Psalm 148 and Praying to Angels

 

I found myself in several discussions with several different Catholic and Orthodox Christians over the last few days about the topic of praying to saints. The discussion began with a friend of mine, and I decided to put a post up on Substack to broaden the discussion and get the perspective of other high Church believers on this issue:

I generally don’t spend a lot of time criticizing Catholicism or Orthodoxy on my blog, in my writings or in my sermons. I only bring it up very occasionally. The reasons for this is very simple; my own denomination and many Protestant denominations, have enough error in them for me to be concerned about. I am far more likely to encounter someone who thinks going to pray at the Wall in Jerusalem is a good idea than someone who believes it is a good thing to ask St Michael to intercede for them. So, I focus on where I can make an impact from the outside.

But every now and then I will get into discussions with those from other traditions.

In a recent discussion I was told how Psalm 148 necessitates the practice of praying to angels and saints. Psalm 148 says this,

“148 Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
2 Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
3 Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
4 Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For He commanded and they were created.
6 He also established them forever and ever;
He made a decree which shall not pass away.

7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
You great sea creatures and all the depths;
8 Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
9 Mountains and all hills;
Fruitful trees and all cedars;
10 Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and flying fowl;
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
12 Both young men and maidens;
Old men and children.

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
14 And He has exalted the horn of His people,
The praise of all His saints—
Of the children of Israel,
A people near to Him.

Praise the Lord!”

It is especially verses 1-2 that are relevant. A Protestant believer will read this and immediately think incredulously, “Where on earth does that passage say to pray to saints.” A Catholic believer will immediately read it and say, “Victory is won, I will accept your surrender on this topic now.” How do they get there you ask?

Well, the argument goes, the Psalms are liturgical prayers, and therefore when the Psalmist wrote this prayer he addressed the angels in verse 2, therefore it is legitimate, indeed biblical, to address the angels, and the saints in our prayers. The saints, after all, in heaven are among the “hosts” this prayer addresses.” This is a very simple argument, it has a weight to it, it is seeking to be biblical, and to every single Protestant hearing it is rather jarring. Not because we find it persuasive, but precisely because we do not. So, I want to address it today.

The chief problem with this argument is that it draws a line from a potential reading to then assert a certain conclusion. This is a logical error, and for every Protestant it is one that stands against all the passages in the Bible that tell us to address our prayers to God. Firstly, no not all the Psalms are liturgical prayers. Secondly even if this one is, this is not the only way to read it. The same Psalm also says that animals are being directed to praise God, therefore it is much better read as a general exhortation for all creation to worship God, rather than as a direct address to the angels and saints. It can also be a polemic against idolators who turn all of God’s created beings and things into objects of worship, hence it is an address to idolators and believers alike about where true worship is directed. It is just too long a bow to draw to say that this Psalm addresses the angels therefore we should too in our prayers.

But I want to a give a more detailed response, that encapsulates how the Catholic or Orthodox might read this, and show that even if they are correct in their reading, it still does not support their conclusion. I think looking at redemption history really forces us to challenge the idea of addressing the Angels or Saints in our prayers. So let’s go through my argument, which starts from their premise, the angels are being addressed in a prayer. 

Firstly, angels played a different role in the Old Covenant that they do in the new. They acted as intermediaries between God and his people. Specifically, the Old Covenant, or the Mosaic Law given at Sinai, was mediated by angels. Scripture explicitly states this in multiple places. The law was "ordained through angels by an intermediary" (Galatians 3:19), it was "delivered by angels" (Acts 7:53), and the "message declared by angels proved to be reliable" (Hebrews 2:2).

However, the New Testament does not merely say angels delivered the law; it explicitly states that the purpose of this angelic mediation was to establish distance and unapproachability. In Acts 7:53 and Galatians 3:19, the angelic mediation of the law signifies that the covenant was indirect, fearful, and kept the people at arm's length from God. Under that system, human priests and angels stood as necessary relays because the people could not draw near. Hence, the angels were in a different active place in the Old covenant than they are in the New. I still think saying we should pray to them draws a long bow from an uncertain interpretation, but the angels are explicitly described as playing a different role.

Secondly, you could argue that under that Old Covenant system, it was entirely appropriate to revere and recognize these angelic mediators, and the Psalms, including Psalm 148, but also Psalm 29, and some others, reflect this old order by calling on angels to join in praise. But we cannot stop there, we have to acknowledge the change.

The heart of the New Covenant promise is direct access to God. Hebrews 4:16 commands us to "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace”, not through an angel, not through a saint, but through our great High Priest. Ephesians 2:18 declares that "through Him [Christ] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father." The "one mediator" of 1 Timothy 2:5 is not merely the mediator of salvation, but also the mediator of access. If Christ is the sole conduit of prayer to the Father, introducing angels or saints as a required or even recommended way of anpproach implies Christ's access is insufficient. We have gone from needing priests to being priests (Rev. 1:6). Our access to Jesus is as real and as direct as anyone in heaven. This is foundational New Testament teaching.

The New Testament explicitly declares that the Old Covenant is obsolete (Hebrews 8:13) and has been replaced by a New Covenant. The order of things has changed. Jesus said the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than even John who was the greatest of the old order (Matt. 11:11). We have to be careful in how we read the Psalms, as the fulfilment of the Old order in Christ has changed much of how we should approach the Old Testament.

Thirdly, a defining feature of the  New Covenant is a radical change in mediation. We no longer have a mediated, tiered system requiring angels or human priests to bridge the gap. Instead, Scripture declares unequivocally: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). Christ is the "mediator of a new covenant" (Hebrews 9:15; 12:24). To take a disputed text and use it to change this access to requiring or encouraging other intermediaries can be described as nothing but a backwards step, indeed, almost a Judaizing of the New Covenant. It is at the very least unnecessary, and that is being charitable.

I understand that the Catholics and Orthodox believe when they speak to saints in heaven, it is the equivalent of asking living friends to speak to Jesus on their behalf. To them these people are as alive as us, and they are correct, the dead in Christ are alive with him in heaven, they do not face the second death. They believe they are simply talking to living friends or believers. I get that, and I will admit I find that argument interesting, but it is also unconvincing. When Paul commands intercessory prayer for one another in 1 Timothy 2:1-4, he is commanding living believers on earth to pray for other living believers on earth. The New Testament never commands, models, or prescribes a single instance of a living believer directing a prayer or petition toward a departed saint or an angel. The biblical pattern for intercession is horizontal believers in fellowship asking other believers in fellowship to pray for them to God, through Christ, not vertical, that is not believers asking deceased believers to intercede on their behalf. To invoke the departed is to cross a jurisdictional line that Scripture never authorizes.

Of course, the Catholic or Orthodox might just call me a hypocrite here, because I ask living friends to pray for me all the time. Why then not the living in heaven? They are as alive, maybe even more alive than we are, of course. The answer to this is simple: I know when I ask a friend at church to pray for me that he hears me and I am confident he will pray. I have no such confidence that the dead in Christ are listening to me. I know they are in heaven praying as Revelation 6:9-10 and Revelation 8:1-5 clearly indicate. But these passages also tell us what they are praying for, not the requests of believers on earth, but the for God to wreak his vengeance on those who persecuted them. Revelation 8:1-5 should be read as the answer to the prayers in Revelation 6:9-10.

When I pray, I want to pray with confidence, and the only way to do that is to pray to the best saint, the best mediator, the best man for the job, Jesus,

“13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:13-14).

I fully accept our need for someone to put a good word in for me with the Lord on his throne, and we are told that Jesus is the best man for the job,

“1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2).

Fourthly, but Matthew the Bible explicitly says we are in the congregation with the angels and the saints in heaven. This is what Hebrews 12:22-24 says,

“22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

I love this passage. And it does teach that.

However, I would contend that the Catholic appeal to Hebrews 12:22-24 actually proves the opposite of their point. Because, remember what is one of the points of Hebrews, our access to Jesus Christ has been made direct. Yes, the New Covenant brings us to "an innumerable company of angels" and "spirits of the just men made perfect" but look at what is happening in the passage. It is not telling us that we gain access to them to ask them to intercede for us. It is saying that we have joined them in direct access and worship to the Lord God and his Son. This is what Jesus achieved for us. Our access to God, through Jesus, is direct. Yes, we come to them, but they are passive observers, not active recipients of our prayers. The angels and spirits are in the vicinity, but they are not the object of our address. The text explicitly reserves the role of "mediator" exclusively for Jesus in that very same verse (Hebrews 12:24). Therefore, it does the opposite of saying we should address them.

If the saints are alive, and they most definitely are, they are in the presence of God, eternally beholding His glory. Their focus is entirely upon the beatific vision, not upon monitoring the daily prayer requests of billions of humans on earth which would require them to almost have omniscience, or a much higher access to our lives than the Bible confirms. In fact, Revelation 6 and 8 show their focus is towards God asking him to avenge their blood. Revelation 15 confirms their focus is on God,

“2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. 3 They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints! 4 Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.”

The saints are alive. They are in communion with God. They are indeed praying to God. Yet, we don’t have any indication of them running messages back from earth to heaven. Their focus is on God, and they are praying directly to him. Furthermore, if they are alive in Christ, and they most certainly are, they follow the New Covenant practice of praying to the Father through the Son, by the Spirit. There is no biblical evidence that they hear our verbal petitions; that is an assumption that grants them a divine attribute. It is an inference in which you can have no confidence in.

Psalm 148 is a beautiful Old Covenant poem that calls angels to praise God in their own celestial context. It provides zero instruction for how New Covenant believers are to direct their prayers. The New Testament explicitly frames the Sinai angelic mediation as a temporary, inferior, and distant system, and explicitly replaces it with the singular, sufficient, and direct mediatorship of Christ. Therefore, even if we were to concede to that Catholic or Orthodox reading of the Psalm, something that is not required of the text, and which we are only doing in a spirit of charity, using Psalm 148 to justify invoking angels or saints is not just a minor exegetical error. It is a fundamental failure to recognize how access to the heavenlies has changed because of Christ’s work for us. In the New Covenant the Mediator descended to us, and through Him, we ascend directly to the Father. To add angelic or saintly invocation is to demote Christ from "sole" Mediator to "primary" Mediator, a completely unnecessary step.

I do not expect this article to immediately cause my Catholic of Orthodox friends to change their minds. However, it cannot be said that we have no response to their perspective.