Homily 58, on Psalm 148
Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Presbyteri Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos , Anecdota Maredsolana III (Maredsoli, 1897) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin).
This psalm has two alleluias in its title; and many think this is because they belong to the title of the psalm itself. But we ought to know that one alleluia belongs to the end of the preceding psalm, while the other alleluia is the beginning of the following psalm. And we ought to take up this rule and understand that all the psalms which have alleluia at their beginning have it also at their end. Many, however, suppose that it is the beginning of another psalm. It is not so: rather, that psalm which has alleluia at its beginning is the very one that has alleluia at its end as well. Why have I said all this? So that you may know why in this psalm two alleluias have been placed at the front.
Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights. For the praise of God the nature of men alone does not suffice: let the heavens too be joined in. Praise the Lord from the heavens. He did not say, Praise, O heavens; but, You praise who are in the heavens, that is, you who dwell in the heavens, thrones, dominions, powers, seraphim, cherubim, and every name that is named, not only in the present age, but also in the age to come. Praise the Lord from the heavens. You who are in the heavens, you who are in the heights, praise him in the heights. You lofty ones, praise the Lofty One. He did not say to the lowly and to those placed below, Praise; but to you who are on high.
Praise him, all his angels. Do you see in what rank the angels are? First the thrones are named: thrones, seats. Let us not suppose these to be chairs on which God sits: but certain powers among the heavenly beings on which God ever sits, as it were in his own chariot. Praise him, all his angels. All his angels. He who is an angel, let him praise: he who is a demon cannot praise. Praise him, all his hosts. Since we have summoned the angels to the praises of God, and I, a man, cannot know the name of all the hosts, I say in general terms: Praise him, all his hosts. So far concerning the invisible things. Praise him, you who are invisible, whom the human eye cannot behold. Now he comes to the creatures which we discern with our eyes.
Praise him, sun and moon. Look, you pagans: look, you Manichaeans. The sun praises, it is not praised. Praise him, sun and moon. You call the sun a god. See after how many others it praises. Praise from the heavens, praise in the heights, praise, you angels, praise, all you hosts. Your god is placed as one that praises in the fifth rank. Praise him, sun and moon. He did not say, moon and sun; but, sun and moon. What is greater in light praises first. See the order of the visible things. Praise him, O sun: after the sun, the moon: after the moon, all the stars. All the stars: not only the morning star, not only the greater stars, but let the lesser ones as well alike praise the Lord. Let someone say: How do the sun and moon and stars praise God? In this, that they do not depart from their office and service. Their service is the praise of God. You have great honor, O human soul. The sun and moon and stars run their course for you, they serve for you. The angels, thrones, dominions have no need of the sun, nor of the moon, nor of the stars: for they are above the sun and moon in the heavenly places. The sun therefore and the moon and the stars are for our sake, they serve us. The apostle too says that the very creation groans together and is in travail for the deliverance of the sons of God. But when the sons of God shall have been taken up, then the creation itself also is set free from this servitude. Let someone say: How does the sun serve, and how is it set free? how the moon? how the stars? The sun is set free, that it may not look upon the Jews, nor upon the pagans, nor upon those who blaspheme their Lord. It sees parricides, it sees murderers: and yet it serves the command of him who ordered it. For he makes his sun to rise upon the just and the wicked. Praise him, all you stars and light. Let someone say: What is light without the sun, without the stars, without the moon? We can say, between night and day, or between day and night, there is that which shines apart from the sun: though many think that this very brightness belongs to the sun. He says therefore, Praise him, all you stars and light, so that just as he had said of the invisible things, Praise him, all his hosts, so also of the visible things he may say, Praise him, everything that shines.
Praise him, you heavens of heavens. We speak of several heavens. Indeed even Paul says that he was caught up into the third heaven. See therefore how great is the splendor, that there should be a heaven of heaven. And the rest, which follow, he said concerning the visible things.
For he spoke, and they were made. For God to have commanded is to have made: his command is the fashioning. For he spoke, and they were made: according to that which is written in Genesis, And God said, and God made: that is, God the Father spoke, God the Son made. Let someone say: Then greater is he who commands, and lesser is he who is commanded. This the Arians say, this the Eunomians say, and this the Macedonians say. I answer you according to your own way of thinking, O heretic. You say: Greater is the Father who commands, and lesser is the Son in that he is commanded by him. If this be according to human reasoning, answer me: which is greater, to command, or to make? I say, Let a house be built: and another builds the house. To speak is no great thing: to make is difficult. Greater therefore is he who makes than he who gives the order. But this too is impious: for the Son is not greater than the Father. For just as it is impious to believe this of the Son against the Father, so also it is impious to believe that of the Father against the Son. For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. One nature commands and makes: God commands, God makes. The painter orders that the painter should paint, and the painter paints what he had ordered to be painted.
He established them for ever, and for age upon age: he set a decree, and it shall not pass away. Great is the honor of man, and great his unhappiness. The sun runs its course for you, the elements serve you: and you do not know your Creator. He set a decree, and it shall not pass away. He set a decree for the sun: behold, through so many years the decree of God has never passed away. So far has it not passed away, that its course has even been grasped by human observation. He set a decree, and it shall not pass away. He set a decree for the moon, that through thirty days it should wax and wane: does it ever change its courses? In heaven the decree of God is kept, and on earth it is not kept. He set a decree for the sea, that it should not go beyond its shores: the ocean comes swelling with its waves, and returns into itself, and remembers the decree of God. The whole world serves God, and remembers his decree: and man alone does not remember. Therefore we say also in the Lord's Prayer: Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth. As in heaven the angels serve you, and the creation serves, so let man too serve. O unhappy race of men! God has come down to you, because you are unwilling to ascend to heaven. It is not enough for you that you do not receive him, but you kill: you kill, you crucify, you blaspheme, you scourge. It is not enough for you that you kill: but you do not even do penance for having killed. He spoke of the invisible things, he spoke also of the visible things, but of the visible heavenly things: now of the earth as well. See the order of praising. First the invisible things praise, then the visible: and the visible things themselves are divided into two, into the heavenly and the earthly. He spoke of the heavenly things, now he speaks of the earthly.
Praise the Lord from the earth. Since the angels have praised, the heaven has praised: let the earth also praise. Let us see which things of the earth praise first. Dragons and all deeps: fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirit of storms, which do his word: mountains and all hills, fruit-bearing trees, and all cedars: beasts, and all cattle, serpents and feathered fowl. After such great things, what is said? After the dragons, after the serpents, after the fire, after the hail, after the beasts and all the cattle? O man, you who seem to yourself so great, it is said of you: and not of the simple man, but of those men who are the greatest among men. Kings of the earth, and all peoples: princes, and all judges of the earth. Then there follows: Let young men and maidens, old men with younger ones praise the name of the Lord: for the name of him alone is exalted. And the rest that follows. Oh, how many mysteries are contained in these words! The heavenly things have praised, the invisible things have praised, the visible things have praised: now he descends to earthly things, and to the praise of God first the dragons and the deeps are stirred up. Where sin abounded, grace has superabounded. You who were first a dragon, who had the venom of the serpent: O you who were first a deep, and darkness was borne over the deep. See what he says. Where dragons are, there is venom: where the deep is, there is darkness. Do not despair therefore, O you who were a dragon, who were full of darkness, and did not dare to praise God; do penance, and at once you will be converted. Although in the Hebrew it does not have "dragons," but has THANNINIM, which is rendered "sea-monsters." Now the sea-monster (cetus) is said to be of boundless size. Indeed the sea-monster itself is said to be in the deeps. Let us then speak first according to the letter. See what he says. Praise, you things that are in the sea, and praise, you things that are outside the sea: dragons and all deeps. The whole from a part, by way of synecdoche (synekdochikōs). Then follows fire. See the concord of discord: water and fire together praise the Lord. Dragons and all deeps, fire. All things that are born from water are also born from fire, that is, from moisture and heat: neither can fire alone generate without moisture, nor moisture without fire. Nothing is so contrary as moisture to heat, and heat to moisture; yet by the will of God these things, which are diverse among themselves, come into concord in our birth. Hail, snow, ice, the spirit of storms, which do his word. There are many things that might be said, and we cannot linger over each one. Hail, snow, ice, the spirit of storms. All the things that we see in the world serve us. Serpents and deeps, fire, hail, snow, ice, the spirit of storms seem to be without reason: but they serve us. Yesterday there was a storm, it seemed to us to be against us: there was cold, there was damp, there were rains. This which for an hour seems to us to be against us, is for us: for it brings forth fruit for us. For see what he says: these things and those, which do his word. Blush, O man: serpents and deeps, snow, rains and storm do the word of God, and you do not do it. Mountains and all hills. Neither are mountains changed into hills, nor valleys into mountains: they keep their own nature. Fruit-bearing trees, and all cedars. You see a tree as if dry, its leaves lost: and at once, when the spring has come, it sends forth a bud for you, it brings forth fruit for you. The tree brings forth fruit for you, and you bring forth no fruit for God. And all cedars. Imitate the cedar: cedars strive toward the heights, as if they hasten to go to heaven. And you, imitate the irrational trees. Beasts, and all cattle. They change nothing of their nature: all stand in their own order, except man alone, to whom all things are made subject. Serpents, and feathered fowl. Neither do those things which are of the earth go to heaven, nor do those things which are in heaven come to earth: they serve you. Let someone say: You speak according to the literal sense, you do not speak allegorically: if you speak according to the literal sense, why do first the deeps, and snow, and hail, then the fruit-bearing trees, and the other irrational things praise the Lord, and last of all man? Let us read Genesis, and according to the order of the birth and the creatures, so shall we also see all things praise. For there it is written that first those living creatures were made which are in the water: then were made those which are on the earth: then the flying things were made: and afterward he made man alone. Therefore, as each was first made, so let it praise the Lord. But there is another sense. O man, all these things which I have named, for whose sake were they made? Beasts, serpents, fruit-bearing trees, feathered fowl: all these praise God in this, that they do not change their nature. For he set a decree, and it shall not pass away. Imitate therefore the things that serve you. They were made, that they might serve you: you were made, that you might serve God. They serve you: imitate the things that serve you, and serve God, just as they too serve you, and through God serve. To whom is glory for ever and ever. Amen.