that the way through suffering to glory which the church is traversing, has not only the glorifying of God in itself, but by means of this glorifying, the glorifying of God in all creatures and by all creatures, too, as its final aim, and that these, finally transformed (glorified) in the likeness of transformed (glorified) humanity, will become the bright mirror of the divine doxa and an embodied hymn of a thousand voices. The calls also in Isa 44:23; Isa 49:13, cf. Psa 52:9, and the descriptions in Isa 35:1., Isa 41:19; Isa 55:12., proceed from the view to which Paul gives clear expression from the stand-point of the New Testament in Rom 8:18.
Verses 1-6
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. Psa 68:27), but the parallel בּמּרומים renders the immediate construction with הללוּ more natural. Psa 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 (Chethîb) or צבאיו (Kerî as in Psa 103:21) is the name of the heavenly host armed with light which God Tsebaoth commands (vid., on Gen 2:1), - a name including both stars (e.g., in Deu 4:19) and angels (e.g., in Jos 5:14., 1Ki 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 Psa 29:1-11; Ps 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 Deu 10:14; 1Ki 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
