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Psalm 150 · a question people ask

"Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!" (150:6). Who is "everything that has breath"?

In the text

The psalm doesn't list them. In Hebrew the phrase is two words, kol hanneshamah, word for word all the breath (tap breath). Genesis uses neshamah of the man: "The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7). It uses it again at the flood: "All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died" (Genesis 7:22). Psalm 150 says only "everything that has breath" (150:6), and these notes don't narrow it or widen it for the psalm.

The verses

“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”
Psalm 150:6 · World English Bible
“The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Genesis 2:7 · World English Bible
“All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died.”
Genesis 7:22 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 150

Psalm 150: Everything that has breath

The book of Psalms ends with the verb praise thirteen times in six verses. Its "heavens" are the expanse of Genesis 1 (150:1), its word for sounding comes nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible (150:3), and its breath is the word of Genesis 2:7: "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!" (150:6).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions