Psalms 150:3

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet,.... Which was used in calling the assembly together, for worship and on other occasions; and at the feast of blowing of trumpets, and in the year of jubilee,

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet ... the psaltery and harp.

Psalms 150:3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.Ver. 3. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet] With all your might and members, with utmost joy and jollity in the Lord. Lord, I am a musical instrument, saith Nazianzen, for thee to touch, that I may sound forth thy glory and praise (Orat. de Basilio).

(3) Trumpet.—Heb., shτphar. (See Psalms 81:3; Psalms 98:6. LXX., σάλπιγξ.) It was the crooked horn, sometimes also called keren. (Bοble Educator, 2:231.) Psaltery and harp.—See Note, Psalms 33:2.

Verse 3. The sound of the trumpet] שופר sophar, from its noble, cheering, and majestic sound; for the original has this ideal meaning. With the psaltery] נבל nebel; the nabla, a hollow stringed instrument; perhaps like the guitar, or the old symphony. And harp.] כנור kinnor, another stringed instrument, played on with the hands or fingers.

3. with the sound of the trumpet] With blast of cornet. The ‘cornet,’ originally a ram’s or cow’s horn, perhaps in later times a metal instrument of the same shape, was mainly employed for secular purposes, while the instrument generally used in religious ceremonies was the chatsôtserâh or straight metal trumpet. Cp. however Psalms 47:5; Psalms 81:3; Psalms 98:6. It was ordinarily the work of the priests to blow the trumpet (1 Chronicles 15:24; Nehemiah 12:35; Nehemiah 12:41; and often); Levites are often described as playing psalteries and harps and cymbals (1 Chronicles 25:1; 1 Chronicles 25:6; Nehemiah 12:27); tambourines were beaten by women as they danced (Psalms 68:25); the terms used for stringed instruments and pipes are not elsewhere connected with religious ceremonies. Thus the call to praise is addressed to priests, Levites, and people; and every kind of instrument is to be enlisted in the service. psaltery and harp] Or, harp and lyre. The nçbhel and the kinnôr were both stringed instruments, but the precise distinction between them is unknown. There are some reasons for thinking that the nçbhel (A.V. psaltery in the Historical Books and Psalms[92], viol in the Prophets) was the larger and more elaborate instrument. See Driver’s Joel and Amos, p. 234; and for illustrations of ancient lyres and harps, see Stainer, Music of the Bible, Chaps. i, ii. [92] These books were in the hands of the Westminster and Cambridge companies, and the Westminster company consisted mainly of Cambridge scholars, while the Prophets were in the hands of an Oxford company. In the Apocrypha also, which was revised by a Cambridge company, psaltery is used, but not viol.

Praise him with the sound of the trumpet - Margin, cornet. In this verse and the verses following there is an allusion to the instruments of music which were commonly employed in Hebrew worship.

3-5. Having spoken of the Being to whom this praise belongs, the places where it should be rendered, and the reasons why it should be given, (vers.