Psalm 150 leaves us in no doubt what we are required to do: ‘Praise the Lord’. Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever instrument you play, the top priority is acknowledging God and giving him thanks. If you have any breath in your body, if you are a human living on earth or a being in his ‘mighty heavens’ (v 1 – possibly angelic beings), praise the Lord and, to be frank, let it rip! If you can’t play an instrument (wind, string and percussion are available), you can always dance (v 4).

Exuberant praise is worthy of the God who acts in salvation for helpless humans. These instruments are mostly difficult to play softly. This praise just can’t be done in a quiet corner. Everybody needs to hear and know about this God. This doesn’t negate the worth of quiet and contemplative worship. But there are times to break out; forgetting about what others think; working against any cultural inhibitions and making it known how much we adore this God. He is the God who reciprocates this praise by singing over his people. Zephaniah 3:17 pictures the Lord singing over his people with either ‘joyful’ (NLT) or even ‘loud’ (RSV) songs. He loves us that much.