Psalms — Chapter 148

LAUDATE DOMINUM DE CAELIS. Lapide: Psalm 148 — the great cosmic praise psalm. "Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise ye Him in the high places." The call to praise descends through all creation: angels (v.2), sun and moon (v.3), stars (v.3), heaven of heavens (v.4), waters above the heavens (v.4) — then earthly creation: sea monsters and deeps (v.7), fire and hail (v.8), mountains and hills (v.9), trees and animals (v.10) — finally men (vv.11-12). Lapide: the entire cosmos as one great choir of divine praise, with man as the conscious conductor who brings to explicit articulation what all creation performs by its very existence.