Hebrew Words for Praise Halal

7 Hebrew Words for Praise Part 3: Halal

We say hallelujah, but we don’t do hallelujah. Hallelujah is more an action than words.

• Halal – Celebration and dancing praise 

• Lu – ye or call 

• Yah – Shortened name for God 

• Most of us don’t know there is an action. 

• Squeeze the Charmin, Mr. Wipple!

The word “hal” is actually the root word of the word “hallelujah.” 

• We say hallelujah a lot. The root word of that is “hal.” 

• “Hallel” means to physically celebrate. 

• Curly three stooges…. Limburger cheese …… Lion, bear, Goliath, all the giants 

• But Curly would start knocking out everybody, the ref, Moe, and Larry, 

We add “yah” on the back end because we’re talking about who we’re celebrating.

2 Samuel 6:12-23 (ESV): And it was told King David, “The Lord has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing. And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened animal. And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod. (That is really important) So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the horn. As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart. And they brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house. And David returned to bless his household. But Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet David and said, “How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants’ female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!” And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will celebrate before the Lord. ……..23 And Michal daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death

Now, I want to suggest something to you. 

That can be taken three ways. 

1. It could be taken that God closed her womb, praise = promise = production

2. Or David just didn’t have any dealings with her anymore. Praise = people relationship

3. Or that her womb didn’t function and could have been opened just like those prison doors were opened to Paul and Silas. Praise = power

The first time we see “hal,” it’s not talking about God. It’s in Genesis 12. 

• The first time you see “hal,” it’s when, in Egypt, Pharaoh’s men see Abraham’s wife Sarah, and they go back to Pharaoh and say, “You’ve got to see how fine this woman is.” Egyptian it was “do wa ditty ditty dumb ditty do!”

• And the Bible says they praised her to Pharaoh. 

• So the first time we see “hal,” we actually don’t see it relative to God.

• “yah” on the back end so that when we celebrate,

• So we know who we celebrate.

There is an issue when your celebratory praise is misdirected and focused on the creation rather than the creator! 

• It’s incredible—peeps who have seen folk walk into this very building and get healed from cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and high blood pressure. 

• Incredibly, we are a people convinced of the power of God, but don’t walk into this building with some praise on their lips, leaping in their feet, waving in their hands. 

  • The word of God says, Psalm 100:4, “You ought to enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.” 

    • You ought to be out in the parking lot shouting.

    • Psalm 107:2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so! 

      • What is incredible is that everyone here would call themselves redeemed, but so few are saying so. 

      • When redeemed, people don’t know how to say so? 

        • You’d better get a blood test and a house inspection! 

Praise is the lifeblood of seeing the presence of God in our midst

• It is the building inspection to see the saints built up into the body of Christ. 

• The whole book of Psalms ought to give you a clue that God cares about praise.

  • God made sure that this book was placed dead center in the rest of His word. 

• Blood and Building issue: It’s an offense to God when you can’t say thank you for what God has done in your life out loud and with exuberance. 

  • You ought to do something. 

  • You can’t tell me that you know God’s been good to you, and ain’t nobody ever seen you lift your voice and get excited. 

    • I know that’s my personal conviction, not my temperament, not my personality—you ain’t passionate about nothing else.

      • If a sale happens, if something good happens, if your team wins, and if there is news of a wedding or a pregnancy, you scream down the street. 

      • So if God has been good to you and you are the redeemed of the Lord….Why don’t you SAY SO? 

Overall Context

• Long Time Coming: The events in 2 Samuel 6 are the culmination of decades of divine preparation, persecution, warfare, and restoration for David.

• 15 years until Hebron 

• 7.5 years until unification and anointing at Jerusalem. 

Ark Mishap (2 Samuel 6:1–11 – Prior Incident)

• Improper Transport: Ark placed on cart (violates Levitical law – should be carried on shoulders by Kohathites).

• Uzzah’s Death:

  • Ox stumbles → ark tilts.

  • Uzzah’s strength …touches the ark → struck dead (holy object, not to be touched).

• David’s Fear: Halts procession, leaves ark at Obed-edom’s house.

Obed-Edom’s Blessing

• Presence = Prosperity: Wherever the ark rests, abundance breaks out.

• Obed-Edom’s Household:

  • Manifest blessings.

  • Everything around him flourishes.

• David’s Realization: “Where the cart stopped is where the blessings stop.”

Proper Retrieval (2 Samuel 6:12–15)

• Correct Method: Carried on the shoulders.

• Sacrificial Worship: Every 6 steps → sacrifice (ox and fattened calf).

• Grand Procession:

  • David leads in a linen ephod (priestly garment, not royal robe).

  • Dancing, shouting, trumpets.

  • The entire house of Israel joins in celebration.

The word “hal” is a word translated as “praise” and has at least three dominant descriptions of what it means.

1. Number one: The word “hal” means to shine – draws attention. 

   1. When the Bible calls us to praise, it’s calling us to shine.

2. Number two: It also means to boast. 

3. Number three: It’s to celebrate clamorously like a child. 

   Overall meaning: Shine. (When you and I are called to praise, we are called to draw attention.)

   1. I know that my people who are more reclusive and introverted are going to have a real hard time with this because what you don’t want is nobody looking at you. 

   2. When you walk in the room, you find the back seat, the side seat—you don’t need attention. 

   3. Has nothing to do with your temperament, personality, or what you like. 

      1. I am telling you what Scripture is calling you to do. 

      2. And the first thing God wants you to do as one of His followers is that when you praise Him, you ought to draw attention to Him.

Why do you draw attention? There are four reasons.

1. You draw attention so that people with you have instructions on what they ought to be doing. 

   1. The Bible said that when David comes in, David is praising and dancing, but guess what else? 

   2. Everybody who’s with David is also praising and dancing. 

      1. Some people around you may not know how to lift their hands and praise God. 

      2. They don’t know when to shout, when to say thank you, God. 

      3. Example: When you’re mad, everybody else gets mad. 

      4. So why not when you lift your voice to give God praise? 

         1. Should not the whole hood say, “If Kermit and Earnie, the whole Sesame Street are praising God, everybody out here needs to lift their voice”? 

            1. That’s the reason.

            2.  Sometimes you’ve got to praise God for your section, for your row, for your bloodline, for your neighborhood. 

2. You have to draw attention to the Lord so that your enemies will know it didn’t work. 

   1. “I’m so tired of people when they’re going through hell and high water—Woe is me! 

   2. And you let your enemies see how broken and disgusted you are. 

      1. Then, when God fixes it and blesses it, you want to get quiet?

      2. NO! I’m praising God for a spiritual notice and declaration that every demon in hell knows that the same God who got me started kept me in the middle, 

      3. And though you tried to kill me, I got over what you did. 

   3. You tried to ice me—didn’t work. 

      1. Tried to scandalize my name—didn’t work. 

      2. Tried to punish me—didn’t work. 

      3. Tried to steal my joy—didn’t work. 

      4. Tried to take my job—didn’t work. 

      5. Tried to take my life—didn’t work. 

   4. And this praise is to let you know that the God I serve finishes what He starts.

3. Draw attention so that onlookers ask what happened. 

   1. You’ve got to praise God till people say, “What in the world?” “Nope, not of this world!” 

4.  Draw attention to so your praise informs you and others. 

• Uninformed praise—where you’re praising God but don’t know why. 

• This is why we have to be careful about calling people to have the behavior without the relationship.

• You’re teaching them to operate in dishonesty because they’re going through motions that have no real moti

I love it when David gets to his wife and she’s talking crazy. 

• He’s not just saying, “Well, the music was grooving and it was a good time—everybody was doing it.” 

• No, no, no. He said, “Oh, I know exactly why I’m praising. My praise is informed.”

1. And here’s the first reason: v21 because He is the Lord. 

2. Why are you praising God? Because He is God. 

   1. When I think of just who He is!

   2. Nobody can touch Him. He’s just God. I need somebody in the house that’ll holler, “He’s God!”

Your praise ought to be a boasting in the Lord.

• •  Jeremiah 9:23–24 says: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.”

  • Your praise ought to be a boast—not a boast about your money, not about the things you’ve accumulated, not about your wisdom or your strength, but a boast of the goodness of God made manifest in your life.

Your praise ought to be clamorous like a child.

• • It’s going to be hard for y’all because some of y’all are so refined and so didy. Y’all too cool for school.

  • When we say to praise “hal,” it means to look foolishly, to act clamourously, to act madly. 

  • Zephaniah, because the Bible says, toward the end, that God sings and dances over us, and the word there is to twirl. 

  • When David is dancing, the image is that he is twirling.

  • Hokey Pokey! 

Remember in the text that when David is praising in this orchestrated processional, he’s wearing an ephod. 

• Ephods were designed to be worn by priests, not kings. 

• But David, in the processional, takes off the kingly robe, puts on the ephod, and then processes to the place where the ark is to remain. 

• This is why she gets upset. 

• It’s not so much that he danced till he was naked; it’s that in his dancing, he changed clothes. 

• She didn’t like that the king, whom she was connected to, had taken off the regalia of authority and strength and put on the cloak of a servant—the cloak of a priest,

• a cloak of one who serves at the behest of a greater king. 

The shift in Michal’s mind was, “You ought not look like that. A king has a place of prominence and success. 

• A king has it all together. 

• A king is tight and right. 

• But a priest humbles himself and is at the behest of God. 

• He’s just an emissary who communicates on behalf of God.” 

We’ve got too many people trying to prove something, trying to put on more kingly robes than the ephod of a priest! 

Conclusion: Celebrating the Lord through praise places all the focus on the Lord!