And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. A further intimation of the position assigned in the Old Testament to angels, contrasted by means of μὲν and δὲ, with further quotations with reference to the SON.
A difficulty has been felt with regard to this passage (cited, as usual, from the LXX) on the ground of the original Hebrew being supposed not to bear the meaning assigned to it. Hence the writer of the Epistle is said to have made use of an erroneous rendering for the purpose of his argument.
Certainly the context of the psalm, in which God is represented as arraying himself in the glories and operating through the powers of nature, suggests no other meaning than that he uses the winds as his messengers, etc.
, in the same poetical sense in which he was said in the preceding verse to make the clouds his chariot; cf. Psalms 148:8, "Fire and hail, snow and vapors, stormy wind fulfilling his word." If so, there is no necessary reference in the original psalm to angels.
But it is to be observed, on the other hand, that the structure of Psalms 148:4 is not in the Hebrew identical with that of "he maketh the clouds his chariot" in Psalms 148:3, and hence, in itself, suggests some difference of meaning.