HOW should we Praise the LORD? -v 3-5
We not only use words to Praise Him -v 2; but also Instruments…
The instruments he mentions are so intricate with the Jewish History and they would have deep meaning and understanding for them and would cause their minds to go back and think on events that would be primers for Praising the LORD. He tells them to gather everything to can to use with exuberance in the praising of the LORD.
A. -With Instruments- v –
a.- Trumpets- ““with trumpet”
Note the variety of musical instruments that the psalmist directs in
praise:
9 Wind instruments:
— “trumpet” (shofar)—the ram’s horn blown on the Day of
Atonement (Lev 25:9) and other special occasions (Ps 81:3;
Joel 2:15). David employed it in worship (2 Sam 6:15). ..— “pipe” (‘ugav)—perhaps something like a panpipe.
Appearances include Genesis 4:21, Job 21:12 and 30:31, and here. Sometimes translated “flute.”
Stringed instruments:
— “harp” (nevel)—perhaps with a slanting yoke—one type, at
least, has 10 strings (Pss 33:2; 144:9). See 2 Samuel 6:5;
1 Chronicles 15:16; 16:5
— “lyre” (kinnor)—perhaps with a sounding box. First
mentioned in Genesis 4:21. It is David’s instrument (1 Sam
16:16, 23
). Psalmists used it in singing praise to God (Pss
43:4; 71:22).
— “stringed instruments” (minnim)—Appears only here and in
Psalm 45:8.
9 Percussion instruments:
— “timbrel” (tof)—the tambourine, which women play as they
dance (Exod 15:20). It accompanies assemblages of
instruments used by prophets (1 Sam 10:5), those bringing
the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:5), and in
singing praise to God (Pss 81:1–2; 149:3).
— “cymbals” (tsiltsilim, 2x)—two metal plates (usually copper)
banged together to make a clanging sound; the text might
refer to two kinds of cymbals. This word for cymbals occurs
only here and in 2 Samuel 6:5. A related word appears 11x in
Chronicles and also in Ezra 3:10 and Nehemiah 12:27.
“They include instruments that would be played by priests (the horn),
by Levites (harp, lyre, cymbals), and by laypeople (tambourine,
strings, pipe).”—John Goldingay, Psalms, 3 vols., Baker Commentary
on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2008), 3:748.
Psalm 150 teaches that all available instruments were to be used by Israel for the
praise of God in worship. The range of instruments went from simple flute to
complex harp, from soft lyre to loud resounding cymbals. Even though these
instruments had been borrowed from neighboring nations with pagan
associations, all were to be used rightly in the praise of God. Ultimately He is to
be seen as the source of everything good, including music and instrumentation.
— Ronald Barclay Allen, The Wonder of Worship: A New Understanding
of the Worship Experience, electronic ed., Swindoll Leadership Library
(Nashville: Word, 2001), 180 fn. 2
“[I]nstruments as accompaniments to praise, or any aspect of prayer
for that matter, are God’s will as His Scripture frequently shows.
David led in organizing musical ministry (1 Chr. 22–29), and it
exercised a strategic role under the guidance of several later kings. It
also was sorely missed in the exile (Ps. 137), and important under Ezra
and Nehemiah, in the inter-testamental era, and among New Testament
believers. So it has usually had a stimulating ministry ever since. And
heaven is filled with music as the Book of Revelation reflects.”—
James E. Rosscup, An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible: Igniting the
Fuel to Flame Our Communication With God, electronic ed.
(Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2008), 1001.
y v. 4 “dance”
See notes on Psalm 149:3.
y v. 5 “loud . . . resounding”
Worship at the Tabernacle and in the Temple was not always quiet or
subdued in tone.
The Old Testament does not depict worship music as entertainment. It
did not matter which instruments were employed, but how they were
used and why.
y v. 6 “everything that has breath”
The psalmist calls on all living creatures to praise the Lord—both
mankind and animal life.
The same phrase occurs in Joshua 10:40 (cp. Gen 2:7; 7:22).
y v. 6 “Praise the LORD!”
“Hallelujah!”—“This is the message of the Psalms in one breath.”—
Rosscup, Exposition on Prayer in the Bible, 1001.
Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs
Barrick, Placerita Baptist Church 2009
4
4.0 Singing Psalm 150
“Praise Him in His Sanctuary”
(Tune: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”)
Praise Him in His Sanctuary.
Praise Him in His Mighty Heav’n.
Praise Him for His acts of Power.
Praise for He alone is great.
Praise Him with the sounding trumpet.
Praise Him with the Harp and Lyre.
Tambourine, strings, flute and dancing, clashing cymbals tell His
” {masters}
“..Think of the trumpets: For the pious Israelite the mind would surely have gone to various solemn religious occasions, the offering of sacrifices at the temple, the day of atonement annually, the great moment of victory when the ark was taken up to Jerusalem (Numbers 10:10, Leviticus. 25:9, IT Samuel 6:15). At those times the trumpet was sounded.
The psalmist’s call to praise God with the trumpet would have reminded the people of those powerful acts of the Lord and the greatness of the Lord. They remembered that the trumpet was used to summon them together both for worship and civic meetings (Numbers 10:4, I Kings 11:34,39, 41). It would have reminded them how they were summoned to go into battle for the Lord against the enemies of the Lord and to preserve their nation. They would have remembered how the trumpet was sounded at the anointing of their kings (Joshua 6, Judges 7). This instrument, you see, would have carried their minds back to all sorts of occasions in which they praised the Lord. Praise Him in His temple. Praise Him under His heavens in all that you do.”{WESTMINSTER Seminary}
“When a Jew saw and heard a trumpet, what did he think of? Any devout Jew would remember the great religious ceremonies and festivals. Trumpets were blown to announce the official sacrifices at Jerusalem. Trumpets were blown to announce the Day of Atonement. Trumpets were blown on that glorious day when the ark of God arrived in Jerusalem. Trumpets were blown to call the people to worship. Trumpets were blown to call the people to battle. Trumpets were blown to announce that a king was anointed and ascending his throne. So, you see, a trumpet carried with it a whole lot of history. It was like a symbol of glorious memories that had enriched their life. “-{Mac A}
Jubilee? joshua Jericho… blew the trumpet?/
b. – Harp -”
“…Think of the harp and the lyre. These instruments of rejoicing (Genesis 31:27) were played at the dedication of the temple, played at the dedication of the new walls of Jerusalem, played sometimes to accompany prophecy and sacrifices, played to celebrate victory in battle (II Chronicles 5:12, Neh. 12:27, I Samuel 10:5, I Chron. 25:1-6, II Chron. 29:25, 20:28). Again you see the richness of the historical background of these instruments for Israel. Not just sounds raised to praise the Lord, but sounds resounding in the religious and national and military history of God’s people in all that they did in service to Him in all of their praise. ‘”-{Wesminster}
“Consider the harp and the lyre in verse 3. These were instruments of joy. Played at the dedication of the temple they were; played at the dedication of the new walls of the rebuilt Jerusalem. What a great event that was.
And harp and lyre were often played to accompany prophecy and sacrifices. They were played to celebrate victory in battle such as in 2 Chronicles 5, Nehemiah 12, 1 Samuel 10, these lovely, sweet, plucking sounds of praise would not only give emotional expression to the hearts worship, but remind the Jews of all those great events of their history.”- Mac A
c. – Lyre
d. – Timbrel -“And then there was timbrel or tambourine and dancing. Here also you have means of joy. The tambourine, a percussion instrument with a little tinkling sound, used to express great joy. This kind of tambourine, by the way, was used to celebrate military victories. It was a celebrating instrument, and it would remind the people of great triumph and great celebration as God had moved in their history past.”-{Mac A}
e. – Dancing-
“… And what about dancing? Well, you’ve got to divorce what you understand about dancing, what you’ve been exposed to from this. We’re not talking here about couples, and we’re not talking about any form of dancing that you would see in our secular culture. We’re not talking about anything immoral, anything carnal, anything with any sexual overtones, anything that is any less than an expression of godly joy.
You say, “Well, did the Jewish people have this kind of dance?”
Yes. Dance is contrasted regularly in Scripture with one other thing, and that is mourning. In the book of Ecclesiastes, it says, there’s a time to dance and a time to mourn. Mourning was sackcloth, ashes, weariness, bent over, humiliation. And the opposite was joy and exuberance in the expression of dance. A dance was used to celebrate military victory. For example, we find Miriam, the sister of Moses, dancing and leading the women of Israel in dance and playing the tambourine. And they were celebrating – remember Exodus 15, the drowning of Pharaoh in the Red Sea and the deliverance of the Israelites? – and all the women were jumping around and hitting their tambourines and rejoicing with great joy.
We find repeated reference to how women danced, for example, to celebrate the victory of Saul, the victories of David over the enemies of God. In Judges 21, the women were dancing about the harvest celebration, skipping along and perhaps waving their arms in the air and lightly tripping around and leaping in the air just to show their great joy.
Now, the dance is not particular recorded in Scripture as used for worship in Israel. In other words, in the collective worship, we don’t see it. The only time we see it is a bad time. Exodus 32, when they had made the golden calf, and they were dancing before the golden calf.
But in the worship of Jehovah, we find no instance of dancing as a regular part of corporate worship. But it was a way in which an individual could express joy. And probably the best illustration of it is in 2 Samuel chapter 6, and I won’t look it up because time is gone, but I’ll tell you the story. Second Samuel 6, David was so excited when the ark of God came and was delivered, he was so exuberant that it says he danced before the Lord in a linen ephod. And what is a linen ephod? That’s just – that’s just a plain linen cloak. It just – he just wore a plain linen deal.
You say, “Why did they make an issue out of that?”
Because he was the king, and normally he wore kingly garments. Normally he had on all the trappings of royalty. But he just threw off all his trappings, and he danced before the Lord in just the linen ephod, the common dress of any everyday person. And, you know, his wife Michal, who was a big social climber, this woman, she saw him dancing, it says, and she despised him. She despised him. You know what bothered her was that He would humiliate himself like that. She didn’t like it unless he had on all of his royal garb. She was into all of that. And she didn’t think it was appropriate for the king to just get out there and dress like a common person and just jump around.
And it says, “He was leaping before the Lord.” I mean he was so filled with joy it just came out in his bodily expression. And so, she just let him have it. She just rained on his parade.
And he said to her, in 2 Samuel 6, “I will humble myself, and I will show my joy and thanks to the Lord because it’s right.” And then you know what God did? He cursed her so she never had a child until the day she died. She was cursed for condemning David for dancing in humility before the Lord. That was a pretty sacred event if it ended up in a curse on one who despised it.
Sacred kind of expression of joy in dance where you just sort of are so filled with joy that it all comes out in some physical expression. I love sometimes to watch a happy child, watch my little grandchildren skip. Why do they skip? Why do children skip? What’s making them skip? It’s not genetics. It’s what? It’s joy, isn’t it? They’re happy about something. Or sometimes you go and you watch them, and they’re dancing around and jumping around and delightfully singing a little song. What is that? That’s joy. That’s what David was doing. And there’s a place for that kind of expression. . “- { Mac A}
“….Praise him with the tambourine and dance.” Here again we have particularly elements and expressions of joy. Dance is contrasted regularly in the Scripture with mourning. In the book of Ecclesiastes, there is a time to mourn and there is a time to dance (Eccl. 3:4). Dance and the tambourine especially recognized those times of happiness, those times of celebrations, those times preeminently of triumph (Ps. 30:11, Jer. 31:4, 13). For in Israel the tambourine and dance were brought out to celebrate especially military victory. We find Miriam dancing and leading the women of Israel in dance and playing the tambourine as they celebrate the drowning of Pharaoh m the Red Sea and the deliverance of the people (Ex. 15:20). We find repeated references to how the women danced to celebrate the victories of Saul and David over the enemies of God (I Samuel 21:11, 29:5, 18:6). We find the dance at times of the harvest celebration (Judges 21:21). And so the dance was particularly a military and civic affair in the life of Israel’s history. The dance is not particularly used in our recorded Scriptures for worship in Israel except at that tragic moment when all of Israel danced before the golden calf (Ex. 32:19). But in the worship of Jehovah we find no instances of dancing as a regular part of the worship of God.
Now there is one possible exception to the pattern. In II Samuel 6:14 we are told that David danced before the ark with all his might as it was being taken up to Jerusalem. And you remember his wife, Saul’s daughter criticized him for that dance and the Lord cursed her for her criticism.
This event is interesting because the Scripture says that David danced naked before the ark. This might raise the question whether the only legitimate kind of liturgical dancing we find in Scripture is naked dancing. This conclusion would pose even more problems than we have had thus far in our study of worship together. What is really going on in this story of David dancing before the ark? It seems to me that when the Scripture says that David was naked, it does not mean that he was bare. It means that he had put aside his royal robes and insignia. He had put aside the royal vestments that the king ordinarily wore in a triumphal moment. He had divested himself and had humbled himself before the people and before the Lord.
In that sense he was naked of the signs of his office. (I hope my understanding is not just a Victorian, prudish reading of the text; but I believe my interpretation is most likely correct since nakedness is not a frequent occurrence in Israel.) What David’s wife criticized was that he took upon himself this humble role. He did not measure up to her image of a king and soldier when he joined with the women, removing his royal insignia, dancing before the ark. But he gave proper glory to God in this celebration of the great victory that the Lord had given the people of God in conquering the city of Jerusalem. He did not claim glory for himself. He celebrated his joy humbly in this triumphant moment of the people’s existence. So David danced preeminently as a celebration of this victory that the Lord, his great God, had given to His people.
“-{WESTMINSTER}
f.- Strings – “…
The strings and the pipes recorded here (or the strings and the flutes as the NIV has it) are also general terms for instruments of rejoicing. The cymbals again are associated with the moving of the ark and with the sacrifices in the temple (II Samuel 6:5, II Chron. 29:25). So we see that these instruments lift not just sound in praise to God, but they lift the whole history of the nation’s experience to God in praise.
Interestingly the greatest description of the use of instruments in Israel’s history comes precisely at that moment when the ark is taken up to Jerusalem. In I Chronicles 13:8 we have the key to what all this means. There we read that “David and all the Israelites were celebrating with all their might before God, with songs, with harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals and trumpets.” You see that phrase “with all their might.” How are we to praise the Lord? We are to praise the Lord with all our might. That is what is principally being taught here. That is the great message of Scripture. Our praise of God is not to be an incidental matter for us. Our praise of God is not to be a casual matter for us. Our praise is to be wholehearted.”-WESTMINSTER SEMINARY
}
g. – Pipe
h. – Cymbals
“the how of praise. And this is a quite remarkable section, because in verses 3 to 5, the largest part of this psalm is devoted to the how. It speaks of instrumental means, “With trumpet sound, harp and lyre, timbrel and dancing, stringed instruments, pipe, loud cymbals, and resounding cymbals we are to praise Him.”
Now, a variety of means are given here to praise Him. But let me tell you what is not given here, which I find most interesting. It doesn’t say anything about any words. It doesn’t say anything about any words of praise. All it describes is a accompanying means, sounds and motions. It doesn’t say anything about words.
You say, “Are then we to offer God wordless praise?”
No, no. Back in Psalm 149:1, it says, “Praise the Lord!” How? “Sing to the Lord a new song.” Many places in the psalms we are told to sing songs, to praise God with our lips. And the writer of Hebrews rehearses that.
No, it is already established that we are to use words. We are to recite His attributes. It says it right there, “Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him for His excellent greatness.” The rehearsal of His attributes, the rehearsal of His mighty deeds. But what you have here is just the accompaniment to that. And in the culmination of praise, the emphasis is on praising God with all your might, calling together all means possible to the exhilaration of praise.
Use strings – and by the way, the main musical instruments in Israel are mentioned here in the categories of strings, percussion, and wind instruments. It mentions harp, lyre, and stringed instruments. In the percussion field, it mentions cymbals twice, which could include the bells we heard this morning, and timbrel, which is another word for a tambourine. And in the case of wind instruments, you have trumpet and you have pipe, which would be a clarinet, a flute – any kind of pipe like that. These would be the categories of the typical instruments used by the Jews in their musical expression.
And what the psalmist is saying is just gather up everything in exuberant expression of praise by every means. And it even throws in a physical means which is dancing.
Now, as you look at those instruments, many things come to mind. Your context is very different from them – theirs. When you hear, “Praise Him with a trumpet sound,” you might think about your favorite trumpet player. When you think about harp and lyre, you might think about somebody who plays a guitar in a contemporary environment.
A timbrel and dancing, you might think about pounding a tambourine on their hip and doing some kind of blue grass. And with stringed instruments, you might think of some glorious stringed – beautiful stringed instrument like Paco Bell’s “Canon” or something like that. And with a flute or a clarinet, if you’re old enough, you might think okay, great Benny Goodman. Who knows what you’d think of?
And loud cymbals and resounding cymbals, you might think of John Philip Sousa and some crashing of those instruments as some great march is performed or played. But that wouldn’t be what the Jews thought about. In fact, their praise was enhanced not only musically, but it was enhanced historically by these instruments.
Let me tell you why. When you read the psalm is saying here, if you really want to worship God, get out the trumpets, get out the stringed instruments, and get out everything you can bang. He’s saying that because these instruments are so richly attached to Jewish history. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Consider the trumpet.
Then he goes on to talk about the stringed instruments, strings; flutes being the pipe. Those are instruments used generally for other occasions of joy. You find them throughout Israel’s history; they were also very common.
Cymbals – I don’t know if you remember this – cymbals, resounding cymbals like these bells, those kinds of things were used in the sacrifices. So, they also were used in the moving of the ark of the covenant. So, all of these instruments, aside from just being means by which praise can be enhanced, become symbols of great, redemptive history.
So, what is – what is God saying through the psalm? Just gather up all the means and pull together all the memories and just pour out praise to God. It’s a magnificent picture. The greatest description, by the way, of this kind of praise I think is found in 1 Chronicles 13:8. Because in 1 Chronicles 13:8, you have the arrival of the ark. “And David” – it says – “and all Israel were celebrating before God with all their might, with songs and lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and with trumpets. There it is – the whole orchestra. And the key phrase “with all their might.”
Now Clayton said to you this morning, after you’d sung those hymns, “That is great singing.” And some of you were singing with all your might, weren’t you?
Now, you need the corporate fellowship to do that, to sing with all your might and worship the Lord with all your might. And when the orchestra’s here – or the clangors are here, or whatever it is – it helps to lift us. Tremendously exciting.
You don’t want to do that in class. You don’t want to worship the Lord with all your might in class at school. You can’t do that. You don’t want to do that in the office. You don’t want to take out your trumpet and blow to the top of your lungs and sing “And Can It Be” at the top of your voice in the office. You don’t want to do that. You can’t do that there. You need to come here and do it with the rest of us. We’re safe in here to do that. You don’t want to do that at McDonald’s; they’ll put you out – or Coco’s either, for that matter. Now, you might get away with it in the speakerphone at In-N-Out, but it’s marginal.
If you’re going to do this kind of corporate worship, you need to be, in most cases, with God’s redeemed people. And, of course, there are those private times. I don’t know about you, but I find some of my greatest times of worshiping the Lord are in the car, when I’m by myself, and the windows are up, and I’m just having a great old time.
So, we want to praise God with all our might. Well, when we gather to remember the glorious person and work of God our Savior, who sent His Son to die for us, our minds should be so full of the reality of our great salvation, our hearts so full of the joy of our salvation, our bodies so full of the emotion of our salvation, that we sing and play with all our might, accompanied by trumpets or bells or French horns or that box over there that can sound like any instrument.
And here we are, doing just that with all our might. And our songs are on God as our Creator, Sustainer, Preserver, Redeemer. How wonderful…”-{MACARTHUR}
“THE “HOW’ OF PRAISE
How should we praise Him? And here we come to the section of the Psalm that really occupies about half of the whole psalm where we are told to praise Him in a great variety of musical ways: “Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with the tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.” How are we to praise the Lord?
I suspect that if you had been asked to make a list of how we should praise the Lord, you would have written more about song and prayer. So why does the psalmist at this point talk not about words of praise, but rather primarily about sounds of praise lifted to the Lord? Why does he marshall these musical instruments – strings and percussions and wind instruments – just about the whole range of instruments in ancient Israel? Why does he want us to focus on these sounds of praise raised to the Lord?
We should not look at these instruments as abstractions, as instruments without any background or history or character to them. I do not think we should read this psalm as saying, “If we really want to worship God, we have to have a trumpet, we have to have a tambourine, and we have to have a cymbal or two.”
No, I suspect that the pious Israelite as he heard this psalm read would have thought very much of the occasions on which these instruments were used in the history of God’s people. These, instruments are so richly attached to crucial experiences, in Israel’s worship and national life that as the people of, God read or sang this psalm, their minds would have gone back to those events.
“
B.- With People – v-6
WHEN should we Praise the LORD?
WHO should Praise The LORD? v6
If you are breathing you are to be Praising the LORD!
The one thing that is necessary for praising the LORD? Breath! He who gives you breath is worthy of your Praise!
The desire to see everything praise the LORD is a great motivation for evangelism… to see all Priase Him and we know this is not so
They have rejected Him- Rom 1 suppressed the Truth.
Rev 7 they would not repent so as to Glorify Him- Rev 7
Enemies of the Cross… Phil 3
“god of this world has blinded them… but we have spiritual weapons mighty to the pulling down srongholds… the Gospel is the power fo God to salvation to the Jew first and Gentiles?
“Finally, who – who is to do this? In verse 6, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” If you’re breathing, you’re supposed to do it. That’s why God is so offended by the ungodly, because they refuse to praise Him. They are not thankful, as Romans 1 says. They will not glorify Him. But all of us created by God, all of us given breath by God, all of us redeemed by God, all of us saved by Christ, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.
Don’t make the focus of your life you; make the focus of your life Him. “-{Mac A}= rev 7 would not repent so as to Glorify him
“All of nature is praising God today, but His people are prone to forget to praise Him. Ask yourself these praise questions of Psalm 150 and then meditate on the psalmist’s answers. You have much for which to give praise. Bring joy to God’s heart by praising Him.” -{Wiersbe}