Psalm 148 begins and ends with “Praise the Lord.” Between these two Hallelujahs, the psalm has two parts, the first about praising the Lord from the heavens (verses 1-6), and the second about praising him from the earth (verses 7-14). In the first part, the psalmist mentions three levels of heaven: the realm of the angels, the realm of the stars, and the realm of the clouds (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2). All three have to praise the Lord because he created them for that purpose.

The second part summons an array of earthly elements to join in praising the Lord: sea creatures and ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds, heat and cold, mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedars, a variety of animal kinds, and finally, classes of people: kings, princes, rulers, men, women, old and young. These together have to praise the Lord from the earth because his splendour is above the earth and the heavens. In short, the psalm summons all creation to join in cosmic praise for God. Notice how often it has the word “all:” all angels, all heavenly hosts, all shining stars, all hills, all cedars, all cattle, all people, all rulers, all saints. No one is exempt.

The word “praise” is a command, which begs the question: who is giving the command? Oddly enough, the people who sing this psalm appear to be the ones giving orders. The saints are telling the heavens and the earth what to do. “Okay, heavens, praise the Lord! Angels, sun, moon, you stars up there, and you sky as well, all together now! Now, earth, it’s your turn: you mountains, trees, let’s go, animals, and people everywhere – kings, princes, old, young – all together now!” It’s a bit weird. God’s people act as though they’re directing a cosmic orchestra, and all the elements of creation are musical instruments about to play a universal tune together. It would be one thing if God was directing the orchestra, but God’s people ... Isn’t that ludicrous?

Not entirely. After all, we confess that creation was made “to serve man, to the end that man might serve his God” (BC, Art. 12). Remember the high calling that God gave to Adam and Eve in Paradise, to have dominion over the works of his hands. Man was created in the image of God, fit to rule under God, from paradise, close to his throne. So the thought of people directing a cosmic orchestra to God’s praise is not as crazy as it sounds. True, we don’t feel as though the angels and nature and animals and world rulers will praise God because we say so. We don’t experience that kind of dominion, but that’s because of the fall into sin. Expelled from paradise, man feels little and helpless under the sun, moon, and stars, unable to imagine that he rules the creatures of the land and sea (Ps 8). He is often at the mercy of the elements. The earth resists his cultivation. Man has become blind to God, lost in idol worship. Between fellow humans there is hatred, murder, warfare, and corruption. The thought of all creation uniting to praise God is unthinkable because sin has brought disharmony and discord.

Yet this psalm is there, in a fallen world. God is working to restore man to his high place, close to him, and he starts that work with Israel. As the adopted people of God, Israel receives the high calling to summon all creation to praise the Lord. That’s all the more remarkable when you consider that this psalm was probably written after the exile, under Persian rule. Oppressed by a foreign power, God’s people confess the Lord to be the supreme king of the universe, and they call all creation, all kings, all nations to praise him. This psalm is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. Israel sings of a horn, a metaphor for victorious strength. The saints confess that their covenant God rules over all creation, a confession that to the human ear sounds ridiculous, impossible, but the impossible, the ridiculous, is true. That is the strength of God’s people: they alone sing God’s truth, and no one can take it from them.

Now consider that God put this psalm in Scripture, that he is its Author. People can write songs about their ideal worlds, but their songs have no power to change the world. When God writes a song, the world begins to change. He does the impossible. He can restore the cosmos which man has ruined, so that it reunites to praise his name. He began to do that through Israel, but Israel itself was an unfaithful people, in need of restoration. So God sent his own Son to make the praise of Psalm 148 come true. The Son left heavenly glory behind and entered the world under the praises of the angels. The one worthy of all praise entered the created order, came under the governance of sun and moon, was subject to the elements, experienced the curse of creation, felt the weakness of the sinful flesh and the power of the evil one at work in the world – a world of temptations and demons and sickness and death – and there he began his work of restoration.

His ministry brought strife, because the hearts of his people were under Satan’s dominion. Christ offered his life to break the power of the ruler of this world. He rose as the firstborn of a restored humanity. He ascended to God’s right hand, passing through the heavens. He has become greater than the angels; they fall at his feet in worship and give him all praise. He sits enthroned at God’s right hand, receiving all dominion in heaven and on earth. A man of Israel now sits near God in the highest heaven. From there he gathers a church, a new covenant community, the beginnings of a restored humanity, believers who are being renewed by the Holy Spirit and who make this psalm their song.

We’re called to take the words of this psalm on our lips, and to go into the world with its truth, so that people broken free from Satan’s grip might know God from his Word, and talk about his power when they look at the sun, the moon, the stars, the sea creatures, the weather patterns, the landscape, the trees, and the animals, and expect a better world where heaven and earth, saints and angels join together in cosmic praise for God.