Page:04.BCOT.KD.PoeticalBooks.vol.4.Writings.djvu/1331

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Psalm 150

THE FINAL HALLELUJAH.

1 Hallelujah, Praise ye God in His sanctuary, Praise Him in His strong firmament ! 2 Praise Him in His mighty acts, Praise Him according to the abundance of Hi8 greatness ! 3 Praise Him with the sound of horns, Praise Him with harp and cithern ! 4 Praise Him with timbrel and dance, Praise Him with strings and shalm ! 5 Praise Him with clear cymbals, Praise Him with clashing cymbals ! 6 Let everything that hath breath praise Jah, Hallelujah.
The call to praise Jahve “with dance and with timbrel” in Psa 149:3 is put forth here anew in Psa 150:4, but with the introduction of all the instruments; and is addressed not merely to Israel, but to every individual soul.

Verses 1-5


The Synagogue reckons up thirteen divine attributes according to ex. Psa 34:6. (שׁלשׁ עשׂרה מדּות), to which, according to an observation of Kimchi, correspond the thirteen הלּל of this Psalm. It is, however, more probable that in the mind of the poet the tenfold halaluw encompassed by Hallelujah's is significative; for ten is the number of rounding off, completeness, exclusiveness, and of the extreme of exhaustibleness. The local definitions in Psa 150:1 are related attributively to God, and designate that which is heavenly, belonging to the other world, as an object of praise. קדשוּ (the possible local meaning of which is proved by the קדשׁ and קדשׁ קדשׁים of the Tabernacle and of the Temple) is in this passage the heavenly היכל; and רקיע עזּו is the firmament spread out by God's omnipotence and testifying of God's omnipotence (Psa 68:35), not