Praise the Lord!
You who serve the Lord—praise!
Praise the Lord’s name!
Psalm 113:1
Today and for the next five Wednesdays we will be praying psalms that have something special about them; each one begins with the cry of joy, “Alleluia!” This familiar word only occurs in the psalms―twenty-six times, to be exact. We have a feeling about the word, but what does “Alleluia” mean?
The word is made up of two parts. The first is hallel, the Hebrew word for “praise.” The last syllable Yah is a kind of nickname for the name of God given to Moses at the burning bush, “Yahweh”. So the word is not only a shout of joy, it means “Praise Yah!”
For these special summer Wednesdays, here in the middle of the week, we give a shout of praise to God for the week and pray that the world will praise God. Many won’t be doing this, so how about you praising God for them?
Wednesdays are devoted to the reading of the Psalms,
one a week across the three-year cycle.
These Firestarters are from a new edition of The Bible Through the Seasons being developed for families with children. For the Firestarters in the original edition, I recommend the ebook. You will have the entire program of well over a thousand of these introductions with you on your phone or table! Check the menu options at the site for more information.
The Bible Through the Seasons 