Psalm 150 (NRSV)
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament!
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his surpassing greatness!
3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with clanging cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150 is a hymn. This psalm is a simple call for people to praise the Lord. The Psalter goes out not with a whimper but rather with a bang — a joyous summons to all living creation to praise its Creator however, wherever and with whatever means are available. The hymnbook of ancient Israel thus ends, ironically, with one of the most contemporary of musical forms: the praise chorus. 1 (Hallelu-yah) Praise the Lord! Praise (halal) God in his sanctuary. The poet refers to the heart of the sacred community known as Israel. The temple, of which the sanctuary was the innermost core, was the point of contact between earth and heaven, and thus, he urges the praise of God in his mighty firmament! The overturned transparent dome held up the waters above the earth. 2 Praise God for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his surpassing greatness! The poet refers to the common recitation of God’s gracious acts on behalf of Israel. They are generic terms probably meant to include God’s acts in creation as well as history. Even such brief statements remind us that the faith of Israel does not arise from cool pondering of human experience. The faith of Israel arises out of events it viewed as acts of God. It was not the universal in the philosophical sense that meant so much to Israel, but the events in which the Lord acted to guide, judge, deliver, and redeem. 3 Praise God with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! The mention of musical instruments suggests worship in the Temple. Whether such an ensemble ever played for the temple service is doubtful, given the variations in pitch and tonality, but the point is not orchestral; the point is the comprehensive nature of the summons. 6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! (hallelu-yah) Praise the Lord! Given its rather elaborate exhortation to praise God, the poet may have had in mind a concluding doxology to the whole Hebrew Psalter.[1] This would be fitting, since the psalter contains five books, each of which concludes with a praise offering: 41:14, 72:18-20, 89:53, 106:48.
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