I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Psalm 9:1-2
It is important that we do not become presumptuous in our approach to the praise and worship of God. Sometimes people think they must be doing Him a favor by blessing Him. It’s tempting to think that the better or more often our praise, the more blessed God must be.
Then we read about the mountains and the hills breaking forth into singing and all of the trees of the fields clapping their hands; and the heavens telling of the God’s glory and the earth showing forth His handiwork; and the children praising Jesus as He entered Jerusalem, and how He said that if they were somehow silent, the stones themselves would cry out.
You see, when we praise we are simply and finally becoming as we were meant by God to be. Look around you. Everything else God created is engaged in the continual expression of praising His Glory through their mere existence as a natural course of events. Stars in the sky were made to twinkle. Sheaves of wheat were made to wave in the wind. Trees were made with leaves that brush together and branches that grow strong to hold them. So we praise Him for no other reason than He is our creator. It is through praise that we become our true selves. We are just aligning ourselves correctly with the God’s universe and our place in it.
More often than not, we tend to devote our energies to asking God to help us with our problems and needs. Yet it’s in praise and worship that our hearts can be lifted up to God’s presence, where we can gain a new, heavenly perspective. Through praise, we can give the Spirit an opportunity to renew our minds and even to give us his guidance in dealing with the challenges we face here on earth. We praise God simply because it is right and reasonable to do so not for what we get from it or even for what God receives, though all of this is important.
So let us worship Him! But, let us not brag about it or draw attention to ourselves in the process. We praise because that is what we are meant to do. Let us worship Him! But, let us not presume to ever be giving Him anything more than what He is due. And He is due everything.
Today, praise the Lord in a way that is new to you. Lay aside your list of petitions for a short time. Cast off your inhibitions. Lift up your heart and voice—even your hands and feet, too!—in a burst of praise. “Ocean of glory,” sang St. Ephrem to the Lord, “in your goodness receive this drop of praise!” May each of us add a drop of praise into that ocean today!
Today’s Prayer
Lord, We join all the heavens and earth in a loud celebration of your glory! We praise you as your simple, loving children because that is how you made us. You are glorious and eternally worthy of our praise. Bring me deeper to the realization that like a rose in full bloom, I am at my absolute best when I am praising you. Amen
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