9 Mountains and all hills; fruit-trees and all trees of the mountains:
Make a song, O heavens, for the Lord has done it: give a loud cry, you deep parts of the earth: let your voices be loud in song, you mountains, and you woods with all your trees: for the Lord has taken up the cause of Jacob, and will let his glory be seen in Israel.
Let your voice be loud in song, O heavens; and be glad, O earth; make sounds of joy, O mountains, for the Lord has given comfort to his people, and will have mercy on his crushed ones.
Let the heavens have joy and the earth be glad; let the sea be thundering with all its waters; Let the field be glad, and everything which is in it; yes, let all the trees of the wood be sounding with joy, Before the Lord, for he is come; he is come to be the judge of the earth; the earth will be judged in righteousness, and the peoples with unchanging faith.
His bright flames give light to the world; the earth saw it with fear. The mountains became like wax at the coming of the Lord, at the coming of the Lord of all the earth.
Let the sea be thundering, with all its waters; the world, and all who are living in it; Let the streams make sounds of joy with their hands; let the mountains be glad together, Before the Lord, for he has come as judge of the earth; judging the world in righteousness, and giving true decisions for the peoples.
The sea saw it, and went in flight; Jordan was turned back. The mountains were jumping like goats, and the little hills like lambs. What was wrong with you, O sea, that you went in flight? O Jordan, that you were turned back? You mountains, why were you jumping like goats, and you little hills like lambs? Be troubled, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob;
Let the waste land and its flocks be glad, the tent-circles of Kedar; let the people of the rock give a glad cry, from the top of the mountains let them make a sound of joy.
For you will go out with joy, and be guided in peace: the mountains and the hills will make melody before you, and all the trees of the fields will make sounds of joy. In place of the thorn will come up the fir-tree, and in place of the blackberry the myrtle: and it will be to the Lord for a name, for an eternal sign which will not be cut off.
O let the heavens be broken open and come down, so that the mountains may be shaking before you, As when fire puts the brushwood in flames, or as when water is boiling from the heat of the fire: to make your name feared by your haters, so that the nations may be shaking before you;
And you, son of man, be a prophet about the mountains of Israel, and say, You mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord: This is what the Lord has said: Because your hater has said against you, Aha! and, The old waste places are our heritage, we have taken them: For this cause be a prophet, and say, This is what the Lord has said: Because, even because they have been glad over you and put you to shame on every side, because you have become a heritage for the rest of the nations, and you are taken up on the lips of talkers and in the evil talk of the people: For this reason, you mountains of Israel, give ear to the word of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, to the unpeopled wastes and to the towns where no one is living, from which the goods have been taken and which have been put to shame by the rest of the nations who are round about: For this cause the Lord has said: Truly, in the heat of my bitter feeling I have said things against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who have taken my land as a heritage for themselves with the joy of all their heart, and with bitter envy of soul have made attacks on it: For this cause be a prophet about the land of Israel, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the streams and to the valleys, This is what the Lord has said: Truly, in my bitter feeling and in my wrath I have said these things, because you have undergone the shame of the nations: For this cause the Lord has said, See, I have taken an oath that the nations which are round about you are themselves to undergo the shame which they have put on you. But you, O mountains of Israel, will put out your branches and give your fruit to my people Israel; for they are ready to come. For truly I am for you, and I will be turned to you, and you will be ploughed and planted: And I will let your numbers be increased, all the children of Israel, even all of them: and the towns will be peopled and the waste places will have buildings; Man and beast will be increased in you, and they will have offspring and be fertile: I will make you thickly peopled as you were before, and will do more for you than at the first: and you will be certain that I am the Lord. Yes, I will have you walked on by the feet of men, even my people Israel; they will have you for a heritage and you will be theirs, and never again will you take their children from them. This is what the Lord has said: Because they say to you, You, O land, are the destruction of men, causing loss of children to your nation; For this reason you will no longer take the lives of men and will never again be the cause of loss of children to your nation, says the Lord. And I will not let the shaming of the nations come to your ears, and no longer will you be looked down on by the peoples, says the Lord.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 148
Commentary on Psalms 148 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 148
Ps 148:1-14. The scope of this Psalm is the same as that of the preceding.
1. heavens [and] heights—are synonymous.
2. hosts—(compare Ps 103:21).
4. heavens of heavens—the very highest.
waters—clouds, resting above the visible heavens (compare Ge 1:7).
5. praise the name—as representing His perfections.
he commanded—"He" is emphatic, ascribing creation to God alone.
6. The perpetuity of the frame of nature is, of course, subject to Him who formed it.
a decree … pass—His ordinances respecting them shall not change (Jer 36:31), or perish (Job 34:20; Ps 37:36).
7-10. The call on the earth, as opposed to heaven, includes seas or depths, whose inhabitants the dragon, as one of the largest (on leviathan, see on Ps 104:26), is selected to represent. The most destructive and ungovernable agents of inanimate nature are introduced.
8. fulfilling his word—or, law, may be understood of each. Next the most distinguished productions of the vegetable world.
9. fruitful trees—or, "trees of fruit," as opposed to forest trees. Wild and domestic, large and small animals are comprehended.
11, 12. Next all rational beings, from the highest in rank to little children.
princes—or, military leaders.
13. Let them—all mentioned.
excellent—or, exalted (Isa 12:4).
his glory—majesty (Ps 45:3).
above the earth and heaven—Their united splendors fail to match His.
14. exalteth the horn—established power (Ps 75:5, 6).
praise of—or literally, "for"
his saints—that is, occasions for them to praise Him. They are further described as "His people," and "near unto Him," sustaining by covenanted care a peculiarly intimate relation.