Bird's-eye view
We come now to the great crescendo of the Psalter. This final psalm is an explosion of pure praise, a grand symphonic finale that gathers up every instrument, every voice, and every ounce of energy to direct it all toward the God who is worthy of it all. The psalm has already established where God is to be praised, in His sanctuary and in the firmament of His power, and for what He is to be praised, His mighty acts and His excellent greatness. Now, having laid that foundation, the psalmist begins to call in the orchestra. These verses, 3 through 5, are a summons to amplify our praise. The human voice, wonderful as it is, is simply not enough to express the weight of glory we are called to declare. And so we are commanded to bring in reinforcements, a cascade of instruments, each adding its unique voice to the glorious noise.
This is not a quiet, demure, or timid praise. This is loud. This is robust. This is a joyful commotion. From the piercing blast of the trumpet to the clash of cymbals, the directive is clear: our worship is to be full-bodied and unreserved. This is a picture of what our worship should be striving for, not in the sense of a rigid instrumental checklist, but in its spirit. The spirit is one of escalating, all-encompassing, and skillful adoration. God is not honored by half-hearted, anemic worship. He is honored when we bring all that we have, all our skill, all our passion, and all our instruments, and dedicate them to making His praise glorious.
Outline
- 1. The Final Hallelujah (Ps 150:1-6)
- a. The Where and Why of Praise (Ps 150:1-2)
- b. The Instruments of Praise (Ps 150:3-5)
- i. The Call to the Winds and Strings (Ps 150:3)
- ii. The Call to Percussion and Dance (Ps 150:4)
- iii. The Call to the Cymbals (Ps 150:5)
- c. The Breath of Praise (Ps 150:6)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 150 is the anchor and capstone of the entire book of Psalms. It is the last of the five "hallelujah" psalms that conclude the Psalter (Psalms 146-150). Each of these psalms begins and ends with "Praise the Lord" (Hallelujah). There is a clear progression here, a building of intensity that culminates in this final, explosive summons to praise. If the Psalms have taken us through the entire range of human experience before God, from the depths of lament in Psalm 88 to the heights of confidence in Psalm 23, then Psalm 150 is the final resolution. It is the end toward which all the other psalms were pointing. All roads in the Psalter lead here.
The movement in this final psalm is from location (v. 1), to the reason (v. 2), and then to the means (vv. 3-5), before finally arriving at the participants (v. 6). The specific listing of instruments here is significant. It echoes the kind of worship that David instituted, a worship that was rich with music and orchestration (1 Chron. 25:1-8). This is not just a random collection of noisemakers; it is a call for a full, ordered, and textured expression of worship, using all the artistic and technological means available to magnify the name of the Lord.
Clause-by-Clause Commentary
Verse 3
Praise Him with trumpet blast; The trumpet, or shofar, is first on the list. This is not accidental. The trumpet in Scripture is a summons. It calls the assembly to worship (Num. 10:10), it announces the presence of the king, and it signals the advance of God's army in battle. Its sound is piercing, clear, and authoritative. To praise God with the trumpet is to announce that the King has arrived and His people are gathering to honor Him. It is a declaration of war against the silence of idolatry and the mumbling of the heathen. This is a martial praise, a victorious praise. We are not simply making music; we are heralding the reign of Jesus Christ.
Praise Him with harp and lyre. After the commanding blast of the trumpet, we move to the strings. The harp and lyre provide the melodic and harmonic texture for the praise. If the trumpet announces, the strings adorn. This is where skill and beauty come to the forefront. David was a skillful harpist, and his music could drive away evil spirits (1 Sam. 16:23). This reminds us that our worship should be skillful (Ps. 33:3). We are to offer God our best, not our sloppy seconds. This is not a call for a prissy perfectionism that stifles participation, but rather a call for every believer to cultivate their gifts for the glory of God. The beauty of the harmony from the strings is a reflection of the beauty of God's own Trinitarian nature, a perfect harmony of three-in-one.
Verse 4
Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; Now we add percussion and motion. The tambourine, or timbrel, is an instrument of celebration, often associated with women leading in praise after a great victory, as Miriam did at the Red Sea (Exod. 15:20). And with the tambourine comes dancing. This is embodied praise. Our faith is not a disembodied intellectual exercise. God gave us bodies, and they are to be instruments of righteousness, which includes being instruments of worship. The Bible commands us to rejoice, and sometimes the only adequate expression of that joy is to move. This is not the sensual gyrations of the nightclub, but the exuberant, unselfconscious joy of a child before his father, or David dancing before the Ark (2 Sam. 6:14). It is a physical declaration that our whole person, body and soul, belongs to God and delights in Him.
Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. The list continues to expand. We have more strings, and now the pipe, a wind instrument likely similar to a flute. This piling on of instruments serves to emphasize the point: bring everything. Don't leave anything out. The variety of sounds represents the variety of God's creation and the manifold wisdom of His ways. Each instrument has a different timbre, a different voice, just as each believer has a different testimony and different gifts. But when they are all brought together, under the direction of the Divine Conductor, they create a symphony of praise that is far greater than the sum of its parts. This is a picture of the church, many members with different functions, all united in the singular purpose of glorifying God.
Verse 5
Praise Him with resounding cymbals; Now we come to the loudest part of the percussion section. The Hebrew here suggests cymbals that ring out, that have a clear, sustained tone. These are not for subtle background rhythm. These are for exclamation points. They punctuate the praise with a joyful noise. This is the sound of triumph, the sound of a festival. When the Ark was brought to Jerusalem, the worship was marked by the sounding of cymbals (1 Chron. 15:16, 19). It is a sound that is meant to be heard from a long way off. Our worship should not be a secret, kept within the four walls of a church building. It should resound, echoing out into the world as a testimony to the greatness of our God.
Praise Him with clashing cymbals. And just in case we thought the previous cymbals were not emphatic enough, the psalmist adds another kind. The Hebrew word here suggests cymbals that are struck together forcefully, creating a loud clash. Think of a military band or a great orchestra at its peak. This is the final, explosive punctuation mark on this instrumental summons. It is the sound of total, uninhibited, and loud celebration. There is nothing held back. All the stops are pulled out. This is the kind of praise that leaves no room for doubt about the affections of the worshipers. They love their God, and they want the whole world to know it. This is the pinnacle of the instrumental crescendo, preparing the way for the final, ultimate summons for everything that has breath to join in.
Application
So what do we do with this? First, we must see that God is pleased with loud, joyful, and robust worship. Our modern sensibilities, often shaped by a therapeutic view of faith or a fear of man, can tend toward a worship that is respectable, quiet, and ultimately, boring. Psalm 150 is a direct rebuke to that kind of thinking. God is worthy of a ruckus. He is worthy of a celebration.
Second, this passage sanctions the use of a wide variety of instruments in worship. The regulative principle of worship does not mean we must find a specific command for a guitar or a piano. It means our worship must be governed by God's Word. And here, the Word gives us a principle of amplification and adornment. We are to use our artistic and technological gifts to make the praise of God as glorious as we possibly can. The heart attitude is what drives this; a heart overflowing with gratitude will look for ways to make the expression of that gratitude bigger, richer, and louder.
Finally, this is a call to whole-person worship. We are to praise God with our breath in the trumpet and pipe, with the skill of our hands on the strings, and with the energy of our bodies in the dance. Our worship is not just a mental activity. It is a physical, emotional, and spiritual offering. We are to bring all that we are and all that we have, and lay it before the throne in joyful, noisy, and unashamed adoration of the King of kings and Lord of lords. Let the orchestra play.