Praising God

Halleluh, halleluh, halleluh, hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord...
I have known this song for pretty much as long as I can remember. I've sung it at the top of my voice, I've sung it sitting down and standing up. But never once did I actually stop and consider what it means.

What does it mean to praise God? Is it just saying, "Praise God!" or "I praise you Lord for doing such-and-such"? Or is there more to praising God than that?

I was fine and content praying to God in my monotonous way, "I praise you for such-and-such," without really thinking whether I was actually praising God or not. That is, I was content until I came across Psalm 150:1 one day and wondered what it actually means to praise God. So decided to look up the meaning for the word praise. The definition I found was kind of surprising.

The Hebrew word for praise (halal) means: to be clear (orig. of sound but also of color); to shine; hence to make a show, to boast; and thus to be (clamorously) foolish; to rave; to celebrate. Hmm... that's interesting. It sounds like what people are doing to movie stars. So praising God is boasting about Him, and raving about Him! God reminded me that I do that with physical things - food, people, books, movies, clothes - when I really like them. I know how to praise, and my God just wants me to rave and talk about how great He is; after all, He does deserve it!