2 September 2025

The Book of Psalms ends with a glorious doxology in the shape of the final Psalm 150. It opens and closes with the words, ‘Praise the Lord!’ And, believe it or not, there are thirteen uses of the word ‘praise’ in my NRSV of this psalm. ‘Praise the Lord’ in Hebrew is ‘Hallelujah’. This is our Hallelujah Chorus.

The Psalmist tells us where to praise God – in his sanctuary and in God’s mighty firmament. The former may refer to the Temple in Jerusalem. The latter refers to the heavens. The one is a reflection of the heavenly praises. Our worship here on earth reflects and is united with the worship in heaven.

Why should we praise God? Two reasons are given – his might acts and his excellent greatness. The former refers to all that God has done not least in the crossing of the Red Sea and the suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. The latter demonstrates the limitations of our praises. God is beyond comprehension.

How have we to praise God? This is the fun bit of the Psalm. We praise him with instruments and dance. The organist on Sunday played ‘Of she goes!’,  a piece of Scottish music for ‘Strip the Willow’ as I exited the kirk at Crail.

There are no less than seven instruments being used. Some are quite noisy like the loud clashing cymbals. The tambourine was usually played by women c.f. Miriam at the Red Sea crossing. And the pipe was a secular instrument. Note well … Rutter’s ‘The Shepherd’s Pipe Carol’.

In this psalm, every living creature is invited to praise God and through our praises the whole earth is united in God. ‘This plan which God will complete when the time is right is to bring all creation together … with Christ as head … Let us then who were the first to hope in Christ, praise God’s glory.’ (Ephesians 1;10)