Praising God

Sep 27 2022 - Eric Buresh

O for a heart to praise my God,
a heart from sin set free;
a heart that's sprinkled with the blood
so freely shed for me. (Charles Wesley 1742)

True and authentic praise is not an independent action, rather, it is a reaction. Charles Wesley beautifully captured this relationship in recognizing that a heart miraculously freed from sin by the blood of Christ would be a heart of praise. The primary action was beholding the miracle that set the heart free, the reaction was praise.

Singing worship songs is not, in itself, praise. Beautiful worship music can be entertaining and/or a work of religion without an ounce of praise in it. God knows this:

These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me. (Matt. 15:8)

But singing worship songs because you’ve beheld a miracle and delight in the author of the miracle – now, that is praise. Authentic praise is always an outflow of seeing or learning of God’s handiwork. In Acts 2, the new church was found daily “praising God.” (Acts 2:47) Why? Because many of those people, just a short time before, had been shouting for Christ’s crucifixion and now their eyes had been opened. They had been “cut to the heart” and “gladly received the word.” They had experienced a miracle. Or the lame man in Acts 3 – when he was healed, he went about “walking, leaping, and praising God.” (Acts 3:8). Or the multitude of disciples in Luke 19 who “began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.” (Luke 19:37) Each one beheld the mighty works of God, delighted in His work, and the end of that delight was praise.

Praise is the consummation of joy. As C.S. Lewis explains in his essay, “A Word About Praising:”

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.

Our joy in God becomes complete when we praise him – when we express our delight in what we’ve seen. God delights in our praise, not because He needs it for himself (Acts 17:24-25), but because our praise completes our joy. If you are in a season where your praise feels forced or dry, it is not a praise problem, it is a joy problem. It is a delight problem. The solution is not to find a better praise band with better song selection and better musicians. The solution is to behold the mighty works of God in your life and throughout the world as He brings about His good will and plan. Delight in those mighty works. Delight in Christ’s work on the cross. Delight in the new life He’s given you. Delight in your access to Him. Delight in forgiveness. Delight in righteousness. Delight that He calls you his adopted child. Delight that He is bringing you into His own glory. Delight that God lives in you. Delight! Delight! Delight! There is no end to His miracles as a source of delight in Him. Now you have a heart to praise your God.

We started with Charles Wesley and he provides a fitting ending from “Love Divine”:

Finish then thy new creation
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation,
Perfectly restored in thee,
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise! (Charles Wesley 1747)

Jesus is glorified when we praise Him, declaring with a loud voice all dominion belongs to Him (1 Pet 4:11). Better is one day praising Him than one thousand elsewhere!