Hi, 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 ‘Shachah’. ‘Shachah’ means to prostrate in reverence or loyalty to God, to bow oneself down.
Out of the seven different Hebrew words for ‘praise’ that we will be discussing, ‘Shachah’ is the second most found word in the Old Testament. It’s used 175 times in various contexts. It was a very common way to express reverence in those days, seemingly far more than we see in our society today. What I’d like to dive into regarding ‘Shachah’ are the root letters that make up this word. Now, Hebrew is very different from the typical languages that we use today. Each Hebrew letter originated in picture form, so each word in Hebrew is overflowing with symbolism and concealed meaning. The word ‘Shachah’ is made up of three different root letters and they are ‘Shin’, ‘Chet’ and ‘Hey.’
The first letter, ‘Shin’, is such a powerful letter. In fact, that’s commonly what it’s meaning points to is: power. It’s the first letter of ‘Shaddai’, one of the names of God, meaning ‘Almighty.’ It’s also the letter inserted into ‘Yod Hey Vav Hey’, which therefore eventually led to the name ‘Yeshua ‘ or ‘Jesus.’ The second letter of ‘Shachah’ is ‘Chet ‘and it’s commonly associated meaning is ‘life’. The last letter of ‘Shachah’ is ‘Hey’ and it can mean ‘divine breath’. So if you put the meanings of the three letters together, ‘Shachah’ means: ‘Power, Life and Divine Breath.’ I don’t know about you, but when I think of these three things and how they relate to the Lord, it sure makes me want to prostrate myself in reverence and loyalty to God.
Let’s look at some verses that use this word. Psalm 99:9 says, “Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill; For the LORD our God is holy.” Isaiah 66:23 says, “‘All flesh shall come to worship before me,’ says the LORD.” Wow, that’s a powerful verse! “‘All flesh shall come to lie down in reverence before me,’ says the LORD.” That certainly happens when we get a clear picture of His power and life and divine breath within us.
Let’s pray. Lord, I bless You for Your power, Your life and Your divine breath that is actively moving within us. I thank You that You are helping our minds to be set on things that are above where You are seated. And in typical fashion, we can’t help but respond by lowering ourselves in reverence and loyalty to You. We bless you today, Lord. Amen.