Hallelujah

From http://www.byfarthersteps.com/

We sing it all the time. Hallelujah. But what does it mean? Well, first I want to do a little easy Hebrew and then some comments.

The word in Hebrew (see Ps 106:1 for example) is הללויה (without the vowel dots). Don’t let that weird you out, it is pretty straight forward and I’ll unpack it for you. First, the root of the word is הלל halel meaning “to praise or worship”. The second part of the word is יה Yah is the short version of God’s name Yahweh.¹ The root הלל halel is in the imperative form, it is a command. It has the suffix (don’t forget, Hebrew is right to left) of ו which is second person. Literally, it would be “you worship” and the suffix “God”. So “hallelujah” literally is “Praise Yahweh!” as a command. When it is used in Psalm 106 it is directed to the people commanding them to praise God, not to God as a form of praise.

Have you ever sung “hallelujah” over and over again as a form of worship? There is an “updated” version of “All Creatures of Our God and King” which has a bridge inserted that simply repeats “Alleluia” over and over again. But if you consider the hymn in context, the original alleluia portion is connected to the title: all creatures of our God and King, praise God.

It is easy to repeat a word or phrase over and over and have it feel like a form of worship. Our feelings may indeed be worshipful, but let’s consider what we’re repeating.

This video got me thinking about this subject.

1. Jehovah is not and never was God’s name. Jehovah is “Yahweh” with the vowels for Adoni (Lord) transliterated through Latin. Don’t call God Jehovah, it isn’t his name. ↩