“Whenever we have to praise God, what do we do?
We simply say what He is! ‘You are this and You are that.’ … If you want to
praise the Lord Jesus Christ, tell the people about Him.”
([1]
Conor told me about a difficult year that He passed
through. He said that two things
sustained Him. Seeking to serve others
and singing praises to God. Conor is
very musical, and so praising God might come more easily to him than some of
the rest of us. But whether your voice seems more suited to an opera or a
shower, singing is good for you.
Research shows that singing reduces stress, improves
mood and mental health, develops a sense of belonging and connection, and even
helps reduce people’s snoring.[2] We can witness some of this all around
us. Go to a big football match and tell
them not to sing. The supporters would
find that very difficult. It is a part
of what bonds their together and it expresses their passion. Praise is something that we are designed to
enjoy. It’s good to sing praises to God,
it is pleasant and fitting (Ps.147:1).
The psalmists regularly command us to sing. We are to be creative in our singing as we
sing a new song to the Lord (Ps. 96:1).
When Christians gather we not only sing to God, we sing to each other
(Eph. 5:19). It is a part of how we
teach is each the truth, share our joy and build our sense of community.
I am struck by how often psalms that start out with
expressions of sorrow end up with cries of confidence (e.g. Ps. 13). It seems that as the psalmists sing and pray
to God, their confidence in God’s goodness grows. Of course, we can’t be simplistic here. Psalm 88 is a song, and yet at the end of
this song the psalmist still feels a great weight of darkness.
Of course, singing is not the only way to praise
God. We can speak our praises. Praise is to be a part of our prayer
lives. In fact, I think that it is the Cinderella
of prayer. It’s the part that tends to
be neglected. We are quick to ask God
for things, slower to thank Him and even slower to praise Him. That being said there is praise in asking Him
for things for our dependence upon Him recognises His generosity and ability.
Command
yourself to praise God
Psalm 103 is one of my favourites, and I am going to
focus on it in this chapter. It helped
me a lot at a very difficult time in my life.
It begins with a command to ‘bless’ the Lord (ESV). To bless God is to praise Him. It is to speak and sing of His greatness and
goodness.
David commands his soul to praise God. His praise is not to be just a response to
His feelings. It’s an act of the
will. In the psalms praise and joy are
often tied together. There will be times
when joy leads us to praising God. James
says that if anyone if happy they should sing (Jam. 5:13). But there are no doubt times when praising
God leads to joy. The act of praising
God lifts our mood.
Forgetfulness
is the great enemy of praise
As well as commanding his soul to bless the Lord David
tells his soul says not to forget all God’s benefits. Don’t forget the things that God has done for
you. Forgetfulness is the great enemy of
both thanksgiving and praise.
Praising God requires effort. We need to engage our minds. Indeed, it is part of the renewal of our
minds (Rom. 12:1-2). We need to not just
recall what He has done for us, but think about who His is. David points out that God forgives, heals,
redeems and crowns us in steadfast love and mercy. He satisfies us with good things and renews
our youth. Not only is He good to us, He
works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.
Praise
and thanksgiving
The Norwegian writer, Ole Hallesby, points out that it
is not always possible to draw a clear demarcation between praise and
thanksgiving, because both consist in giving glory to God. However, he says that praise lies on a higher
plane than thanksgiving, because while I am thanking God for things my thoughts
still circle around myself to some extent, whereas in praise we move towards a
self-forgetful adoration of God.[3]
Think of what you say when you observe a beautiful
view. Your thoughts are drawn away from
yourself. You don’t look at the Victoria
Falls and think, ‘I am wonderful’. You
think ‘this is wonderful’, or better still ‘God is wonderful!’ We feel a joy that is not about us. That is good for us.[4] In a society where we anxiously focus our
thoughts on ourselves it is healthy to gaze upon the God who is loving and
powerful, beautiful and satisfying. It
is also thrilling to realise that such a great God has His loving eyes watching
over us.
I think we can turn thanksgiving to praise. We thank God that He has forgiven us, and
then we praise Him that His forgiveness stems from the fact that He is
compassionate and gracious. David lists
some of the things that God does for us, and then praises the character of God.
He declares that the Lord is ‘merciful
and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’ (Ps. 103:8). This declaration of God’s mercy, grace,
slowness to anger and abounding love occurs numerous times in the Old Testament
(e.g. Exod. 34:6, Num. 14:18, Ps. 86:15). These are characteristics that are at the core of who He is.
It
is natural to praise what we love
When C. S. Lewis he began to think seriously about
Christianity he found the demand to praise God off-putting.[5] Why would God need people
to praise Him? Afterall, the Psalms tell
us that God needs nothing from us (Ps. 50:12).
Then he realised that praise is the most natural thing
for someone to do. The world is full of
people praising their favourite team or delighting in those they love. In fact, the love between people remains
somewhat incomplete until they get to express their praise of each other.
It’s morally right to praise God because He is the
supremely beautiful and all-satisfying object.
It would be wrong to deny His beauty by our silence. He also calls us to praise Him in His
love. There is a sense in which we encounter
God in praising Him, individually and together.
He wants us to praise Him so that we might experience joy in Him.
When I experience something wonderful, one of my first
desires is to have my wife, Caroline, experience it too. If I go to a nice café, I want to come back
with her. If I see a beautiful view, I
want to bring her to share it with me.
That is the nature of praise. As we
focus on the goodness of God, we will want to invite people to see what we see. David ends this psalm by calling the angels
and even creation itself to joining with Him in praising God.
Praise
God for the cross
Perhaps the most beautiful thing we read in this Psalm
is the God is a compassionate father. As
a compassionate father He knows our weaknesses.
Regarding these verses Tim Keller writes, ‘the more weak and needy a
child is, the more the father’s heart goes out to him or her. So God knows us to the bottom yet
nevertheless loves us to the skies—literally.’[6]
David’s talk of God as forgiver, healer, redeemer, lover
and even father should bring our thoughts to Jesus and His cross. The cross is among the things of first
importance that we believe (1 Cor.15:3).
It is the centre piece of all Christian preaching (1 Cor. 1:23). It is the focus of heavenly praise (Rev.
5:12). Our praise remains incomplete
until we sing about Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Conclusion
If have wondered if seeking to lift my mood through
praising God is a self-centred motive for praying and singing about His
goodness. However, in His great
compassion God wants to satisfy our needs with good things. However, God delights to give joy to our
hearts. Wanting to improve our mood isn’t a bad motive for praise, but it is an
incomplete motive. We should be asking God
to work in our hearts and create a desire that we might honour Him through our
praise. It does honour Him when we seek
our joy through praising Him.
‘Lord you are so good in commanding
me to find my joy in praising you. You
are so kind in telling me to take the focus off myself. You are so beautiful to look upon. May I honour you by being satisfied in
you. May I praise you because you are
worthy of that praise. May I seek to
please You in all I sing, speak or pray.
Amen’.
[1] Spurgeon
Gems.
[2] https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-singing. Accessed 10/5/23. Caroline is going to be insisting I sing more
as I am a huge snorer.
[3] Ole
Hallesby, Prayer (London: Inter-Varsity
Fellowship, 1948), pp. 108-109.
[4] I
first came across this idea from John Piper.
[5] C.
S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (London:
Fount, 1998), pp. 77-84.
[6] Tim
Keller, My Rock and My Refuge (London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 2015), p. 255.
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