Psalm 150:1: Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150:6 says, ‘let everything that has breath praise the Lord’. This verse is the conclusion of the whole book of Psalm. And the word ‘breath’ here is ‘nshammah’ in Hebrew, which includes all living things that have breath, including animals, not just we humans!
Now, what does the word ‘psalm’ mean? In Hebrew, this word is ‘mizmowr’, which means ‘give praise, to make music, or to celebrate in songs and music’. That’s what the book of Psalm is about!
The word ‘praise’ here in Hebrew is ‘hawlal’, which means ‘to shine, to make a show, to boast (about Him), to celebrate, or to give glory (to Him)’.
The Lord in Hebrew is ‘YHWH’, the utmost, holy name of God Almighty, the possessor of heaven and earth (Genesis 14:19), the ‘I Am Who I Am’ (Exodus 3:14), the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, the covenant God of Israel. That’s what ‘Hallelu Yah’ means - ‘praise the Lord (YHWH)’! ‘Yah’ is the short form of the name of the Lord (YHWH).
When you praise the Lord, you are actually 'shining' in (& for) the Lord! That's what 'hawlal' means! Your gloominess will definitely be lifted away, and be replaced with the shining light of the Lord! Have you seen flowers respond and blossom when the sun rises in the morning? That’s exactly how you’d be when you praise YHWH (shine in Him, and shine for Him)!
So, whatever your circumstance may be at the moment, begin praising Him now! Read how the psalmist praise YHWH in Psalm 148, Psalm 149, and Psalm 150. Every gloom that’s in you (or surrounding you) will turn to shine! My friend, this is the power of praise! So the next time you are in the midst of ‘gloominess’, or the atmosphere around you seems ‘gloomy’ or ‘oppressive’, begin to ‘Hallelujah’! Begin to sing praises to the Lord! The psalmist wrote in Psalm 119:164 to ‘praise Him seven times a day’! Now, ‘seven’ is the ‘perfect’ number in Jewish numeric. It simply means ‘let the praises of the Lord fill (saturate) you, and shine out from you throughout the day’! You’ll be glad you did, because every ‘gloominess’ will simply have to give way as the ‘light’ shines forth from you (every time you praise)! So if you have nothing better to say, why not start ‘praising the Lord’ now?
