By Sidharth Mohandas

“I will declare Thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise [Hebrew: HALAL] Thee.” [Psalm 22:22]

Scripture reveals seven different kinds of Hebraic praise. Today I want to focus on one particular kind called “Halal”. It is from this Hebrew word that the word “Hallelujah” finds its origin. Many Christians use this word without actually knowing its meaning. To majority of them, “Hallelujah” is just “Praise the Lord”. And that is true, but that’s not the essence of it.

The word “Halal” means to “shine forth”, “to let everyone around you know what God has done”, “to strike a party and invite everyone else to join you in celebrating God’s victory”…

This is quite different from the monotonous repetition of the word “Hallelujah”, expecting God to be pleased by the number of Hallelujah’s you say and twist His arms to give you something you want. Many people would never think of twisting God’s arms, but that’s exactly what they do. Have you heard people say, “Just keep repeating the word “Hallelujah” and God will give you the gift of tongues”, “Just keeping saying “Hallelujah” and you will feel goose bumps all over you” ? Hallelujah is a declaration, friends, it’s not a magical word!

Now do you know when the Israelites used this word? They used it when the Lord won a battle against their enemy or was about to win a battle. So each time we say “Hallelujah”, we are saying, “God has won the battle and satan has lost the battle!”. Doesn’t the declaration put on flesh when you know the meaning?The word is combination of “Halal” and “Yahweh”, and we get “Hallalu Yah”, which means “declaration of the victory of Yahweh”. What does Yahweh mean? It means “I Am Who I Am”. It means to signify that God is never “I WAS” or “I WILL BE”, but “He is” all that “He was” and “He will be” all that “He was”. He won’t change. And because He won’t change, He will always remain the Victorious One. Our response? HALLELU YAH!