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In this study we’ll be digging into one of the Hebrew words for Praise and do a Hebrew word study on this word. Did you know there are over 15 Greek and Hebrew words used in the Bible to describe “Praise?” When we use 1 word to describe praise in English, ancient writers used 15. Do you think maybe we’re losing some of the value here?
There are many words that we see translated as praise that aren’t so much Godly praise in and of themselves, but more so what we do in praise. (Ex. Raising hands is known as the “yahah” praise but raising hands in school or at a concert isn’t necessarily praise itself and if it is, it’s not necessarily praising YHWH.)
Praise and worship are intimate points of connection between you and the Lord, that create a unique and dynamic spiritual atmosphere built upon your willing sacrifice. What so many don’t understand is the true purpose of praise, the true power of praise, and how God’s presence moves within praise.
The depth of the word praise goes well beyond what we’ll show in this study, so our goal is that we gain an understanding of praise and its truth. In doing so, our prayer is that each of us will discover its true purpose and power and experience how God’s presence moves.
Halel is the Hebrew word we really want to dig about tonight. Not to say the other words for praise aren’t important, but Halel sort of houses all those words once you break it down and see what praise is compacted with.
Let’s read the text in Psa. 150….
Notice each verse tells us to praise and then gives us a way to do it. Praise can be done in all those actions, but those actions aren’t praise in and of themselves.
Note: LET EVERYTHING THAT HAS BREATH PRAISE THE LORD
So, the word Halel, which is the Hebrew word for our English word Praise, means to shine forth a light, boast or be boastful.
If the study stops here, we really don’t have a lot of purpose or understanding because the bible warns of boasting the wrong way, so what if we praise the wrong way? Something to consider…. Could our praise and worship be in vain?
According to The Bible it can!!!
Let’s take a look at the word Halel and break it down.
The first part of this word comes from the Hebrew letter “HEY”. It makes the “Ha” sound or the H sound that we have today.
Take a deep breath, hold it for a second, now let it out loud…. the sound you get from your breath is ”ha”…
The ancient Paleo form looked sorta like a man with his arms raised. We can see that original form, along with it changes overtime, in the image.
In Gen 2:7 we can see how our life was started with God’s breath.
God breathed life into us. Our Praise is the breath of life from God being given back to God
The next 2 letters are both the Hebrew letter Lamad. It makes the “L” Sound. The Paleo- Hebrew form of this letter resembled a shepherd’s staff in action. From the image, we see that it represented control and authority.
The full word in its Paleo-Hebrew form, shows that our praise brings light to the truth that all might “Behold the Authority of the Shepherd”
One last point of interest concerning the word Halel… Isaiah 14:12 is a famous verse describing satan’s fall from heaven. In many English translations, the word Halel is translated as Lucifer. That speaks of one of the roles the enemy had before his fall from grace. He was an angel of praise. Perhaps THE angel of praise. This is a warning for us not to allow our PRAISE to be corrupted by PRIDE. AMEN.