Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to Him with ten strings.
Parallel translations
- WEB Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre. Sing praises to him with the harp of ten strings.
- KJV Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
- NKJV Praise the Lord with the harp; Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.
- NASB Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.
- NLT Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed 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
God's people should give him thanks with instruments, offering skilled and wholehearted musical praise.
Overview
The psalmist calls for thanksgiving expressed through the lyre and ten-stringed harp, showing that worship engages the whole person and our best gifts. Music here serves devotion, directing the heart toward God in gratitude. Such praise finds its final aim in the worship of the Lamb, to whom every faithful song ultimately points.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Ps 150:3–6Praise Him with the sound of the horn; praise Him with the harp and lyre.
- Ps 98:4–5Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth—let your cry ring out, and sing praises!
- Ps 144:9I will sing to You a new song, O God; on a harp of ten strings I will make music to You—
- 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.
- Ps 71:22So I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to You with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel.
- 1 Chr 25:3From the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah—six in all—under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with the harp, giving thanks and praise to the LORD.
- 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.
- 1 Chr 15:28So 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.
- 1 Chr 15:16David also told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their relatives as singers to lift up their voices with joy, accompanied by musical instruments—harps, lyres, and cymbals.
- Rev 5:8When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
- Ps 81:2–3Lift up a song, strike the tambourine, play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.
- Rev 14:2And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of many waters and the loud rumbling of thunder. And the sound I heard was like harpists strumming their harps.
- Ps 92:3with the ten-stringed harp and the melody of the lyre.
- 2 Sam 6:5David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all kinds of wood instruments, harps, stringed instruments, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.
- Ps 149:3Let them praise His name with dancing, and make music to Him with tambourine and harp.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 33:2 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.