Hallelujah: Praise the Lord

Hallelujah is one of the few Hebrew words that crossed directly into English worship without translation. It appears throughout the closing Psalms as both an opening and a closing shout, and it means exactly what it sounds like: praise the Lord.

Pronounced haw-lal'. verb, imperative plural (compound with a divine name).

Hallelujah joins halal, “praise,” with Yah, a short form of the Lord’s name. It means, simply and completely, praise the Lord.

The root halal covers a wide range: to shine, to boast, to celebrate, to make a joyful noise. Attached to Yah, it becomes a direct, corporate summons to worship, most often plural in Hebrew, a “you all, praise the Lord” rather than a private feeling. That is why it clusters in the final Psalms, which read like a service written to end the whole book on a single note.

Praise in these psalms is not conditional on circumstances lining up. Psalm 146 lists reasons to praise that include feeding the hungry and setting prisoners free, plain acts of justice as much as displays of power. Hallelujah names the response those acts deserve, whether or not your own week has gone well.