Yadah

‘Oh that men would praise [yadah] the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!’ Ps.107:15 [KJV].

Our ultimate goal is to live lives that are pleasing to God through Jesus. In studying the culture of the Hebrews and how they expressed praise and worship to God we can learn a lot. Personally, I believe that the most important part of any worship experience is the praise and worship. When you make what you are offering [worship] to God priority, God is excited. In expressing praise the Hebrew used several words, which translate to several forms of worship. Over the next few days we will be studying these words with the aim of improving our adoration of God.

The first word used to express a type of praise is Yadah. Yadah is a verb with root meaning ‘extended hands; to throw your hands in the air; therefore to worship God with your hands extended’. So when you come to church and you see people lifting their hands in worship know that they are not crazy. What they are doing is yadah. The opposite meaning of yadah is to bemoan, which means the ringing of hands, to fold your hands. So when you fold your hands during worship the message you are sending to God is ‘you can’t expect me to praise you, who do you think you are?’ I know many of us do not mean that, at least I hope many of us don’t. But the truth is when we do that, that is what we are saying. Yet when we lift up our hands in worship what we are saying to God is ‘I surrender to you; I belong to you’. ‘Oh that men would praise [yadah] the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!’ Ps.107:15 [KJV]. If we were to translate this portion of scripture, it would read ‘Oh that men would extend their hands in praise to the Lord…’. ‘I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise [yadah] thee’ Ps.22:22 [KJV]. I have heard people say this kind of worship is for the closet and not to hypocritically raise hands in church. The Bible says ‘in the midst of the congregation will I praise [yadah] thee’. So in corporate worship God expects the lifting up of hands as a public display of our adoration of Him.

Prayer [song]: I lift my hands to You Lord, I give You praise with my voice. Honor and dominion are Yours, majesty and holiness, I lift up my hands unto You Lord…’