Praise the Lord!

This has been a themed recently in my life. Most scriptures I read this week had this theme, even the randomized bible passages on my YouVersion app were all in relation to praising God. I feel like the Holy Spirit has been reminding me lately to learn to praise the Lord constantly, not just on Sundays or when I feel good but every time. I will admit, it is not something I do as often as I should. I will think of the Lord’s goodness to me but not intentionally praise Him for all that He has done for me or for who He is. The bible is full of passages exhorting us to praise the Name of the Lord and to not forget all his benefits (Psalm 103:2). God himself has repeatedly told the Israelites to not forget what He has done and praising God is one way to do that. So today, my post is about reminding you to praise God and to remember what He has done in order to use it as a weapon to fight discouragement during trials and tribulations.

 So what does it mean to praise? Generally, when we praise someone or something, we basically express our approval of the thing being done or the person doing the thing. We celebrate a person when we praise her. In the bible, we see that praise is usually associated with remembering what the Lord has done; elevating the works of the Lord or simply exalting the Lord Himself, His magnificence, His grandeur, etc. This is usually done through singing which might include music, instruments, melodies, and the likes. It is not to say, singing or music is the only way we praise God but it certainly is a means by excellence. Something to note about the way praise is used in the bible is that it is to be done in all circumstances of one’s life. Whether one is going through difficulties, or joy, the child of God must praise. This goes to show that praising God is not about us, so irrespective of the situation we are going through, we ought to praise God. The book of Psalms has psalms (songs) for several occasions: occasions when we are rejoicing, others when we are afraid, and still others when we are going through hardships. There is always a reason to praise God according to the bible. I find God to be so gracious to us that He will use songs of praise and worship to encourage our hearts. It is as though the more we praise Him, the more we ourselves are renewed in our understanding of who He is and what He does. God is good in that what is meant solely for Him becomes for our own good.

Therefore praising God is a good remedy to not forget what He has done, it is also a good remedy to not wrestle against “flesh and blood”, that is against the physical world including people and circumstances. When we praise God, we bring focus to God instead of bringing it to ourselves or our situations. When we praise God, we honour Him and we show Him that He is the most important being. As the psalmist said “better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Lord than dwell in the tents of the wicked” (Psalm 84:10). What is astonishing about this process is that it is counterintuitive to our sinful nature because the sinful nature screams to have things done its way. For example, our sinful nature wants to be exalted above God; it wants to be at the centre of everything; it wants its desires to be fulfilled above others. When faced with difficulties, the sinful nature pushes you to focus on yourself and what was/is done to you; what is going on, who is responsible for certain actions and how can you get revenge for what was done to you? When we praise God, we show that He is above everything, we show our submission to Him and we in a sense display our “smallness”. This world is not about us and the sooner we realize it, the better it will be for us.

If you are like me, sometimes you wonder how to praise God, and after thanking God for the common things (breath, shelter, food, etc.) you don’t seem to know how to proceed further. Well, let me encourage you to use the Psalms as a way to praise the Lord or to stimulate a lifestyle in you of worshipping in songs. Because the Psalms were written by men like you and I who went through difficulties, they offer us a wealth of examples on how to praise God. Psalms remind us about God’s attributes; His love, His power, his faithfulness, His compassion, etc. They also remind us about what God did in the past in the lives of the Israelites. If you have breath, the bible commands you to praise the Lord as it is written “Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord” (Psalm 150:6). I pray the Lord teaches us how to constantly put Him first in our lives, even through the songs that we sing to Him. Amen.