HEBREW WORD STUDY – A SONG OF LOVE – RANAN – רנן Resh Nun Nun
(This Word Study is excerpted from Chaim Bentorah’s book: Swimming In His Presence: A Hebrew Teacher Reflects on Worship & Praise)
Psalms 118:13-14: “Thou pushed me hard and I nearly fell, But the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song and He has become my salvation.”
There is another way to render verse 14 and that is as: “The Lord is my strength and He is singing to me because He is my salvation.
Everything in nature has a certain rhythm. I remember hearing an interview with Andre Crouch and he told how some woman came up to him and said she did not like his music because of the beat or rhythm he used. He said: “Oh, you mean a rhythm like this?” He began to play a certain rhythm on the piano and the woman said: “Yes, that’s it, that rhythm and beat, that’s of the devil.” Andre Crouch answered and said; “That’s strange because that is the rhythm of your heartbeat.” God vibrates, we vibrate and music is a vibration, a vibration that is pleasurable. When our vibrations match the vibrations of God we are filled with His presence. That is why worship is often expressed in music.
In the context of Psalms 118, David is being tempted by the enemy to kill Nabal and Saul and he almost did, but the Lord helped him. The Lord delivered him giving him strength and a song. The word song in Hebrew that is used here is zamar. This word is also used to describe pruning or cutting. The sages teach that God sang a song to David to cut away his yetzer hara (evil inclinations). The word good in Hebrew is tov which means to be in harmony with God. As God sang to David and David sang to God, in harmony, the enemy could no longer overcome David with temptation, because God and David were resonating together.
God is not just sitting up there in heaven with his arms crossed, legs folded listening to us sing our praises to Him when we worship. I mean, really, are we singing to God to entertain Him, or is He that needy or insecure that he needs our constant reminder as to how great He is? God did not give me a voice to be entertaining, I mean dogs will howl when I sing. If I stand there in worship and keep repeating the name Jesus, Jesus over and over is that going to impress God? If I keep telling Him over and over how wonderful He is it is going to get monotonous. Just what is going on when we worship God?
Well, the word worship is shachah in Hebrew and comes from the Semitic root for swimming or immersing yourself in water. In other words, to really worship God you don’t have to say much, just express your love to Him and open yourself up to His presence and let His presence surround you, and immerse yourself in His love.
In Zephaniah 3:17 there is no mistaking the syntax here. He will rejoice over us with “singing.” He will sing over us. The word for song here is ranan which is a song of praise. There are many different songs, songs of praise, songs of devotional, songs of correction, and songs of pruning. Ever find yourself suddenly just singing some song of praise or worship? Maybe God is singing to you a love song and it is just your spirit responding to His song. Perhaps you are like David about to yield to temptation and rather than God slapping you across the wrist and saying: “Don’t you do that either.” He is sending you a love song and wooing you away from that temptation. Suddenly, your spirit starts to return to that song singing back to Him and resonating with Him. Together you defeat the enemy with a love song.
When you worship God, do you hear Him singing to you? Do you hear Him singing a love song, is your heart returning that song? Do you hear him singing: “I want to hold you in my arms and never let you go?” Sometimes we fill our worship with so much singing and repeating words that we never get to hear Him sing to us.
You don’t hear Him singing to you? He gave you an imagination, let your imagination flow, imagine Him singing a love song to you. Perhaps, your spirit will enter your imagination and allow you to hear God’s love song to you.
(This Word Study is excerpted from Chaim Bentorah’s book: Swimming In His Presence: A Hebrew Teacher Reflects on Worship & Praise
Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
This is a blessing,now I get zep3:17.i only glossed over it without understanding.
Thank you brother for sharing.
Shalom.
Thank you for sharing and good luck with your new book :)