What Is a Benediction?
A prayer is addressed to God about people. A benediction is addressed to people about God. Numbers 6:24-26, and why the last…
The Journal
Tag: Worship Words
The words we sing without translating them — Selah, Hallelujah, Amen, Hosanna — and the forms, like the doxology and the benediction, that carry them.
What Is a Doxology?
A word of glory: to God, be glory, forever, amen. Where the New Testament breaks into one, and why the form is…
What Does “Hosanna” Mean? A Cheer That Began as a Cry
Hosanna is “save now”, taken from Psalm 118 and shouted at the triumphal entry. How a plea for rescue turned into a…
What Does “Amen” Mean?
Not “the prayer is over”. It means firm, reliable — it belongs to the people listening, Jesus put it at the front,…
What Does “Hallelujah” Actually Mean?
Halelu-Yah has God’s name inside it, and it is a plural command rather than a mood. Where it appears, and the hymn…
What Does “Selah” Mean in the Psalms?
It appears 71 times and no one is certain what it means. The two readings, where it falls in Psalm 46, and…