Psalms 150:6: “Let everything that has a soul praise God – Hallelujah.”
The Talmud teaches that the word soul (neshama) and breath (neshima) are related. The soul fills the entire body, and when a person sleeps, it rises to draw down life from above. Over each and every breath that a person takes, he should praise God. For the breath leaves him from below to above, and returns to him from above to below. God renews one’s breath every minute, not just during sleep.” Bereishis 14:9
I Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus toward you.”
The word for pray here is proseuchomai in the Greek. It is used 87 times in the New Testament for prayer and yet we don’t get too much insight into what this prayer is. There are many types of prayer to be found in the Hebrew and Aramaic. There is Harim which is to extol, you have berek which means to bless, gil which is often rendered as rejoice, hagah which is to meditate, histahawah which means to adore or to lay prostrate, ’anah which is to sigh or express deep feelings and of course there is Halah which is to praise. There is one other word palal in the Hebrew which is often translated as prayer but means to offer supplication to God or a humble praise to God. The Septuagint uses the Greek word proseunchomai for palal.
Thus when Paul said we should pray without ceasing he was saying we should offer a humble praise to God without ceasing. Now Paul didn’t throw this verse in here to just take up space or to sound pious and make people buy his books. This was a command from God, this is His Word. How is it that we can praise God without ceasing even when we are asleep? Is it really possible to praise God every moment of the day? I mean we have to stop to take a breath once in a while, don’t we? Ah, therein lies the secret.
Perhaps the Talmud was on to something here. In Exodus 4:10 we learn that Moses confessed to a speech problem. In the Hebrew he was saying that he was thick of tongue. The Talmud teaches that this problem with his tongue made it impossible to correctly speak the name of God, for all the names of God required the use of the tongue. So God gave him a name which did not require the use of the tongue but only his breath, YHWH (Yahwha). You speak this name with your Neshima (breath) or neshama (soul).
Perhaps that is what Paul was speaking of. With every breath you take and release you speak the name of God. Even in your sleep you speak the name of God. Now let’s say I am looking up a name in an address book, say the name Paul. As I go through the book I am muttering the name; “Paul, Paul, Paul……” Next to me happens to be a person named Paul. Paul looks at me and ask: “Yes?’ I respond, no not you, I was just muttering.” So too with every breath we take we are saying “Yah-wah, Yah-wah” God says: “Yes?” and we respond “No, I was just muttering, just pondering my problem, just fretting over that bill, that relationship that whatever.” Or “No, I was just watching that movie, looking at that picture…”
This is why David grabbed his soul (neshama) and commanded it to bless the Lord. “Soul when call out to God you bless him.” When you go to sleep at night, try this, command you soul to bless or praise the Lord. Then every breath you take at night will be a praise to God. You may find yourself waking up praising God.
I read an interesting take on Genesis 39:3 in the Talmud. Genesis 39:3 tells us, “And his master saw that the LORD [was] with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand.” The words the Lord was with him is ki YHWH ito. The Talmud teaches that this should really be rendered; the Lord was continually on Joseph’s lips. In other words Potiphar noticed that everything Joseph did or said he did as unto God. That is why Potiphar blessed Joseph, that is why the jailer blessed Joseph and that is why the Pharaoh blessed Joseph. There was just something trustworthy about a man who did and said everything for the sake of his God. He clearly had no personal agenda; he lived only to praise His God. Joseph prayed without ceasing. The Jews understand this, they will wear a kippah, yarmulke or skull cap to serve as a constant reminder that they are always in the presence of God and whatever they do they do as unto God. As many Israelis went off to war this summer they wore a kippah under their helmets to remind themselves that even in war they were in the presence of God and they were fighting the war as unto God.
I am not Jewish so I do not wear a kippah out of respect for my Jewish friends as the kippah is something that identifies them as Jewish, but I do wear a baseball cap all day long as a constant reminder that I am always in the presence of God and that whatever I do, even driving a bus, pushing a wheel chair onto the lift, enduring the stench of someone who is unable to control his bowels, listening to the mindless ranting of someone with dementia all, as I am reminded, is done in the presence of God and I do as unto God. As Mother Theresa said when asked how she could endure working among the poorest of the poor she replied, “Every face I see, I see the Jesus that I love.”
That is what Paul meant when he said, “Pray without ceasing.” The name of God is continually on your lips with every breath you take, just remind yourself of that and you are praying without ceasing.
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