Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let them praise his name in the dance! Let them sing praises to him with tambourine and harp!
- BSB Let them praise His name with dancing, and make music to Him with tambourine 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 shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
- 1 Chr 15:28–29Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps.
- 2 Sam 6:16And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
- Exod 15:20And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
- 2 Sam 6:14And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
- Ps 81:2Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
- Ps 150:3–5Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
- Ps 30:11Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
- Judg 11:34And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
- Ps 137:2–4We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
- Ps 33:2Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
- Ezra 3:10And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the LORD, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.
- 1 Chr 16:42And with them Heman and Jeduthun with trumpets and cymbals for those that should make a sound, and with musical instruments of God. And the sons of Jeduthun were porters.
- 2 Chr 29:25And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king’s seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the LORD by his prophets.
- 1 Chr 25:6All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king’s order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.
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.