In a recent letter, Byron V. Johnson presents a compelling idea to consider.

He writes:

I am acquainted with the belief that the word hallelujah is the highest praise that we can give God.  I do not share that belief, although I would agree that the word may be described as the premier word for praise, which for me is quite different than speaking of hallelujah as the highest praise.

In your article, “Hallelujah! The Power of the Word,” you wrote of the word hallelujah, “It is the penultimate word in the human language in praise of God.”

From that statement, would I be correct in thinking that you regard the word as not merely one of several Hebrew words for praise, but in contrast to them, it is a praise in itself when uttered?

If you were asked “What is the highest praise we can give God?), how would you answer the question?

I will greatly appreciate your answer.  I am in the initial stages of writing a book on this subject.  Thank you for your assistance.  Be blessed.

Byron V. Johnson
New Wineskin Ministries
Indianapolis, Indiana

I can only say, “Thanks, Byron, for dragging my feet to the fire and demanding some deeper thought here.  In the course of my blog post noted above, I did, in fact say of the word ‘Hallelujah’, “It is the penultimate word in the human language in praise of God.”

I also said earlier in the article, “With its four open vowels, it is a gorgeous utterance to sing and when sung alone or surrounded by itself and repeated over and over it is the epitome word of celebration in human language.”

In retrospect, I tend to go more now with the latter concept.  If ‘singing praise to God’ means ‘to worship God’ which follows the dictionary definition, then definitely I would go with the fact that ‘Hallelujah’ is instead the penultimate word in the human language for celebration.

I don’t sit around in my prayers and meditations mumbling the word ‘Hallelujah’, though sometimes in celebration of a healing or some form of personal triumph of the spirit or life happenstance, I have found myself both whispering or shouting ‘Hallelujah’.

Mr. Johnson asks, “If you were asked ‘What is the highest praise we can give God?’, how would you answer the question?”

It intrigues me to give this a shot.

Again, it’s important here to define the other key word in question, ‘praise’.  Let me say that in this instance I use the word not in its first dictionary definition, which is ‘1. An expression of admiration’, but rather in its second which is ‘2. to worship God’.

My own personal sense of worship involves gratitude for the blessings that I’ve been given, acknowledgement of the good in my life, acknowledgement of the truths that I try to follow in my life.  Though I admire God, I’m not sure He or It needs my applause.  At the moment, in fact, I’m not sure that God needs anything from me except for me to reflect Him and perhaps to love Him… or It.

This I surely do.  To love God, for me, is not to love a Being, but rather to love being, to love life, to love truth, to love principle, to love His people, to love Spirit and Soul, to love His music, to love His goodness.

To love to love.

So what is the highest praise or worship I can give God?  I think that it’s the love for his being as demonstrated around me and through me in all of my life – in the things that I see, in the people that I meet, in the thoughts that I consider moment to moment when I am thinking rightly.  I love being alive.  It’s an amazing thing, this thing called life.  Sometimes it’s very tough, but in the end result and at the center of it all, I love being me and I love being alive.

Maybe He, himself, did say it the best in one of his books.  He said, “I am that I am”. I know that I am because God is.  Well I love that I am.  Maybe that’s it.  Maybe that’s the answer to your question, Mr. Johnson.

You ask, “What is the highest praise or worship I can give God?”  My answer in this moment is that I love that I am.

Now that pulls up from the center of my soul a robust exclamation of “Hallelujah!”

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