3 Hebrew words that will change the way you praise
“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
And His greatness is unsearchable.”
Psalm 145:3
As a worship leader who loves the breakthrough aspect of God’s nature, I love to lead people beyond their comfort zone into new places. Whenever I travel, I usually take the first few minutes to assess where the room is at, find their “borders”, and then see what I can do to push them over the line! I know what it’s like to be led across my limitations and experience new things in God, so I want to help people get there as well! The Hebrew language has some compelling things to say to us about praise that will launch us into new encounters with God.
I remember the first time I went to a youth group, I was embarrassed for the people who were praising God - lifting their hands, smiling, clapping, etc. To me, they looked like Carlton from “Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”
Little did I know I would have an encounter with God’s love and Presence that changed everything...and caused me to become even more expressive than the ones I was embarrassed for! (another story for another time).
I found out that if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got! I wanted more so I began to do things differently...and since you’re hungry for more of God, you should do the same!
Here’s 3 Hebrew words that will change the way you praise:
1. Hallal
Side note: There’s a lot of Hebrew words translated into our English word “praise”. We only see it as one word in English, but when we go back to the original language in the Scripture, we get way more depth of meaning!
Hallal - to shine; hence, to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; causatively, to celebrate. (ref. Blue Letter Bible)
It’s the root word of the commonly heard - “Hallelujah!” The “Jah” part is the short form of God’s name “Yahweh”. Put together, it means “Praise the Lord!”
We translate this word “hallal” as praise, but as you can see, it’s got a lot of punch to it! This is definitely not a passive word. It’s wild and exuberant!
“Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.”
2 Samuel 6:14
What a great example of hallal!
When his wife criticized him for praising like that, David said that he’d become even more undignified than that! He went wild for the Lord!
There’s so much to be said about this kind of praise, but the question is this:
Is your hallelujah mild or wild?
It doesn’t mean you have to do this every single time you praise, but if you never enter in to this kind of praise, you’re missing out on what God has in store for you!
When you’ve experienced God’s love and mercy, and you’ve gotten a glimpse of His infinite worth, you’d gladly lay down your pride and praise God with a crazy praise.
2. Selah
It’s a word commonly seen in the Psalms and widely understood to mean “to pause and meditate.”
I’ve heard at least 3 interpretations of this word and I think all of them are valid Biblical expressions:
It’s just what I said earlier, to pause. Since this word is a musical term, the singing of the actual psalm would pause and the instruments would continue. This would give time for the people to meditate on what God was saying prior. It served as a musical interlude for meditation.
As a musical term, it’s safe to assume that the musicians would prophetically interpret the word of the Lord since the worship team in David’s tabernacle were appointed to do that (1 Chron. 25:1-3). It was a time for the musicians to play musically what the psalm was saying lyrically.
A time for free worship where we lift up and exalt the Lord spontaneously and in tongues. The assumed root word of “selah” means to lift up, cast up, exalt. It was a time for the worshippers to pause from the regular singing of the psalm and exalt God “off script.” The New Testament counterpart to that would be singing in tongues and even just spontaneous praise. (See Abarim Publications for their study on this for more explanation on this interpretation).
Now, if all of these are correct, this implies some powerful things for our times of worship.
Imagine, we sing a line from a worship song, like: “Out of the silence, the roaring Lion, declared the grave has no claim on me...Jesus, Yours is the victory!”
We pause musically after that to let the music build...but people can’t stay silent because it’s so epic!
All 3 of those elements are implemented at once - the written lyrics pause, the band builds up to prophetically communicate the victory of Jesus’ resurrection, and people just spontaneously roar praise to God!
This happens all the time when I sing “Living Hope” or “Way Maker”. The truth of what is communicated in the written lyrics hits our hearts so strongly that it draws spontaneous praise out of us, even singing in tongues!
This has some implications for our worship teams, but for us individually, how often do we engage in this kind of praise?
Let’s let the truth of who God is hit our hearts again! We’re bound to erupt in the selah!
3. Shigionoth
“A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth.”
Habakkuk 3:1
“A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to wild, enthusiastic, and triumphal music.”
Habakkuk 3:1 AMPC
Another musical term, the Hebrew word shigionoth, although difficult to define, probably means the song is to be sung with strong emotion and impassioned triumph; a sense of victory. (ref. Got Questions, and The Spirit Filled Life Bible, Jack Hayford commentary on Hab. 3:1)
The thing is, the context of Habakkuk’s song wasn’t a happy or victorious time in Israel. It was actually pretty rough.
But that’s the point.
The thing the enemy wants to do in our trials is to get us off focus, sap our strength and get us apathetic.
Apathy is defined as the absence or suppression of passion.
The shigionoth is the praise that resists the trial! It resists the darkness and spirit of heaviness.
Sure, God is working something good in our trial and bringing maturity...but that’s if we properly respond. And one of the ways to properly respond is shigionoth.
Shigionoth basically says - there may be a storm going on around me, but I won’t let it get in me. I will bless God and rejoice in the Lord at all times!
It’s the way to get the good nutrients out of the tough times and block out the work of the enemy.
Do you need to lift up a shigionoth?
3 Hebrew words that will change the way you praise!
All of these Hebrew words are meant to take us out of our comfort zones and experience God in a fresh way.
Take a step of faith and praise God with the hallal, selah or shigionoth! God will meet you right there.
Question: Which Hebrew word will you intentionally step into this week?