7 Hebrew Words - Zamar (Part 4 of 7)

Welcome to the fourth entry in a series about the 7 Hebrew words for praise. The words of praise we have already considered in the previous entries are: Todah, Barauch, and Yadah. With Todah we remember to give thanks to God and we encounter one of the highest forms of worship in the Hebrew tradition. In Barauch and Yadah we learn to praise God with our whole bodies, humbling ourselves before Jesus our king and lifting our hands to worship Him. This next Hebrew word is one we may have never considered as a form of worship; however, in it we see a beautiful method of prayer that incorporates our gifts and the gifts of others.
Previously when describing Yadah, I mentioned that you might find this form of prayer expressed during Praise and Worship, but where would Praise and Worship be without Zamar (Singing Accompanied by Instruments). Zamar is all about music, more specifically using your voice and other instruments to offer praise to God through song, as it says in the book of Psalms, “Give thanks to the LORD on the harp; on the ten-stringed lyre offer praise. Sing to him a new song; skillfully play with joyful chant” (Psalm 33:2-3). This is personally one of my favorite forms of praise since I am a musician, and many of my encounters with God come about through music.
 
 
MUSIC CAN BE AN INSTRUMENT OF GOD IN OUR LIVES
 
 
Zamar can be a very powerful form of prayer for some people, because many are influenced by music. We see this to be true most evidently in the lives of our youth. Generally, young people dress, act and live according to the music they listen to, and when that music appeals to a life of partying, promiscuity, and illicit behavior, they in turn believe this is acceptable. We need to be careful about what we allow to influence our lives. Music is gift, so we should not abuse it. It is truly one of the most versatile forms of prayer because everyone experiences it in a different way. Some people listen to music to relax, others use it to help them focus, some pray with the words, and still others simply listen because it brings them joy. It doesn’t matter if a person is a musician or not, music has a way of making us experience feelings and emotions that we may not have experienced without it, and that in itself can be very spiritual. Zamar is about taking that gift of music and using it to praise God.
As I said before, I am a musician, and I have been blessed with the ability to lead others into worship through music. What I’ve found is that, in many ways, God uses music as a vessel of healing and love for His children. After times of worship, I have had many people come up to me and the musicians I’m with and share how they were able to experience God through the music we played. Sometimes it’s because they can relate to the lyrics of the songs, and sometimes just the music itself helped them enter into a deeper time of prayer or encounter with God. In any case, music can be an instrument of God in our lives and a beautiful way for us to praise Him.
 
 
WITH ZAMAR WE CAN JOIN IN THE GREAT SONG OF HEAVEN
 
 
If we take a look at the Scriptures, we see that one of the largest and most central books in the Bible is devoted to songs of praise to God, and I don’t think that is unintentional. The word ‘psalm’ actually means ‘sacred song’. There are 150 different songs contained in the book of Psalms and most of these were written specifically for liturgical worship. This is one of the many reasons we incorporate the Psalms into the Mass as we see in the Responsorial Psalm. The Psalms were also an integral part of Hebrew prayer and worship. The Todah Sacrifice, which we heard about in the beginning of this series, is one of the many occasions the Psalms were used. Just as we join in the Responsorial Psalm at Mass, the Jewish people would sing the Psalms as part of their worship.
We also know from Scripture that the angels and saints are constantly singing praise to God in heaven...“One [seraphim] cried out to the other: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!’” (Isaiah 6:3)…“And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests’” (Luke 2:13). These two passages may sound familiar, because they are the inspiration for the Gloria and the Sanctus (Holy Holy Holy), which we sing at Mass. And there is also a book in Scripture called the Song of Songs (or Song of Solomon) which speaks of the love between a bridegroom and his bride, and signifies the relationship between Jesus and His Church.
We are all called to be saints. In the Mass we are able to take part in the marriage of Heaven and Earth, to see a glimpse of our eternal worship. With Zamar we are able to join in the great song of Heaven, with the angels and saints who “day and night…do not stop exclaiming: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come’” (Revelation 4:8). We should make it our goal to enter into this song at every opportunity and ultimately try to make our very lives a song of praise to God.