Praise, laudation, or hymn of praise: It is the most used word for praise in the Old Testament.
Comes from the word HALAL that comes from the root word HALLELUJAH.
HALAL = strong expression
TeHILLAH is the song the Lord sings to us, through us. The Christians sang TeHILLAH praise when they were being fed to the lions, and the Romans discontinued the practice when so many of the people in the stands were touched by God
It is God’s song being sung.
Psalm 40:3 A new song “MANY WILL SEE AND FAR AND TRUST IN THE LORD,”
Isaiah 60:18 Gates means praise (TeHILLAH). The gate into His presence is Tehillah praise.
Isaiah 61:3 A garment of praise replaces a spirit of heaviness.
Paul sang this form of praise while chained in prison. God inhabited that praise and the chains fell, the prison doors were opened, and salvation came and set the captives free.
Praise, sing praise with the instrument, means to touch with fingers the strings of an instrument, or to pluck a stringed instrument in celebration. Used in poetry, singing can be involved. Music was given to render praise unto God. Psalm 33:2, Psalm 71:22, 2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 61:8, Psalm 66:2,4. Though the word “sing” is used, it means Zamar.
ZAMAR was the praise that David offered when playing for Saul to rid him of the tormenting spirit.
Praise, triumph, glory, commend, a loud adoration, proclaiming with a loud voice unashamed glory. Ecclesiastes 4:2, Psalm 145:4, Psalm 147:12. Out of this shout comes triumph actually shouting love unto God. To calm anger; Proverbs 29:11, To still the waves; To soothe with praises (Psalm 62:3) Jesus calmed the waves while in the boat with His disciples with this.
[Though it may seem unlikely that a shout could have a calming effect on the turmoil of this life, it does just that. Letting go with a shout of praise will often bring a peace and a stilling of the torment of the enemy puts on the people of God.]
Psalm 63:1-3 In this psalm David is referring to SHABACH when he is saying “THUS WILL I BLESS THEE” for the loving kindness of God. There are many expressions of love unto God, and this is just one of them. When we shout the victory of love for God, we break the hold of the enemy. We are not only loving God, but also proclaiming it to all that would hear.
The fourth Hebrew word for Praise is barak. For me, this is the praise word that reminds me that worship is not all about the music. We can worship, praise, bless and revere the Lord by moving our bodies and positioning ourselves in humility before Him.
4. BARAK=
Praise, kneel; bless to do with motion. To confess, to thank, to use the hands, or to bow the knee, to revere, worship, salute, to bless God in an act of adoration.
Judges 5:2-3, Psalm 103:1 “BLESS THE LORD O MY SOUL” means to bow before the Lord O my soul. Psalm 72:15 The motion given in BARAK is bending the knee and blessing the King that supplies all your needs. There is usually no vocal expression in BARAK praise but has to do with physical movement. This word is used 330 times in the O.T. Genesis 1:22 God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply. God taught us how to bless by first blessing us.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. 7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Praise, boast, celebrate, clamorously foolish, to shine, hence to make show, to rave, sing, rage, renowned, all these forms of praise are offered in an attitude of delight. To be bright, to be splendid, to be praised, to be famous, to cause to shine, to make bright, to give light, to deserve praise, radiance is at the heart…It is the root word of Hallelujah. HALAL is used 113 times in the O.T. Psalm 149:1, Jeremiah 31:7, Psalm 69:30, Psalm 22:22-25, Psalm 48:8 Jesus came to bring HALAL praise to the Father. This is a word for describing God. (There are instances where the word is applied to human beings. Genesis 12:15, II Samuel 14:25, 1 Kings 20:11, Psalm 63:11, Proverbs 31:28,31)
When David brought the Ark of Covenant back to Israel, he danced wildly in front of it. He was praising in HALAL praise. In that time, it was traditional for the conquering army returning home to take a prisoner and strip him and make him dance in front of the king that conquered him. That is what David was doing when he (king of Israel) stripped himself and danced like a fool in fron of the King that had conquered him.
This was also praised that the heavenly host did when coming down out of Heaven to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
(This is the praise that draws the most objections.)
16 Then it happened as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
Praise, thank offering, means to praise no matter what your circumstances. Lifting your hands in praise begins the breaking in the one praising that is needed to defeat the oppression of the enemy. Raising the hands is a sign of surrender, signaling the enemy that you are given over to God. Psalm 100, Psalm 50:23, Jeremiah 17:26, Psalm 56:12.
I have been reading Don Potter’s “Facing The Wall” and in its appendix is a brief overview of the seven most common words for praise used in the Old Testament. In our modern age of worship and church, it may be surprising to see praise as more than playing a song and singing. Many of the words are not even related to music.
Yadah
Towdah
Halal
Barak
Shabach
Zamar
Tehillah
We will be highlighting each word in a different blog post. Today, we will introduce the word yadah.
The Bible is full of the words praise, bless, or glory. Whenever these words are used they can mean one of many Hebrew words. The following is a list of only seven words. This is not an exhaustive list by any means. All these definitions were taken from the Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible KJV and Strong’s Concordance of the Bible (there are many Greek words for praise as well, but I’m only using the Hebrew.)
The first word for “praise” in the Hebrew is one of the most important words I found. That is because the heart of the word is to confess your sins. The root of the word is to have an intimate knowing of God. (These words are not in any particular order; just in the order Ray taught them.)
1. YADAH=
Praise, thank, thanksgiving, cast (throw), Genesis 29:35, when Leah had her fourth son, she raised her hands in praise to the Lord, and called him Judah (praise). This is the first time anyone was recorded raising their hands in praise for their blessings: Praise as a result of blessing. Psalm 69:30-31 David is saying his confession of praise and thanksgiving is more pleasing to God than his sacrifice. This praise also includes public confession of sin: Psalm 32:5 To confess, to sing praise, to sing, etc. essentially it is to acknowledge the word of God and man’s character.
YADA=
The root of YADAH which means to be intimately acquainted with someone, or God. To understand or acquire knowledge; to know; to discern; (learning to discern God’s heart) To know by learning and experiencing. Knowing through the senses, by investigating and proving. To become acquainted in a sexual way to make oneself known; to be familiar; to reveal oneself; this Hebrew word occurs 995 times in the O.T. Knowledge gained through the senses.
RWTC is proud to announce the set list update. This year we continue to add more features that will help you in your music planning.
Now you have the ability to use the set list option to plan out any set or sets and share it to your friends, worship team, or band mates through email, Facebook, Twitter…shoot a lot of sites…and still be able to do all this under ten minutes! Videos and tutorials are available and can show you the program in quick time. Many of you tested the program and gave us great feedback and we thank you. As we continue to polish the program, feel free to send us comments to help us strengthen RWTC!
Set Lists Under Favorites
You can view and manipulate all of your set lists on the Favorites page. Above your favorites, you will notice a new tab labelled “Set Lists”. By clicking this tab, you can view all of your set lists. By clicking on any of the set list titles, a new tab will open where you can view the set list information including song list.
New Song Toolbar
At the top of each song, you will now see a new toolbar to facilitate access to all of the old and new features. The key to the right lists each icon’s function.
RWTC congratulates Paul Glass, the winner of the PreSonus and Audio-Technica recording studio! Paul is from Caruthersville, Missouri where he plays guitar and sings on the praise and worship team at Agape Worship Center in Hayti, Missouri. Paul has been a believer for over 8 years and feels it is his calling to reach the lost and dying world through music. He’s been involved with numerous music contests outside of church and uses that experience to reach the lost.
Paul and his wife are expecting their first little one in September and we just want to say an early congrats to them from all of us here at RWTC!
“Being connected to God is the most important thing in my life. I will use this equipment in church for live recordings and outside of church to record original songs that I have written.” said Paul. “Thanks for the contest and for picking me as the winner! Keep up the awesome work that you do through 1Christian.net!”
Like we say each month we here at Rockin with the Cross will be giving something new away and this month is no exception. So enter to win and let others in your ministry know about Rockin’ With the Cross. Each membership allows us to keep going and equip others like you in ministry here in the U.S. and abroad. Imagine each worship leader reaching their congregations. Then compound that. You can help us directly and indirectly minister to millions. Praying for you all!
The seventh Hebrew word for praise is Tĕhillah …
