Psalms — Chapter 150

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1Hallelujah! Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens.

2Praise Him for His mighty acts; praise Him for His excellent greatness.

3Praise Him with the sound of the horn; praise Him with the harp and lyre.

4Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; praise Him with strings and flute.

5Praise Him with clashing cymbals; praise Him with resounding cymbals.

6Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Hallelujah!

1Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.

2Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

3Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.

4Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.

5Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

6Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

1Praise ye Jehovah. Praise God in his sanctuary: Praise him in the firmament of his power.

2Praise him for his mighty acts: Praise him according to his excellent greatness.

3Praise him with trumpet sound: Praise him with psaltery and harp.

4Praise him with timbrel and dance: Praise him with stringed instruments and pipe.

5Praise him with loud cymbals: Praise him with high sounding cymbals.

6Let everything that hath breath praise Jehovah. Praise ye Jehovah.

1Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in the sky, which testifies to his strength!

2Praise him for his mighty acts; praise him for his surpassing greatness!

3Praise him with the blast of the horn; praise him with the lyre and the harp!

4Praise him with the tambourine and with dancing; praise him with stringed instruments and the flute!

5Praise him with loud cymbals; praise him with clanging cymbals!

6Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

1Praise Yah! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!

2Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness!

3Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre!

4Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!

5Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals!

6Let everything that has breath praise Yah! Praise Yah!

Summary
Authorship & Background
Commentary
Videos
Articles
Reflection

Summary

This final psalm is a grand doxology calling for praise of God in his sanctuary and in the heavens above, for his mighty acts and surpassing greatness (vv. 1-2). It calls for praise with trumpet, harp and lyre, tambourine and dancing, strings and pipe, and clashing cymbals (vv. 3-5), closing the entire Psalter with a sweeping call for everything that has breath to praise the LORD (v. 6).

Authorship & Background

Author: Multiple authors — primarily David (73 psalms attributed), plus Asaph (12), Sons of Korah (11), Solomon (2), Moses (1), Heman (1), Ethan (1), and anonymous. The Psalter was compiled over approximately 1000 years and served as Israel's hymnal and prayer book. The book is divided into five 'books' (1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150), paralleling the five books of Moses.
Classification: Doxology / Hallelujah Psalm — The Grand Finale
Attributed Author: Anonymous
Key Themes: Universal praise with every instrument, praise everywhere (sanctuary and sky), praise for who God is and what He's done, everything with breath praising the LORD, the Psalter's climactic conclusion
Historical Context: Psalm 150 is the grand finale of the entire Book of Psalms — the final word of Israel's hymnal. After 149 psalms spanning every human emotion — joy, sorrow, anger, fear, love, doubt, confidence, despair — the Psalter ends with pure praise. The word "praise" (hallelujah/hallelu) appears 13 times in 6 verses. The psalm answers five questions: where to praise (v.1), why to praise (v.2), how to praise (vv.3-5), and who should praise (v.6). The answer to the last question is the climax of the entire book: "Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD." Every instrument, every location, every living being — all exist for one ultimate purpose: praising God. This is where all of Scripture points: universal, unending praise.
Praise God in His Sanctuary (v.1): Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Six verses close the psalter and they contain thirteen imperatives and nothing else. The first verse settles where, and it names the two ends of the range, the temple on the ground and the vault of the sky, so the same act is asked for in the smallest room and the largest.
According to His Excellent Greatness (v.2): Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. The two reasons cover what God has done and what God is, which between them is everything the previous hundred and forty-nine psalms have been about. According to sets no achievable measure and the psalm knows it.
Praise Him upon the Loud Cymbals (vv.3-5): Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. The orchestra is listed by family, wind, strings, percussion, and it takes in the dance as well, praise him with the timbrel and dance. Organs renders ugab, a pipe of some kind, and has nothing to do with the instrument the word now means. The list ends by getting louder twice over, praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals, and the psalter's last instruction about volume is to increase it.
Let Every Thing That Hath Breath Praise the LORD (v.6): Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD. The qualification for the choir is breathing, which is the lowest bar the psalter could have set and the widest membership it could have named. And there the book ends. A collection that opened on the two ways in Psalm 1 and spent its length complaining, pleading, confessing, arguing and cursing closes with no petition in it at all: nothing is asked for in these six verses. Psalm 88 is still in the book and never turns, Psalm 137 is still in the book and ends where it ends, and the psalter does not withdraw either of them. What it does is put this last, which is a claim about where all of it was going rather than a denial of where it has been.

Commentary

  • Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Verse-by-verse commentary on this chapter, written for the everyday reader and freely available online.
  • Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
  • Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Psalms 146-150 | All Creation Praises the King | Bible Study
Spoken Gospel

Psalm 150 - Let All Things Praise the LORD
David Guzik

Articles

  • GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of Psalms -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

  • Praise Wherever You Are (v.1) — The psalm calls for praise both in God's sanctuary and across the expanse of the heavens, leaving no place exempt. Is worship confined to a building or a specific hour for you, or does it follow you into the rest of your life?
  • Praise for Both What God Does and Who He Is (v.2) — Worshipers are called to praise God for His mighty acts and, separately, for His surpassing greatness. Do you praise God only when He's just done something for you, or also simply for who He is regardless of circumstance?
  • Praise With Everything You Have (vv.3-5) — The psalm lists trumpet, harp, tambourine, strings, and cymbals, refusing to limit worship to one acceptable style or instrument. Are you holding back some skill, gift, or form of expression that could be offered to God as worship?
  • Praise as the Purpose of Every Living Thing (v.6) — The Psalter's closing line declares that everything with breath should praise the Lord, making worship the intended purpose of all life. Does your everyday breathing, working, and living actually function as praise, or is praise something separate you occasionally add on?