Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

Psalm 150:6

King David had much to say on the subject of the Lord, as the known author of over half of the book of Psalms. The Lord had some important things to say about David. He was described by the Lord as "a man after mine own heart" (Acts 13:22), so it seems clear that David had either an acute understanding of, or a natural affinity with the Lord. Understanding this, when David speaks of the Lord, we would do well to listen carefully.

Our verse here is the final psalm and thus the last recorded verse of scripture brought to us by David. While the entire body of scripture by or about David is interesting, there is always something extra interesting about final words. It seems reasonable to expect the final scripture of David to be an important observation about God and I believe that David comes through for us powerfully here.

Like many biblical final words, David's were words of encouragement. Encouragement to praise and worship the Lord. Perhaps this is surprising to some. After all, David wrote often of the attributes of the Lord. He wrote about his love and his mercy and his protection. He wrote about his majesty and even prophesied of his crucifixion. These are all weighty matters that would have been worthy of being David's final words. Instead, David reverts to type and his worshipper's heart rises up and he tells us that the most important thing we can do is praise the Lord.

David leaves no wriggle-room for those looking to avoid this responsibility. He qualifies his directive by including all who have breath. That's a solidly inclusive call to action. If you're breathing, you should be praising the Lord. Because, according to David, that's the most important thing for us to do. And a great way to round out the book whose name, in Hebrew, means "praises".