Let them praise His name with dancing, and make music to Him with tambourine and harp.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let them praise his name in the dance! Let them sing praises to him with tambourine and harp!
- KJV Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
- NKJV Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.
- NASB They shall praise His name with dancing; They shall sing praises to Him with tambourine and lyre.
- NLT Praise his name with dancing, accompanied by tambourine and harp.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Praise God's name with dancing, tambourine, and harp. Worship may be expressed with joyful, exuberant celebration.
Overview
The psalm invites whole-hearted, festive praise involving dance and instruments. Worship engages body and emotion, not merely the mind. While forms of expression vary among faithful believers, the call to wholehearted, joyful praise of God remains for all His people.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Jer 31:13Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.
- 1 Chr 15:28–29So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, with the sounding of rams’ horns and trumpets, and with cymbals and the music of harps and lyres.
- 2 Sam 6:16As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.
- Exod 15:20Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.
- 2 Sam 6:14And David, wearing a linen ephod, danced with all his might before the LORD,
- Ps 81:2Lift up a song, strike the tambourine, play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.
- Ps 150:3–5Praise Him with the sound of the horn; praise Him with the harp and lyre.
- Ps 30:11You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
- Judg 11:34And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her.
- Ps 137:2–4There on the willows we hung our harps,
- Ps 33:2Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to Him with ten strings.
- Ezra 3:10When the builders had laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their positions to praise the LORD, as David king of Israel had prescribed.
- 1 Chr 16:42Heman and Jeduthun had with them trumpets and cymbals for the music and instruments for the songs of God. And the sons of Jeduthun were stationed at the gate.
- 2 Chr 29:25Hezekiah stationed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres according to the command of David, of Gad the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet. For the command had come from the LORD through His prophets.
- 1 Chr 25:6All these were under the direction of their fathers for the music of the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the direction of the king.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 149:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.