As believers, we know that we're to praise the Lord. We usually do that when we receive an answer to prayer. If you read the Psalms, you quickly learn from the Psalter that we not only are to praise the Lord privately, but we're to praise the Lord publicly. But what does publicly praise look like? Who should do it? How should it be done? These questions are answered in the final psalm, number 150. Turn with me to that psalm and let's see what we can learn about praise. While you're doing that, let me mention a couple of things. One is that we don't know who the author is. This is one of those unknown Psalms. But I also want to make some comments by reading what some other people have said. Since we've come to the end of the Psalter, let me make some observations. One has said, the inspired poet called on every person to praise the Lord for His powerful deeds and His supreme greatness, 10 times out of the 13 uses of praise in this verse. This psalm serves as a final doxology, bringing the whole collection of psalms together in a solemn, joyful conclusion. Spurgeon said, We have now reached the last summit of the mountain chain of Psalms. It rises high into the clear sky and bode its bath in the sunlight of the eternal world of worship. It is a rapture. The poet prophet is full of inspiration and enthusiasm. He carries, I should say he stays not to argue, but to teach and to explain. He cries with great enthusiasm, praise him, praise him, praise ye the Lord. Still another author said, the conclusion of the Psalter is this extravagant sum of praise, which seeks to mobilize all creation with a spontaneous and unreserved action of adoration, praise, gratitude, and awe. There is no basis given, no reason needs to be given." Still another. It is probably that in the mind of the poet, the tenfold praise hymn encompasses all praise is significant, for ten is the number of completeness, exclusiveness of extreme exhaustibility. One more. We have reached the final finale, and what could be more appropriate than to find a short, pointed appeal for creation to find its true destiny in the worship of God. The psalm answers four key questions on the subject of praise. Where, what, how, and who. The glory of God was the purpose of creation. Therefore, man finds the central reason for his existence in praising the Lord. As it is so stated in the Shorter Catechism, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Now, I cited some of these authors simply because they're pointing out this is the last psalm in the Psalter. And at the same time, it's taking us to the heights of heaven where we should practice praise. Now, let's analyze the psalm. In the first place, he talks about the place of praise. Look at verse one. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. So very simply, I'm pointing out this is where we should praise the Lord. I'm calling it the place of praise. Now, in this verse, sanctuary is probably a reference to heaven. The psalmist calls on the audience to praise God in his heavenly sanctuary. This psalm, like so many of the praise psalms, opens and closes with a call to praise the Lord. One author said, the term sanctuary is literally holy place. It's evidently the appropriation of mighty expanse. In both terms are parallel synonyms for heaven, for God's house, for the universe. So that helps us understand this word sanctuary. After again exclaiming, praise the Lord, the psalmist called for praise to be given in the sanctuary, that is the holy place, heaven, God's dwelling place. So what is the place of praise? Well, it starts in heaven. Look at verse two. I'm sorry, not verse two, the end of verse one. Praise him in his mighty firmament. This verse calls for those in heaven to praise the Lord. This psalm is about praising God publicly from heaven to earth. We'll get to that in verse six. But where? We should praise him in his sanctuary and in his mighty firmament, which is another way of saying everywhere. On earth and in heaven, there is no place where worship is out of place. So what is the place? Well, it starts in his dwelling place, his sanctuary. Now, now look at verse two. Praise him for his mighty acts. Now, it seems to me that he's now giving us the reason for praise. And I take it, he very clearly says, praise him for, that's the reason, his mighty acts. This verse gives us two reasons for praising the Lord. First is his mighty acts, which he has done. And for what? his mighty acts and according to his excellent greatness," which he mentions in the latter part of this verse. In other words, we should praise him for what he has done for us and for who he is. This praise is called for because of his mighty excellence in the things that he does. So the reason for his praise, I've already said there are two, for his mighty acts, what he has done and for who he is, his greatness. But I haven't read that part of the verse yet. So look at the latter part of verse two, praise him according to his excellent greatness. So you put the two parts of verse two together and you come up with two reasons for praising the Lord, his mighty acts and his greatness. All of God's powerful acts and His surpassing greatness call for praise. These are general categories describing the works and character of God. The psalmist could have cited many specific examples in each category. But not only for His excellent greatness, also according to His excellent greatness. It is sin to be unenthusiastic in rehearsing the excellence of God as creator and redeemer. So to praise the abundance of his power is the purpose which links together the most divisive voices in heaven and in earth in a tremendous symphony hymn of praise. Now, All that is poetically and trying to be eloquent saying, there's two reasons to praise the Lord, for his mighty acts and for his excellent greatness. That is very clear from verse two. Now look at verse three, praise him with the sound of the trumpet, praise him with the flute and the harp. Well, now we're no longer talking about reasons. We're no longer talking about places. We've changed subjects again. Now we're talking about, well, what would you call this? I'm gonna call it the means of praise. So the first verse tells us where, in the sanctuary, in the firmament. The second verse tells us why, his mighty acts and his excellent greatness. And now it tells us how, with what. The psalmist delineates various ways to praise the Lord. Except for dance, all the means mentioned here are with musical instruments. The ancient trumpet in Israel was made out of a ram's horn. The lute and the harp are smaller and larger versions of that harp. How are we to do this with the orchestra of every kind of instrument? the trumpet with its commanding notes, the lute with its pastoral tones, the harp with its gentle and sweet strains. Praise is to be given with musical instruments, including all of these and much, much more, even including the dance, as he will mention in the next verse. So these verses, three through five, cite an example of the accomplishment of Israel's verbal worship that are appropriate in her culture. They include wind, string, and percussion instruments, as well as joyful dancing. This would have been a noisy celebration. Look at verse four. Praise Him with the timbrel and the dance. Praise Him with the stringed instruments and flutes. The tremble and our trombone was our trombone. The dance was not done by couples. It was whirling motion done by individuals or a large group. The Lord is to be praised with stringed instruments and according to this verse with wind instruments. All these instruments are to be used. The stringed instruments of all sorts can be used. The violin, the guitar are stringed instruments. They capture every note and chord of music to honor the great King. The wind instruments, the flute, for example, is to be used to praise the Lord. There's more. Look at verse five. Praise Him with the loud cymbals. Praise Him with the clashing cymbals. Loud cymbals was large cymbals. The crashing cymbals were smaller than the larger ones. The means of praising the Lord include playing music on wind, string, and percussion instruments, as well as dancing. Don't miss one of the great extravaganzas. The percussion instruments bless them, especially the crushing, clashing, ear-splitting cymbals, praising the Lord with a loud anthem and amen. Wow, it seems like the psalmist is climaxing this Psalter, 150 Psalms, by taking every conceivable kind of way to praise the Lord. He tells us where to do it. He tells us the reason for doing it. He tells us how to do it. with all the stringed instruments, the wind instruments, the percussion instrument. Doesn't that include all the instruments? To my knowledge, the answer to that is yes. So praise the Lord with all of this, all of the time. Now it seems to me that what we've done so far covers everything. Does it not? Let me say that another way. This covers the place and it starts in heaven and it obviously goes all the way to the earth. So isn't that saying everywhere in the universe we should be praising the Lord? All right. Then why should we praise him? Well, two things for what he's done and for who he is. Does that not cover everything? And then with all the musical instruments and it covers every type. Now it gets specific, but if you analyze them, they're all giving us different types of musical instruments. So, I think this Psalm is just the climax of the Psalter that say, praise God everywhere, by every means, for everything. How's that? The only problem with all of that is there's one more verse. How did that get in here? If we have covered everything, how did that get in here? Well, look at the verse. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord. The psalm ends, the Psalter ends with a call to worship. Having laid out all the possibilities, everywhere, all the time, with all the means, well now let me invite you to join the choir that praises the Lord. It is fitting that the Psalter should conclude with the words, let everything that has breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord. By everything that has breath, the Psalter is no doubt referring to the people on the planet. The psalmist calls for those in heaven. That's back verse one. For angels, that's in chapter 148 verse two. Israel, that's 149 verse two. Jerusalem, 147 verse 12, and all the people on the planet, that's 150 verse six. They're all called to praise the Lord. All in heaven, angels. All on earth, Israel, Jerusalem, and all the people on the planet. So let everything that breathes praise the Lord. But this brings us to the last question, who? And the answer is, let everything that has breath. The massive choir of all the voices of the earth is given the cue to join in the loud, eternal burst of praise to God. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord appropriately. The last verse of the Psalter includes a call for every living creature that has breath to praise the Lord. Then the book of Psalms closes with its final hallelujah, praise the Lord. Having dealt with the where and the how, the psalmist now specifies the who, everything that has breath. In light of the context, the psalmist was undoubtedly thinking of all kinds of people. This verse is a fitting conclusion to the whole book. All people should praise God. This is the message of the book. One author says, Reader, wilt thou at the moment pause a while and worship the Lord thy God." End of quote, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. We finished the psalm. We finished the Psalter. And I can't think of a more fitting way to conclude than with this psalm that simply says, when you publicly praise the Lord, praise him for who he is and what he's done, with all kinds of musical instruments and dance. And while you're at it, invite everybody to do the same. That says it all, doesn't it? Everywhere, with every means and every body, praise the Lord. So everyone is to publicly praise the Lord enthusiastically, energetic, I'm stumbling on that word, but all the energy is what I'm trying to say, and enthusiastically. It's to be done as unto the Lord. Because of God's mighty excellence in his work, the psalmist calls for praise to be rendered in the sanctuary with all kinds of musical instruments. Again, an author has written a short little devotional on this psalm, and I'd like to conclude by citing it. It goes like this. The book of Psalms presents truths not abstractly, but in terms of human experience. It opens with the well-blessed happy man whose delight is in the Word and will of God, and concludes with the glorious pinnacle of joy in Psalm 150 with its thirteen pearls of glory on the silver trumpet of praise. In the doxology, we find nothing of man himself left in the picture. Even the author of the psalm is not mentioned. How symbolic is the pathway of sanctification. At the end, there is nothing but glory and praise to God. In heaven, faith turns to sight and prayer to fulfillment, but praise never dies. It goes singing into eternity how important it is for us to fine-tune our lives, therefore, to that good and noble in which we are created, namely to adore and magnify our Creator. It is said that when the farmers of Scotland walked Out early in the morning, they often flushed the stark of the dark grass as the birds wise they sang. And as they sang, they circled higher and higher as they ascended until the medley died out in the distance. But so sweet is the tender strain that always rejoices the heart of one who hears it. So too, as we lift our hearts and voice in praise, the world will stop and listen to our joyful adoration. In certain parts of the Alps, a beautiful touching custom prevails. Just as the sun leaves the valley and last rises and touches the snow summit, the shepherd whose hut is furthest from the peak takes its horn and trumpet voice and cries, praise the Lord. Instantly, every shepherd standing at the threshold of his cabin repeats in tune the same appeal until the echo was heard far and wide. Like a sea of glory, it rolls from one peak to another until finally all the mountains surround with the hearty praise the Lord. You may think yourself small and hidden away, yet the mountains of your environment should also re-echo with the joyful hallelujahs of your gratitude." End of quote. So well said. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord everywhere and by all means. Father, we praise you for who you are and what you've done. And we thank you for the privilege of being able to study your word and practice what it says. So we praise you. We praise you for all that you've done for us from redemption to sanctification to ultimately glorification. We thank you for who you are. the sovereign, eternal, wise, gracious God. In Jesus' name, amen.