Bellarmine on Psalm 148 : Verse 7

Verse 7

Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons, and all ye deeps:

Laudate Dominum de terra, dracones et omnes abyssi;

He now moves on to the corruptible elements of the world below which contains the earth, sea and sky, and the terrestrial and aquatic creatures, along with the birds; as also the thunder and lightning, hail, winds and such like. In this way, he clearly refutes the Manichæans who spread the fiction that these lower things were not of the good God but had their origin in a certain evil principle. “Praise the Lord,” he says, “from the earth;” he had said (at the beginning) “Praise ye the Lord from the heavens;” now he says : “Praise the Lord from the earth,” for “In the beginning God created heaven, and earth;”[1] and just as he calls back all the higher things to heaven, which is the seat of the angels; so does he wish to call back all the lower things to earth, which is the seat of men. This is indeed the reason why he has not named fire, air or water in the first place, because earth is the second part of the world and all the other elements such as fire, air and water, serve  man who dwells there. After he has said “Praise the Lord from the earth,” that is, all ye who are on the earth or belong to the earth, he begins to enumerate particular creatures and in the first place to recall the waters and the fishes in these declivities of the earth; for by dragons are to be understood in this text the great fishes, and by deeps are to be understood the deep waters in which the fishes dwell : thus says St. John Chrysostom who shows this from Psalm CIII : “This sea dragon which thou hast formed to play therein,”[2] that is, in the sea; and from Psalm LXXIII : “Thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters.”[3]

[1] Genesis i 1.

[2] So is this great sea, which stretcheth wide its arms: there are creeping things without number: Creatures little and great. There the ships shall go. This sea dragon which thou hast formed to play therein. Hoc mare magnum et spatiosum manibus; illic reptilia quorum non est numerus, animalia pusilla cum magnis. Illic naves pertransibunt; draco iste quem formasti ad illudendum ei. [Psalm CIII 25-26]

[3] Thou by thy strength didst make the sea firm: thou didst crush the heads of the dragons in the waters. Tu confirmasti in virtute tua mare; contribulasti capita draconum in aquis. [Psalm LXIII 13]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.