Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 148 · on Psalm 148:1
"Praise ye the Lord from heaven". As though he had found things in heaven holding their peace in the praise of the Lord, he exhorts them to arise and praise. Never have things in heaven held their peace in the praises of their Creator, never have things on earth ceased to praise God. But it is manifest that there are…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 148 · on Psalm 148:5
"Praise Him, all you angels of His, praise Him, all His powers". "Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars and light". "Praise Him, you heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens". "Let them praise the Name of the Lord". When can he unfold all in his enumeration? Yet he has in a manner touched…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 148 · on Psalm 148:6
"He hath established them for the age, and for age upon age" (ver. 6). All things in heaven, all things above, all powers and angels, a certain city on high, good, holy, blessed; from whence because we are wanderers, we are wretched; whither because we are to return, we are blessed in hope; whither when we shall have…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 148 · on Psalm 148:7
Let him then turn himself to things on earth too, since he has already spoken the praises of things in heaven. "Praise ye the Lord from the earth". For wherewith began he before? "Praise ye the Lord from heaven:" and he went through things in heaven: now hear of things on earth. "Dragons and all abysses." "Abysses"…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 148 · on Psalm 148:8
"Fire, hail, snow, ice, wind of storms, which do His word". Wherefore added he here, "which do His word"? Many foolish men, unable to contemplate and discern creation, in its several places and rank, performing its movements at the nod and commandment of God think that God does indeed rule all things above, but things…
Blessed AugustineExposition on Psalm 148 · on Psalm 148:14
"His confession is in earth and heaven" (ver. 14). What is "His confession"? Is it the confession wherewith He confesseth? No, but that whereby all things confess Him, all things cry aloud: the beauty of all things is in a manner their voice, whereby they praise God. The heaven crieth out to God, "Thou madest me, not…
Every note is a real passage, quoted word for word from a published English translation, with its source. Nothing here is summarised or written by us. Some verses have many notes and some have none, because the Fathers wrote more on some passages than others.
Blessed Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, tr. A. Cleveland Coxe from the Oxford translation, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888).
Scripture: the Septuagint, in the translation of Sir Lancelot Brenton (1851), with spelling updated by Adam Boyd (2020); the Greek is Brenton's Septuagint text.
All of these translations are in the public domain. The passages were matched to their verses by the Historical Christian Commentaries project, which also hosts the full texts we link to. The Fathers are a treasury of the Church's mind, and they are best read alongside the life of the Church: if a passage raises a question, bring it to your priest.