As I worked my way through the list of Hebrew words that mean praise, I was not expecting to find one that was praise not given to Adonai, but to man and the warning that it holds for each of us. As with each post I have done, I have been teaching myself more than anyone who reads them, but this one I know I am writing more for me than anyone else. If it speaks to you as well, my prayer is that if Adonai pricks your heart concerning this topic that you prayerfully listen and seek Him so that your relationship with Him is strengthened for His glory.
The crucible [tests] silver, and the furnace [tests] gold, but a person [is tested] by [his reaction to] praise. Proverbs 27:21
The Complete Jewish Study Bible notes about this verse, “Praise is dangerous because it can produce pride. The CJSB notes that this is best understood as ‘a man is tested by his praisers.’ Praise is often flattery, and at other times it may simply be courtesy or for encouragement. Because of his insecurity, a person can also take praise to be an affirmation of his own importance. The Torah warns against pride since that often results in forgetting about God (Deut. 8:14)”.
Silver and gold are put into extreme heat to melt them down to remove the impurities from them. The melting point of silver is 1761 degrees Fahrenheit and gold melts at 1947.5. I can not even begin to imagine this type of heat as living in Oklahoma, we melt when the heat index hits over 100 degrees. If we are making a comparison of testing, and silver and gold melt at these extreme temperatures, what type of heat does that make praise offered to us by others? I know there have been times that someone has given me a compliment, or praise about my singing, I have felt my skin heat and I got hot and uncomfortable. I found my self in the furnace of testing, and I had the choice that I could absorb that praise and let it inflate my ego, or I could turn that praise back to Adonai. I am not going to lie; I have done both.
We naturally long to be accepted and for people to think well of us. We want words of affirmation spoken over us and to know that we’ve done a good job. We learn it from an early age, and it grows as we grow. When my children and my granddaughter first rolled over, we exclaimed how amazing it was. When they took their first steps, we encouraged, and got excited and told them how big they were and how wonderful it was. When they were potty trained, we clapped and made a huge deal of their accomplishment and taking that next step to becoming a “big kid”, and if you were/are like me, you rewarded them for such a huge milestone in their life. Praise comes naturally to us because we were born to give it. However, if we are not taught to turn the praise we receive back to our Creator, we will fail that fiery test and our lives will become self-serving instead of God focused.
Phil Joel of the bands The Newsboys and Zeland wrote a book entitled Redwoods and Whales that offers some very profound insight about being self-serving and self-focused. He explains why he does not have social media. Simply put, he calls it social ME-dia, and dumped his after he realized that his life was becoming so focused on the next post, and the number of likes and engagement he was receiving. His life, his ministry, everything he was doing was focused around his social media accounts and it was swallowing him up. When he realized what was happening to him, he dumped all the accounts he had. He made the choice that his life was going to stay God focused and not “me” focused. His heart is so tuned to praising and serving Adonai, that he sacrificed these platforms so that his life points towards praising the Father and not his bands, his book, or his ministry.
I have failed the test furnace of praise too many times to count. To this day, I still struggle with it at times. This blog being the most recent of tests. I have found myself caught up in the number of people who have read each post and have been overly concerned about their thoughts about them, longing for that feedback that tells me that they really liked the post, they got something out of it, and so on. It was from watching interviews with Dallas Jenkins about The Chosen that got my attention and made me realize that I was longing for praise from others, rather than simply just turning the praise to Adonai with each post. “It’s not your job to feed the 5000, it’s just your job to provide the loaves and fish.” Ouch! Talk about putting me in my place. These writings are simply meant to be loaves and fish, or seed and any revelation or insight sure doesn’t come from me, so why would I even consider taking any praise or glory for any of it. The whole point of them is to point people to salvation through Yeshua, or for them to have a “wow” moment like I did that draws them closer to the Father, or a heart’s cry for the Holy Spirit to blow a fresh wind and fresh fire over their heart. How selfish and prideful that I should desire any praise when it doesn’t even belong to me. Ah, being human; how thankful am I for grace.
Let us now look at this word for praise, mahalal (mah-hal-awl). It is made of the Hebrew letters Mem, Hey, Lamed, and Lamed. מהלל. It means praise, boast, or fame and is explained as judged according to the success or failure in that which he boasts; according to the thing which he boasts. In other words, “look at what I did” or “what an amazing thing you did”. Proverbs 27:21, our initial verse is the only scripture that the word mahalal is found. When we look at the shadow meanings of each letter, we see that it is encased in pride. Mem means destructive passion, Hey means self-deception, and Lamed means self-importance, and as mahalal is spelled with a double Lamed, it has a double portion of self-importance. This sums up pride and arrogance in a tidy package. Proverbs 16:18 warns us, Pride goes before destruction, and arrogance before failure. We must always be on guard that when the furnace of praise is before us, that we remain humble and direct our praise back to Adonai, because it is only through Him that we find our success, our talents and abilities, and our ministry. He is the giver of all of these things. Isaiah 10:15 reads Should the axe glorify itself over the one who chops with it? Should the saw magnify itself over the one who moves it? It’s as if a stick could wave the hand that raises it up, or as if a wooden staff could lift [a person, who is] not made of wood. We must never forget that we are simply the vessel, the tool, the mechanism which Adonai uses, and our lives are to be instruments of praise to Him as we are to do everything as unto the Lord.
When we look at the numeric value of mahalal, we find its total to be 105. Another word with this value, massa (mas-saw), means trial, testing, tempting, or proving, calamity or suffering, of a place in the desert. How amazing is it, that mahalal, praise in the scripture is referred to as a test and here massa or test holds the same value? I am continually blown away by how Hebrew words connect.
Isaiah 42:8 says, I am Adonai; that is my name. I yield my glory to no one else, nor my praise to any idol. In the He Is Collection, I spoke of why I walked away from being a praise and worship leader when I wrote on the book of Psalms. When I was told that I was wasting the gift God gave me because I would not audition for the Christian version of American Idol, I told God that I couldn’t put myself in a position to receive His praise and glory any longer. It is only because of Him that I have vocal cords that sound pleasing to the ear. While I have watched my share of vocal competition shows, I have never had the slightest desire to try to be on one. Just the name American Idol tells of the quest from the next big name in music, the next idol. I don’t want to be an idol, in any way, shape or form, and each person must check their own heart when they pursue something like this, but even a Christian version of it would be more about me than Him. I am not saying that all recording artists, authors, actors, or performers make what they do about them instead of Adonai. I am saying that each person has to search their own heart and let Adonai be the one in the front of their public ministry. It was not a path that I have ever been meant to take. When I was twelve, I was offered a recording contract. This was the age of the Debbie Gibsons and Tiffanys. It was the early to mid 80’s and teen pop was in. My mother, who I have no doubt was operating in wisdom, declined the offer and said that she would not take my childhood away from me and feed me to that industry. I have thanked her for it more than she will ever know. But while I have never had the desire to pursue a career in music, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed the praise people have given me when I have sung. I had to learn to curb that desire and turn that praise and glory to Adonai, just as I have had to do with this blog.
When we view our talents and our accomplishments as the gifts from Adonai they really are, it removes our ability to boast in ourselves. 1 Corinthians 4:7 says After all, what makes you so special? What do you have that you didn’t receive as a gift? And if in fact it was a gift, why do you boast as if it weren’t? As I said at the beginning of this post, I am talking to myself more than anyone, and each day, I have to prayerfully ask Adonai to help me walk in humility and that my life will be a living sacrifice to praise for Him. Each time the trial furnace of praise comes my way, I have to remember to stand and turn that praise and glory to Him, because everything I am, that I have, that I am able to do in this physical life is directly because of Him, so He deserves the praise from any accomplishment in my life. My prayer is that each time it comes, I make sure it is given back to Him. I will bless Adonai at all times; his praise will always be in my mouth. When I boast, it will be about Adonai; the humble will hear of it and be glad. Psalm 34:2(1)-3(2)