-20. ^c 8 And there were shepherds in the same country [they were in the same fields from which David had been called to tend God's Israel, or flock] abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. [When the flock is too far from the village to lead it to the fold at night, these shepherds still so abide with it in the field, even in the dead of winter.] 9 And an angel of the Lord stood by them [He stood upon the earth at their side, and did
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Psalm 148:9 NIV
Psalm 148:9 NLT
Psalm 148:9 ESV
Psalm 148:9 NASB
Psalm 148:9 KJV

Psalm 148:9 Bible Apps
Psalm 148:9 Parallel
Psalm 148:9 Biblia Paralela
Psalm 148:9 Chinese Bible
Psalm 148:9 French Bible
Psalm 148:9 German Bible

Psalm 148:9 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Psalm 148:8
Top of Page
Top of Page