This is a song all about God. No personal stuff from the psalmist this time, just sheer adulation. It’s about who God is, as well as what he does. It’s so easy to focus on the latter and forget that God is God. Through our readings from Matthew’s Gospel, we are focusing on Jesus’ God-given authority and power. It’s about giving God all the glory. So, we worship I AM (see Exodus 3:14). We praise Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Revelation 1:8).

The words of this final psalm are a call to fulfil the promise of Paul’s words to the Philippians in chapter 2, verses 10 and 11: ‘… that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ 

Try to hear the instruments as they join in worship – the trumpet blast blending with the penetrating sounds of harp strings (v 3). Add to this the notes of a flute, accompanied by stringed instruments and a tambourine (v 4). Wait a moment, then imagine crashing cymbals as the song reaches a climax. Praise the Lord!

‘Sing joyfully to the Lord’.¹

Praise God for psalms of praise! Sometimes our circumstances or state of mind make it hard to turn our hearts to praise: this psalm, composed like all psalms for use in contexts of corporate worship, enables us to praise God regardless. Like the four psalms before it, Psalm 150 starts and ends with the exhortation to worship, ‘Hallelujah!’ (translated ‘Praise the Lord’), and every line in between contains the word ‘praise’. It is fitting that the psalter ends in this way: at the end of all things, what is left but praising God for ever? 

The psalm itself is unusual in that it contains only one mention of a reason for praising God – his ‘acts of power’ (v 2). Otherwise it simply keeps urging praise, praise, praise! Do you find it hard to praise God simply for his own sake, not for the things he gives us? When we seek simply to praise God continually for who he is, we can run out of human words. So the worship represented in this psalm, like that in many cultures then and since, found expression in musical instruments and dancing too.² The picture is of tremendous noise and exuberance. Is your experience of worship as effusive? If not, how might you seek to praise God more abundantly?

In Jewish understanding, the ‘sanctuary’ where God is to be praised (v 1) was not merely a functional place to gather for worship, but where God was understood to dwell on earth.³ As Christians, we know that God’s dwelling is with us through his Holy Spirit. Wherever we gather, it is appropriate and right that we give voice to our praise. Let our vision be grand – one in which the whole earth, ‘everything that has breath’ (v 6), praises the Lord.

Praise God! Use the words of this psalm, over and over. If you are able, stand and use your arms and body. Sing the words if you like.

¹ Ps 33:1  ² Nancy deClaissé-Walford, Book of Psalms, Eerdmans, 2014, p1009–1010  ³ deClaissé-Walford, Psalms, p1009