I’m Brice Tabor, author of the book, “Behold: Experience A Lifestyle Of Intimacy With Your Creator,” and I’d like to welcome you to God Today. We’re focusing on seven different Hebrew words for praise and today, our focus word is ‘Barak’. ‘Barak’ means to bless, to kneel, or bow down in worship. This word is the most used word of all the words for praise in the Old Testament. Even more than ‘Halal’, the word we get Hallelujah from!
What’s even more crazy, is God uses this word towards us. Not in the sense that He worships us or fears us as a power to be revered. We’re nothing apart from Him, but this word appears in the Old Testament, as God blessing people, nearly the same amount as people blessing God. When God ‘Baraks’ someone, the implication is that He stoops down in order to elevate and make someone else great. Doesn’t that sound like Jesus? But you know what? God didn’t start being humble when He took on flesh and came to earth. He has always been humble. He displayed His humility right from the beginning in Genesis 1:28, which says, “Then God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
God celebrated and adored mankind that day, giving honor and ownership of His creation to mankind. in that verse is the word ‘Barak’ when He blessed us. So He blesses us in the ‘Barak’ kind of way, the way that lowers oneself in order to exalt another. It’s so amazing that God blesses us in this way, for Him who is so highly exalted, far above every name and power and heaven and earth. It’s a tremendous act of humility anytime He blesses someone. So it’s only fitting for us to ‘Barak’ and make ourselves low in worship and adoration before Him.
Alright, let’s pray. I thank you, Lord, that we are becoming more aware of the living nature of the word ‘Barak.’ You are revealing it to us as more than just a word and a language we’re unfamiliar with, but rather an active word that penetrates our being and causes us to live in it. So we thank You, Holy Spirit for causing us to fall more into the reality of ‘Barak’, and for it to become our lifestyle in worship to you every moment of every day, Amen.