Praise the Lord (Hallelujah) – Psalm 113

January 30, 2019 (Wednesday)
Like Psalms 111 and 112, this psalm begins with, “Praise the Lord” (Hallelujah!) and concludes with the same exhortation.
The hymn that I’ve included with this blog echos the words of the psalm. It is beautiful and majestic.
The song at the end of this blog is a children’s song that has been sung in churches as long as I can remember. Like some other children’s songs, however, it has occasionally been included in the main worship services.

The following paragraphs are from the “Easy English Bible:
“We do not know who wrote Psalm 113. Some Bible students think that it was Moses. Other students think that it was David. But it is a special psalm for the Jews at Passover, and for Christians at Easter. Christians remember the time when Jesus died and became alive again at Easter.
“The Jews have a special meal that they call “The Passover”. In it, they remember that God saved them from Egypt many years ago. You can read about it in Exodus 12. The Passover is a meal that Jewish families eat at home. They did it when Moses was alive. They did it until Jesus came to the earth. And they still do it. They do it when they can see a whole moon at the end of March or the beginning of April. Some Christians have Easter then. Other Christians have it a month later.
“Before the meal, they sing Psalms 113 and 114; after it, they sing Psalms 115, 116, 117 and 118. In the Jewish Bible, these numbers are 112-117. (This is because Psalms 9 and 10 are just one psalm in the Jewish Bible. Near the end, one of our Christian psalms becomes two in the Jewish Bible, so both Bibles have 150 psalms!)
“The Jews called these 6 psalms “the Egyptian hallel”. “Hallel” is a Hebrew word that means “praise” or “say something or someone is very great”. When that someone is the LORD God, then the word becomes “hallelujah”. This means “the LORD is very great”. We translate the Hebrew word “Jah”, or “Jahweh” as LORD. It is a special name for God that his servants use. It means that God will love them and send them help. He will do this if they love and obey him. Because God and his servants agree to do this, LORD is the “agreeing” name for God. A better word for “agreeing” is “covenant”. Hebrew is the language that the Jews used for most of their Bible.
“Bible students call these 6 psalms “the Egyptian hallel” for three reasons:
· the Jews use them when they remember how God saved them from Egypt;
· Psalm 114:1 says, “When Israel came out from Egypt”;
· each psalm has the Hebrew word “hallel” in it.
Mark 14:26 tells us that Jesus and his friends sang a psalm just before he died. Maybe it was Psalm 113! The Jews also use these 6 psalms at Pentecost (50 days after Passover) and The Feast of Tree Houses (in the Autumn).”