praise the Lord

Meanings

1. A phrase used to thank God by Christians.
2. Expression of thankful happiness; not always literally religious when used by cultural Christians, but not explicitly differentiable, thus ambiguous.
3. Stereotypical exclamation used in mockery of Christianity.

Etymology

A present subjunctive clause inherited intact from a time when English was freely productive of them. It is semantically equivalent to praise be to God. The zero morph difference from the imperative form allows parsing as a command synchronically.