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Choose to Praise

Some words have such a breadth of meaning that they are hard to pin down with great precision.  Several Hebrew words are translated by the English word “praise,” but they carry a wide range of connotations.  Here are a few of the concepts included under the “praise” umbrella: give thanks, confess, laud, boast, commend, and shine.  This is not a comprehensive list, but it is enough to shape our understanding of what it means to praise God.

Throughout the Bible, we find many people choosing to praise God.  We’ll explore a few of these to see what we can learn regarding motives for and features of praise.

In Genesis 29 we read of Leah saying after Judah, her last son was born, “Now I will praise the Lord.”  Leah regarded the birth of her children as gifts from God and praised Him for them.  Clearly we should praise God for the gift of relationships with which He enriches our lives.

In his song, recorded in Exodus 15, Moses sang, “The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”  He then goes on to recount various aspects of how God granted Israel victory over its enemies.  Here is another motivation for us.  We can praise God for the victories He gives us over everyone and everything that might oppress and enslave us.

At the end of Psalm 7, David sang, “I will praise the LORD according to His righteousness, And will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.”  This could slip by us if we read it quickly and casually, but we can make David’s motivation our own as we choose to praise God “according to His righteousness,” that is, in consideration of His divine characteristics - and of course there are many.  This is especially important when, as we look at our circumstances we find little or nothing with would cause us to honour God with our speech.  Even when we are in dire straights, God is still glorious and worthy of praise.

In Psalm 9, David makes a point of mentioning how he would praise God: “I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.”  David chose to praise God without reserve.  In fact, he was sometimes criticized for the enthusiasm with which he expressed his love and devotion for God.  It was Alexander Pope, the 18th century English man of letters, who coined the expression to “damn with faint praise.”  Perhaps onlookers could get the idea that we don’t have a very high regard for God when they see us praising Him half-heartedly and distractedly.

In Psalm 22, we read, “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.”  This reminds us that there is a public aspect of praise.  While it is good to praise God individually, we should remember the added dimension that comes with doing so publicly.  God is present in a special way when His people praise Him together.

Several psalms, among them 28, 43, 47, 95, 149, 150, remind us of the physicality of praise.  They speak of singing accompanied with instruments, clapping, raising the hands, dancing, kneeling and bowing down as appropriate for the people of God in the expression of their high regard for the God who grants them life, both physical and spiritual.  This is something many of us are a little, or more than a little, uncomfortable in practicing.  Some of us are cautiously experimenting with some these things and finding them not as “weird” as we thought they would be.

In the New Testament, we find similar motivations, but less detail about practice.  I’m only going to highlight one verse Hebrews 13:15 which says, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”  He we find a clear admonition to us as believers.  Our praise is to be verbal, sacrificial, and continual.  These three aspects present challenges to all of us.

The greatest challenge of all is to choose to praise in the first place.  So many are focussed on their personal circumstances, often seen in a negative light, that they never really make the jump from going through the motions of praise to actually doing so with a full heart.  If we are going to please God, we must choose to praise Him.