Week 5: Praise the Lord!

As promised here is Week 5: Praising God.

Relationships are a two way street, there is no such thing as a relationship in which only one person puts in the effort, those aren’t relationships at all and they quickly die out. Our relationship with God is exactly the same, He reaches out to us through various methods but we must return he favor if we hope to have  relationship with Him.

I think the most basic and common way we reach out to God is through praise. You always hear that word thrown around through church lingo and whatnot, but what does it really mean? Think about it for a minute, what does it mean to praise God and how do you praise God? We looked at Psalm 42 and Psalm 150. Both great psalms, and both approach praise from completely different angles. Psalm 42 talks about praising God through the pain, about putting hope in God “As the deer pants for water so my soul thirsts for you O Lord…” Psalm 150 is about praise as a form of rejoicing in all God has done, it is an all-consuming joy that expresses itself through music, dance, and love.

Our focus on the lesson was to look at how we praise God from both angles, David shows us how he does it so how do we do it? In joy I praise God through words, I write and express my joy with others. I share my joy in a warm smile and cup of coffee I take the love God gave me and I share it with others. How about when things are bad, how are we meant to praise God when we are in pain? I find this to be especially pertinent as there are many things about my life that I have a very good reason to be upset about.

It harkens to my reading of C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain and his big point is that our world is flawed, that God is good but there are things wrong with this world that we cannot change. I wish I could change events in my past and people in my past, but I can’t. What I can do is praise God for the good, praise Him for bringing me into His light and reminding me of His love. So yes you can praise God through the pain, and that is often the most important time to praise Him.

I urge you this week to think about how you praise God, and I urge you to simply fall in love with Him. True praise does not stem from duty or obligation, it comes from love and adoration. I praise God freely because I am so overwhelmed with His love that I cannot help but to praise Him. We all have our methods and means of praising God, I encourage you to find yours.

Here’s a great song that exemplifies this, it comes from Psalm 150 and is sung by Matt Redman (one of my favorite gospel singers!)