John Calvin Commentary Psalms 148:7

"Praise Jehovah from the earth, Ye sea-monsters, and all deeps." — Psalms 148:7 (ASV)

Praise Jehovah, etc. He now comes to the lower parts of the world. Although deviating at the same time from the exact order, he intermingles things produced in the air—lightning, snow, ice, and storms. These should rather have been placed among the former class, but he considers the common understanding of people.

The overall point is that wherever we turn our eyes, we find evidence of the power of God. He speaks first of the whales; for, as he mentions the abysses or deeps immediately afterwards, I have no doubt that by תנינים, tanninim, he means fish of the sea, such as whales.

It is only reasonable to think that material for praising God should be taken from the sea, which is filled with so many wonders. He then ascends to hail, snows, and storms, which he says fulfill the word of God. For it is not by chance that the heavens are clouded, or that a single drop of rain falls from the clouds, or that thunders rage. Instead, all these changes depend on the secret will of God, whether He will show His goodness to humankind by watering the earth, or punish their sins by tempest, hail, or other calamities.

The passage contains instruction of various kinds. For example, when scarcity threatens, however parched the earth may be from prolonged heat, God can promptly send rain to remove the drought as He pleases. If, on the other hand, the seed rots in the ground from constant rains, or the crops do not mature, we should pray for good weather.

If we are alarmed by thunder, we are taught to pray to God; for as He sends it in His anger, He can also calm all the troubled elements. Furthermore, we should not adopt the narrow view of this truth advocated by irreligious people—that things in nature merely move according to the laws established for them from the beginning, while God stands idly by. Instead, we are to hold firmly that God watches over His creatures and that nothing can take place without His immediate control, as we have seen in Psalm 104:4, where it says:

he maketh the winds his messengers,
and his ministers a flaming fire.