Psalm 150:2

Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) Mighty acts . . . excellent greatness.—The one displayed on earth, the other manifested in heaven. (See preceding Note.)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 150:2. Praise him for his mighty acts — Hebrew, בגבורתיו, for his mightinesses; for all the instances of his might shown in the dispensations of his providence and grace; the power he hath exerted in creating, upholding, and governing the world, and in redeeming and saving the human race. Praise him according to his excellent greatness — Or, as Dr. Hammond renders כרב גדלו, according to the multitude of his magnificence — Not that our praises can bear any proportion to God’s greatness, for it is infinite, but because he is greater than we can express or conceive, we must raise our conceptions and expressions to the highest degree to which we can attain. We must not be afraid of saying too much in the praises of God, as we often do in praising even great and good men; all the danger is, of our saying too little; and therefore when he have done our utmost we must own, that though we have praised him in consideration of his excellent greatness, yet not in proportion to it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

150:1-6 A psalm of praise. - We are here stirred up to praise God. Praise God for his sanctuary, and the privileges we enjoy by having it among us; praise him because of his power and glory in the firmament. Those who praise the Lord in heaven, behold displays of his power and glory which we cannot now conceive. But the greatest of all his mighty acts is known in his earthly sanctuary. The holiness and the love of our God are more displayed in man's redemption, than in all his other works. Let us praise our God and Saviour for it. We need not care to know what instruments of music are mentioned. Hereby is meant that in serving God we should spare no cost or pains. Praise God with strong faith; praise him with holy love and delight; praise him with entire confidence in Christ; praise him with believing triumph over the powers of darkness; praise him by universal respect to all his commands; praise him by cheerful submission to all his disposals; praise him by rejoicing in his love, and comforting ourselves in his goodness; praise him by promoting the interests of the kingdom of his grace; praise him by lively hope and expectation of the kingdom of his glory. Since we must shortly breathe our last, while we have breath let us praise the Lord; then we shall breathe our last with comfort. Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Such is the very suitable end of a book inspired by the Spirit of God, written for the work of praise; a book which has supplied the songs of the church for more than three thousand years; a book which is quoted more frequently than any other by Christ and his apostles; a book which presents the loftiest ideas of God and his government, which is fitted to every state of human life, which sets forth every state of religious experience, and which bears simple and clear marks of its Divine origin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Praise him for his mighty acts - See the notes at Psalm 145:4 : "One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts." The Hebrew word is the same. The reference is to that which displays the power of God; the things which manifest his omnipotence.

Praise him according to his excellent greatness - Hebrew, the multitude of his greatness. Let the praise in elevation correspond with this; let it be such as shall properly express this; let all be employed that will contribute to make this known, or that will be appropriate to this. Hence, the psalmist proceeds to call on all to make use of everything, by instrument and voice, that would in any manner set forth the praise of God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. mighty acts—(Ps 145:4).

excellent greatness—or, abundance of greatness.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As his infinite majesty deserves to be praised.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Praise him for his mighty acts,.... The creation of all things out of nothing; the sustaining of all beings; the government of the world; the redemption of man by Christ, and the wonderful works done by him on earth; the work of grace upon the hearts of his people, and the preservation of them in grace to glory;

praise him according to his excellent greatness; or, "according to the multitude of his greatness" (t); which appears in his nature, perfections, and work, and these both of providence and grace; and in proportion hereunto, and according to the abilities of creatures, angels, and men, is he to be praised; which is giving him the honour due unto his name; see Psalm 96:8.

(t) "secundum multudinem magnitudinie ejus", V. L. Montanus, Gejerus; so Ainsworth.

Geneva Study Bible

Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. for his mighty acts] Cp. Psalm 106:2; Psalm 145:4; Psalm 145:11-12.

according to the abundance of his greatness] Cp. 1 Chronicles 29:11, “Thine is the greatness and the might.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Praise him for his mighty acts; i.e. for the great acts of his providence, especially for his deliverances of Israel. Praise him according to his excellent greatness; rather, his abounding greatness (Kay); or, his manifold greatness (Cheyne). Psalm 150:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

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 Psalm 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 (Psalm 68:35), not according to its front side, which is turned towards the earth, but according to the reverse or inner side, which is turned towards the celestial world, and which marks it off from the earthly world. The third and fourth hălalu give as the object of the praise that which is at the same time the ground of the praise: the tokens of His גּבוּרה, i.e., of His all-subduing strength, and the plenitude of His greatness (גּדלו equals גּדלו), i.e., His absolute, infinite greatness. The fifth and sixth hălalu bring into the concert in praise of God the ram's horn, שׁופר, the name of which came to be improperly used as the name also of the metallic חצצרה (vid., on Psalm 81:4), and the two kinds of stringed instruments (vid., Psalm 33:2), viz., the nabla (i.e., the harp and lyre) and the kinnor (the cithern), the ψαλτήριον and the κιθάρα (κινύρα). The seventh hălalu invites to the festive dance, of which the chief instrumental accompaniment is the תּף (Arabic duff, Spanish adufe, derived from the Moorish) or tambourine. The eighth hălalu brings on the stringed instruments in their widest compass, מנּים (cf. Psalm 45:9) from מן, Syriac menı̂n, and the shepherd's pipe, עגב (with the Gimel raphe equals עוּגב); and the ninth and tenth, the two kinds of castanets (צלצלי, construct form of צלצלים, singular צלצל), viz., the smaller clear-sounding, and the larger deeper-toned, more noisy kinds (cf. κύμβαλον ἀλαλάζον, 1 Corinthians 13:1), as צלצלי שׁמע (pausal form of שׁמע equals שׁמע, like סתר in Deuteronomy 27:15, and frequently, from סתר equals סתר) and צלצלי תרוּעה are, with Schlultens, Pfeifer, Burk, Kster, and others, to be distinguished.