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Psalm 150 · a question people ask

What were these instruments like: the harp, the lyre, the flute, the cymbals?

In the text

The psalm names them and says nothing about how they were made or played, and these notes add nothing the text and the lexicons don't give. The lexicons are brief. For harp, nevel, Brown-Driver-Briggs has "a musical instrument, either a portable harp, or a lute, guitar"; for lyre, kinnor, "lyre"; for flute, ugav, only "a musical instr."; for cymbals, "musical instr. of percussion, cymbals (with clashing sound)" (tap each word). The WEB's English for the same Hebrew word also changes from verse to verse: ugav is flute here (150:4) and pipe in Genesis 4:21, and nevel is harp here (150:3) and stringed instruments in 2 Samuel 6:5.

The verses

“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre! Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute! Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals!”
Psalm 150:3-5 · World English Bible
“His brother’s name was Jubal, who was the father of all who handle the harp and pipe.”
Genesis 4:21 · World English Bible
“David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD with all kinds of instruments made of cypress wood, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with castanets, and with cymbals.”
2 Samuel 6:5 · 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