October 4
“Hallelujah! Give praise, servants of the Lord; praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be blessed both now and forever. From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised.” Psalm 113:1-3
The psalmist is obviously excited about something—praising the Most High God!
Psalms 113-118 form the Hallel, a collection of praise songs sung at the great festivals of Israel like Passover and Pentecost. In all likelihood, Jesus and the disciples sang one of these before they left for Gethsemane the night of His arrest. You can guess that hallel is the front part of Hallelujah, meaning ‘Praise God’. Hallelujah is an English word that expresses the joining together of two Hebrew words: ‘hillel’, meaning ‘praise’, and ‘yah’, which is the first part of God’s personal name, Yahweh.
The psalmist then launches into a series of four exhortations to praise God. Notice that LORD is in all caps, signifying this is God’s personal name, Yahweh. The King James Bible attempted a transliteration of the name but incorrectly stated it as Jehovah. God is called by other names, Elohim (living or creative God), Adonai (sovereign God), El Shaddai (Almighty God), etc., but Yahweh, I AM, is the one that identifies His personhood.
To praise is to speak well of; to lift up and magnify someone’s importance, value, and quality of character. Three of the four times the psalmist exhorts us to praise the name of the LORD. The ancients were given or chose names based on desired character traits or aspired reputations. The name and the person were inextricably joined together. Praise His name, you praise Him. This is why God commanded us to not “take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Genesis 20:7). To misuse His name, to use it as an expletive, to even be casual about it, is an affront to Him.
Those of us who serve this God are to have blessings and praises on our lips from the time we wake up until the time we drop off to sleep, each and every day from now and forevermore.
Spend the first part of your day setting the tone for that: look for ways throughout the day to praise Him for His handiwork in your life. Close the day with a hallelujah!
God, I praise Your holy name. May you be blessed now and forevermore. Fill my heart with praise and adoration for You. What a God You are!!! Hallelujah!!
Hallelujah, Lord God Almighty!