Come let us sing to (one of the) God(s)

So Friday night I figured I would try and get back some of that good old time rock & roll spirituality, and so I started davening Kabalat Shabbat with the greatest kavanah I could muster. Of course its hard to control your kavanah, so this is what happened:

Hebrew: Lechu Nerananah laHashem, noriah letzur yisheynu
Translation: Come! Let us sing to Hashem, let us call out to the Rock of our salvation.
My kavanah: Well okay! So far so good, I’m feeling a bit uplifted. Salvation is good, the ‘rock’ thing is a bit antiquated, but nu, I can live with that.

Hebrew: Nekadmah fanav besodah, bizmiros nariah lo.
Translation: Let us greet him with thanksgiving, with praiseful songs let us call out to him.
My kavanah: Okay, that’s not bad. Let’s carry on.

Hebrew: Ki El godol Hashem
Translation: For a great God is Hashem
Kavanah: Hmm, that word ‘El’. I seem to recall some heretical things about that one. Oh well, try not to think about that, keep up with the kavanah, let’s go!

Hebrew: umelech godol al kol Elohim.
Translation: And a great King over all the other gods
My Kavanah: Whoa! Hold on a second! Over all the other gods? Oh no, is this monolatry? What the heck? Quick, what does Artscroll say: Elohim: Heavenly Powers. Yeah, that figures, typical Artscroll.

And it was down hill from there. Oh well. Join me next week as I try this with 'Sholom Aleychem'.