Praise

What is Praise . . .

from Chapter 10 of “Worship’s Journey” by Kevin Norris

In normal life, we praise all kinds of things. We praise movies; we praise food; we praise computers. We praise cars, clothes, cell phones, gardens, houses, so many things. We praise people. What do we say when we praise someone? Let’s say we have a friend named Jim and we’d like to commend him to a future employer. We consider Jim’s good qualities and express them verbally. We tell of his diligence, dependability, his skill and creativity. We might even give some examples. We are praising Jim. Would we say “praise Jim, oh praise Jim?” No, that sounds weird. It might also sound strange to some when worship leaders repeat aloud, “Praise Jesus. Praise you Lord.” 

I was worshiping with a group of young people on a beach mission on Australia’s Sunshine Coast.  We would begin each day gathering under a large tent, singing praises to God, praying for his direction, and listening to teaching. As we sang, one of my friends kept shouting “Hallelujah! Praise you Lord! Glory to God!” over and over. I listened and wondered if this was some special Bible language I must use.

That set me on a journey to discover more of the meaning of praise. I searched through the Bible, dictionaries, concordances and lexicons. I looked up English words, I looked up Greek and Hebrew words, I looked at every verse in the Bible that mentioned worship or praise. Even though I had become familiar with new musical styles and new forms of worship in the church, I still did not truly understand what praise was and whether it was different from worship.

I asked God to give me revelation as I studied, and he answered my prayer. It is one of the joys of life when an idea comes and you know it must be God because it explains so much, and it just makes sense. I had the answer I was looking for. I was beginning to understand Bible praise! 

Psalm 100:4 continues, “and into his courts with praise.” When we have entered his gates with thanksgiving, we can see the beauty of the One we adore, the One who has saved us and loves us. We instantly recognize he deserves all the praise we can give. We praise his many great attributes, and as we do, we become even more aware of his greatness, his mercy and his love. 

The Hebrew word used most often for praise is halal. I noticed it is used in the Bible the same way as our English word praise. To praise someone is simply to speak out their good qualities. I pondered this thought for a while and the lights came on! It might not seem very profound at first, but this idea revolutionized the way I express myself to God. I began seeing what the Bible meant when it says repeatedly: “Praise the Lord!”  

As I searched God’s Word, I now found expressive, creative language of praise in the Psalms, especially Psalm 145. The title for this psalm in the original Hebrew text is “A Psalm of Praise.”  It is the only psalm with a title like this. I figured that a title like that might help me understand praise. I looked at the content, and it is full of declaring what God is like. After a couple of verses of introduction, David launches into speaking out the character qualities of God, verse after verse. Here are some of my favorites:

The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.

You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.

The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and 

saves them.    –   Psalm 145:14-19

David says what God is like, that’s praise, speaking out God’s wonderful attributes.   

In the New Testament, we find a statement in the book of Hebrews about praise.

“Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.”  –  Hebrews 13:15

What is meant by the phrase “fruit of lips that acknowledge his name?” Does it mean that praise is saying “Jesus, Jesus,” over and over, like a literal English interpretation might suggest?  The Greek word translated as “acknowledge” is homologeo which means “to speak the same as, to confess.” I also looked at what might be meant by the word “name.”  In Hebrew culture, name means more than just a label, it might include your character, reputation or position in society. So to say “acknowledge his name” likely means “to speak in agreement of what God is like, his character and reputation.” It seems this verse is saying that praise is speaking out what God is like. This is how we use the word praise in English. It just makes sense!

As I listened to others repeating “praise the Lord,” it occurred to me that this biblical phrase was one spoken not to God, but to one another. We are encouraging one another to praise the Lord. The words really mean “come on, let us praise, let us open our mouths and say what God is like.”

The statement “Praise the Lord” is not really praise in that sense, it does not say what God is like. It is simply an encouragement to praise.  Saying “let’s eat” is not eating, saying “let’s go shopping” is not shopping.

It may appear that we are just getting fussy with words. You could say that, but most of our conversation depends on us using words that others understand. Speaking phrases that don’t mean what we are saying is not good communication. It is a recipe for confusion. Words are important. Words are powerful. If we don’t understand the words we are using, are we really communicating? Often our praise is merely imagining nice thoughts about God, and then repeating popular religious phrases, whether they make any sense or not.

As I continued to participate in praise and worship times, I found myself struggling to reconcile these new thoughts about praise with what was going on around me. “How can I praise God? I don’t know what to say!”  So I thought I would develop a language of praise by letting the Bible teach me. I read through God’s songbook, the book of Psalms, I used my purple-colored pencil to mark the passages that spoke of God’s character.  When others around me would be crying out “Hallelujah, praise the Lord,” I would open my Bible and read the passages I had colored. Sure, it was awkward, but something happened in my relationship with God. My mind began to be filled with knowledge of what he is like as I began to learn a new language of praise. 

As our minds ponder God’s character and our mouths speak it out, our hearts are drawn to experience his presence. As the truth of God’s love fills us, we are encouraged and strengthened. It is uplifting to speak out how God loves us, cares for us, provides, protects and defends us. 

I am not trying to ban the use of certain phrases. I am wanting to help us express our hearts in meaningful language that will not only bless God, but us and others also. If we want to be intentional about praising God, we have to understand what praise is. 

There’s a popular phrase in the church that I still love to hear. “God is good, all the time, all the time, God is good.”  That’s praise! It says He is good and He is faithful. As we repeat those words, we are reminded of God’s goodness, even when we struggle, even when we are having a bad day, in loss or disappointment. Our confession of God’s goodness has power to keep us from discouragement. Speaking out about God’s love helps us feel loved. Proclaiming God’s faithfulness to his promises helps us believe his word to us.

The power of praise originates from affirming all that he is, it is not in singing heartily. The effectiveness of our praise is not in how loud we sing, but how much our hearts are meaning what we say, and saying what we mean, concerning who God is and what He is like.

Colossians 3:16 instructs us to let God’s word be rich as we sing:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

Let’s learn a rich language of praise that’s powerful because it is full of meaning, expressing truth. Let’s move past the exhortations to praise, “Hallelujah”, and “Praise the Lord” and begin to praise God like David did in Psalm 145.

As we linger in his courts with praise, we become aware of the arresting presence of the merciful, loving, compassionate King who is also the majestic, powerful Creator of the universe. What is our response? We begin to worship . . .