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1 Hallelujah! [Praise Yah!]
Praise Yahweh, O my soul! *
[2] I will praise Yahweh as long as I live;
I will sing praises lelohay while I have my being.
2 [3] Put not your trust in rulers, nor in any child of earth, *
for there is no help in them.
3 [4] When they breathe their last, they return to earth, *
and in that day their thoughts perish.
4 [5] Happy are they who have se-el of Jacob for their help! *
whose hope is in Yahweh elohaw;
5 [6] Who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; *
who keeps his promise for ever;
6 [7] Who gives justice to those who are oppressed, *
and food to those who hunger.
7 [8] Yahweh sets the prisoners free;
Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind; *
Yahweh lifts up those who are bowed down;
8 [9] Yahweh loves the righteous;
Yahweh cares for the stranger; *
he sustains the orphan and widow,
but frustrates the way of the wicked.
9 [10] Yahweh shall reign forever, *
elohayik, O Zion, throughout all generations.
Hallelujah! [Praise Yah!]
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This is the accompanying song of praise that will follow the Track 1 Old Testament reading from Ruth. It will be read aloud in unison or sung by a cantor on the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 26], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. The Ruth reading will include this: “Naomi said, "Turn back, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband.” The Track 1 pair will precede a reading from Hebrews, where Paul wrote, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ.” All will accompany a reading from Mark, where it is written: “[A scribe] asked [Jesus], “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
I wrote of this Psalm and posted those views this past August, during the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 18], so those interpretations are still valid. Here is the link to that interpretation: Psalm 146. At that time is was on the Track 2 path for a church. Here, it is on the Track 1 schedule; so, this ensures this song of praise will be read during the Year B Ordinary after Pentecost season, one time or the other. Because what I wrote then is still applicable, I will only add now how this song fits the Old Testament selection for Ruth, and show how it also fits the Hebrews and Mark readings.
On the fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 18], Psalm 146 accompanied a reading from Isaiah 35, which is a song that sings, “Be strong. Do not fear.” As such, that theme of standing tall in difficult times can be seen as reflected in the theme of Ruth. Naomi had suffered greatly by the losses of her husband and two sons, meaning she was left as a poor widow woman, who had no one in the material world who was responsible for her care and providing for her needs. Both Isaiah and Ruth are stories of difficult times being faced, which happens to all of mankind, from time to time.
While the NRSV does not make it clear that Naomi spoke the name “Yahweh,” she did. When we read, “she had heard in the country of Moab that Yahweh had considered his people and given them food,” that speaks of her commitment to Yahweh in this time of need. When we read of Naomi telling her daughters-in-law, “May Yahweh deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. Yahweh grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband,” that speaks of her blessing passed from her love of Yahweh to her surviving family, which were then free to find their own humans to provide them security. Those hidden uses of “Yahweh” say Naomi “praised Yah,” the meaning of the Hebrew word “Hallelujah.”
In this song of praise there are found these words written: “lelohay, elohaw, and elohayik,” in addition to “se-el.” All of these uses by David have been transformed into “to my God, their God, your God, and the God,” none of which are truthful translations. The first three listed by me are forms of the plural word “gods,” clearly not in the singular; and, none bears the importance of capitalization, because each reference is to a soul in a human body of flesh, none of who equate to Yahweh Himself – God. The plural is a statement of Yahweh’s ability to marry souls in the flesh and transform them into His gods on earth, which can be understood as Saints. When one then reads “se-el,” this should be seen as one soul [that of Jacob], which worshipped self, before being transformed and renamed – as Israel – a name meaning an el Who Retained Yahweh. All of this must be seen now as being applicable to the state of being within Naomi, as she was a Yahweh elohim; and, it was that marriage of her soul to Yahweh that spilled outward from her, which adhered to the seeker who was Ruth. Just as Isaiah sang to keep the faith, Ruth found the inner joy of her soul having also married Yahweh, so she too became an elohim” like Naomi.
This means every verse of David’s song praising Yahweh can be applied to the story of Ruth. Naomi was suffering physically, due to the famine and the deaths of those close to her, but as long as her soul kept her body alive, that life was time to praise Yahweh, not wallow in self-pity.
The husband and two sons of Naomi can be seen as “princes,” with their names telling a story within a story, which is all metaphor for the religions and subdivision of Christianity. All have died, but her trust was not in organizations. She praised Yahweh only, within her soul.
The deaths from famine led many souls to depart from their flesh. Naomi knew the deaths personally. The return of spirits speaks of reincarnation, which means nothing has been lost. Yahweh’s plan is never affected by such changing states in the material realm. Death is a part of nature.
The blessing of the soul of Jacob [“se-el Yaaqob”], so he became an elohim of Yahweh [“Yah-weh elohaw”] was the same state of marriage Naomi’s soul had experienced. It is the state of being that leads a soul to praise Yahweh. It is how all should be. Thus, it was how Ruth became.
These transformations are then seen in the same light as the Creation. David sang praise not for the air, earth and sea, with all creatures within, but he sang praise for the souls [the “heaven” within] that brings life to a world of matter. In the same way, Yahweh has the power to create a soul in a body of flesh [a “se-el”] into a Yahweh elohim, which is a higher “heaven” within one’s being. When Ruth ends with a song of Ruth, so “When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her,” that sings of Ruth being created anew.
In the times of famine, as Naomi and Ruth experienced, David sang of the spiritual food that takes away the hungers that come from reliance on the material for survival. The conditions of the world, such as drought, becomes the limits that imprison all bodies of flesh, forcing them to accept those conditions, move somewhere else or die. It is spiritual food from Yahweh that Naomi fed from, which was then shared with Ruth. David sang praises for this freedom given by Yahweh.
David then sang about the love of Yahweh for His servants [wives]. Their eyes are opened to the truth of life eternal. Naomi’s eyes could see this, although it is not possible for physically suffering humans to see. This inner sight leads a soul to bow down before Yahweh, which means kneeling at the marriage altar, so one’s soul can be united with Yahweh. Naomi said she was too old to attract a human husband and too old to bear sons, which was the main attraction females had in marriage. Naomi was able to see her eternal youth, as a soul, which Yahweh saw as worthy of divine marriage. Ruth can then be seen as the child of her souls’ righteous state of being, brought upon her by Yahweh.
David sang in verse nine of what would be the story told in Ruth. His words singing, “Yahweh watches over the strangers , the fatherless and widow he relieves , but the way of the wicked he turns upside down,” this sings of Naomi and Ruth, whereas Orpah [whose name means “neck”] symbolizes those with stiff necks, or stubborn self-absorbed people, will turn away from Yahweh and find misery.
As an accompanying Psalm to be sung happily on the twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should already be well underway, the lesson is again to look within during times of trouble and find faith through praise of Yahweh. This says one’s soul should already be married to Yahweh, so faith is that inner spiritual food that sustains one through hard times. This song of praise should be seen as fully supporting the Gospel reading, where Jesus answered the scribe by saying the foremost law is to love Yahweh totally and unconditionally. From that connection of love, all else follows in kind. To be a minister of Yahweh means to sing praises to Yahweh, so others will likewise feel the Spirit that is within you and cling to that Spirit, until it is theirs as well. Ministry is about passing on the Spirit so others can be saved; and, the world is always in times of famine, so a true minister will share his or her spiritual food so others can find eternal life.
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