Verses 3 & 4
Praise ye him, O sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars and light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens: and let all the waters that are above the heavens. Praise the name of the Lord.
Laudate eum, sol et luna; laudate eum, omnes stellae et lumen. Laudate eum, caeli caelorum; et aquae omnes quae super caelos sunt, laudent nomen Domini.
From the angels, who are endowed with a mind and reason, and so praise God in the strict sense, he descends to the heavenly bodies who do not praise by their mind or intelligence, which they do not have, but who praise by their greatness, their speed, their power, their splendour and their beauty, just as every outstanding piece of handiwork is said to praise the craftsman who made it.
Firstly, he names the sun, which by common consent is the principal among all the others; next he adds the moon, which either in an absolute sense, as the Fathers seem to put it, especially St.Augustine in Book II, Chapter XVI of
De Gen.; or when considered as regards its appearance and power in the lower bodies, is greater than all the other stars; he adds afterwards the other stars; finally, he adds light, by which we understand light coming from the sun, the moon and the stars and diffused over the lower bodies, and especially in the atmosphere, whence it refreshes us wondrously. Having enumerated these things contained in the heavens, he passes next to the sky itself, and he calls this
the heavens of heavens, that is, the upper heavens, to which the lower heavens are subject, in which clouds appear and the birds have their flight; hence we read in the Scriptures of the clouds of heaven and the birds of the air. To these upper heavens he adds the waters which are above the heavens, so that there is nothing whatsoever in the higher part of the world that he does
not include. Now concerning these waters, some things are allowed to be disputed among commentators, but some things should be beyond controversy.
Firstly, it ought to be considered certain that these waters are physical and not spiritual, the latter being an error of which Origen was convicted by St. Epiphanius in his epistle
To John Bishop of Jerusalem, which St. Jerome rendered in Latin, and by Basil and Ambrose in
On the work of the Six Days.
Secondly, that these waters are above the heavenly ether and not, as some would have, in the sky : for in this text the prophet shows that they are above the heavens of heavens because when he said “Praise him, ye heavens of heavens,” he straightway adds “all the waters that are above the heavens,” namely those he had just referred to as “the heavens of heavens,” and in
Psalm CIII, speaking of the same heaven, the Prophet says : “Who stretchest out the heaven like a pavilion: Who coverest the higher rooms thereof with water;”
[1] and clearly in Ch. I of
Genesis, Moses places the waters over the firmament, in which firmament he shortly afterwards placed the stars. And most clearly in the hymn of the three children in
Daniel III, all the works of the Lord are enumerated in order; and in the first place are set the angels, and then the heavens and the waters that are above the heavens, and then the sun and moon, and the stars and other inferior bodies; and this is the judgement of the ancient Fathers, as we have noted in Psalm CIII.
Thirdly, that these waters are incorruptible and eternal : for of these which have just been enumerated, he says in a subsequent verse: “He hath established them for ever, and for ages of ages.”
[1] And art clothed with light as with a garment. Who stretchest out the heaven like a pavilion: Who coverest the higher rooms thereof with water. Who makest the clouds thy chariot: who walkest upon the wings of the winds. amictus lumine sicut vestimento. Extendens caelum sicut pellem, qui tegis aquis superiora ejus; qui ponis nubem ascensum tuum, qui ambulas super pennas ventorum; [Psalm CIII 2-3]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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