Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 150:6

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 150:6. Let every thing that hath breath — Either to make a vocal noise, or a sound by blowing into pipes, fifes, flutes, trumpets, c. Let all join together, and put forth all your strength and all your skill in sounding the praises of Jehovah and then let a universal burst with HALLELUJAH! close the grand ceremony. It is evident that this Psalm has no other meaning than merely the summoning up all the voices, and all the instruments, to complete the service in FULL CHORUS.

Of such peculiar importance did the Book of Psalms appear to our blessed Lord and his apostles, that they have quoted nearly fifty of them several times in the New Testament. There is scarcely a state in human life that is not distinctly marked in them; together with all the variety of experience which is found, not merely among pious Jews, but among Christians, the most deeply acquainted with the things of Christ.

The minister of God's word, who wishes to preach experimentally, should have frequent recourse to this sacred book; and by considering the various parts that refer to Jesus Christ and the Christian Church, he will be able to build up the people of God on their most holy faith; himself will grow in grace, and in the knowledge of God; and he will ever have an abundance of the most profitable matter for the edification of the Church of Christ.

ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH PSALM

This Psalm is the same with the former. In the hundred and forty-eighth, all creatures are invited to praise God; in the hundred and forty-ninth, men especially, and those who are in the Church; but in this, that they praise him with all kinds of instruments.

I. An invitation to praise God, which word he repeats thirteen times, according to the thirteen attributes of God, as the rabbins reckon them.

II. That this be done with all sorts of instruments, intimating that it is to be performed with all the care, zeal, and ardency of affection.

I. Throughout the Psalm he calls on men to praise God.

1. "Praise God in his sanctuary." Or in your hearts, which are the temples of the Holy Ghost.

2. "Praise him in the firmament," c. His magnificence when he sits on his throne. Some understand the Church by it, in which his saints shine as stars in the firmament.

3. "Praise him for his mighty acts," c. The works of his power.

4. "Praise him according," &c. Whereby he excels all things he being absolutely great they only comparatively so.

II. The prophet desires that no way be omitted by which we may show our zeal and ardency in praising him.

1. "Praise him with the sound of the trumpet," c. An instrument used in their solemn feasts.

2. "Praise him with the psaltery," &c. And with these they sing, so that there is also music with the voice.

3. "Praise him with the timbrel," &c. In the choir with many voices.

4. "Praise him with stringed instruments," &c. Lutes, viols, organs, &c.

5. "Praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals," &c. An instrument which yields a loud sound, as bells among us.

His conclusion is of universal reference "Let every thing," &c.

1. "Every thing that hath breath," &c. That hath faculty or power to do it.

2. "Every thing that hath life," &c. Whether spiritual, as angels or animal, as man and beasts. Or, metaphorically, such as, though inanimate, may be said to praise God, because they obey his order and intention. Thus, all things praise God, because all things that have life or being derive it immediately from himself.

MASORETIC NOTES ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS

Number of verses, two thousand five hundred and twenty-seven. Middle verse. Psalms 78:36. Sections, nineteen.

At the end of the Syriac we have this colophon: -

"The hundred and fifty Psalms are completed. There are five books, fifteen Psalms of degrees, and sixty of praises. The number of verses is four thousand eight hundred and thirty-two. There are some who have added twelve others but we do not need them. And may God be praised for ever!"

At the end of the Arabic is the following: -

The end of the five books of Psalms. The first book ends with the fortieth Psalm; the second, with the seventieth Psalm; the third, with the eightieth Psalm; the fourth, with the hundred and fifteenth; and the fifth, with the last Psalm, i.e., the hundred and fiftieth.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalms 147-150 Praise the Lord

God’s people should praise him constantly for his merciful and loving care: his care over them in particular (147:1-2), his care over those who sorrow (3), his care over all his creation (4), and his special care for the downtrodden (5-6). God delights to provide for the physical needs of his creatures (7-9). But of all his creatures, those he delights in most are those who humbly trust in his steadfast love (10-11). That is why he delights in Israel above other nations. He protects his people and gives them food to enjoy (12-14). By sending bitterly cold weather he toughens them to endure hardship; by sending pleasant weather he reminds them that he is still caring for them (15-18). Above all, he has given them his word. Through this word they can know him better and as a result bring him further joy (19-20).
All creation displays the wonders of God and so brings praise to him. From the angelic beings to the beasts of the earth, praise goes up to him. From the farthest regions of outer space to the depths of the sea, his name is praised (148:1-10). Human beings in particular should praise him. Without distinction of age or rank, the people of the world should exalt God. They should praise him not only because he is the sovereign Lord of the universe, but also because through Israel he has made himself known to them (11-14).
As the people of Israel gather to worship, they have special cause to praise God. Besides being the one who created them, he is the one who rules over them. He is their king (149:1-3). In addition, they are God’s representatives in promoting his rule throughout the world. Therefore, salvation from attackers and victory over enemies are a cause for praise to God and national celebration (4-5). But if God’s rule is to be established in the world, the rebels must first be punished (6-9).
The final psalm forms a climax to the whole book. Worshippers at the temple join with angels in the heavens to praise God for the greatness of his person and his deeds (150:1-2). In every way possible people everywhere should praise God (3-6).

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord - All living things in the air, the earth, the waters. Let there be one universal burst of praise. Let his praises be celebrated not only with instruments of music, but let all living beings unite in that praise; let a breathing universe combine in one solemn service of praise.

Praise ye the Lord - Hallelu-jah. Thus, at the end of all the trials, the conflicts, the persecutions, the sorrows, the joys recorded in this book, the psalmist gives utterance to feelings of joy, triumph, transport, rejoicing; and thus at the end of all - when the affairs of this world shall be closed - when the church shall have passed through all its trials, shall have borne all its persecutions, shall have suffered all that it is appointed to suffer - when the work of redemption shall be complete, and all the ransomed of the Lord shall have been recovered from sin, and shall be saved - that church, all heaven, the whole universe, shall break forth in one loud, long, triumphant Hallelujah. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away,” Isaiah 35:10.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

6.Whatever breathes, etc. As the word נשמה,neshamah, means breath, or blowing, and whatever is animate, or breathes, the words may be extended to every kind of living creatures, as we have seen in the preceding psalms that the declaration of God’s praises is assigned even to things wanting intelligence. But as men exclusively are often meant under the name of “flesh,” so we may very well suppose that the words have reference here to men, who, although they have vital breath in common with the brute creation, obtain by way of distinction the name of breathing, as of living creatures. I am led to think this for the following reason: As yet the Psalmist has addressed himself in his exhortations to the people who were conversant with the ceremonies under the law, now he turns to men in general, tacitly intimating that a time was coming when the same songs, which were then only heard in Judea, would resound in every quarter of the globe. And in this prediction we have been joined in the same symphony with the Jews, that we may worship God with constant sacrifices of praise, until being gathered into the kingdom of heaven, we sing with elect angels an eternal hallelujah.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 150:1-6

Now, again, the final psalm is an exhortation of praise and to praise the Lord in unusual ways, as far as we firstly perhaps are concerned.

Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. [And then] Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and the dance: praise him with the stringed instruments and the organs. Praise him on the loud cymbals: praise him on the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD ( Psalms 150:1-6 ).

I love these young men, uninhibited, as they are who have gone out from Calvary and established many different related works around the area. I love the beautiful simplicity of their heart towards God. They're not all complex and bound up in a lot of theology that has had an effect of stultifying our worship in many cases. I'm thinking of Mike Macintosh, who pastors the Calvary Chapel in San Diego. And he said, "Now on Wednesday night we're just going to have a praise night. And if any of you play any instruments, bring your instruments. Everybody bring your instruments. Whatever it is that you might play. And we're just going to worship the Lord. If your thing is cymbals, or your thing is drums, or if your thing's a harmonica, whatever, you know, just bring it and we're just going to have a praise service on Wednesday night." And they had quite a praise service with everybody just bringing whatever they could play or tambourines or whatever, bells, cymbals, triangles, whatever. And just had a time of sort of uninhibited kind of praising of the Lord. I love that... for them.

I think I would love it for us as long as we understood, hey, we're just going to praise the Lord and that's the purpose. So just come and worship the Lord with your little finger cymbals or whatever it is that you're adept at. Just bring it and just have a time of praising the Lord. And I think that we need to become a little freer in our praise of the Lord. Not quite as inhibited as we usually are. We even, if we lift our hands to praise the Lord, begin to feel awkward and think, you know. And we are so inhibited in our expressions unto the Lord. And I think that we could be less inhibited and find a great blessing. And yet, "Let all things be done decently and in order" ( 1 Corinthians 14:40 ). And so as I say, there's a balance. I'm sure there is, and I recognize where I am, and the Lord is dealing with me. You just keep praying.

Father, we do offer our praise unto You. How grateful we are, Lord, for Your Word. How sad it is that we have to be exhorted to praise Thee, that which should just be spontaneous from our heart as we think of Thy goodness and Thy mercy which endures forever. Thy mercy that we have received, Lord, daily. Oh, how we praise and give thanks unto You for all of Your blessings and all of Your benefits that You have given unto us, especially Father, for sending Your only begotten Son, that through Him we might have life and that more abundantly. Now Lord, just bless Your people. May they go forth with praises upon their hearts and upon their lips. We thank You that we are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, and that we, Lord, have been called to serve You. Guide us, Lord, in that which You would have us to do as servants of the King. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 150

The inspired poet called on every person to praise Yahweh for His powerful deeds and supreme greatness (10 times out of the 13 uses of "praise" in this psalm). This psalm serves as a final doxology, bringing the collection of psalms to a solemn and joyful conclusion.

"The conclusion of the Psalter is this extravagant summons to praise, which seeks to mobilize all creation with a spontaneous and unreserved act of adoration, praise, gratitude, and awe. There are no ’bases’ given; no reason needs to be given." [Note: Brueggemann, p. 167.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

4. The culmination 150:6

Having dealt with the "where" and "how" of worship, the psalmist now specified the "who." "Everything that has breath" should praise Yahweh. In the light of the context, he was undoubtedly thinking of all kinds of people. This verse is a fitting conclusion to the Book of Psalms.

All people should praise God. This is the message of the book.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord,.... Even the brute creatures, as in a preceding; but more especially man, in whom God has breathed the breath of life, and is become not only a living but a rational soul; and more especially spiritual men, converted persons, whether Jews or Gentiles; on whom the Spirit of the Lord has breathed, and whom he has quickened; and who breathe in prayer after divine things; and who also have abundant reason to bless and praise his name for what he has bestowed upon them, and has in reserve for them; and for which they should praise him as long as they have breath; see Revelation 5:13;

praise ye the Lord; all before mentioned, and in the manner as directed, and that in time and to all eternity. Thus ends the book of Psalms.

There is another psalm added in the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and in the metaphrase of Apollinarius; but is owned to be a supernumerary one, and not to be found in all copies; and is said to be written by David, when he fought with Goliath, and conquered him, and is as follows.

1. I was little among my brethren, and a youth in my father's house; I fed my father's sheep. 2. My hands made (or used) the organ; and my fingers fitted (or played on) the psaltery or harp: 3. And who hath declared to my Lord? he is Lord, he hath heard. 4. He sent his angel, and took me from my father's sheep; and anointed me with the oil of his anointing, 5. My brethren were goodly and great; and the Lord delighted not in them. 6. I went forth to meet the stranger (the Philistine), and he cursed me by his idols: 7. And I threw at him three stones into his forehead, by the power of the Lord, and laid him prostrate z. 8. I drew out the sword from him; I cut off his head, and took away reproach from the children of Israel.

z This verse is only in the Arabic version.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.   2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.   3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.   4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.   5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.   6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

      We are here, with the greatest earnestness imaginable, excited to praise God; if, as some suppose, this psalm was primarily intended for the Levites, to stir them up to do their office in the house of the Lord, as singers and players on instruments, yet we must take it as speaking to us, who are made to our God spiritual priests. And the repeated inculcating of the call thus intimates that it is a great and necessary duty, a duty which we should be much employed and much enlarged in, but which we are naturally backward to and cold in, and therefore need to be brought to, and held to, by precept upon precept, and line upon line. Observe here,

      I. Whence this tribute of praise arises, and out of what part of his dominion it especially issues. It comes, 1. From his sanctuary; praise him there. Let his priests, let his people, that attend there, attend him with their praises. Where should he be praised, but there where he does, in a special manner, both manifest his glory and communicate his grace? Praise God upon the account of his sanctuary, and the privileges which we enjoy by having that among us, Ezekiel 37:26. Praise God in his holy ones (so some read it); we must take notice of the image of God as it appears on those that are sanctified, and love them for the sake of that image; and when we praise them we must praise God in them. 2. From the firmament of his power. Praise him because of his power and glory which appear in the firmament, its vastness, its brightness, and its splendid furniture; and because of the powerful influences it has upon this earth. Let those that have their dwelling in the firmament of his power, even the holy angels, lead in this good work. Some, by the sanctuary, as well as by the firmament of his power, understand the highest heavens, the residence of his glory; that is indeed his sanctuary, his holy temple, and there he is praised continually, in a far better manner than we can praise him. And it is a comfort to us, when we find we do it so poorly, that it is so well done there.

      II. Upon what account this tribute of praise is due, upon many accounts, particularly, 1. The works of his power (Psalms 150:2; Psalms 150:2): Praise him for his mighty acts; for his mightinesses (so the word is), for all the instances of his might, the power of his providence, the power of his grace, what he has done in the creation, government, and redemption of the world, for the children of men in general, for his own church and children in particular. 2. The glory and majesty of his being: Praise him according to his excellent greatness, according to the multitude of his magnificence (so Dr. Hammond reads it); not that our praises can bear any proportion to God's greatness, for it is infinite, but, since he is greater than we can express or conceive, we must raise our conceptions and expressions to the highest degree we can attain to. Be not afraid of saying too much in the praises of God, as we often do in praising even great and good men. Deus non patitur hyperbolum--We cannot speak hyperbolically of God; all the danger is of saying too little and therefore, when we have done our utmost, we must own that though we have praised him in consideration of, yet not in proportion to, his excellent greatness.

      III. In what manner this tribute must be paid, with all the kinds of musical instruments that were then used in the temple-service, Psalms 150:3-5; Psalms 150:3-5. It is well that we are not concerned to enquire what sort of instruments these were; it is enough that they were well known then. Our concern is to know, 1. That hereby is intimated how full the psalmist's heart was of the praises of God and how desirous he was that this good work might go on. 2. That in serving God we should spare no cost nor pains. 3. That the best music in God's ears is devout and pious affections, non musica chordula, sed cor--not a melodious string, but a melodious heart. Praise God with a strong faith; praise him with holy love and delight; praise him with an entire confidence in Christ; praise him with a believing triumph over the powers of darkness; praise him with an earnest desire towards him and a full satisfaction in him; praise him by a universal respect to all his commands; praise him by a cheerful submission to all his disposals; praise him by rejoicing in his love and solacing yourselves in his great goodness; praise him by promoting the interests of the kingdom of his grace; praise him by a lively hope and expectation of the kingdom of his glory. 4. That, various instruments being used in praising God, it should yet be done with an exact and perfect harmony; they must not hinder, but help one another. The New-Testament concert, instead of this, is with one mind and one mouth to glorify God,Romans 15:6.

      IV. Who must pay this tribute (Psalms 150:6; Psalms 150:6): Let every thing that has breath praise the Lord. He began with a call to those that had a place in his sanctuary and were employed in the temple-service; but he concludes with a call to all the children of men, in prospect of the time when the Gentiles should be taken into the church, and in every place, as acceptably as at Jerusalem, this incense should be offered,Malachi 1:11. Some think that in every thing that has breath here we must include the inferior creatures (as Genesis 7:22), all in whose nostrils was the breath of life. They praise God according to their capacity. The singing of birds is a sort of praising God. The brutes do in effect say to man, "We would praise God if we could; do you do it for us." John in vision heard a song of praise from every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth,Revelation 5:13. Others think that only the children of men are meant; for into them God has in a more peculiar manner breathed the breath of life, and they have become living souls,Genesis 2:7. Now that the gospel is ordered to be preached to every creature, to every human creature, it is required that every human creature praise the Lord. What have we our breath, our spirit, for, but to spend it in praising God; and how can we spend it better? Prayers are called our breathings,Lamentations 3:56. Let every one that breathes towards God in prayer, finding the benefit of that, breathe forth his praises too. Having breath, let the praises of God perfume our breath; let us be in this work as in our element; let it be to us as the air we breathe in, which we could not live without. Having our breath in our nostrils, let us consider that it is still going forth, and will shortly go and not return. Since therefore we must shortly breathe our last, while we have breath let us praise the Lord, and then we shall breathe our last with comfort, and, when death runs us out of breath, we shall remove to a better state to breathe God's praises in a freer better air.

      The first three of the five books of psalms (according to the Hebrew division) concluded with Amen and Amen, the fourth with Amen, Hallelujah, but the last, and in it the whole book, concludes with only Hallelujah, because the last six psalms are wholly taken up in praising God and there is not a word of complaint or petition in them. The nearer good Christians come to their end the fuller they should be of the praises of God. Some think that this last psalm is designed to represent to us the work of glorified saints in heaven, who are there continually praising God, and that the musical instruments here said to be used are no more to be understood literally than the gold, and pearls, and precious stones, which are said to adorn the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:18; Revelation 21:19. But, as those intimate that the glories of heaven are the most excellent glories, so these intimate that the praises the saints offer there are the most excellent praises. Prayers will there be swallowed up in everlasting praises; there will be no intermission in praising God, and yet no weariness--hallelujahs for ever repeated, and yet still new songs. Let us often take a pleasure in thinking what glorified saints are doing in heaven, what those are doing whom we have been acquainted with on earth, but who have gone before us thither; and let it not only make us long to be among them, but quicken us to do this part of the will of God on earth as those do it that are in heaven. And let us spend as much of our time as may be in this good work because in it we hope to spend a joyful eternity. Hallelujah is the word there (Revelation 19:1; Revelation 19:3); let us echo to it now, as those that hope to join in it shortly. Hallelujah, praise you the Lord.