Psalm 148: Power of Creation And Destruction

We approach the close of Psalms with Psalm 148, a psalm about beginnings.

At the outset, it seems to be a psalm about God’s power of creation, and heavily references Genesis 1-2.

We read about the heavens (Psalm 148:1 | Genesis 1:1), the sun, moon, and stars, (Psalm 148: 3 | Genesis 1:16), the water above the heavens (Psalm 148:4 | Genesis 1:7-8), the earth (Psalm 148:7 | Genesis 1:9), the sea monsters (Psalm 148:7 | Genesis 1:21), the ocean depths (Psalm 148:7 | Genesis 1:2), wind (Psalm 148:8 | Genesis 1:21), the fruit trees (Psalm 148:9 | Genesis 1:11), the wild and tamed beasts and creeping things (Psalm 148:10 | Genesis 1:24), and winged birds (Psalm 148:10 | Genesis 1:21).

Then the Human is created and instructed to be fruitful and multiply and to master the earth. “All kings and peoples of the earth” may refer to that (Psalm 148:11-12 | Genesis 1:29).

The psalmist then says that the name of God alone is sublime, (Psalm 148:13) which makes sense, because Man named everything else in the world (Genesis 2:19-20). And “His splendor covers heavens and earth” (Psalm 148:13 | Genesis 1:1).

It’s a beautiful circle, with a few notable exceptions.

There is no explicit mention of the angels (Psalm 148:2) in Genesis, not any mentions of mountains and hills (Psalm 148:9) in Genesis 1-2, nor any references there to fire, hail, snow or smoke (Psalm 148:8). And the language of “all princes of the earth and its judges, boys and girls alike, old and young together” (Psalm 148:11-12) seems also quite random.

For those references, we have to look a bit further into Genesis, specifically Genesis 19, and God’s power of destruction.

At the beginning of that story, we read about the angels who came to warn Lot and his family (Genesis 19:1). The townspeople, from “young to old” surrounded Lot’s home, he offers up his daughters in the angels’ stead, and the locals accuse him of being an outsider who is acting like a judge. (Genesis 19:9)

God’s fire is first mentioned during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24),
The specific word for smoke — “kitor” is also used for the first time in Genesis 19:28, as Abraham stands on a mountain and stares down at the utter destruction God had wrought in the plains, and Lot fled to live in the hill country (Genesis 19:30) and father Moab and Ammon.)

As a coda to this praise of creation and destruction, the psalmist reminds us of the horn (Psalm 148:14) of the ram that Abraham sacrificed in the stead of his son Isaac (Genesis 22:13). Then an angel of God blessed him that his descendants would be like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore.

And that’s when it all began.