Psalm 148:14

Psalm 148 belongs to the last group of psalms in the Psalter, Psalms 146 to 150, often called the Hallelujah Psalms, and each of them is full of the call to praise. This psalm moves in a clear order. Verses 1 to 6 call on the heavens, the angels, the sun, the moon and the stars (Psalm 148:1–6). Verses 7 to 10 call on the earth: the sea monsters and the deeps, fire, hail, snow, vapour and stormy wind, mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedars, beasts, cattle, creeping things and flying fowl (Psalm 148:7–10). Verse 11 then turns to humanity, and it begins with those who hold the most power.

“Kings” is melek, a ruler or monarch, from a root meaning to rule, the highest political authority on earth. Princes are the high officials and nobles who rule beneath a king. “Judges” comes from shâphaṭ, to judge, decide or govern, to pronounce sentence. In Israel, judges settled disputes, administered justice and often governed locally, so the list takes in every kind of ruling power. The phrase “of the earth” comes twice in this verse, at its start and at its end, and the whole list of rulers stands on the earth, under the God of heaven.

Among the nations round about Israel, kings often held near absolute power, and some claimed to descend from the gods or to rule in their place. Their decrees were law. Israel knew the LORD as the true King, and here the psalm calls the mightiest people on earth to praise him along with everyone else. Their authority is given to them by God. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Proverbs 21:1). Daniel blesses the God who “removeth kings, and setteth up kings” (Daniel 2:20–21), and Paul writes that the powers that be are ordained of God (Romans 13:1–2).

Calling judges to praise the LORD also holds them to account. A judge’s decisions shape people’s lives, and a judge who praises God answers to him for every sentence. The law told Israel to appoint judges and officers in all their gates and to follow what is altogether just (Deuteronomy 16:18–20), and Psalm 82:1–4 shows God himself judging among those who judge. Rulers who praise him confess whose justice they serve.

“Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children” names the people of every age in two pairs. Bâchûwr means a young man or youth, and Strong’s derives it from a word meaning selected. Bᵉthûwlâh means a virgin, a young unmarried woman. Together they are the young men and women of the people. Zâqên means old, and it is used of old men and of the elders of a community. The word for “children”, naʻar, is a general word for the young. Set side by side, youth and age, men and women, take in everyone between them, so every person at every stage of life belongs in this choir.

Israel’s worship belonged to the whole people. Children were a blessing and the future of the covenant people, elders were honoured, and the faith was handed on from one generation to the next. Parents were to keep God’s words in their hearts and teach them diligently to their children (Deuteronomy 6:6–7), and when the law was read, the whole people was gathered to hear it (Deuteronomy 31:12). People of every age came together to worship at the temple. Joel foresees God pouring out his Spirit on all flesh, on sons and daughters, old men and young men alike (Joel 2:28), and Jesus welcomed the praise of children with the words, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise” (Matthew 21:16).

Praise is the work of a whole life, begun in childhood and carried into old age, and Paul speaks of the whole of life given to God as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). Each age brings its own strength to it: the energy of the young, the long experience of the old, the simple joy of children. The Psalter ends on the same wide note, “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD” (Psalm 150:6), and the God who is praised here “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4).

The LORD is to be praised because of who he is, and verse 13 says so plainly. “Let them praise the name of the LORD” gathers up everything the psalm has called, from the angels to the children, and turns all of it toward one object. The verb is hâlal. Strong’s gives its first sense as to be clear or to shine, then to make a show or to boast, and in its causative form to celebrate. To praise the LORD in this way is to make his worth known openly and with joy.

The word “name” stands twice in this verse. Shêm is a name that marks out who someone is, and with it comes his honour, authority and character. The name of the LORD is all that he has made known of himself, his faithfulness to his covenant and his power. To praise his name is to praise him as he has revealed himself.

“For his name alone is excellent” uses sâgab, to be lofty, especially high out of reach, and so safe and strong. His name is set on high, and his alone. “His glory is above the earth and heaven” uses hôwd, grandeur, splendour, beauty and majesty. Earth and heaven together are the whole of creation, and his majesty is over all of it. The verse moves from the command to the reason, and the reason rests on God himself, on who he is before anything he gives.

Israel lived among peoples who worshipped gods of the sky, the storm and the nation. Against all of them this verse says that the Creator stands alone above every rival in heaven and on earth, and that his name is more than a label (it is his revealed self). Israel confessed, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4), and Isaiah asks, “To whom then will ye liken God?” (Isaiah 40:18). Another psalm sings of the same excellent name and the same glory: “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens” (Psalm 8:1). In heaven the praise goes on: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things” (Revelation 4:11).

Verse 14 adds what God has done. “He also exalteth the horn of his people” uses rûwm, to be high, to rise or to raise, and here God is the one who raises. The horn is qeren, a horn as something that projects, and Strong’s lists its other uses: a flask, a cornet, ivory, the corner of an altar, the peak of a mountain, a ray of light, and figuratively power. In Hebrew poetry the horn is a picture of strength, dignity and victory, often of a king’s authority or a nation’s might. To exalt someone’s horn is to raise their strength and honour, often by vindicating them before their enemies or restoring them after a time of weakness. Hannah used the same picture in her prayer: “mine horn is exalted in the LORD” (1 Samuel 2:1).

“The praise of all his saints” names what comes of this lifting up. The strength and honour God gives his people become the praise of his saints, a visible sign of his faithfulness and a reason to thank him for his mighty acts on their behalf. “Saints” is châçîyd: kind, pious, godly, a saint. The word is related to chesed, God’s steadfast love and covenant loyalty, and the saints are the godly and devoted ones who receive that love and answer it with loyalty of their own.

“Even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him” says who these people are. Israel was near to God through the covenant made at Sinai, which set them apart from all other nations. They received his law, his promises and his presence among them. Moses told them that the LORD had chosen them to be a special people unto himself (Deuteronomy 7:6). That nearness was a great privilege and a weighty charge, since they were to live by his law and show his character to the nations. The psalm may come from a time after the exile, when Israel was being restored after hardship and scattering, and needed to hear that God still upheld their dignity and purpose.

“Praise ye the LORD” closes the psalm with the same words that open it, and the whole song of creation is framed by that one command.

The New Testament gives these verses their fullest meaning in Jesus Christ. The kings of the earth are called to praise, and Jesus is “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:16), to whom all power in heaven and in earth is given (Matthew 28:18). The name that verse 13 calls excellent is given to him: “God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9–11). The glory above earth and heaven shines in him, “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), and by him all things in heaven and in earth were created and hold together (Colossians 1:16–17). When creation praises its Maker, it praises the Son.

The horn of verse 14 comes back in Zechariah’s song, when he blesses God for raising up “an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David” (Luke 1:69). The nearness of verse 14 is opened to the nations through the cross. Gentiles “who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13), and Christ has broken down “the middle wall of partition” (Ephesians 2:14). In him young and old, men and women, Jew and Gentile are one, “for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28), and those who belong to him are “Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:29). Peter calls believers “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). The lifting up of God’s people now includes the strength he gives against sin, the dignity of being his children and “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe” (Ephesians 1:19–20).

The call to “all people” ends in the vision John saw: a great multitude of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, standing before the throne and the Lamb and crying out with a loud voice (Revelation 7:9–10).

These four verses give every one of us a place in the praise of all creation. Ruler or subject, young or old, the call of verses 11 and 12 takes us in, and verse 13 gives a reason that stands for ever: the LORD’s name alone is excellent. Those who hold authority, in a nation, a church or a home, hold it under him and answer to him for it. The God whose glory is above earth and heaven is also the God who lifts up his people and draws them near, so our praise answers what he has already done for us in Christ. The psalm gives its last word to that command, “Praise ye the LORD.”