Psalms 150: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

This short psalm closes the book of Psalms with a call to praise God. It names where to praise him, why to praise him, and which instruments to use, listing horn, harp, lyre, tambourine, strings, flute, and two kinds of cymbals, along with dancing. It ends by calling on everything that breathes to join in.

Claim by Claim

1. 150:1
   • A call is issued to praise the LORD.
   • A command is given to praise God in his holy place, which may equally mean in his holiness.
   • A command is given to praise him in the expanse of his strength.
2. 150:2
   • A command is given to praise him for his acts of might.
   • A command is given to praise him in proportion to the abundance of his greatness.
3. 150:3
   • A command is given to praise him with the blast of the ram's horn.
   • A command is given to praise him with the harp and the lyre.
4. 150:4
   • A command is given to praise him with the hand-drum and with dancing.
   • A command is given to praise him with stringed instruments and the pipe.
5. 150:5
   • A command is given to praise him with sounding cymbals.
   • A command is given to praise him with cymbals of loud blaring.
6. 150:6
   • Everything that has breath is to praise the LORD.
   • A call is issued to praise the LORD.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

150:1

"Praise ye the LORD" translates the single Hebrew word *halelu-yah* (a plural command, "praise Yah," *Yah* being the short form of the divine name. It is the source of the English word "hallelujah," and it opens and closes this psalm. Where the text prints LORD in capitals it stands for that personal name of God, which Hebrew writes with four consonants (YHWH) and which readers did not pronounce aloud. "Sanctuary" is the holy place) the temple in Jerusalem, or the heavenly counterpart of it. "Firmament" is the King James word for the vault or dome of the sky, pictured in the Hebrew as a solid expanse spread over the earth; "the firmament of his power" means either the sky as the place where his power resides or the sky as the display of it.

150:3

The "trumpet" here is the *shofar*, a ram's horn, blown as a signal at festivals, battles and coronations rather than played for melody. The "psaltery" (*nebel*) and "harp" (*kinnor*) are two different stringed instruments, the *kinnor* a small lyre held in the arms, the *nebel* a larger, deeper-sounding instrument. Their exact construction is not known.

150:4

A "timbrel" is a hand drum, a hoop with a skin stretched over it, like a tambourine; in the Hebrew Bible it is usually played by women leading a procession of song and dance. "Organs" does not mean a church organ, which did not exist; the King James translators used the word for a simple pipe or flute, and the Hebrew term (*ugab*) probably refers to a wind instrument of that kind.

150:5

The Hebrew names two kinds of cymbal in the two lines, and the difference is one of sound rather than of type, roughly "cymbals of hearing" and "cymbals of loud noise," perhaps smaller clashing cymbals and larger resounding ones.

150:6

"Every thing that hath breath" renders a Hebrew phrase (*kol ha-neshamah*) covering everything that draws breath, living creatures generally, not human beings only. This is the last verse of the last psalm, and the closing "Praise ye the LORD" ends not only this psalm but the whole book of Psalms.