Praising the Lord

 •  2 min. read  •  grade level: 6
 
May we be stirred by the Spirit of God to truly give our God the praise of which He is so worthy. It is so wonderful to be in His presence. But may we also think on all His greatness—great in His glorious Person, great in His power, great in His love, great in His wisdom, and great in His mercy. The more we think of Him, the more the praises will flow.
What dries up the stream of praise to Him is thinking about ourselves. We live in such a humanistic age that often we are more affected by its spirit than we realize. Silent pauses in our meetings to truly worship at His feet are certainly good—we do not always have to be speaking or singing. But, sadly, at times our minds are far away on other things, and then there is no praise to our glorious God.
Two verses have searched my soul. The first is Luke 19:4040And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. (Luke 19:40). The Lord Jesus in His triumphal entry was being praised by the disciples with a loud voice. The Pharisees asked Him to rebuke them. He replied, “If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” We are the “stones” (living ones) recorded in 1 Peter 2:55Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5) that have been chosen to offer up spiritual sacrifices of praise. If we will not do it, He will raise up others to praise His Son.
The second is found in Exodus 23:15; 34:2015Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:) (Exodus 23:15)
20But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. (Exodus 34:20): “None shall appear before Me empty.” God is such a giving God that He has filled our lives with so many spiritual blessings and material things. If one does not feel blessed, sit down, get out a piece of paper and start listing the many blessings that are ours in Christ. It will take quite a while.
Now in response to having received so much, we ought to have full hearts to praise Him. How unbecoming it is to sit in the Lord’s presence and not open our mouths and pour out our praises to His most blessed name.
Sometimes we like to talk about being a testimony for the Lord. But the testimony will be most vivid if we are not thinking about ourselves at all—but rather about Him. When we sing His praise, we will unconsciously be a testimony to Him.
May the Lord encourage us to sing His praise each day (the Scripture says “continually”), and then the praise will flow more freely when we come together in His presence to remember Him.
R. Thonney (from a letter)