 All right guys, good morning once again. Thank you for joining in What is this your third week of the Bible college starting with a third week, isn't it? Okay? How's it been so far? The two weeks has gone by Good, you're learning something exciting Interesting busy is he gonna keep you His assignments started already. No not yet. It's good. Good. Okay You still have people joining in okay, it's in Abu Bakr says interesting awesome cool Okay, so let's get started. Can I request one of us to? Leaders in prayer before we get started, please Anybody to go for it? Dear heavenly father, we come to the name of Jesus. We thank you for the beautiful day and for this beautiful morning Lord right now we are in the process I believe as pastor says everywhere it gets deep into our heart We will show it in our action and praise you about us. Give us the understanding Give us the wisdom that we need and give us the strength and everything that we need today We thank you for the amazing grace and amazing Thank you, Jeffina, all right Well, let's do a quick recap of what we learned last weekend. We'll move on. Okay Okay Great, so we started off with chapter one introduction and which Speaks about which gives us a little bit of the definitions of for praise and worship and that's where we started Maybe so a little bit of what it is Is worship really just the time spent singing in the church or is it a genre of music? We saw some of the definitions that We've given to worship ourselves, isn't it? Or what we've made of this thing that we call worship. Okay As some of the interesting quotes Uh We saw on page three Actually, so one of the definitions said one of the quotes says The second one acknowledging that someone or something else is greater worth more And by consequence to be obeyed feared and adored Worship is a sign that in giving myself Completely to someone or something I want to be mastered by it I think that's my personal favorite of the lot. Uh, so we saw a bunch of definitions, right? like that of different people uh on the subject and one of the last Definitions by bob coughlin We kind of broke the definition down to truly understand what he is actually saying so his um His definition uh was Christian worship is the response of god's redeemed people to his self revelation that exalts god's glory in christ in our minds affections and wills in the power of the holy spirit And uh, I'm so kind of glad that we broke it down because if I didn't know that bob coughlin wrote it It would it almost seems like paul was writing it to the church of romans You know what i'm saying it is just so deep and it's so rich in theology and understanding and wisdom and knowledge So, uh, it's good and I I really hope That you guys had the time to you know, once the class was done You had the time to reflect back on the notes and just to remeditate and just to absorb everything that was kind of shared in the class and Uh, and if you didn't really have the time I would and for every subject actually, you know Try and do that, you know, try and remeditate go back and reflect on the notes Of uh, you know what was taught and I'm sure it's going to be very helpful. Okay um, so that was uh page four in your notes the last court of understanding Worship one of the definitions of worship and then Very briefly we understood We looked at the definition for praise Uh, which simply means To commend to applaud to express approval or admiration that those are all the dictionary meanings, right? Uh, and then we see that the praise is the verbal declaration. Okay verbal declaration of adoration Uh, I just quick on the side note if you have the means Uh, you know To take a print out of these notes Kind of like these spiral binds if you can if you have the means and if you can do that Uh I see as much as I like the soft copies and whatnot. I am the old school kind of guy I like to underline, you know use the yellow color orange color green color blue color everything underline it highlighted It's going to uh, you know help you Uh, you know in the long run or okay So praise is the verbal declaration of adoration and thanksgiving for what god has done and for what he has promised to do Uh, and then we quickly looked at Uh, praise is the spiritual sacrifice that we offer to god Praise is the spiritual sacrifice that we offer to god and we saw that a sacrifice should cost us something And then how praise doesn't necessarily most of the time doesn't have to cost us Because and one of the things we saw was that we praise our friends. We praise uh, uh, you know Our relatives our family members for doing a good job our colleagues, uh fellow classmates I you know say hey good job. That is awesome. Keep it up, you know, and uh, Etc etc But when life gets hard when uh when life doesn't go as you want it to go or as you plan to Go and when it doesn't when you can't make sense Of things that are happening around you And and then you pause and you say god, I don't know what is happening around me But I still choose to praise you that beautifully becomes and an aroma and incense of praise and of worship Uh, so that in hebrews 13 15 we see that right? It's the fruit of our lips, isn't it? It becomes the fruit of our lips So, uh, yes praise is the spiritual sacrifice that we offer to god I also teach worship ministry for the final years and one of the things You will eventually might learn it when you get to the third year, but one of the first chapters is We discussed on the altars of abraham The altars of abraham is how abraham was a man of altars that he built altars and how altars In those days were known as a place of sacrifice. It's a place where death took place. It's a place where blood flew Right if not flew it was flowing down flew a good morning russian wake up Uh It was a place of sacrifice. It was a place of worship. It was a place of adoration and everything that we you know came worshiped to be uh And abraham would build altars And one of the key verses, uh, that we will again keep looking at time and time again is romans chapter 12 verse one Okay, in this course We'll be looking at that verse many many times but So here's the thing God does not only expect us to build altars But according to romans 12 one he expects us to be on the altar That is the living sacrifice Isn't it um, so um Yeah, uh, so we look at you know when you'll eventually get to the final year We look more into the altars of abraham. Okay, so that's uh Praise which is known as the spiritual sacrifice that we offer to god um, it involves giving up or taking on Giving up something that you have The right to and taking on something that you don't necessarily have to okay Sacrifice involves that sacrifice involves death It would be death to comfort self-pity jealousy Lust full desires etc. And the list can go on and on Right, so that is just a brief definition of of praise And then we quickly saw what are the differences between praise and worship, right? Praise can be corporate while worship is more personal praise is always obvious It's either seen or heard but worship is not always evident Point three says right and praise point four point praise is mostly horizontal in its purpose We speak to one another we encourage one another We declare his praise to for each other while worship is primarily vertical. It's between you and god Amen, so those are all the things that we uh, we covered in our first class of praise and worship Okay, and um, I hope you could take uh You know take something new out of Uh, your understanding of praise and worship and whatnot Right as is everybody clear so far Everybody okay, right. Thank you, Anita Yeah, I hope everybody else is doing well doing okay Great great. Okay, so let's move on now. Uh today We're going to look at the Hebrew words for praise and worship So from this chapter on we are going to go a little bit more deeper and deeper into our understanding of praise and worship. Okay Let me go ahead and share the screen Good, uh, is everybody able to see my screen Yeah, that's possible Yeah, okay. All right. Thank you Uh, don't worry about the color of the notes and everything. Okay, uh, it's the same thing What's in your notes? So Everything is the same. Okay um so once again, uh The definition of praise like we've already learned is to commend to applaud to express approval Uh or admiration Praises the verbal declaration and everything so we understand all of this definition, right of what we just what we learned in the previous chapter so with that understanding We're going to look at basically The seven Hebrew words for praise and why seven Hebrew words white Hebrew words at all, right? See in the English language We and I feel it might be just my opinion. We've we are limited You know in the way that we define a few things for example, uh, you know for the word love In English we just have one word and we use that for everything, right? And everyone, uh, you know, I love Jesus. I love cheeseburgers. I love cheese pizzas. I love Um, I love this person. I love that movie We use one, right? But in ancient greek, they used four different words to define love You know, we they had eros filia storge agape and all of that had different definition different explanation for love In actually in modern greek, they've added two more words for love So in total ancient plus modern there are there are six words for love in greek So similarly, uh, you know, there are seven primary Hebrew words for praise Okay, seven primary Hebrew words for praise And they are the first one is yada and The second one is toda And then you have halal And this is my favorite actually shabakh. Okay, you gotta add some phlegm into it Uh, tahila Barak and zamar Okay, what are they yada odha, halal shabakh tahila barak and zamar So let's dive into it The first one yada Let's call it as the hands of praise Okay, hand. So yad means hand. Ah means cast out And depending on the version of the translation of the bible that you use it more or less It's mentioned around 120 More or less times in the bible. Okay, and the definition of this word yada means to give thanks To lord praise to rever or worship with extended hands Okay to give thanks to lord praise to rever or worship with extended hands yada is a verb With a root meaning the extended hand To throw out the hand to throw a stone or arrow Okay Yada is also the same root word. We get the name juda from okay It's like, oh, yeah, they sound the same, you know Um, so once again, what is quickly the definitions here? Yada is a verb Okay, that means it's an action you have to do it with a root meaning to extend the extended hand To throw out the hand to throw a stone or arrow In there some of them even go to an extent and say it's extended hands hands without your palms out stretched upwards like this So the details in those definitions are incredible, you know, because Like the direction of how your palms should be facing is also mentioned in some in some definitions I thought it was very interesting. Okay, so the hands of praise Um, yada, okay So here are a few sounds for us um, once again guys if if uh, you know If any of us have uh, bibles already in the different languages and you know, that would be amazing for us to just read some of these scriptures in in our own language, uh I've and I just believe that there's something beautiful when that happens Okay, if you have a hindi bible or malayalam Tamil kanada any of the african languages you know It'll be amazing Okay, so One of the scriptures here it says may the people's praise you yada, okay um May the people's praise you god may all the people's praise you That's the sam 67 verse 3 and all your work Praise you Oh lord all your work all his creations praise you. Okay, your faithful people extol you In god, we make our boast all day long and we will praise your name forever Okay, so imagine this uh these verses the scriptures right in god We make our boast all day long and we will praise your name We will we will praise him with our extended hands with a hands lifted up your name for ever Okay Most scriptures these are all key scriptures for uh, you know for yada. Okay. Uh, can one of us go to sound 28, please sound 28 All of us go to sound 28 Okay, uh, let's uh, can uh one of us read Verse one and verse two Please Okay, let me read. Yes, please To you lord, I call You are my rock Do not turn a deep ear to me Or if you remain silent I will be like those who go down to the pit Hear my cry for mercy As I call to you for help as I lift up my hands toward your most holiness Thank you, uh, can uh, the same scripture be read in another language any of the language, please Yes, please And Sorry, go ahead. Sorry go ahead Yeah Okay, thank you. Uh, anybody else, uh And at the language That Amen, thank you Here we see the context, uh, you know, the david is writing it says sound 28. It's a sum of david. He says, uh to you I call Okay, oh lord my rock Do not turn a deaf ear to me. He's starting. This is this is a prayer Okay, so keep that in mind And going on for if you remain silent I will be like those who have gone down to the pit So hear my cry for mercy As I call to you for help As I lift my hands toward your most holy place Um Those words are so important like towards your most holy places again um What david is referring there is that he's Lifting up his hands in the direction Of the temple and the most holy place is literally the holy of holies And then we see that uh being mentioned in, um If can we uh go to first kings, please It's done with me to first kings first kings chapter eight I'm just going to read a couple of verses, but you know, um as I I would I would love for you to read this entire chapter uh actually especially from um From chapter six if you want to know about solomon building the temple and what so first kings We'll go to chapter eight. Um We'll just quickly look at verse 22 it says first kings chapter eight verse 22 okay It says then solomon stood before the altar of the lord in front of the whole assembly of israel Spread out his hands toward heaven Okay, spread out his hands Towards heaven and said so on and so forth. Okay, so this is one huge prayer that uh solomon makes and um And which is why I'm I want to encourage you to read the entire chapter much later But let's quickly go down to verse 38 Okay Same chapter first kings chapter eight verse 38 it says and when a prayer or plea Is made by any of your people israel Each one aware of the afflictions of his own heart and spreading out his hands toward this temple Then hear from heaven your dwelling place Okay um This solomon has clearly learned about this from david when david writes this out and say, okay Hear my cry for mercy as I lift my hands towards your holy place towards your most holy place Right. Are you guys with me? So there is this beautiful, uh, you know imagery of of prayer of supplication a request for help and um It's the same chapter first kings chapter eight verse 38 bigger Verse 38 Okay, thank you So as I was preparing I just found this beautiful commentary, uh, you know, uh post this whole thing in the chat section um And I'll read it for us um It's it's on sam 28 by the way. Okay, this whole commentary Uh, the the writer says The words of prayer were accompanied by actions so that both mind and body were engaged in the ritual proceedings The supplicants hands were lifted and directed towards the holy place in a gesture typical of supplication in the near east in general It may be that the hands were raised in a gesture symbolizing the anticipation of receiving something in the hands Namely the divine response to prayer. Okay. Yes Listen to those lines. It may be that the hands were raised in a gesture Symbolizing the anticipation of receiving something in the hands and namely the divine response to prayer But the reference to the pit in verse one suggests an alternate symbolism The psalmist is like one standing in the edge of the pit of danger Of death in danger of falling in and his hands are stretched out in desperation If god would only answer his prayer It would be as though he had taken his hands and rescued him from the threatening abyss um, such a Wonderful, uh, you know commentary on on on the first two verses of psalm 28 and the way we are looking at Of just our hands being raised Right. Um, so awesome. Okay. Let's look at uh another scriptures Are you guys okay to read a lot of scriptures this morning? But this very uh the evening Oh, yeah, there are a lot of songs. Yeah Okay, one of the next scripture is psalm 63 verse four psalm 63 verse four Um, I will praise you as long as I live And in your name, I will lift up my hands Okay, so now in this uh context, we see that how praise Is in parallel with lifting up the hands or how the lifting up of the hands is in parallel with praise Or or blessing his name. Okay. Once again psalm 63 verse four. I will praise you as long as I live And in your name, I will lift up my hands anybody in uh any languages Please Yes, please Can you read that one more time is just so beautiful Okay Okay, can we all just pause and just Ponder on those words And if we were to make this up prayer Like david is crying out I will praise you as long as I live It's And then if you just go look at the introduction of the psalm All right, not just from verse one it like way on the top. It says it's a psalm of david When he was in the desert of juda When he was in the wilderness when he was running for his life Um, so he doesn't know how long he's going to live Maybe he just feels so hopeless so low, uh, you know in his spirit and whatnot But there he says I mean the whole psalm is just beautiful in a dry and weary land So he's clearly in the wilderness. He's clearly in the desert. Okay, where there is no water my soul thirsts for you I long for you But even when my body needs all these things when my body needs water and I when my when my body needs shade Uh, and I'm trying to find a tree to hide In verse two he says I have seen you in the sanctuary And beheld your power and your glory How many of us can say those, you know, I have seen you lord And I've beheld your beauty your power and your glory And then he says I will praise you as long as I live no matter what my situation or what my circumstances No matter how dry my surroundings are no matter how hopeless my situation seems Um, I will praise you as long as I live and in your name. I will lift up my hands That ought to encourage us, isn't it? Amen Uh, all right. Let's uh, let's move on. Let's look at uh, let's go to psalm 134 Okay psalm 134 Okay, I hope we are all there psalm 134 Uh Now once again, if you notice the book of psalms from psalm 120 to psalm 134 There are about 15 psalms right from psalm 120 to 134 and they are all labeled as a song of ascents Song of ascents so basically it was uh, you know people from different towns coming into Jerusalem ascending up the hill Towards the temple. Uh, it was it was a celebration. It was a festival Okay, it was a joyous occasion for people to ascend up the hill, uh, you know So those that's why in all these psalms and it's right after psalm 119 psalm 119 is one long Uh love poem to the to god's word and after that from psalm 120 to psalm 134 We see it's uh, those are all the psalms of uh in a celebration festival inviting everybody and This is the conclusion so some of the scholars and the historians say this psalm is like towards the end of the celebration It's towards the end of the festival. Um And the editor of the psalms is so beautifully and strategically placed at that point You know, it's just not there for okay psalm 133 and then psalm 134 and just moving on nobody's just so beautifully placed Uh says praise the lord All your servants of the lord who minister by night or who stand by night another translation says, um Which kind of entails that okay, it's almost towards the end of the day. It's evening. Okay, uh and going into the dark Praise the lord all your servants of the lord who minister by night in the house of the lord Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the lord The context is very clear here. It's it's um, it's corporate worship He the psalmist is inviting uh, you know, everybody to lift their hands and praise him in his sanctuary May the lord the maker of heaven and earth bless you from Zion Okay, um Another commentary, uh Uh came across was this beautiful. I'm going to put it in the chat section and read it for us. Um Says um Okay. Yeah, it says the time and place Especially the place Are plainly indicated The occasion is a cultic one evidently a service held at night Are not improbably at the feast of tabernacles. It is is it a priestly voice We hear urging the gathered people to praise hyah way They stand in the temple courts ready to raise their hands toward the temple Hallowed as the earthly dwelling place of hyah way concerted praise of voices and hands will Acknowledge god's power and their dependence On and commitment to god through the covenant Okay, now i'm just going to leave that there and uh, you can read it like a hundred times Just so you can absorb that whole thing. Uh, it's just such a powerful insight. Uh, it's just so beautiful beautiful of sam 134 um I mean, who knew there's so much so many things about just lifting our hands and praising him, isn't it? Uh, right. Are you guys with me? I lost uh Yes, no Great guys. I'm not going to go through all of the scriptures key scriptures mentioned there It's for you to go, you know go through them and uh, you know and be blessed by them. Okay. All right. Um Let's move on. Um, the second word the second Hebrew word Is what we're going to call it as the expectation of praise Which is hoda? Okay, again comes from the same root word as yada But what's the definitions? Okay extension of hands with thanks with thankfulness Thanksgiving a confession a sacrifice of praise But here here's where it gets a little different Thanksgiving for things not yet received Okay, thanksgiving for things not you'd receive so Again, it's the same posture of praise with your hands lifted up with extended hands But here you are giving thanks to the things that not you've not yet received for the blessings. You have not received etc Okay, so that's hoda So hoda comes from the same principle root word as yada, but is more you is used more specifically uh, hoda literally means an extension of the hand in adoration or acceptance Okay Some some 56 verse 11 and 12 says in god I I have put my trust I will not be afraid what can man do to me Vows made to you are binding upon me. Oh god I will render praises to you Okay, and god I have put my trust. I will not be afraid What can man do to me And so therefore I will render praises to you sound 56 verse 12 Let's look at some 141 some 141 verse two I was reminded of another scripture guys, uh, you know while you while we are Once you reach some 141 verse two keep your finger on it and uh, see if you can find the book of Habakkuk Uh, this is another scripture that I wanted to mention for yada. Um, I just forgot I thought it's a beautiful imagery Um, okay before we read from sound 141 From if you can turn to the book of Habakkuk Or Habakkuk, however, however you want to pronounce it Okay, um, again, this it's a very interesting chapter But I'm just going to read one verse Okay, so So Habakkuk here is painting this amazing, uh picture or metaphorically he says In verse 10 Habakkuk chapter three verse 10. He says the mountains saw you and Rithid potents of water swept by the deep roared Okay, and lifted its waves on high The deep roared and lifted its waves on high And I know some of us might be thinking. Okay. How is this related to the extended hands yada, you know, uh, but again when you, uh There's a sudden commentary now Habakkuk is again metaphorically, you know, uh painting a picture Where the deep here Is actually the oceans deep Okay, uh referring to the oceans and how deep they are They were lifted. Okay, they lift The lifting up of the waves is like a symbol of lifting up of their hands, so to say Uh, it's just a beautiful picture, isn't it because one of the definitions we saw for yada was a throwing of the stones You know throwing or throwing of arrows. So uh I mean just have to have that image of you know us Just throwing up praises on god is like god, you're awesome. You know, you're magnificent It's just sending arrows of praise, you know towards him and just uh, it's just a beautiful imagery Because again, one of the things that we need to keep in mind is Hebrew originally was a pictorial language Okay, Hebrew originally was a pictorial language. So they would you know, all of this was uh It's like carved on stones. Uh, you know, like the draw images um Averguk 3 22 No, I think that might be a mistake. Uh, so I'm sorry, but uh, what I wanted to Mention was uh, Averguk 3 10 apologies Because it ends in verse 19 Uh, sorry Okay, now, uh, let's go to some 141 Someone 41. Um, can someone read verse one and verse two, please I will Oh lord, I'm calling to you. Please hurry. Listen when I cry to you for help Accept my prayer as incense offered to you in my appraised hands as an evening Yeah, thank you Uh, right. So it says oh lord, I call to you come quickly to me It's again a prayer there hear my voice when I call to you May my prayer be set before you like in sense Like fragrance like intercession May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice um Now much later in different courses and one of the courses if not the old testament survey, uh You will read you will learn more about the sacrifices that was performed or practiced by By the jews in the book of Leviticus, uh, you know, there was morning sacrifice There was evening sacrifice that they had to do every day. And so david is referring to that the those traditions those practices is May my prayer be like in sense May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice such a beautiful imagery there, right? Let's read a couple more scriptures and then we'll move on Um Sam 88 Let's go to some 88 Some 88 verse nine someone please Sam's 88 verse nine My eye has wasted away because of affliction I have called upon you every day. Oh lord. I have spread out my hands to you Thank you john, uh, okay, um, I was thinking If you should uh Do one more scripture Okay, uh, okay Because we'll move on because of time. Um, but again, just go back home and And I've I've corrected these scriptures in your notes. I think I hopefully so but If not, I'll correct them and send it over to you guys. Okay, so, uh So this is the second Hebrew word that we just learned was uh, toda the first one is ziada the second is toda Which is thanksgiving for the things not yet received with the same intention to with extended hands Okay, uh, and the third Hebrew word Is halal and let's call it as the celebration of praise Okay, halal again without saying it's the root word Where we get the word hallelujah from okay, uh, so by definition means to shine To boast to make a show To rave to rejoice to be clamorously foolish to celebrate Okay, isn't it it's awesome, isn't it to to shine to boast to make a show for our god to uh to to rejoice to celebrate him to celebrate his goodness and Um and whatnot everything who he is and what he is to us. Okay, so it's mentioned more than more or less 160 times in the bible this word halal Okay, um Few scriptures for us Let them praise Halal, okay means what let them make a show let them celebrate his name. Let them shine his name Okay, let them boast his name Let them celebrate his name with dancing and make music to him with timbers and harp Psalm 22 verse 22 says I will praise God's name in a song Psalm 109 verse 30 says I will declare your name to my people in the assembly. I will praise you Okay, I will declare your name to my people In the assembly. I will praise you. I will boast your name. I will I will make your name shine Okay, um, that's what's used there. Uh, let everything that has breath praise the lord Okay, let everything that has breath halal the lord let everything cry out Everything cry out hallelujah Let everything worship him and celebrate for who he is for he is good and his love and yours forever amen I mean, so that's the third Hebrew word halal And there are some of the key scriptures for us to go back and read In which I encourage you to do so. Okay The next one is a shout of praise. So I'm just going to pause here. Uh, you know, we Pause here. We'll go for our break and we'll come back and resume the session Okay, we have a couple more minutes, but does anybody have any questions? Anybody would like to add anything to what we've just learned any insights that you could take off I don't know whether it is a question or something that I want to add But you mentioned that some words are used 160 times 80 times in the Bible Can I get a reference of everything like what are those 80 things? 160 times where are those words? I just want to know if there is a way for that Um, I mean as much as possible. I've mentioned just a few like those key scriptures there, but uh If you can get your hands on this tool called ease work Uh, I use it a lot for my personal studies. It's called ease work. It's a Free software for windows users and not a free software for apple users You can download it. Uh, and and so you can search for, you know, references like this all the scriptures that has, you know And so you kind of get a list of it. So that's an easy way to Thank you Anybody else guys would like to add You know your insights from just these two words. I know we've just three words that we've learned but anything I kind of stood out to you Okay, I guess not, uh, I would stop the recording now and uh, Please go for your break