Five-minute study · Day 317 · Psalms 150
Psalm 150:6
A word worth stopping on: breath נְשָׁמָה neshamah
'Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.' The Hebrew word for breath here is neshamah. It is the same word used in Genesis 2:7: 'And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (neshamah) of life; and man became a living soul.' The Psalter ends with this word. One hundred and fifty psalms of lament, praise, confession, rage, wonder, and silence, and the final instruction is this: if you have neshamah, if you carry in your lungs the breath God first exhaled into Adam's dust, you praise. The breath that made you alive is the breath that owes praise. The circle closes. The first breath in Genesis becomes the last word of the Psalms.
Word study: breath
- Hebrew
- נְשָׁמָה
- Pronounced
- neshamah
- Strong's
- H5397
- Definition
- Breath, spirit, the breath of life. Distinguished from ruach (wind, spirit) by its more intimate, personal sense: neshamah is the breath in your nostrils, the life-force God directly imparted to humanity.
Neshamah appears 24 times in the Hebrew Bible. BDB provides two senses: (1) breath of God (the creative or destructive power of God's exhalation); (2) breath of human beings (the life-force that makes a person alive). Genesis 2:7 uses neshamah for God's act of animating the first human. Job 33:4 echoes it: 'The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath (neshamah) of the Almighty hath given me life.' Isaiah 42:5 combines both ideas: God 'giveth breath (neshamah) unto the people upon it, and spirit (ruach) to them that walk therein.'
Allen's commentary on Psalms 101-150 (WBC) examines Psalm 150 as the deliberate conclusion to the entire Psalter. The five books of Psalms (1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150) each end with a doxology. Psalm 150 is the doxology that closes the fifth book and the entire collection. Allen observes that the psalm expands outward in concentric rings: praise God in his sanctuary (v. 1), praise him for his mighty acts (v. 2), praise him with instruments (vv. 3-5), let everything with breath praise him (v. 6). The movement goes from a specific place to the entire breathing creation.
Allen notes the theological arc from Genesis 2:7 to Psalm 150:6. The first mention of neshamah is God breathing life into dust. The last major use is every breathing creature returning that breath as praise. The Hebrew word for 'praise' in Psalm 150 is halal (the root of hallelujah). The command occurs thirteen times in six verses. Allen counts the instruments: shofar, harp, lyre, tambourine, dance, strings, pipe, loud cymbals, high-sounding cymbals. Everything that can make sound makes sound. Everything that has breath uses it. The Psalter's final word is an exhalation returned to its source.
Historical context · c. 400-200 BC (final compilation)
The Shape of the Psalter
The Psalter reached its final form during the Second Temple period, likely between 400 and 200 BC, though individual psalms date from as early as the tenth century BC (the era of David and Solomon). The five-book structure mirrors the five books of Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy), a parallel recognized by early Jewish and Christian interpreters. The Midrash on Psalm 1 states: 'As Moses gave five books of laws to Israel, so David gave five books of Psalms to Israel.'
Allen observes that the editorial arrangement of the Psalter is deliberate. The collection moves from lament-heavy early books to praise-saturated final psalms. Psalms 146-150, the 'Final Hallel,' form a sustained crescendo of praise. Each begins and ends with 'Hallelujah' ('Praise the LORD'). The movement mirrors a theological journey: from the honest pain of Psalm 3 ('LORD, how are they increased that trouble me!') through the confession of Psalm 51 and the anguish of Psalm 88 (the darkest psalm, ending without resolution), arriving finally at the unreserved praise of Psalm 150.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered at Qumran between 1947 and 1956, preserve portions of all 150 psalms. The Great Psalms Scroll (11QPsa, dating to the first century AD) contains Psalm 150 and also includes additional compositions not found in the Masoretic Text, showing that the boundaries of the Psalter were still somewhat fluid in the late Second Temple period. The scroll's arrangement differs from the received text in places, suggesting that the five-book structure was one of several organizing principles in circulation. The Masoretic arrangement, with Psalm 150 as the deliberate conclusion, won out.
For reflection
You are breathing right now. That breath connects you to Adam's first inhale and to the final verse of the Psalms. Take three slow, deliberate breaths. On each exhale, consider: what does this breath owe to the one who gave it?
Neshamah is personal. Ruach is the wind, the broad spirit. Neshamah is the breath in your own nostrils, the one you can feel right now.
Sources: BDB; Allen, "Psalms 101-150" (WBC)