Outline of Chapter 150:

An Introduction to Psalm 150

         Inscription            Psalm 150 Inscription

         vv.     1–

vv.

Psalm 150 Addendum

Charts, Short Doctrines and Maps:

         Introduction 

         Inscription 

         v.

         Addendum          A Complete Translation of Psalm 150

An Introduction to Psalm 150

I ntroduction: Psalm 150

I must confess that, at a superficial read of this psalm, I am getting no more out of it than we should praise God using a variety of musical instruments. This is the final psalm of all the psalms, and the final Praise Yah! psalm, so I would suspect that there is more to it than just this. Whether or not I am able to unearth more is another question entirely.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Praise Yah!

Praise El in His holiness.

Praise Him in the atmosphere of His strength.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              Alleluia. Praise God in his holy places: praise him in the firmament of his power.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Shout praises to the LORD! Praise God in his temple. Praise him in heaven, his mighty fortress.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Praise the LORD! Praise God in his Temple! Praise his strength in heaven!

The Message                         Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy house of worship, praise him under the open skies;...

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Let the Lord be praised. Give praise to God in his holy place: give him praise in the heaven of his power.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

Easy English (Churchyard)    .

God’s Word™                         .

HCSB                                     Hallelujah! Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty heavens.

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             Praise the LORD!

Praise God in his sanctuary!

Praise him in the sky, which testifies to his strength!

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                                      Praise Yah! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young's Updated LT              Praise Jah! Praise God in His holy place, Praise Him in the expanse of His strength.

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: Praise Yah! Psalms 146–150 all begin with Praise Yah (Yah being an abbreviated form of YHWH in the Old Testament). The psalms previous to this were written by David and there is no reason to suppose that David did not write these as well.

I don’t know if David was, at some time or another, struck with the desire to write psalms which praise God for various things, but that is essentially what we have in these final 5 psalms. These 5 psalms begin and end with this phrase.

Translation: Praise God in His holiness [or, in His sanctuary]. Most translators interpret this to mean that the reader is being urged to praise God in His sanctuary. It appears that the praise is to occur when God is in His sanctuary, as opposed to the person hearing this psalm being in His sanctuary.

An alternate understanding is, God is to be praised for His righteousness and justice, which together, make up His holiness. It is very reasonable for the believer to be urged to praise God for His character, as everything that we based our faith upon is based upon God’s character. God’s character, attested to throughout Scripture, is one of the most important things for us to understand; and it is what we base our trust upon.

Translation: Praise Him in the expanse of His majesty [strength, proctection]. The exact meaning of this phrase is also in doubt. Expanse often refers to the atmosphere about the earth, which the Hebrews apparently recognized as real and definable.

BDB has, as the definition: [This Hebrew word means] the vault of heaven or firmament, [which is] regarded by the Hebrews as a solid and [that it] supports the waters above it. I don’t know that solid is the best way to express this. I believe that the writers of Scripture recognized that our atmosphere was not empty space, but that is was real and definable, and capable of holding up clouds and water.

I think the sense that we should take here is, just as the atmosphere surrounds the earth, preserving all life upon the earth; so does God’s majesty, strength and protection surround those who are His own.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Praise Him in His mighty deeds;

Praise Him in an abundance of His majesty.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              Praise him on account of his mighty acts: praise him according to his abundant greatness.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Praise our God! His deeds are wonderful, too marvelous to describe.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Praise him for the mighty things he has done. Praise his supreme greatness.

The Message                         Praise him for his acts of power, praise him for his magnificent greatness;...

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             .

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him for his immense greatness.

HCSB                                     Praise Him for His powerful acts; praise Him for His abundant greatness.

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             Praise him for his mighty acts!

Praise him for his surpassing greatness!

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     Praise Him in His mighty acts; praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             .

Young's Literal Translation     Praise Him in His mighty acts, Praise Him according to the abundance of His greatness.

Young's Updated LT              .

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: Praise [or, celebrate] Him in His mighty deeds;... The gist of this psalm is, the psalmist is calling upon those hearing this psalm to praise God for a number of things—here, for His mighty deeds.

This is one area where more people are mixed up than any other. They read about the miracles of Jesus, about Him telling His disciples that they would do even greater works, and, one time, He even speaks of moving a mountain from here to there. We read about the miracles which occurred during the time of the exodus, and we expect such things to occur in our lives. God’s mighty deeds are not necessarily miracles, any more than we can flip a switch on our television sets and start receiving images and sounds from all over the world. Is God able to perform miracles? Of course! The Creator is not confined to His creation. Has God performed miracles? Probably on several occasions, He has. However, what is more amazing is, God knew all that was going to occur and every decision that we would ever make, and He devised things in order to bring to pass whatever great things He desired to bring to pass. You have no doubt heard the saying, a butterfly flaps his wings in Africa and a hurricane is set into motion over the Atlantic Ocean. Whereas, I doubt that much like this ever has occurred, God has, in the creation of this earth, flapped a few butterfly wings here and there, with end results of great hurricanes elsewhere. God can, thousands of years ago, set some things into motion, which bring much greater things to pass many years later. For instance, when Moses smacked the rock with his stick out in the desert, and out burst a great burst of water (we are likely speaking of a geiser of some sort), it is not necessary for God to suddenly create the water and the pressure the moment that Moses strikes the rock. This could have been a natural phenomenon which had been building up for centuries, and God timed the burst through of the water to coincide Moses striking the rock, something which involves much greater planning. Furthermore, God has done these sort of things millions of times, many as a response to prayers made thousands of years later.

We ought to celebrate God’s great deeds and praise Him for them.

Translation: ...Praise Him in His abundant majesty [or, greatness, magnificence; immutability]. This final word is quite difficult to determine a meaning for. As you will not in the Hebrew table above, this word can be used in a good and a bad way, which seems to take the meanings which we would like to apply—majesty, greatness, magnicence—off the table. Immutability might be the best way to render this final word, as unchanging character in God is a good thing; but an unchanging character in man is not. So, in one sense this seems like a reasonable understanding for this word. However, this word is very close in form to several words which mean greatness, strength, might. Furthermore, we have the masculine singular construct multitude, abundance. Immutability strikes me as being an absolute, when associated with God, so that having an abundance of it does not make a great deal of sense. Perhaps, the concept could be God’s glory?

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Praise Him in a sound of a trumpet;

praise Him in a lute and lyre.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              Praise him with the sound of a trumpet: praise him with psaltery and harp.

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Praise God with trumpets and all kinds of harps.

Good News Bible (TEV)         .

The Message                         Praise with a blast on the trumpet, praise by strumming soft strings;...

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Give him praise with the sound of the horn: give him praise with corded instruments of music.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         .

HCSB                                     Praise Him with trumpet blast; praise Him with harp and lyre.

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             .

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; praise Him with the harp and lyre.

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             .

Young's Literal Translation     Praise Him with blowing of trumpet, Praise Him with psaltery and harp.

Young's Updated LT              .

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: Praise Him with the sound of a trumpet... The trumpet is found in the procession of the Ark, but it is not found in Psalm 57 (see comments below v. 3b).

God is praised and celebrated with music.

Translation:...[and] praise Him with a hand-held harp and a lyre. Interestingly enough, we find these same two instruments named together in Psalm 57:8. I placed that psalm with David in 1Sam. 22, during that time that David was running from Saul, and he was out of fellowship; and it became apparent that David got back into fellowship once again. We also find these same instruments named in 1Chron. 15:16, when David moved the Ark, and this psalm seems to be very appropriate to that time and place.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Praise Him in a timbrel and dancing;

praise Him in strings and organ.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              Praise him with timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and the organ.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Praise him with tambourines and dancing, with stringed instruments and woodwinds.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Praise him with drums and dancing. Praise him with harps and flutes.

The Message                         Praise him with castanets and dance, praise him with banjo and flute;...

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Give him praise with instruments of brass and in the dance: give him praise with horns and corded instruments.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         Praise him with tambourines and dancing. Praise him with stringed instruments and flutes. .

HCSB                                     .

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             .

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with strings and pipes.

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!

Young's Literal Translation     Praise Him with timbrel and dance, Praise Him with stringed instruments and organ.

Young's Updated LT              .

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: Praise Him with the timbrel [or, tambourine] and [with] dancing;... We find timbrels (tambourines?) and dancing at a number of different celebrations, including the moving of the Ark.

This final psalm seems to be primarily one of praise directed toward God throughout.

Translation: ...praise Him with stringed instruments and organ. We find a mention of stringed instruments only here and possibly in Psalm 45:8. The organ (or, tibia, pipe, reed or flute) is quite the ancient instrument, being mentioned in Gen. 4 and Job 21 and 30. For this reason, agreeing with Barnes, I would be less likely to lean toward this being an organ.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Praise Him in cymbals of sound;

praise Him in cymbals of a loud noise [or, a battle cry].

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              Praise him with melodious cymbals: praise him with loud cymbals.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Praise God with cymbals, with clashing cymbals.

Good News Bible (TEV)         .

The Message                         Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum, praise him with fiddles and mandolin.

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Give him praise with the loud brass: give him praise with the high-sounding brass.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         .

HCSB                                     Praise Him with resounding cymbals; praise Him with clashing cymbals.

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             .

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals!

Young's Literal Translation     Praise Him with cymbals of sounding, Praise Him with cymbals of shouting.

Young's Updated LT              .

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: Praise Him with resounding cymbals [or, the cymbals of a report?];... In this verse, we have a repetition of the musical instrument, although it is not completely clear that we are dealing with cymbals (others suggest fish spears, whatever the hell that is). In both cases, it is paired up with an unusual word. In v. 5a, it is paired up with the masculine singular noun a report; a hearing; speech; fame; singing, music; a sound. Even though we may want to take the lazy man’s way out and simply say that these are cymbals which are loud, or sound loud or are resounding; perhaps the idea is to connect them with a word which means report, speech.

Translation:...[and] praise Him with loud cymbals [or, the cymbals of a battle cry?]. As in the previous half of v. 5, we have the same exact words, except that cymbals this is connected to a war cry or a battle cry. Although the idea may simply be that these cymbals are loud; I think the better approach is, they are sounding the alert for an armed conflict.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       All the breathing praise Yah;

Praise Yah!

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              Let every thing that has breath praise the Lord. Alleluia!

Significant differences:           None

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Let every living creature praise the LORD. Shout praises to the LORD!

Good News Bible (TEV)         Praise the LORD, all living creatures! Praise the LORD!

The Message                         Let every living, breathing creature praise GOD! Hallelujah!

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Let everything which has breath give praise to the Lord. Let the Lord be praised.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         Let everything that breathes praise the LORD! Hallelujah!

HCSB                                     .

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             .

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     Let everything that breathes praise Jehovah. Praise Jehovah!

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             .

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young's Updated LT              All that breathe praise Jah! Praise Jah!

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: Everything that breathes praises Yah;... This is a fitting end to all of the psalms. We do not have the imperative here, so we have a statement of fact, as opposed to all creatures being urged to praise God.

The noun here looks interesting, with a myriad of meanings, so I may want to do a word study on it.

Translation: ...Praise Yah! The final words in this psalm, as we find in the previous 4 psalms, is Praise Yah! Those who hear or read this psalm are encouraged to praise Jehovah God.

Psalm 150 Addendum