Praise
verb \ˈprāz\
- 1: to express a favorable judgment of
- 2: to glorify (a god or saint) especially by the attribution of perfections
Praise is something that everyone, with or without a church background, is familiar with. Praise is found in everyday situations. Whether it is a mother praising her newborn child, a hiker praising the beautiful landscape that surrounds him or a man praising his prized collection of automobiles. Praise is a crucial yet seemingly overlooked part of Christianity in many cases.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of praise is that it is not something that has to be taught. Praise is an innate action to mankind. In the context of the Christian faith, praise seems to take on a whole new meaning, but why is that? Many seem to wrestle with the idea that God demands our praise. Praising God is not something that would be merely beneficial to do, but instead it is necessary to the faith. If we choose to look at praise with strictly this perception, it seems to diminish the value of the action because if God was truly omnipotent and sovereign, why would He require our praise, compliments, or approval? But praise is so much more than that, and I believe that John Piper says it best when he writes,
“But the most obvious fact about praise – whether of God or any thing – strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, of the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. – John Piper, Desiring God.
Praise is not just giving appreciation and approval to the blessings of God, just as it is not doing so because we are ‘required’ to. We praise as a natural response to the enjoyment that we find in every day situations, as a response to the beauty of nature. We praise as a natural response to our enjoyment found in the love of God. Therefore, praise does not only add to our enjoyment or put our enjoyment on display. Praise is the completion of our enjoyment.
If we were unable to speak about what we enjoy or praise what we love, then the joy that we find would never be complete. This brings us back to the question from earlier. If God is truly supreme, why does He demand our praise?
We serve a God who is most loving. To be most loving, what would God have to give? The only thing that makes sense is exactly what He did; He gave Himself. A God who is most loving cannot withhold himself from our companionship or from our thoughts, because giving anything less than himself would prove him to not be love and therefore undermine the gospel. So take this a step further, if God loves us enough to give us joy that is full, then along with giving Himself, he must also receive the true praise of our hearts.
John Piper touches on this question and explains that this need for praise is “not because He needs to shore up some weakness in Himself or compensate for some deficiency.” Instead, it is because His love is so great and our fullness of joy can only be found in his presence, in having a relationship with Him and in praising Him, God Almighty.
God does everything “for the praise of His glory!” and by doing this, He gives us the one thing that can ever truly satisfy out desires.
“Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.” – Psalm 43:4
