Psalm 148:5 Komentář

This psalm is a most solemn and earnest call to all the creatures, according to their capacity, to praise their Creator, and to show forth his eternal power and Godhead, the invisible things of which are manifested in the things that are seen. Thereby the psalmist designs to express his great affection to the duty of praise; he is highly satisfied that God is praised, is very desirous that he may be more praised, and therefore does all he can to engage all about him in this pleasant work, yea, and all who shall come after him, whose hearts must be very dead and cold if they be not raised and enlarged, in praising God, by the lofty flights of divine poetry which we find in this psalm. I. He calls upon the higher house, the creatures that are placed in the upper world, to praise the Lord, both those that are intellectual beings, and are capable of doing it actively (Psa 148:1, Psa 148:2), and those that are not, and are therefore capable of doing it only objectively (Psa 148:3-6). II. He calls upon the lower house, the creatures of this lower world, both those that can only minister matter of praise (Psa 148:7-10) and those that, being endued with reason, are capable of offering up this sacrifice (Psa 148:11-13), especially his own people, who have more cause to do it, and are more concerned to do it, than any other (Psa 148:14).

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 148 This psalm seems to have been written about the same time, and by the same person, as the preceding; even by the psalmist David, when he was in profound peace, and at rest from all his enemies; and the kingdom of Israel was in a well settled and prosperous condition, both with respect to things civil and ecclesiastical, as appears from Psa 148:14. And as it may respect future time, the times of the Messiah, of whom David was a type, it will have its accomplishment in the latter day, when there will be just occasion for all creatures, in heaven and earth, to praise the Lord; and which the Evangelist John, in vision, saw and heard them doing, Rev 5:11. Aben Ezra says, this psalm is exceeding glorious and excellent, and has deep secrets in it; in which the psalmist speaks of two worlds, the upper and the lower. As for the title of this psalm, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, and Apollinarius, entitle it as the two preceding.

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, Heb 12:9, Jam 1:17.

This is not the time to prove that the Creator did not become the servant of the Word and make the world and to show that the Word became the servant of the creator and prepared the world. For according to the prophet David, “God spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.” For the uncreated God “commanded” the firstborn of all creation, and “they were created.” This includes not only the cosmos and the things in it, but also all that remains, “whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities or powers; for all things have been created through him and for him, and he is before all things.”

And now that we have thus distinguished the various modes of generation, it will be time to observe how the benevolent provision of the Holy Spirit, in delivering to us the divine mysteries, imparts that instruction that transcends reason by such methods as we can receive. For the inspired teaching adopts, in order to set forth the unspeakable power of God, all the forms of generation that human intelligence recognizes, yet without including the bodily senses attaching to the words. For when it speaks of the creative power, it gives to such an energy the name of generation, because its expression must stoop to our level of understanding. It does not, however, convey thereby all that we include in creative generation, as time, place, the furnishing of matter, the fitness of instruments, the design in the things that come into being. It leaves these and asserts of God in lofty and magnificent language the creation of all existent things, when it says, “He spoke the word, and they were made, He commanded, and they were created.” Again when it interprets to us the unspeakable and transcendent existence of the Only-Begotten from the Father, as the poverty of human intellect is incapable of receiving doctrines that surpass all power of speech and thought, there too it borrows our language and terms him “Son,” a name that our usage assigns to those who are born of matter and nature.

The causes of the beginnings of all things are seeds. And the apostle of the Gentiles has said that the human body is a seed. And so in succession after sowing there is the substance that is needed for the resurrection. But even if there were no substance and no cause, who could think it difficult for God to create people anew whence he will and as he wills. Who commanded the world to come into being out of no matter and no substance? Look at the heaven, behold the earth. Whence are the fires of the stars? Whence the orb and rays of the sun? Whence the globe of the moon? Whence the mountain heights, the hard rocks, the woody groves? Whence are the air diffused around, and the waters, whether enclosed or poured abroad? But if God made all these things out of nothing (for “he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created”), why should we wonder that which has been should be brought to life again, since we see produced that which had not been?

God has no need of human assistance. God commanded the heavens to come into existence, and it was done. He decided to create the earth, and it was created. Who carried the stones on his shoulders? Who paid the cost? Who helped him with the work? These things were done in a moment. Do you want to know how quickly? “He spoke, and they were made.” If the material universe sprang into being at a word, why should not the dead also rise again at a word?

“For he spoke, and they were made.” For God to have commanded is to have created; the command is creation. He spoke, and they were made, according to that which is written in Genesis: God said, and God created; that is, God the Father gave the command; God the Son created. Someone may say, He is the greater who gives the command, and he is the less to whom it is given. That is what the Arians, the Eunomians and the Macedonians maintain. I answer you, O heretics, in accordance with your own reasoning. You say, the Father is greater because he gives the command, and the Son is less because he is commanded by the Father. If this is in accord with human understanding, answer me: Is it greater to command or to create? I say, “Let a house be made,” and another builds the house. There is nothing great in uttering the words; it is difficult to build the house. He is greater, therefore, who creates than he who gives the command. But that is impious irreverence, for the Son is not greater than the Father. It is just as blasphemous to believe this of the Son against the Father as it is to believe it of the Father against the Son. “For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.” One nature both commands and creates; God gives the order, God fulfills it. A painter bids a painter paint, and the painter paints what he has bid be painted.

Did it [Gen 1:1] say, “In the beginning,” because it was made first? Or was it impossible for heaven and earth to have been made first among the creatures, if the angels and all the intellectual powers were made first? We must believe that the angels are the creation of God and were made by him. For the prophet included the angels in Psalm 148, when he said, “He commanded, and they were made; he gave the order, and they were created.” But if the angels were made first, we can ask whether they were made in time or before all time or at the start of time. If [they were made] in time, there already was time before the angels were made, and since time itself is also a creature, it turns out that we have to admit that something was made before the angels. But if we say that they were made at the start of time, so that time began with them, we have to say that it is false that time began with heaven and earth, as some claim.

After all, what is beyond hoping for from God, to whom nothing is difficult? He does great things just as he does small ones; he raises the dead, just as he creates the living. If a painter can make a mouse with the same art as he makes an elephant—different subjects, one and the same art—how much more God, who “spoke and they were made, commanded and they were created”? What can be difficult for him to make who makes with a word? He created the angels above the heavens with ease, with equal ease the luminaries in the heavens, with equal ease the fishes in the sea, with equal ease the trees and animals on the earth, great things with the same ease as small. It was supremely easy for him to make everything out of nothing—is it astonishing that he gave some old people a son?

All things that God did not beget of himself but made through his Word, he made not out of things that already existed but out of what did not exist at all, that is, out of nothing. Thus the apostle says, “Who calls those things that are not as though they were.” But it is written more clearly in the book of the Maccabees. “I beseech you, my child, lift your eyes to the heaven and the earth and all that are therein. See and know that God did not make those things out of anything that already existed.” There is also what is written in the Psalms. “He spoke, and they were made.” Clearly he did not beget these things of himself but made them by his Word and command. What he did not beget he made of nothing; for there was nothing else out of which he might have made them. Of him the apostle says most openly, “Since of him and through him and in him are all things.”

"Praise Him, all you angels of His, praise Him, all His powers" [Psalm 148:2]. "Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars and light" [Psalm 148:3]. "Praise Him, you heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens" [Psalm 148:4]. "Let them praise the Name of the Lord" [Psalm 148:5]. When can he unfold all in his enumeration? Yet he has in a manner touched upon them all summarily, and included all things in heaven praising their Creator. And as though it were said to him, "Why do they praise Him? What has He conferred on them, that they should praise Him?" he goes on, "for He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created." No wonder if the works praise the Worker, no wonder if the things that are made praise the Maker, no wonder if creation praise its Creator. In this Christ also is mentioned, though we seem not to have heard His Name....By what were they made? By the Word? [John 1:1-2] How does he show in this Psalm, that all things were made by the Word? "He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created." No one speaks, no one commands, save by word.

praise the name--as representing His perfections. he commanded--"He" is emphatic, ascribing creation to God alone.