Psalm 150:1-6 NKJV
150 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
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 lute and harp!
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
This psalm begins and ends with three words in English, “Praise the LORD.” Those three words are one word in Hebrew, “Hallelujah.” Hallelu means “praise.” “Jah” (pronounced “Yah”) is the abbreviated form of Yahweh, the personal name of God. Most English versions translate Yahweh as “the LORD.” The entire psalm, like the four that precede it, is a summons to praise Yahweh, the God Israel, who revealed Himself fully in the New Testament as being one divine essence of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is to be praised in His sanctuary, which lies far above the mighty firmament of the heavens (1). “Everything that has breath” (6) is praise Him “for His mighty acts” and “His excellent greatness” (2).
On the sixth day of the world “the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7). All Adam’s descendants have breath of life and are called upon to praise the LORD as creatures of God. But Adam’s descendants also have sin, since Adam corrupted his nature through disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Adam’s sin is passed to all His descendants born of man and woman, so everything that has breath is corrupted by sin and dies, as “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).
But God, in His excellent greatness, provided His Son, Jesus Christ, to be “the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2), so that all who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The work of Christ is the chief of “His mighty acts” for which the LORD is to be praised.
Believers—forgiven of his sins each day and blessed with everlasting life—cannot help but use the breath God gives them to “continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of their lips, giving thanks to His name” (Heb 13:15). Nor can they help but glorify God with their bodies and behavior, so that the entire life of believers is a Hallelujah for His mighty acts and His excellent greatness demonstrated in the gospel.
Let us pray: Fill our hearts with the knowledge of Your mighty acts and excellent greatness, O LORD, so that we use the breath You give us to praise You now and forevermore. Amen.