Psalms 150
Big idea: Six verses and no requests. The Psalter — which has spent a hundred and fifty poems on grief, betrayal, exile, guilt, sickness and rage — ends with an orchestra and one instruction repeated thirteen times. Where: sanctuary and heavens. Why: his mighty acts, his excellent greatness. How: trumpet, harp, lyre, tambourine, dancing, strings, flute, and cymbals twice, because once was not loud enough. And then the widest line in the book, which asks for no qualification at all: let everything that has breath praise Yah.
Psalm 150 ends the Psalter with everything that breathes. There is nothing after it, and nothing needs to be.
150:1–6 — Let everything that has breath
The Psalter ends with no request, no complaint and no argument — thirteen imperatives in six verses, and the whole orchestra. Where, why, how, and finally who: and the last answer is the widest the book has given. Not Israel, not the righteous, not even the living — everything THAT HAS BREATH. After 149 psalms of asking, the requirement for the last one is respiration.
1 Praise Yah! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power! 2 Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness! 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute! 5 Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise Yah! Praise Yah!
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).