Psalm 148 · a question people ask
What are the "waters that are above the heavens" (148:4)?
The psalm names them among those called to praise, and says nothing more about them: "Praise him, you heavens of heavens, you waters that are above the heavens" (148:4). Genesis 1 has three of the same Hebrew words, hammayim asher me'al, the waters which were above: "God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse" (Genesis 1:7). In the next verse God calls the expanse sky (Genesis 1:8), and in Hebrew that is shamayim, the psalm's word for heavens. The psalm's heavens of heavens is in the prayer of Nehemiah 9 too: "You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army" (Nehemiah 9:6), the same Hebrew words, shemei hashamayim. Neither the psalm nor Genesis says more about the waters above, and these notes don't either.
The verses
“Praise him, you heavens of heavens, you waters that are above the heavens.”
“God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day.”
“You are the LORD, even you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their army, the earth and all things that are on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve them all. The army of heaven worships you.”