Psalms 150
Where and Why to Praise God 1–2
Instruments and Every Breath of Praise 3–6
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Psalm 150
Verse 1
Praise God in his sanctuary — Halal, to praise, occurs thirteen times in this psalm. Qodesh is holiness or the holy place, and the ‘firmament’ (raqia) is the expanse of Gen 1:6–8, which ‘sheweth his handywork’ (Ps 19:1). Praise is asked in the place of worship (Ps 134:2) and in the heavens above it.
Verse 2
his mighty acts — Gevurah, acts of might, and ‘excellent greatness’ is rov, abundance, with godel, greatness. Moses uses the same pair: ‘thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand… according to thy might’ (Deut 3:24). Ps 145:5–6 speaks of the same acts.
Verse 4
the timbrel and dance — Toph, the hand drum, and machol, the dance, are together in Ex 15:20, when ‘Miriam the prophetess… took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances’. ‘Organs’ is ugab, a reed pipe, first named in Gen 4:21, where Jubal is ‘the father of all such as handle the harp and organ’.
Verse 6
every thing that hath breath — Neshamah, the breath that God ‘breathed into his nostrils’ at the making of man (Gen 2:7), so the whole of what lives is summoned. The last verse of the Psalms matches John’s last vision of praise: ‘every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth’ (Rev 5:13).