Everything Praise
The final psalm. Every instrument, every breath, every living thing — one great chorus. This is how the songbook ends.
Tap any verse number for what that verse means.
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.
Psalm 150, the grand finale of the Psalter, is a comprehensive call to praise that answers three questions: Where? (in the sanctuary and the mighty heavens), Why? (for God's mighty acts and surpassing greatness), and How? (with every instrument available—trumpet, harp, lyre, tambourine, strings, flute, cymbals). The final verse expands 'everything that has breath' to the universal summons, providing the Psalter with a doxological conclusion that has echoed through millennia of worship.
The psalm's position as the Psalter's conclusion is deliberate: the entire collection—with its laments, confessions, petitions, and praises—resolves into unqualified praise. The thirteen uses of 'praise' (hallelu) in six verses create a literary crescendo. The instruments listed represent the full temple orchestra.
The psalm's theology is breathtakingly simple: the appropriate response to God's acts and nature is total, uninhibited praise using every available means. The movement from 'sanctuary' to 'mighty heavens' to 'everything that has breath' universalizes worship beyond any single location or community. The Psalter that began with the 'blessed' person meditating on Torah (Psalm 1) concludes with all creation praising the Creator.
This psalm declares that the final word of Scripture's prayer book is not petition, confession, or lament, but praise. It invites the worshiper to bring their whole self—body, voice, creativity—into the act of worship and to recognize that praise is the ultimate destiny of everything that breathes.
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Scripture text: King James Version — public domain.