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What Does It Mean?


Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. (Psalm 22:3) 
           (Or, "Yet You are holy, enthroned on the praise of Israel") 

            One of my favorite questions: "What does ________ mean?" Today's passage is full of opportunities to ask meaning. First, there is the question of what the Hebrew text means. There are two translations provided in my study Bible. By looking the elements, perhaps the meaning of the whole will become clearer.
            What does "Holy One" mean? What does it mean that God is the Holy One? Does it mean less to say "You are holy"? According to the Oxford Dictionary of English, "holy" means dedicated or consecrated to God. In describing God as holy, it might be better to say that "holy" means dedicated or consecrated as God. Whether dedicating or consecrating "to" or dedicating or consecrating "as," it means setting apart or separating. That thing which is holy is different, special, to be treated with unusual respect. To describe God as "the Holy One" expresses the idea that He is the definite article, the one and only One who is truly holy. While it is true that God is holy, it seems greater praise to express the truth His holiness. He is holy in a way that makes all else profane or common by comparison. 
        To enthrone someone means to establish (or recognize) the authority of that person, effectively to set that person aside as being over everyone else which makes it like being holy. Thrones tend to be set on daises, or platforms, so that they are above those around them. In a sense, to enthrone means to lift up.  It is entirely appropriate for the Holy One to be enthroned and recognized as the Holy One. 
           It is also entirely appropriate for Israel's praise to lift up or enthrone God, which means that He is holy. When you praise, you lift up or hold up (picture raising your hands....) which means you dedicate or consecrate, or declare something to be holy or enthrone something (which separates it from everything else and lifts it up.) These ideas are closely related, perhaps even just different ways of saying the same thing (which is not unusual for Middle Eastern poetry of the time.) All of which is to treat as separate that which is unique.

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