We have now reached the last summit of the
mountain chain of Psalms. It rises high into the clear azure,
and its brow is bathed in the sunlight of the eternal world of
worship, it is a rapture. The poet prophet is full of
inspiration and enthusiasm. He slays not to argue, to teach, to
explain; but cries with burning words, "Praise him, Praise
him, Praise ye the LORD."
EXPOSITION
Verse 1. Praise ye the LORD. Hallelujah! The
exhortation is to all things in earth or in heaven. Should they
not all declare the glory of him for whose glory they are, and
were created? Jehovah, the one God, should be the one object of
adoration. To give the least particle of his honour to another
is shameful treason; to refuse to render it to him is heartless
robbery. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise El, or the strong
one, in his holy place. See how power is mentioned with holiness
in this change of names. Praise begins at home. "In God's
own house pronounce his praise." The holy place should be
filled with praise, even as of old the high priest filled the sanctum
sanctorum with the smoke of sweet smelling incense. In his
church below and in his courts above hallelujahs should be
continually presented. In the person of Jesus God finds a holy
dwelling or sanctuary, and there he is greatly to be praised. He
may also be said to dwell in holiness, for all his ways are
right and good; for this we ought to extol him with heart and
with voice. Whenever we assemble for holy purposes our main work
should be to present praises unto the Lord our God. Praise him
in the firmament of his power. It is a blessed thing that in our
God holiness and power are united. Power without righteousness
would be oppression, and righteousness without power would be
too weak for usefulness; but put the two together in an infinite
degree and we have God. What an expanse we have in the boundless
firmament of divine power! Let it all be filled with praise. Let
the heavens, so great and strong, echo with the praise of the
thrice holy Jehovah, while the sanctuaries of earth magnify the
Almighty One.
Verse 2. Praise him for his mighty acts. Here
is a reason for praise. In these deeds of power we see himself.
These doings of his omnipotence are always on behalf of truth
and righteousness. His works of creation, providence, and
redemption, all call for praise; they are his acts, and his acts
of might, therefore let him be praised for them. Praise him
according to his excellent greatness. His being is unlimited,
and his praise should correspond therewith. He possesses a
multitude or a plenitude of greatness, and therefore he should
be greatly praised. There is nothing little about God, and there
is nothing great apart from him. If we were always careful to
make our worship fit and appropriate for our great Lord how much
better should we sing! How much more reverently should we adore!
Such excellent deeds should have excellent praise.
Verse 3. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet.
With the loudest, clearest note call the people together. Make
all men to know that we are not ashamed to worship. Summon them
with unmistakable sound to bow before their God. The sound of
trumpet is associated with the grandest and most solemn events,
such as the giving of the law, the proclamation of jubilee, the
coronation of Jewish kings, and the raging of war. It is to be
thought of in reference to the coming of our Lord in his second
advent and the raising of the dead. If we cannot give voice to
this martial instrument, at least let our praise be as decided
and bold as if we could give a blast upon the horn. Let us never
sound a trumpet before us to our own honour, but reserve all our
trumpeting for God's glory. When the people have been gathered
by blast of trumpet, then proceed to praise him with the
psaltery and harp. Stringed instruments are to be used as well
as those which are rendered vocal by wind. Dulcet notes are to
be consecrated as well as more startling sounds. The gospel
meaning is that all powers and faculties should praise the
Lord—all sorts of persons, under all circumstances, and with
differing constitutions, should do honour unto the Lord of all.
If there be any virtue, if there be any talent, if there be any
influence, let all be consecrated to the service of the
universal Benefactor. Harp and lyre—the choicest, the
sweetest, must be all our Lord's.
Verse 4. Praise him with the timbrel and dance.
Associated with the deliverance at the Red Sea, this form of
worship set forth the most jubilant and exultant of worship. The
hands and the feet were both employed, and the entire body moved
in sympathy with the members. Are there not periods of life when
we feel so glad that we would fain dance for joy? Let not such
exhilaration be spent upon common themes, but let the name of
God stir us to ecstasy. Let us exult as we cry,
"In the heavenly Lamb thrice happy I am,
And my heart it doth dance at the sound of his name."
There is enough in our holy faith to create and to justify
the utmost degree of rapturous delight. If men are dull in the
worship of the Lord our God they are not acting consistently
with the character of their religion. Praise him with stringed
instruments and organs. We have here the three kinds of musical
instruments: timbrels, which are struck, and strings, and pipes;
let all be educated to praise the Lord. Nothing is common and
unclean: all may be sanctified to highest uses. Many men, many
minds, and these as different as strings and pipes; but there is
only one God, and that one God all should worship. The word
translated "organs" signifies pipe—a simpler form of
wind instrument than the more modern and more elaborate organ.
Doubtless many a pious shepherd has poured out gracious
pastorals from a reed or oaten pipe, and so has magnified his
God.
Verse 5. Praise high upon the loud cymbals: praise
him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let the clash of the
loudest music be the Lord's: let the joyful clang of the
loftiest notes be all for him. Praise has beaten the timbrel,
swept the harp, and sounded the trumpet, and now for a last
effort, awakening the most heavy of slumberers, and startling
the most indifferent of onlookers, she dashes together the disks
of brass, and with sounds both loud and high proclaims the
glories of the Lord.
Verse 6. Let everything that hath breath praise the
Lord. "Let all breath praise him": that is to say,
all living beings. He gave them breath, let them breathe his
praise. His name is in the Hebrew composed rather of breathings
than of letters, to show that all breath comes from him:
therefore let it be used for him. Join all ye living things in
the eternal song. Be ye least or greatest, withhold not your
praises. What a day will it be when all things in all places
unite to glorify the one only living and true God! This will be
the final triumph of the church of God. Praise ye the LORD. Once
more, Hallelujah! Thus is the Psalm rounded with the note of
praise; and thus is the Book of Psalms ended by a glowing word
of adoration. Reader, wilt not thou at this moment pause a
while, and worship the Lord thy God? Hallelujah!
EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS
Whole Psalm. Each of the last five Psalms begins and
ends with Hallelujah! Praise ye the Lord. And each Psalm
increases in praise, love, and joy, unto the last, which is
praise celebrating its ecstasy. The elect soul, the heir of God,
becomes "eaten up" with the love of God. He begins
every sentence with Hallelujah; and his sentences are
very short, for he is in haste to utter his next Hallelujah, and
his next, and his next. He is as one out of breath with
enthusiasm, or as one on tiptoe, in the act of rising from earth
to heaven. The greatest number of words between any two
Hallelujahs is four, and that only once: in every other
instance, between one Hallelujah and another there are but two
words. It is as though the soul gave utterance to its whole life
and feeling in the one word, Hallelujah! The words,
"Praise ye the Lord!" or "Praise him!"
"Praise him!" "Praise him!" are reiterated
no fewer than twelve times in a short Psalm of six short
verses.—John Pulsford, in "Quiet Hours,"
1857.
Whole Psalm. And now, in the last Psalm of all, we see
an echo to the first Psalm. The first Psalm began with
"Blessed", and it ended with
"Blessed",—"Blessed are all they that meditate
on God's law and do it." Such was the theme of the first
Psalm; and now the fruit of that blessedness is shown in this
Psalm, which begins and ends with Hallelujah.—Christopher
Wordsworth.
Whole Psalm. In his Cours de Littérature, the
celebrated Lamartine, probably regarding the last four Psalms
(the Hallelujah Psalms) as one whole (as Hengstenberg also does)
thus speaks:—"The last Psalm ends with a chorus to the
praise of God, in which the poet calls on all people, all
instruments of sacred music, all the elements, and all the stars
to join. Sublime finale of that opera of sixty years sung by the
shepherd, the hero, the king, and the old man! In this closing
Psalm we see the almost inarticulate enthusiasm of the lyric
poet; so rapidly do the words press to his lips, floating
upwards towards God, their source, like the smoke of a great
fire of the soul waited by the tempest! Here we see David, or
rather the human heart itself with all its God given notes of
grief, joy, tears, and adoration—poetry sanctified to its
highest expression; a vase of perfume broken on the step of the
temple, and shedding abroad its odours from the heart of David
to the heart of all humanity! Hebrew, Christian, or even
Mohammedan, every religion, every complaint, every prayer has
taken from this vase, shed on the heights of Jerusalem,
wherewith to give forth their accents. The little shepherd has
become the master of the sacred choir of the Universe. There is
not a worship on earth which prays not with his words, or sings
not with his voice. A chord of his harp is to be found in all
choirs, resounding everywhere and for ever in unison with the
echoes of Horeb and Engedi! David is the Psalmist of eternity;
what a destiny—what a power hath poetry when inspired by God!
As for myself, when my spirit is excited, or devotional, or sad,
and seeks for an echo to its enthusiasm, its devotion or its
melancholy, I do not open Pindar or Horace, or Hafiz, those
purely Academic poets: neither do I find within myself
murmurings to express my emotion. I open the Book of Psalms, and
there I find words which seem to issue from the soul of the
ages, and which penetrate even to the heart of all generations.
Happy the bard who has thus become the eternal hymn, the
personified prayer and complaint of all humanity! If we look
back to that remote age when such songs resounded over the
world; if we consider that while the lyric poetry of all the
most cultivated nations only sang of wine, love, blood, and the
victories of coursers at the games of Elidus, we are seized with
profound astonishment at the mystic accents of the shepherd
prophet, who speaks to God the Creator as one friend to another,
who understands and praises his great works, admires his
justice, implores his mercy, and becomes, as it were, an
anticipative echo of the evangelic poetry, speaking the soft
words of Christ before his coming. Prophet or not, as he may be
considered by Christian or sceptic, none can deny in the poet
kin an inspiration granted to no other man. Read Greek or Latin
poetry after a Psalm, and see how pale it looks."—William
Swan Plumer.
Whole Psalm. The first and last of the Psalms have
both the same number of verses, are both short and very
memorable; but the scope of them is very different; the first
Psalm is an elaborate instruction in our duty, to prepare us for
the comforts of our devotion; this is all rapture and transport,
and perhaps was penned on purpose to be the conclusion of those
sacred songs, to show what is the design of them all, and that
is, to assist us in praising God.—Matthew Henry.
Whole Psalm. Thirteen hallelujahs, according to the
number of the tribes (Levi, Ephraim and Manasseh making three),
one for each.—John Henry Michaelis, 1668-1738.
Whole Psalm. Some say this Psalm was sung by the
Israelites, when they came with the first fruits into the
sanctuary with the baskets on their shoulders. Thirteen
times in this short Psalm is the word praise used; not on
account of thirteen perfections or properties in God, as Kimchi
thinks; but it is so frequently, and in every clause used, to
show the vehement desire of the Psalmist that the Lord might be
praised; and to express his sense of things, how worthy he is of
praise; and that all ways and means to praise him should be made
use of, all being little enough to set forth his honour and
glory.—John Gill.
Whole Psalm. There is an interesting association
connected with this Psalm which deserves to be recorded: that in
former times, when the casting of church bells was more of a
religious ceremony, this Psalm was chanted by the brethren of
the guild as they stood ranged around the furnace, and while the
molten metal was prepared to be let off into the mould ready to
receive it. One may picture these swarthy sons of the furnace
with the ruddy glow of the fire upon their faces as they stand
around, while their deep voices rung forth this Hymn of
Praise.—Barton Bouchier.
Verse 1. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God with a
strong faith; praise him with holy love and delight; praise him
with an entire confidence in Christ; praise him with a believing
triumph over the powers of darkness; praise him with an earnest
desire towards him, and a full satisfaction in him; praise him
by a universal respect to all his commands; praise him by a
cheerful submission to all his disposals; praise him by
rejoicing in his love, and solacing yourselves in his great
goodness; praise him by promoting the interests of the kingdom
of his grace; praise him by a lively hope and expectation of the
kingdom of his glory.—Matthew Henry.
Verse 1. In his sanctuary. wvdqb.
Many have been the notions of the commentators as to the shade
of meaning here; for the word differs from the form in Ps 20:2 vdwqm
(from the sanctuary). The Vulgate adopts the plural
rendering, in sanctis ejus, "in his holy
places." Campensis renders it, ob insignem sanctitatem
ipsius, "because of his excellent holiness." Some
see under the word an allusion to the holy tabernacle of Deity,
the flesh of Christ. Luther, in his German version, translates
thus: in seinem Heiligthum, "in his holiness."
The same harmony of comparative thought appears in the two
clauses of this verse as in such passages as 1Ki 8:13,49 Isa
62:15. The place of worship where God specially hears prayer and
accepts praise, and the firmament where angels fly at his
command, and veil their faces in adoration, are each a
sanctuary. The sanctuary is manifestly here looked at as the
temple of grace, the firmament as the temple of power. So the
verse proclaims both grace and glory.—Martin Geier.
Verse 1. Praise God in his sanctuary. The
Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and the eastern versions, render it,
"in his holy ones"; among his saints, in the assembly
of them, where he is to be feared and praised: it may be
translated, "in his Holy One", and be understood of
Christ, as it is by Cocceius...Some render it, "for"
or "because of his holiness." The perfection of
holiness in him; in which he is glorious and fearful in the
praises of, and which appears in all his works of providence and
grace.—John Gill.
Verse 1. Praise God. In many places we have the
compound word, xy-wllx, halelujah,
praise ye Jehovah; but this is the first place in which we find la-wllh,
halelu-el, praise God, or the strong God. Praise him who
is Jehovah, the infinite and self existent Being; and praise him
who is God, El, or Elohim, the great God in
covenant with mankind, to bless and save them unto eternal
life.—Adam Clarke.
Verse 1. Ps 150:1-6 gives the full praise to Jehovah
in a double character, the sanctuary and the firmament of his
power, for his ways which come from the firmament of his
power were always according to the sanctuary in which he
governed Israel, and made good the revelation of himself
there.—John Nelson Darby, 1800-1882.
Verse 2. Praise him for his mighty acts, etc.
The reasons of that praise which it becomes all intelligent
creatures, and especially redeemed men, to render to Jehovah,
are here assigned. We are to praise Jehovah "in his
sanctuary", in the place where his glory dwells, where his
holiness shines forth with ineffable splendour; we are to praise
him in the wide expanse over which he has spread the tokens of
his power, whether in the heaven above, or in the earth beneath;
we are to praise him for those omnipotent acts whereby he hath
shown himself to be above all gods; we are to praise him in a
manner suited to the excellent majesty of a Being whom all the
heavens adore, and who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in
working. His holiness, the infinity of his operations, the
miraculous power which he has displayed, the unspotted
excellence of his administration, call for loudest songs of
praise from all whose reason enables them to rise to the
contemplation of the great Supreme.—John Morison.
Verse 2. Praise him acceding to his excellent
greatness. There is required special understanding and
knowledge of the nature and worth of the mercy for which the
duty of praise is undertaken; for God will not be praised
confusedly, but distinctly and proportionably to his
dispensation: Praise him according to his wondrous works;
which is to be the prime and proper matter of their high
praises, even his more proper and peculiar high acts, then to be
remembered, as is largely expressed in Moses' praise for the
particular mercy of coming safe through the Red Sea (Ex
15:1-27); and Deborah's high praise for deliverance from the
host of Sisera (Jud 5:1-31); where the chiefest and highest part
of the celebration and exaltation of God in his praise consists
in the declaration and commemoration of the particulars of God's
special goodness in their present deliverance. Thus, you see the
first thing that God looks for is proportionable praise, great
praise for a great God, doing great things, and high praises for
a high God, doing high things.—Samuel Fairclough.
Verse 2. Praise him according to his excellent
greatness, or, as the words may bear, "according to his
muchness of greatness"; for when the Scripture saith,
"God is great", this positive is to be taken as a
superlative. "God is great", that is, he is greatest,
he is greater than all; so great that all persons and all things
are little, yea, nothing before him. Isa 40:15: "Behold,
the nations are (to him but) as a drop of a bucket, and are
counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up
the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient
to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to
him less than nothing, and vanity." How great is God, in
comparison of whom the greatest things are little things, yea,
the greatest things are nothing!—Joseph Caryl.
Verse 3. Trumpets and horns are the only
instruments concerning which any directions are given in the
law.—James Anderson.
Verse 3. Trumpet. Of natural horns and of
instruments in the shape of horns the antiquity and general use
are evinced by every extensive collection of antiquities...The
Hebrew word shophar, rendered "trumpet", seems,
first to denote horns of the straighter kind, including,
probably, those of neat cattle, and all the instruments which
were eventually made in imitation of and in improvement upon
such horns. The name shophar means bright or clear,
and the instrument may be conceived to have been so called from
its clear and shrill sound, just as we call an instrument a
"clarion", and speak of a musical tone as
"brilliant" or" clear." In the service of
God this shophar, or trumpet, was only employed in
making announcements, and for calling the people together in the
time of the holy solemnities, of war, of rebellion, or of any
other great occasion. The strong sound of the instrument would
have confounded a choir of singers, rather than have elevated
their music. (John Kitto.) The shophar is
especially interesting to us as being the only Hebrew instrument
whose use on certain solemn occasions seems to be retained to
this day. Engel, with his usual trustworthy research, has traced
out and examined some of those in modern synagogues. Of those
shown in our engraving, one is from the synagogue of Spanish and
Portuguese Jews, Bevis Marks, and is, he says, one foot in
length; the other is one used in the Great Synagogue, St.
James's place, Aldgate, twenty-one inches in length. Both are
made of horn.—James Stainer.
Verse 3. The "psaltery" was a ten
stringed instrument. It is constantly mentioned with the "harp."
The psaltery was struck with a plectrum, the harp
more gently with the fingers. Psaltery and harp speak to
us in figure of "law and gospel."—Thomas Le
Blanc.
Verse 3. On "psaltery" (nebel)
see Note on Ps 144:9, and on "harp" see Note on
Ps 149:3.
Verses 3-5. As St. Augustine says here, "No kind
of faculty is here omitted. All are enlisted in praising
God." The breath is employed in blowing the trumpet; the
fingers are used in striking the strings of the psaltery and the
harp; the whole hand is exerted in beating the timbrel; the feet
move in the dance; there are stringed instruments (literally strings);
there is the organ (the ugab, syrinx) composed of many
pipes, imposing combination, and the cymbals clang upon
one another.—C. Wordsworth.
Verses 3-5. The variety of musical instruments, some
of them made use of in the camp, as trumpets; some of them more
suitable to a peaceable condition, as psalteries and harps; some
of them sounding by blowing wind in them; some of them sounding
by lighter touching of them, as stringed instruments; some of
them by beating on them more sharply, as tabrets, drums and
cymbals; some of them sounding by touching and blowing also, as
organs: all of them giving some certain sound, some more quiet,
and some making more noise: some of them having a harmony by
themselves; some of them making a concept with other
instruments, or with the motions of the body in dancing, sonic
of them serving for one use, some of them serving for another,
and all of them serving to set forth God's glory, and to shadow
forth the duty of worshippers, and the privileges of the saints.
The plurality and variety (I say) of these instruments were fit
to represent divers conditions of the spiritual man, and of the
greatness of his joy to be found in God, and to teach what
stirring up should be of the affections and powers of our soul,
and of one another, unto God's worship; what harmony should be
among the worshippers of God, what melody each should make in
himself, singing to God with grace in his heart, and to show the
excellency of God's praise, which no means nor instrument, nor
any expression of the body joined thereunto, could sufficiently
set forth in these exhortations to praise God with trumpet,
psaltery, & c.—David Dickson.
Verses 3-5. Patrick has an interesting note on the
many instruments of music in Ps 149:1-9, which we quote here:
"The ancient inhabitants of Etruria used the trumpet; the
Arcadians, the whistle; the Sicilians, the pectid; the Cretians,
the harp; the Thracians, the cornet; the Lacedemonians, the
pipe; the Egyptians, the drum; the Arabians, the cymbal".
(Clem. Paedag. ii. 4.) May we not say that in this Psalm's
enumeration of musical instruments, there is a reference to the
variety which exists among men in the mode of expressing joy,
and exciting to feeling?—Andrew A. Bonar.
Verse 4. Stringed instruments. Minnim (which is
derived from a root signifying "division", or"
distribution", hence strings) occurs in Ps 45:8, and
Ps 150:4, and is supposed by some to denote a stringed
instrument, but it seems merely a poetical allusion to the strings
of any instrument. Thus, in Ps 45:8, we would read, "Out of
the ivory palaces the strings (i.e. concerts of music)
have made thee glad"; and so in Ps 150:4, "Praise him
with strings (stringed instruments), and ugabs."—John
Kitto.
Verse 4. Organs. bgwe,
'ugab is the word rendered "organ"
in our version. The Targum renders the word simply by abwba,
a pipe; the Septuagint varies, it has kiyara
in Genesis, qalmov in
Job, and organon, in the
Psalms. The last is the sense which the Arabic, Syriac, Latin,
English, and most other versions have adopted. The organon
simply denotes a double or manifold pipe; and hence, in
particular, the Pandaean or shepherd's pipe, which is at this
day called a "mouth organ", among ourselves. (Kitto.)
A collection of tubes of different sizes, stopped at one end and
blown at the other, forms the musical instrument known as Pan's
pipes, in the Greek syrinx, surunx
...Was the'ugab a
syrinx or an organ? As the former seems to have been the
more ancient of the two, and as'ugab is included in the
very first allusion to musical instruments in the Bible, it
would seem reasonable to say at once that it was a syrinx,
especially as this instrument was, and is to this day, commonly
met with in various parts of Asia. Yet it would, indeed, be
strange if such an instrument were selected for use in divine
worship; and that the ugab was so used is proved beyond a
doubt by its mention in Ps 150:1-6: "Praise him with the minnim
and ugab." Its mention here in antithesis to a
collective name for stringed instruments, surely points to the
fact of its being a more important instrument than a few river
reeds fixed together with wax. Let us not forget that we have
but one and the same name for the single row of about fifty
pipes, placed, perhaps, in a little room, and the mighty
instrument of five thousand pipes, occupying as much space as an
ordinary dwelling house. Each is an organ. May it not have been
the case that the'ugab, which in Ge 4:21 is mentioned as
the simply constructed wind instrument, in contrast to
the simple stringed instrument, the kinnor, was a
greatly inferior instrument to that which in Ps 150:1-6 is
thought worthy of mention by the side of a term for the whole
string power?—J. Stainer.
Verse 5. Loud cymbals...high sounding cymbals.
This important passage clearly points to two instruments under
the same name, and leaves us to conclude that the Hebrews had
both hand cymbals and finger cymbals (or castanets), although it
may not in all cases be easy to say which of the two is intended
in particular texts.—John Kitto.
Verse 5. (Prayer Book Version). Praise him upon the
well tuned cymbals: praise him upon the loud cymbals. As I
have heard these words read monthly in our churches, it has
often come into my thoughts that when we intend to glorify God
with our cymbals, it should not be our only care to have them
loud enough, but our first care should be to have them well
tuned, else the louder the worse. Zeal does very well—there is
great, yea, necessary use for it in every part of God's service.
The cymbal will be flat, it will have no life or spirit in it,
it will not be loud enough without it. But if meekness,
peaceableness, and moderation do not first put the cymbal into
good tune, the loudness will but make it the more ungrateful in
the player, the more ungrateful to the hearer.—Robert
Sanderson, 1587-1662
Verse 6. Praise ye the Lord. As the life of the
faithful, and the history of the church, so also the Psalter,
with all its cries from the depths, runs out into a
Hallelujah.—E.W. Hengstenberg.
Verse 6. Praise ye the LORD. When we have said
all we are able to say for God's praise, we are but to begin
anew; for this are we taught by the renewing of the exhortation,
in the close of sundry Psalms, and here also at the end of all
the Psalms: "Praise ye the LORD."—David
Dickson.
Verse 6. Let all breath praise Jah! Hallelujah.
The very ambiguity of "all breath" gives
extraordinary richness of meaning to this closing sentence. From
the simple idea of wind instruments, mentioned in the context,
it leads us, by a beautiful transition, to that of vocal,
articulate, intelligent praise, uttered by the breath of living
men, as distinguished from mere lifeless instruments. Then,
lastly, by a natural association, we ascend to the idea
expressed in the common version, "everything that hath
breath", not merely all that lives, but all that has a
voice to praise God. There is nothing in the Psalter more
majestic or more beautiful than this brief but most significant finale,
in which solemnity of tone predominates, without however in the
least disturbing the exhilaration which the close of the Psalter
seems intended to produce; as if in emblematical allusion to the
triumph which awaits the church and all its members, when
through much tribulation they shall enter into rest.—Joseph
Addison Alexander.
HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER
Verse 1. Praise God in his sanctuary.
1. In his personal holiness.
2. In the person of his Son.
3. In heaven.
4. In the assembly of saints.
5. In the silence of the heart.
Verses 1-6. God should be praised. Where? (Ps 150:1).
Wherefore? (Ps 150:2). Wherewith? (Ps 150:3-5). By whom? (Ps
150:6).—C.A.D.
Verse 2. His excellent greatness. Wherein the
greatness of God is specially excellent, and where it is best
seen.
Verse 2. Praise him for his mighty acts.
1. For us. Election. Redemption. Inspiration.
2. In us. The work of enlightenment in the understanding;
purification in the heart; quickening in the conscience;
subjugation in the will.
3. By us. Thought through us; felt through us; spoke through
us; worked through us. To him be all the glory!—W.J.
Verse 2. Praise him according to his excellent
greatness.
1. Reverently, according to the greatness of his being.
2. Gratefully, according to the greatness of his love.
3. Retrospectively, according to the greatness of his gifts.
4. Prospectively, according to the greatness of his promises.—W.J.
Verse 2. What the exhortation requires.
1. That men should study God's works, and observe the glory
of God in them.
2. That they should meditate on his greatness till they realize
its excellence.
3. That they should openly proclaim the honour due to him.
4. That they should not contradict in their life the praise they
speak.—J.F.
Verse 3. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet.
1. When you fight.
2. When you conquer.
3. When you assemble.
4. When you proclaim his Word.
5. When you welcome Jubilee.
Verses 3-6.
1. The variety of the ancient service of worship
necessitating serious expenditure; consecration of high talent;
hard and constant toil.
2. The lessons of such service.
a) God should be worshipped royally.
b) The efforts of the best genius are his rightful tribute.
c) All human ability cannot place a worthy offering at his feet.
3. The soul and essential of true worship.
4. God's requirements as to worship in these present
times.—W.B.H.
Verse 6.
1. The august Giver of "life, and breath, and all
things."
2. The due and true use of the gifts of life.
3. The resultant swathing of earth in consecrated atmosphere,
and millennial hallelujahs.—W.B.H.
Verse 6. A fitting close to the psalter, considered as
a desire, a prayer, or an exhortation.
1. As a desire, it realizes the glory due to God, the worship
ennobling to man, the disposition of heart which would make all
the world into a holy brotherhood.
2. As a prayer, it seeks the downfall of every superstition,
the universal spread of the truth, the conversion of every soul.
3. As an exhortation, it is plain, pertinent, pure in its
piety, perfect in its charity.—J.F.
HALLELUJAH!