Amazing Praising

Read Psalm 145:1-21

            If you know me, you know I love old hymns – the older the better, actually. The ones I love best are from the seventeenth century or so. And I’m not overly fond of many new choruses, especially ones with what  I consider silly rhymes.

            However, there’s a song going through my head lately that defies all that. It’s exactly what I would say I dislike – rhyme scheme and all. But the first line speaks to me. “It’s amazing what praising can do!” I can forget the rest of the song – no offense to the artists who have recorded it or the listeners who love it. I just want to concentrate on the truth of that line.

            God calls on His people to praise Him. Is this a sign of an egotist who commands all His subjects to show how important He is? Or is it something more?

            What does it mean to praise God? We often use the term loosely, but it has a limited definition. To praise God means to lift up His attributes, those qualities about Him that are separate from us and distinct from what He does. For instance, God is love. He is the essence of what love is. This has nothing to do with who God loves, or how He shows His love. We praise God for being loving without thought to any conditions of what that love does.

            So what happens when we praise God? It takes the focus off us – we are no longer the center, our problems are subordinate to the God we honor. Think what this does to our mindset. I am less likely to be overwhelmed by whatever is going on around me or even within me. I am not as apt to be depressed. I am not consumed with how I feel. Praise lifts us up, even as we are exalting God. (See Psalm 43:4-5.)

            Praise, along with its close ally, thanksgiving, also keeps us from falling into the cycle of sin. Romans 1 tells us that although God made the world so that people would know Him, many do not praise or thank their Creator, and so become fools, and go down from there to eventually becoming “filled with of every kind of wickedness” (Romans 1:29). The simple act of praise lets us avoid that.

            One final function of praise that I want to mention (there are many more!) concerns how God associates His presence with His glorification. Moses, angry that the people made a golden calf, destroys the tablets containing the Ten Commandments that God gave him. He has a conversation with God about whether God will continue to go with His people. God assures him He will. Moses then asks to see God’s glory. What God allows Moses to see is His back, during which time He proclaims His character, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness . . .” (Exodus 34:6). Moses bows to the ground and worships God. When God’s people want to see God, they experience God’s character. Praise brings us into God’s presence – and more dramatically – God into ours. We experience God when we praise Him. It’s a special grace of God that He allows His children to draw nearer to our Lord as we give Him praise.

            We cannot know what our praise does for God. After all, He is completely Self-Sufficient. He does not need anything. But we can see something of what giving Him praise does for us.

            There are great hymns that I love to use in my adoration. “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” (Henry F. Lyte, 1793-1847), “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” (Joachim Neander, 1650-1680), and “Praise Him! Praise Him!” (Fanny Crosby, 1820-1915) are a few of them. They are not songs about praise but contain actual words which exalt God.

            But that one chorus reminds me of what praise has to offer. And that’s just amazing!