Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.
Parallel translations
- WEB Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you shining stars!
- BSB Praise Him, O sun and moon; praise Him, all you shining stars.
- NKJV Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light!
- NASB Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light!
- NLT Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you twinkling stars!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The sun, moon, and stars are called to praise God. The celestial lights testify to the glory of their Maker.
Overview
The great heavenly bodies, which pagan nations worshiped, are here commanded to worship the true God instead. They are creatures, not gods, declaring His glory by their existence. The heavens declare the glory of God who made them through His eternal Word (Psalm 19:1; John 1:3).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 19:1–6The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
- Ps 136:7–9To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:
- Ps 8:1–3O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
- Gen 1:14–16And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
- Deut 4:19And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
- Gen 8:22While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
- Ps 89:36–37His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
- Jer 33:20Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 148:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.