1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power! 2 Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness! 3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute! 5 Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!
Psalm 150 — Let Everything That Has Breath Praise the Lord
Six verses of pure praise that close the entire Psalter, and the only instruction they give.
PsalmBy Brother MichaelUpdated Aug 3, 2026
What Psalm 150 Means
Psalm 150 is the last word of the Psalter, and it is six verses long. After a hundred and forty-nine psalms containing complaint, terror, guilt, revenge, exhaustion and grief, the book ends with nothing but praise. That ordering is deliberate and it is the strongest argument the Psalter makes. It does not arrive at praise by avoiding the other material; it arrives there having gone through all of it. The psalm answers four questions in turn and answers them very quickly. Where: in his sanctuary and in his mighty heavens, which is to say everywhere from the local building to the far edge of creation. Why: for his mighty acts and his excellent greatness. How: with trumpet, harp, strings, pipe, cymbals, and dancing, a list that is loud and physical and includes the body. And who. The final line is the widest sentence in the book: let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Not everyone who is worthy, or has understood, or has recovered. Everything that is breathing. The Psalter's first psalm sets out a choice between two ways. Its last one issues an invitation with no conditions attached at all. That is the shape of the whole book in two bookends, and it is why Psalm 150 is short. There is nothing left to argue.
Liturgical Use in the Catholic Church
Psalm 150 is used at Lauds, the Church's morning prayer, and appears at feasts and solemnities throughout the year. Its position as the closing psalm gives it a natural place at moments of completion, including funerals and Easter.
Praying Psalm 150 — A Simple Practice
Use it when you have no words of your own, because it asks for none. It is short enough to say from memory within a week and it is one of the few psalms that works when you feel nothing, since it is not about your state at all. If you pray the Psalter through, ending on it is the point; do not stop at 149.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Pure praise, and nothing else. In six verses it answers where to praise, why, how, and who, ending with the widest line in the book: let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
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