Let Everything Praise

Listen. A ram's horn blasts. Harps ring. Feet start to dance and cymbals crash. And one word rolls through the crowd, again and again: Hallelujah!

The book of Psalms is the songbook of ancient Israel. Its hundred and fifty songs were gathered over hundreds of years, from the time of King David and before, until after God's people came back from exile in Babylon. Some psalms are full of tears. Some ask hard questions. Some say sorry. But the people who put the book together chose to end it in a particular way. The last five psalms, one hundred and forty-six to one hundred and fifty, are pure praise. Psalm one hundred and forty-eight looks at the whole universe. Psalm one hundred and fifty sounds like a temple band playing everything it has. We don't know who wrote these two songs. But we know what they want: everybody, everything, joining in.

Psalm one hundred and forty-eight starts high up. “Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights.” Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his armies of heaven. Then the singer looks up at the sky. “Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light.” Even the waters above the skies are invited. Why? Because God commanded, and they were created. He set them in place for ever. The sun doesn't sing with a voice, of course. But simply by shining, doing what God made it to do, it gives him glory.

Now the singer turns to the earth, and the list gets wild. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the ocean deeps. Fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind that does what he says. Mountains and every hill. Fruit trees and tall cedars. Wild animals and cattle, creeping things and flying birds. Imagine a whale, a hailstorm and a sparrow, all in the same choir. Then people. Kings of the earth and all nations, princes and judges. And then, my favourite line: “Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children.” Not just the important people. Grandparents and little ones too. Let them all praise the name of the Lord, the psalm says, for his name alone is great.

And then comes Psalm one hundred and fifty, the very last song. It answers three questions. Where? “Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.” In the temple, and across the whole sky. Why? Praise him for his mighty acts, for how great he is. And how? With everything you've got. With the sound of the trumpet, the psaltery and harp. With the tambourine and dancing. With strings and pipes. With loud cymbals, and with clashing, crashing cymbals. Can you hear the band growing louder and louder? And then, the last line of the whole book of Psalms: “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.” If you are breathing right now, that means you.

That phrase, praise ye the Lord, is one word in Hebrew: hallelujah. Hallelu means praise, all of you, and Yah is a short form of God's name. Each of the last five psalms begins and ends with it. The Psalms are also divided into five books, and each book closes with a short burst of praise. Psalm one hundred and fifty is the closing praise for the whole collection. The trumpet it mentions was most likely the shofar, a horn made from a ram's horn.

You'll find these songs in Psalms one hundred and forty-eight and one hundred and fifty. The Bible's songbook ends with the whole universe singing, and a space saved for you. So here is a question to carry with you. What is one thing God has done that you could praise him for today?