Commentary on Psalm 150

Carol Bechtel

If you have ever experienced a performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture,” you have some sense of what Psalm 150 is all about. Picture the conductor tapping the baton. The orchestra comes to attention, and the audience waits in hushed expectation. Then the conductor cues each section to come in—first the brass, then the violins and woodwinds. Gradually, the piece gathers strength until, finally, it flings itself against the sky with the sounds of crashing cymbals and firing cannons.

It’s not an experience one soon forgets.

Psalm 150 offers a similar experience. The psalmist taps the baton with the first invitation to “Praise the LORD” in verse 1. Then, one by one, new instruments are added. Verse 3 cues the trumpets, and then the lute and harp. Tambourines—played, presumably, by dancers—make an entrance along with strings and pipes. Cymbals join in next, and as if the psalmist wants to make sure we get their full effect, they are described as “loud clanging cymbals.” Finally, “everything that breathes” joins in on one last, climactic “Hallelujah!”

Although it’s not obvious when we read this psalm in translation, the Hebrew poem amplifies this crescendo visually. Each verse is slightly longer than the previous one. As the words build verse by verse, one can see the crescendo as well as hearing it.

A command performance

To describe this psalm as an “invitation” to praise would be inadequate. It’s less of an invitation than a command. This is clear from the very first word, which is literally the Hebrew word hallelu-jah. When we unpack it, that’s a plural imperative followed by the shortened version of God’s proper name. “Praise the LORD, ya’ll!” might come closer to capturing it.

But this psalmist is just getting started. When we count up the imperative verbs in this psalm, there are 11 of them. That’s almost two per verse. Clearly, something more is going on here than a casual invitation that we can accept—or not. Think subpoena rather than party invitation. This is a command performance in which “everything that breathes” is expected to participate. Fortunately, there is every reason in the world we would want to.

Praise with a purpose

In terms of form, Psalm 150 is a hymn. Hymns in the Psalter typically have two parts. There is a call to praise and then reasons for that praise.

The “reasons” for praise in Psalm 150 are summarized in the second verse. We’re called to praise God for God’s “mighty deeds” and “according to his surpassing greatness.”

The fact that these mighty deeds are not specified is an invitation to fill in the blank. Any and all of God’s mighty deeds are called to mind—whether for us as individuals or for the people of God throughout the generations. The fact that this psalm appears in the lectionary during the season of Easter makes that easy for Christians. Reading the psalm from the perspective of the empty tomb calls to mind the mightiest of all God’s deeds: the resurrection. John L. Bell points out that psalms like this one that “celebrate what God has done and is doing for the individual or community are often tantamount to a statement of faith.”¹

The grand finale

While Psalm 150 can certainly stand on its own, we should not lose sight of the fact that it is the grand finale of the entire Psalter. Indeed, that finale actually begins with Psalm 146. All five of the last psalms in the Psalter begin with that command to praise—“Hallelujah!”—and form an exuberant coda for all that’s come before.

If—for whatever reason—our hearts are heavy, we may not feel we can respond to this command. Yet, the book of Psalms reminds us that we can praise God no matter what our mood. The title of the book in Hebrew is Tehillim, which means “Praises.” When we think about the fact that fully a third of the psalms are laments, it forces us to expand our definition of what “counts” as praise.

Old Testament scholar Bernhard Anderson once described laments as “praise in a minor key.” The analogy is helpful for those times when our situation makes it impossible to sing a happy song. Even a heavy heart can sing a sad song, and sad songs are still praise in a minor key. God welcomes all voices to join in this grand finale of praise. Indeed, “let everything that breathes praise the LORD!”