Nehemiah 9:6

Thou, [even] thou, [art] LORD alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all [things] that [are] therein, the seas, and all that [is] therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

Ver. 6. Thou, even thou, art Lord alone] Jehovah is God's incommunicable name; that holy and reverend name of his which Jews pronounce not, we too oft profane, at least by not considering the import of it; which is enough to answer all our doubts, and to fill us with strong consolation, had we but skill to spell all the letters in it.

Thou hast made heaven] With great skill and artifice thou hast made it, three stories high, 2Co 12:2 Hebrews 11:10 .

The heaven of heavens] Called the highest, Luke 2:14, and the third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12:2. Of this heaven no natural knowledge can be had, nor any help by human arts, geometry, optics, &c.; for it is neither aspectable nor movable.

With all their host] i.e. Their furniture: angels, those heavenly courtiers, sun, moon, and stars, &c., which are all God's servants, Psalms 119:91, and do, in their way, worship him.

The earth, and all things that are therein] God may be read in the great book of nature, which hath three leaves, heaven, earth, and sea. Heaven is all that is above earth. Earth is an element of cold and dry nature, thick, solid, heavy, placed in the midst of the world as the foundation thereof, and therefore unmovable, though round (and in that respect naturally apt for motion), and though founded, not upon solid rocks, but fluid waters. This Aristotle himself wondered at, Lib. ii. de Caelo, cap. 13.

And all things that are thereon] Either therein, as metals and minerals; or thereon, as men, beasts, creeping things, &c.

The seas, and all that are therein] As, There is that leviathan, and creeping things innumerable. God's handiwork all of them.

And thou preservest them all] Givest them ζωην και πνοην, Acts 17:25, life and breath motion and maintenance; thou upholdest the whole creation by the word of thy power, and all things subsist by thy upholding, Hebrews 1:3. God doth not cast off the care of his works that he hath made (as doth the carpenter, or shipwright), but being perpetually present with them, ruleth, disposeth, and ordereth all by a certain counsel, to his own ends, and at length to his own glory.

And the host of heaven worshippeth thee] Angels and saints especially; who the more they know of God the more they love him and honour him; making their addresses to him with greatest self-abasement, considering their distance and disproportion. Thus angels: as for saints: "All thy works praise thee, O God," saith David, that is, they give matter and occasion; "but thy saints bless thee," Psalms 145:10. How they do this, see Revelation 5:11,12 .