Psalms 146-150

THE YEAR OF BLOGGING BIBLICALLY: DAY 193

The last five psalms all begin and end with the imperative "Praise the Lord" (Hallelujah in Hebrew).

We read a portion of Psalm 146 in church this morning. In a nutshell this psalm says that human beings, no matter how powerful, are mortal and fallible. God, the creator is concerned for the poor and downcast.

Psalm 147 seems to come from after the exile.

The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the exiles of Israel. (verse 2, NIV)

In addition to YHWH's concern for Jerusalem, this psalm declares the Almighty God's concern for the downtrodden, and invites Jerusalem to join in praise.


Psalm 148 calls all of creation, things in the heavens and things on the earth, even the inanimate hills and trees to praise YHWH.

Psalm 149 continues the theme of praise but takes an ugly turn beginning at verses 6-7:

May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
to inflict vegeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples... (NIV)

Friedrich Nietzsche remarked that bad music and bad logic sound good when one is marching to war.

Psalm 150 calls all living things to praise God with music and dancing.

Jana Riess's The Twible, which I wrote about in my last post,  boils Psalm 150 down to a tweet thus:

150: Praise for G's typical awesomeness. Praise with loud clanging cymbals. Praise that we're finally finishing the Psalter. Selah.

Tweeting the Psalms at the rate of one a day would have taken a while!





Next: Proverbs 1-3