Psalm 150:5














Bishop Wordsworth notes that all kinds of faculty are engaged in the work of praise. 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. The introduction of various musical instruments, as well as choirs of human voices, into the regular worship of the tabernacle and temple, is traceable to the time and probably to the personal influence of David. "David did so much for the public worship of God in that he brought it so near to men; he gave it so much interest to them; and he lifted it out of mere duty into pleasure by adding the features of music and of song." It is interesting, but only a matter of curiosity, to identify and describe the different instruments mentioned here. We need only see that they include all the musical instruments - wind, string, and clanging. The point to fix attention on is that, when a man wants to praise God, he may bring into his service every kind of power that he possesses, and every agency through which he can find expression for his power.

I. ALL KINDS OF INSTRUMENTS MAY BE USED IN PRAISE. Only sentiment ever puts limitations on the instruments that may be used for Divine worship. Sentiment imagines some kinds to be more solemn and reverent than others. Curiously, those which some regard as specially solemn, e.g. the organ, are wholly repudiated by others (the Scotch). No instrument is in itself unsuitable. The kind of use man makes of it, and the kind of associations man causes to gather round it, may make an instrument unsuitable. In this matter the good sense of Christian people must decide.

II. THE PRAISE IS NOT IN THE INSTRUMENT, BUT IN WHAT THE MAN EXPRESSES THROUGH THE INSTRUMENT. With our temptation to rest in things, we need this reminder for every age. The praise is in the man's soul. And the most exquisite musical expression is worthless as praise if it is soulless. - R.T.

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet.
: —

1. Albeit the typical ceremonies of musical instruments in God's public worship, belonging to the pedagogy of the Church, in her minority before Christ, be now abolished with the rest of the ceremonies, yet the moral duties shadowed forth by them are still to be studied, because this duty of praising God, and praising Him with all our mind, strength and soul is moral, whereunto we are perpetually obliged.

2. 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 consort with other instruments, or with the motions of the body in dancings, some 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 the joy to be found in God, and to teach what stirring up should be of the affections and powers of our soul, and one of another, unto God's worship; what harmony should be amongst worshippers of God, what melody each should mike 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 thereto, could sufficiently set forth; and thus much is figured forth in these exhortations to praise God with trumpet, etc.

(D. Dickson.)

: — Thanksgiving, a consciousness of the goodness and glory of God, the soul's joy in God — how seldom do you find an utterance of this in the prayers of the sanctuary. There is a provision, even in our churches, for the excitation and expression of praise. It is the song-service of the church. But the first and most fatal difficulty in this is that we have no religious music; or, rather, that the music of the church is for the sake of music, and not for the sake of praise, it expresses the aesthetic or art-feeling about praise — not heart-feeling. It is aimed at a wholly different thing from that which music was designed to be in the sanctuary. In the household, music aims at a domestic feeling. A mother's lullaby is sung in the family. No one Would expect a mother to sit by the side of the cradle and attempt to sing Handel's "Messiah," or to execute the difficult passages of an opera. Something sweet — a simple carol — is the mother's song. The child knows it, and feels it. It is aimed at a domestic effect. In songs of patriotism that express and excite that feeling the music becomes subordinate. The most patriotic tunes in vogue have no merit as tunes, but they possess a subtle element that stirs up a patriotic feeling in the heart, and it therefore answers the end of music. Multitudes of tunes in the church of God are hewn out of symphonies, and oratorios, and operas. They are music as operas, and oratorios, and symphonies, but they are trash in God's house. In many cases the better a tune is, the worse it is in the service of the sanctuary. For the office of music in Divine service is praising.

(H. W. Beecher.)

People
Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Brass, Clanging, Clash, Clashing, Cymbals, High-sounding, Loud, Loud-sounding, Praise, Resounding, Shouting, Sounding
Outline
1. An exhortation to praise God
3. With all kinds of instruments

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 150:1-6

     5314   flute
     5763   attitudes, positive to God

Psalm 150:3-5

     8421   equipping, physical

Library
Praise.
"Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord."--Psalm 150:6. "Lobe den Herren" [53]Joachim Neander transl., Jane Borthwick, 1855 Praise to Jehovah! the almighty King of Creation! Swell heaven's chorus, chime in every heart, every nation! O my soul! wake-- Harp, lute, and psaltery take, Sound forth in glad adoration. Praise to Jehovah! whose love o'er thy course is attending, Redeeming thy life, and thee from all evil defending. Through all the past, O my soul! over thee
Jane Borthwick—Hymns from the Land of Luther

Blessedness and Praise
'Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. 2. But his delight is in the law of the Lord.' --PSALM i. 1, 2. 'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.'--PSALM cl. 6. The Psalter is the echo in devout hearts of the other portions of divine revelation. There are in it, indeed, further disclosures of God's mind and purposes, but its especial characteristic is--the reflection
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Epistle xxxii. To Anastasius, Presbyter .
To Anastasius, Presbyter [1714] . Gregory to Anastasius, &c. That a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things (Matth. xii. 35; Luke vi. 45), this thy Charity has shewn, both in thy habitual life and lately also in thy epistle; wherein I find two persons at issue with regard to virtues; that is to say, thyself contending for charity, and another for fear and humility. And, though occupied with many things, though ignorant of the Greek language, I have nevertheless sat
Saint Gregory the Great—the Epistles of Saint Gregory the Great

How those that are at Variance and those that are at Peace are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 23.) Differently to be admonished are those that are at variance and those that are at peace. For those that are at variance are to be admonished to know most certainly that, in whatever virtues they may abound, they can by no means become spiritual if they neglect becoming united to their neighbours by concord. For it is written, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace (Gal. v. 22). He then that has no care to keep peace refuses to bear the fruit of the Spirit. Hence Paul
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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