Psalm 150:NKJV
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
The Essence of Worship
My Notes
There’s something fitting about the way the Book of Psalms ends. After all the tears, the battles, the dark nights, the questions, and the long waits, the final word is pure praise.
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” —Psalm 150:6 (NKJV)
This isn’t a quiet suggestion. It’s a full-throated invitation—almost a command—that rings out like the last note of a great symphony. Psalm 150 doesn’t teach, explain, or argue. It just lifts its voice and says, “Praise Him… Praise Him… Praise the Lord!” You can feel the writer’s heart overflowing. No more holding back. No more careful analysis. Just rapture.
I love how this psalm bookends the entire collection. Psalm 1 opened with “Blessed is the man…” and closed with the same promise of blessing for those who walk in God’s ways. Now, at the other end of the mountain range of the Psalms, we stand on the highest peak, and the fruit of that blessed life is revealed: a heart that can’t help but praise. Everything in between—every lament, every cry for help, every confession, every song of trust—has been leading here.
Think about it. This book has recorded war and captivity, sickness and betrayal, loneliness and fear. It has given voice to the rawest human experiences. And yet, after all of that, the Spirit of God chooses to close the volume with nothing but praise. That tells me something important about the life of faith: when the story is finished, the dominant note is not sorrow or struggle—it’s thanksgiving. One day our own lives will end the same way. The trials will be over, and what remains will be hallelujah.
The closing line is especially rich. “Let everything that has breath…” It starts with the thought of wind instruments, then moves to the living breath of people who can sing with understanding, and finally opens out to every living thing that has a voice. Nothing is left out. If it breathes, it is invited—no, summoned—to join the chorus.
I’ve stood in rooms where people were barely hanging on, and still the praise rose. I’ve watched older saints whose bodies were failing but whose spirits kept singing. There’s something powerful about choosing to praise when life has been hard. It doesn’t deny the pain. It simply declares that God is still worthy on the other side of it.
So let this final psalm do its work in us. Let it pull us upward. After all we’ve walked through, after every dark valley the Psalms have named, the last word is still the same: Praise the Lord.
Prayer
Abba, thank You for the way You end the Psalms. After all the struggle and the tears, You bring us to praise. Teach us to live toward that same ending. When our own stories feel heavy, remind us that the final word is still hallelujah. Let everything in us that has breath rise up and praise You—today, in the middle of whatever we’re walking through, and one day when the trials are over forever. We join the chorus now: Praise the Lord! In Jesus name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- The Book of Psalms ends in pure praise—showing us that the goal of every trial and every prayer is worship.
- True blessing (Psalm 1) eventually produces a life of unhindered praise (Psalm 150).
- God’s invitation is wide: everything that has breath is called to join in.
- Our own stories, no matter how difficult, are meant to finish with thanksgiving.
Cross References (NKJV)
Psalm 145:21
My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, And all flesh shall bless His holy name Forever and ever.
Psalm 148:1-2, 7, 13
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts!
Praise the Lord from the earth…
Let them praise the name of the Lord, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven.
Revelation 5:13
And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Hebrews 13:15
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Psalm 34:1
I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Proverb for Today
My son, give me your heart, And let your eyes observe my ways. Proverbs 23:26 NKJV
Daily Scripture
To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing; A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away; A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak; A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NKJV
Closing
“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NKJV
Grace be with you. Amen.
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Summary of Commentaries:
Psalm 150 stands as the final, sunlit peak of the entire Psalter. After every trial, tear, and dark night recorded in these songs, the Spirit closes the book with pure, unrestrained praise. No teaching, no argument—just burning cries of “Praise Him!” It perfectly answers Psalm 1: the blessed life ends in hallelujah. “Let everything that has breath” invites all creation to join the chorus. This is how the story of faith is meant to finish—and how our own lives should end as well.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
We have now reached the last summit of the mountain chain of Psalms. It rises high into the clear azure, and its brow is bathed in the sunlight of the eternal world of worship; it is a rapture. The poet prophet is full of inspiration and enthusiasm. He slays not to argue, to teach, to explain; but cries with burning words, “Praise him, Praise him, Praise ye the LORD.”
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Albert Barnes
This beautiful and animated psalm closes the series of the Hallelujah Psalms Ps. 146–150, and appropriately also closes the entire volume. Its author is unknown, but in respect to the object for which it was composed there can be no uncertainty. It was manifestly designed, whoever wrote it, to occupy the very place which it does occupy – to complete the volume devoted to praise. Praise is the suitable ending of the book; praise is what the Spirit of inspiration meant to secure in the heart and on the lips. In the review of the whole there is occasion for praise. In view of all that has been disclosed about God, about his religion, about the manifestations of his mercy and grace to his people, there is occasion for praise. After all that has been experienced, observed, and recorded in this book – all of trial, sorrow, temptation, conflict, disappointment, sickness, bereavement, persecution, war, captivity, bondage, exile, tears, pain, darkness, trouble – there is, as the result of the whole, as there will be at the end of our own troubled and chequered lives, occasion for exultation, praise, triumph – songs, rejoicings, raptures, hallelujahs. This psalm, then, made up wholly of expressions of gratitude and praise, is an appropriate close to the entire Book of Psalms. So may our lives close, when its varied scenes are over, with thanksgivings and praises, as a proper expression in view of the past, and as emblematic of the uninterrupted employment that awaits us in heaven.
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John Gill
Some say this Psalm was sung by the Israelites, when they came with the first fruits into the sanctuary with the baskets on their shoulders. Thirteen, times in this short Psalm is the word praise, used; not on account of thirteen perfections or properties in God, as Kimchi thinks; but it is so frequently, and in every clause used, to show the vehement desire of the Psalmist that the Lord might be praised; and to express his sense of things, how worthy he is of praise; and that all ways and means to praise him should be made use of, all being little enough to set forth his honor and glory.
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Matthew Henry
The first and last of the Psalms have both the same number of verses, are both short and very memorable; but the scope of them is very different; the first Psalm is an elaborate instruction in our duty, to prepare us for the comforts of our devotion; this is all rapture and transport, and perhaps was penned on purpose to be the conclusion of those sacred songs, to show what is the design of them all, and that is, to assist us in praising God.
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Calvin’s Commentary
Whatever breathes, etc. As the word נשמה,neshamah, means breath, or blowing, and whatever is animate, or breathes, the words may be extended to every kind of living creatures, as we have seen in the preceding psalms that the declaration of God’s praises is assigned even to things wanting intelligence. But as men exclusively are often meant under the name of “flesh,” so we may very well suppose that the words have reference here to men, who, although they have vital breath in common with the brute creation, obtain by way of distinction the name of breathing, as of living creatures. I am led to think this for the following reason: As yet the Psalmist has addressed himself in his exhortations to the people who were conversant with the ceremonies under the law, now he turns to men in general, tacitly intimating that a time was coming when the same songs, which were then only heard in Judea, would resound in every quarter of the globe. And in this prediction we have been joined in the same symphony with the Jews, that we may worship God with constant sacrifices of praise, until being gathered into the kingdom of heaven, we sing with elect angels an eternal hallelujah.
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Miscellaneous Comments
And now, in the last Psalm of all, we see an echo to the first Psalm. The first Psalm began with “Blessed,” and it ended with “Blessed,”—”Blessed are all they that meditate on God’s law and do it.” Such was the theme of the first Psalm; and now the fruit of that blessedness is shown in this Psalm, which begins and ends with Hallelujah.
—Christopher Wordsworth.
There is an interesting association connected with this Psalm which deserves to be recorded: that in former times, when the casting of church bells was more of a religious ceremony, this Psalm was chanted by the brethren of the guild as they stood ranged around the furnace, and while the molten metal was prepared to be let off into the mould ready to receive it. One may picture these swarthy sons of the furnace with the ruddy glow of the fire upon their faces as they stand around, while their deep voices rung forth this Hymn of Praise.
—Barton Bouchier.
“Let all breath praise Jah! Hallelujah.” The very ambiguity of “all breath” gives extraordinary richness of meaning to this closing sentence. From the simple idea of wind instruments, mentioned in the context, it leads us, by a beautiful transition, to that of vocal, articulate, intelligent praise, uttered by the breath of living men, as distinguished from mere lifeless instruments. Then, lastly, by a natural association, we ascend to the idea expressed in the common version, “everything that hath breath,” not merely all that lives, but all that has a voice to praise God. There is nothing in the Psalter more majestic or more beautiful than this brief but most significant finale, in which solemnity of tone predominates, without however in the least disturbing the exhilaration which the close of the Psalter seems intended to produce; as if in emblematical allusion to the triumph which awaits the church and all its members, when through much tribulation they shall enter into rest.
—Joseph Addison Alexander.
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