Bellarmine on Psalm 148 : Verses 5 & 6

Verses 5 & 6

For he spoke, and they were made: he commanded, and they were created. He hath established them for ever, and for ages of ages: he hath made a decree, and it shall not pass away.

Quia ipse dixit, et facta sunt; ipse mandavit, et creata sunt. Statuit ea in aeternum, et in saeculum saeculi; praeceptum posuit, et non praeteribit.

This is the reason why all the things which have to this point been named should praise God, because they have been made by Him and they will endure incorrupt in eternity; and what is more wonderful, God made them for eternity not by great labour and over a long period of time but by (His) word and command. He said: “Be light made. And light was made.”[1] He ordered a thing that was not in existence should come into existence, and in immediate obedience that which before was nothing began to exist. “He hath established them for ever, and for ages of ages,” that is, he so constituted them that they should remain for ever and that they should not, like the lower bodies, come into being and then die. “He hath made a decree,” that is, God made a decree about this, “and it shall not pass away,” that is, and this decree will not pass away, it will not vanish in the air but will remain, and in remaining it will preserve these very things so that they will not pass away. The word præceptum is to be understood as referring to the incorruptible nature which God bestowed on the angels and heavenly bodies at creation. The words a decree (made) may also be understood as referring to the command given to heavenly things, that is to the angels, that they should always be praising God; to the sun and moon, and to the stars, that by their orbits and their light they should serve the human race ; and this decree “shall not pass away,” that is, as St. Hilary explains, it will not cease to have effect, as we indeed have learned friom experience that it has not ceased to have effect. Euthymius reads the text as they shall not pass away, but all the Hebrew, Greek and Latin texts that I have been able to see, say it shall not pass away. 

[1] Gen. i 3.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.