Let everything that has breath praise Adonai! Psalm 150:6
This is the very last line in the book of Psalms. When you look at that one sentence, it shows that it is not a suggestion, but rather a command. We are commanded to praise Adonai. The word breath, or soul in Hebrew is neshama, spelled with the letters nun (נ), shin (ש), mem (מ), and hey (ה). These letters come together to mean, Life of the Name. Let everything that has life in the Name of Adonai praise Him!
Each day, I read from a devotional by Tommy Tenney entitled Up Where You Belong. In today’s devotion, the scripture readings were from Isaiah 14:12-15, Ezekiel 28:12-18, and Psalm 100:4-5. The scriptures from Isaiah and Ezekiel discuss the fall of Lucifer, and what his role once was.
His highest-ranking angel became defiled with a cancerous spot of pride and ill-founded ambition, but this wasn’t just any archangel. Lucifer was the “covering cherub” who constantly surrounded God with praise and worship.
The second view is Satan’s, and it is one of the most bitter memories in his rebellious head. He can’t escape it, and the pain it produces nearly defines the essence of hell itself. It drives and compels this fallen agnel to hound and harass Christians 24/7 in an attempt to steal their worship and silence the painful sound of genuine praise and worship rising to the heavens and the place of his former estate.
Concerning the scriptures from Psalms, he asks three vital questions:
Do you perceive the eternal value of your praise and worship to God? Do you understand how severely you exasperate the archenemy of God and the kingdom with your simple songs of praise and worship from the heart? Do you know the violent warfare of your childlike praise provokes in the heavens?
From Week 5, Day 6 of Up Where You Belong by Tommy Tenney
As a former praise and worship leader, one of the biggest vehicles of my praise is of course music. It is the mode that helps me step into Adonai’s presence and fix my heart fully upon Him. I LOVE to sing and offer praise and worship through song. However, music is only one vehicle praise in a mighty fleet. As I was going through Strong’s Concordance, I pulled up each Hebrew word for our single English word “praise” and found that they list nine different words and avenues of praise. Yadah, hillul, tehillah, barak, halal, zamar, todah, shabach, and mahalal. As this collection progresses, we will get into the meanings of these induvial forms of praise and explore them through scripture.
Throughout my day, I find myself offering praise. I can be doing dishes or laundry. I can be outside with my granddaughter as she plays and looking at the clouds or feeling the grass under my feet. I can be on a hiking trail, absorbing being out in nature. Sometimes, it is a simple prayer of thanksgiving, and others I will lift my face towards the heavens and just pour my praise out, like water from a pitcher and not even say a word. Sometimes, I will turn on music and lift my hands or dance with my granddaughter in joy, and others I will find myself weeping. Praise is our heart reaching out to His.
My prayer as this collection unfolds is for your life of praise, as well as my own, to grow deeper, richer, and stronger. That every cell that makes up our bodies will offer up praise to the One who created those individual cells. This isn’t a collection to say, “you’re doing it wrong, do it this way”. Your praise to the Father may look different than mine, or sound different than mine, but that’s okay, because we are not the same person, and your unique, individual praise that comes from heart of spirit and truth is what matters to Him. To use a music analogy, if we are both singing the melody, the richness of harmony is missing. If you are singing melody, and I come in with the harmony, the sound takes on a beautiful texture, beyond what we could have imagined. Your praise, and mine are like that sound of harmony, and it fills the heavens with a joyful noise that He then inhabits or sits down in. (Psalm 22:3)
Halleluyah! How good it is to sing praises to our God! How sweet, how fitting to praise Him! Psalm 147:1
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