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Written by Johnathan Armstrong
There’s a lot in the Bible about praising God. Is it for His benefit—or ours? What can we learn by praising God?
It’s a common ritual to recite what is known today as the Lord’s Prayer. What much of modern Christianity doesn’t seem to realize is that Jesus Christ actually gave it as a model prayer. We are supposed to use it as an outline or a guide in our prayers.
As the model prayer opens, it begins by praising God: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9). Similarly, it ends by praising God: “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (Matthew 6:13).
Why is this part of the model prayer, and why should we include it in our prayers?
For our spiritual health
Praising God is very important for our spiritual health. Part of godly righteous character is selflessness. It is about getting our focus off the self. When our focus is on the self, we give in to temptations and sin. Praising God allows us to put our focus on Him and His will and His righteousness. We have to learn that this life is not all about us. Everything we strive for and try to obtain apart from God is futile. It means nothing without Him. It’s all about Him.
Now, why are we instructed to praise Him? Is it for His benefit? What good comes to Him from the praise of dust?
It’s not for His pride and ego. It’s for us! It’s to help us see ourselves and how little we actually are. It is to put down our pride and ego and humble ourselves. Lucifer made the mistake of thinking of himself more highly than he ought. We cannot afford to make that mistake.
When we praise God, we recognize who He is and what He is, and all His titles and everything He does. This is so we don’t think more highly of ourselves but rather more highly of God. Praising God helps put us in the mind-set to humbly approach our Father. We are the ones benefited. He is well deserving of it and enjoys hearing it from us when it is genuine.
Do we genuinely praise Him for who He is and the things He has done for us? How can we not praise and thank a God who was willing to sacrifice so much—His only Son—for puny specks of dust on a dot on the far reaches of the universe?
Don’t read over the words
We are instructed to praise God throughout the Bible. When we see those words about praising God, how often do we read right over them? Have they lost their meaning to us?
God hears praise from angels all the time, and we can learn from their example. “The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’” (Revelation 4:8).
God wants to hear praise from us too.
Ways to praise
What are some ways we can praise our great God? We obviously praise God through our prayers! We can also praise Him through our Bible study and meditation on His Word. The Psalms are full of praise to our Most High God. We can praise God through fasting and humbling ourselves before Him.
We can praise God through our character. We are supposed to be growing in godly love, which means we sacrifice ourselves for the sake of God and for the sake of others. We praise God by our sacrifices and by helping others. By growing in His love and His nature, we praise Him.
“And in that day you will say: ‘Praise the LORD, call upon His name; declare His deeds among the peoples, make mention that His name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for He has done excellent things; this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst!’” (Isaiah 12:4-6).
We can praise God by what we say and what we do and how we act. It is not always our voice that is heard, but our example and our actions that are seen. And it is through our behavior that we can also praise our God.
“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:15-16).
Johnathan Armstrong attends the Little Rock, Arkansas, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, and is a graduate student working on his doctorate in physics.
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