One of the first “Christian” phrases I heard was “Praise the Lord”! (Shortened to PTL! In the Jesus Movement). It was very contemporary at the time, but it was also one of the oldest phrases in our faith. The Psalms are full of admonitions to “Praise The Lord”, and we Christians talk about this all the time.
We talk about it.
We even say the phrase sometimes: “Praise the Lord!”
We just don’t do it very often.
Saying “Praise the Lord” is no more praising Him than saying “Sing” is singing. Numerous times I have pushed this issue to try to get people to move beyond the church words. Praising is complimenting. It is pointing out the good things about another. So, praising God is complimenting God. Telling God (or others) how awesome, creative, powerful, loving, faithful, limitless, etc. God is. Each time I teach on this, I emphasize that praise is NOT about us, it is about God. It is NOT about what God has done for us, it is about who he is. Then I invite people to praise God. Without fail, someone quickly says
”Thank you God for…”
Now, thanking God for what he has done in our lives is great—even necessary. But the focus is on us and what he has done for us. Not Him.
The focus of praise is Him.
And we’re commanded to praise Him!
Why? Does God somehow need our praise? Is he that insecure (that’s a quote from a non Christian friend)?
No. He doesn’t need our praise. We need to praise Him.
He knows who He is and who we are. We tend to forget.
He knows how important it is that we are reminded of how great and powerful he is to put the right perspective back into our lives.
We don’t.
We think about ourselves. We focus on what God has done, is doing, will do—for us.
We think life is about us.
It isn’t. It is about the one who created life, and created us to enjoy life in relationship with Him.
When we remember this, our lives are immeasurably improved.
Praise the Lord.
in Christ, Randy