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Psalm 150 · a question people ask

"Praise God in his sanctuary!" (150:1). Is his sanctuary a place on earth, or heaven?

In the text

The psalm doesn't say. In his sanctuary is beqodsho, from qodesh, which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "apartness, sacredness" and Strong's as "a sacred place or thing". The same Hebrew word stands in other psalms both beside Zion and beside heaven. "Send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion" (Psalm 20:2). "He will answer him from his holy heaven" (Psalm 20:6), where his holy heaven has the same qodsho as 150:1. "He has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, the LORD saw the earth" (Psalm 102:19). Psalm 150 names "his sanctuary" and then "his heavens" (150:1) side by side and doesn't say whether they are one place or two. These notes don't place it for the psalm.

The verses

“Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!”
Psalm 150:1 · World English Bible
“send you help from the sanctuary, grant you support from Zion,”
Psalm 20:2 · World English Bible
“Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven, with the saving strength of his right hand.”
Psalm 20:6 · World English Bible
“for he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, the LORD saw the earth,”
Psalm 102:19 · 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