What is praise? How is it different from Worship?
What & Whom do we praise? What prompts us to praise another? Do we praise a bad action? Praise unsatisfactory behavior? Do we praise a batter for striking out? or a running back for fumbling the football?
No, we praise positive achievements: No-hit pitching in baseball; a stellar spelling bee performance. We praise heroic deeds: Bravery in combat; rescuing a drowning person. We praise sacrifice: the Single parent raising responsible adults; the person who leaves a high-paying job to help/serve the needy.
In sum: We praise what a person does.
Sometimes we heap praise on a beautiful or handsome person for his/her looks. This praise is misdirected. The same applies to other things one does not control: e.g., native intelligence, race, country of origin, complexion. The person with these traits did not do anything to receive them. So praise is inappropriate. We might complement or congratulate him/her. But, properly speaking, praise does not fit.
In sum: We praise what a person does.
What has God done for which we can praise Him? We do not praise God for being loving; that is His nature. It is who/what He is. We do not praise His omniscience. He can't help it. He has always been omniscient. Etc. But, as Psalm 103 says, we do well to praise him for His unfailing love. That is an expression of his nature. We praise Him for His mercy; his forgiveness; his understanding what we are like, etc.
How do we praise God? Does the Bible give any indication of appropriate ways of giving praise to God Almighty?
Yes, I believe it does. But I will save that for another post.
Thank you for reading!
me with my beautiful, wonderful (bw)
Bibles Unbound
About Me
- Glenn
- Oregon
- Currently, I am posting my "musings on Ephesians." This was a 6 1/2 month process of allowing Paul's letter to Ephesus to speak to me about my situations. Some of it gets rather personal. But hopefully it can help you too.
2 comments:
I praise God for guiding me in some major decisions in the last few years, and for things he has provided for me and people he has brought into my life: basically for fulfilling his promises and behaving like a loving father.
When I was in college, I was new in the area, and asked God pretty specifically to give me a group of friends (not just a few new friends, but a whole network) I was asking in faith, confident that God could do it, but equally unsure of how to do it myself. About a year later I realized I had a really great network of friends between the house I was living in and the church I was attending, and I realized that God had answered my prayer beyond what I expected. He's repeated the feat in giving me a great job that met 3 or 4 different needs that I had, and more recently in giving me a wife who is more than I ever expected. These are the things I praise God for personally.
It would be equally appropriate to praise him for sustaining our lives, protecting us from calamity, and causing his message of hope to go out into the world.
I always appreciate the titles of praise that I can call my Heavenly Father and His Son. Almighty, Creator, Yahweh, Blessed, Wonder Counselor...and more... -S
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