Psalm 148
Waters above the heavens
Read/pray the psalm. (Full text at bottom.)
4 Praise him, all you highest heavens,
and you waters that are above the heavens.
What a beautiful roll call, in this psalm, of the created hierarchy, top to bottom!
But for our purposes here, let’s look at the “waters above the heavens.”
Most scholars say that ancient peoples viewed the “firmament” as a literal, hard dome, above which was an ocean of water.
But I find this supposed belief a too-literal reading of terms for the heavens, and anachronistic, attributing to ancient peoples a naïveté that I just don’t see.1
But in any case, symbolically, these waters represent the ‘masculine’ heavens, associated often with ‘seed’ planted in the ‘feminine’ earth. (See Isaiah 55:10-11 and Psalm 72:6.)
And correspondingly, the “waters below” are also an aspect of the ‘feminine’ earth, so that wells and springs repeatedly show up as symbols of female fecundity, fruitfulness. (Search my past posts for “well” and “spring.”)
So male and female are the two givens of the created human order.2
But contrary to modern assumptions, masculine and feminine are prior to, and more basic than, male and female.
(See especially medieval Christian cosmology, and C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra trilogy, as well as many other ancient cosmologies, for more on this.)
My best reason for affirming this conclusion is probably this:
Human marriage of male and female points to Christ and his church.
Since all of creation is created by him and for him, that identity and being is prior to humanity’s maleness and femaleness.
So…
Male and female are structural givens of creation—sexual dimorphism.
But each of us sometimes takes a role that reflects the masculine or the feminine, regardless of our sex; and Christians together are the bride of Christ.
Pray:
Thank you, Lord, for your great love towards your people, saying of us,
“…you shall be called My Delight Is in Her…. For... as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.” [Isaiah 62:4–5]Psalm 148 Laudate Dominum 1 Praise the Lord. O praise the Lord of heaven; * praise him in the heights. 2 Praise him, all you angels of his; * praise him, all his host. 3 Praise him, sun and moon; * praise him, all you stars of light. 4 Praise him, all you highest heavens, * and you waters that are above the heavens. 5 Let them praise the Name of the Lord, * for he spoke the word, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. 6 He has made them stand fast for ever and ever; * he has given them a law which shall not be broken. 7 Praise the Lord upon earth, * you sea monsters and all deeps; 8 Fire and hail, snow and fog, * wind and storm, fulfilling his word; 9 Mountains and all hills, * fruitful trees and all cedars; 10 Beasts and all cattle, * creeping things and birds of the air; 11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, * princes and all rulers of the world; 12 Young men and maidens, * old men and children together. 13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord, * for his Name only is excellent, and his praise above heaven and earth. 14 He shall exalt the horn of his people; all his faithful shall praise him, * the children of Israel, the people who are near him. Praise the Lord. New Coverdale Psalter
Ancient peoples could see that rains come from clouds, and that it never rains on a cloudless day or night. Clouds block our view of the sun, moon, and stars, and therefore have to be between us and these astral beings. The biblical authors have many experiences on literal mountaintops, and would have seen rains from a distance, clouds under the sun, etc. So to read “floodgates” of heaven as literal openings in the sky seems to me just too literal for people with such experiences to believe.
But mine is a minority view, please note.
( And just to be clear, I am not a young earth creationist, attempting to reconcile a literal reading of ancient texts to modern science; just the opposite, as this space amply demonstrates.)