HALALUJAH
‘Hallelujah” is a familiar word in our ritual of church “praise and worship”. However, we miss its beautiful meaning through our ignorance of its use in ancient Hebrew.
“Halal” in ancient Hebrew meant “the shining of a star”. To understand how it came to mean praise in association with Jah, i.e., halalujah (praise Jah), we must go back to its use in navigation. Before the invention of modern instruments, sailors would plot their course by the light (shining) of the stars.
This practice formed the idea behind praising God. When we praise Him, we focus on His “shining”, His glory, His attributes, His goodness, mercy and compassion which become the pattern upon which we model our lives.
So, we navigate an evil and uncertain world by gazing at Him and living our lives by the light of His instructions (torah), His truth about Himself revealed in His Word.
In the New Covenant, we have the perfect “shining” of the Morning Star, Jesus, (the Son), who “radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God…” – Hebrews 1:3a.
This wonderful imagery is lost in so much of today’s Christian music which focuses on our experience rather than on the glory of Jesus and the marvel of God’s grace in the gospel.
Paul encapsulates our true “halalujah” in his matchless prescription for transformation.
“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
Many churches have ditched the great hymns of the past that contemplated in verse and music the “shining of the star” in favour of tuneless ditties that often bemoan our spiritual poverty and focus on our emotional whining.
Compare, for example, the words of Fredrick William Faber. 1848…
My God, how wonderful Thou art,
Thy majesty how bright;
How beautiful Thy mercy seat
In depths of burning light!
How dread are Thine eternal years,
O Everlasting Lord,
By prostrate spirits, day and night
Incessantly adored!
How wonderful, how beautiful
The sight of Thee must be,
Thine endless wisdom, boundless power,
And aweful purity!
O, how I fear Thee, living God
With deepest, tend’rest fears,
And worship Thee with trembling hope,
And penitential tears!
Yet I may love Thee too, O Lord,
Almighty as Thou art,
For Thou hast stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart.
No earthly father loves like Thee,
No mother, e’er so mild
Bears and forebears, as Thou hast done
With me, Thy sinful child.
Father of Jesus, love’s reward,
What rapture will it be,
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie
And gaze and gaze on Thee!
… with some of the songs we sing today. Of course, there are many modern, beautiful songs that gaze at the shining of the star, but why do we ignore those that were written by great poets and hymn writers of the past who had a deep sense of awe in the presence of God, as though they are out-of-date?