Day 2
Praise is something we forget to do enough of. I know I fail in this
area. To fully understand we need to know the definition of the word. This is
the definition given by The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary.
Praise
The
rendering of a number of Heb. and Gk. words. Praise
is an expression of approval or admiration, of gratitude and devotion for
blessings received. When directed toward men, it should never descend to
flattery; neither should the love of it become so great as to hush the voice of
conscience and of duty. Although without it there will be no sense of reproach,
when it has gone beyond its proper place it corrupts instead of
improving.
Praise
of God is the acknowledging of His perfections, works, and benefits. Praise and
thanksgiving are generally considered as synonymous, yet some distinguish them
thus: praise properly terminates in God, on account of His natural excellencies
and perfections, and is that act of devotion by which we confess and admire His
several attributes; but thanksgiving
is a more contracted duty and imports only a grateful sense and acknowledgment
of past mercies. We praise God for all His glorious acts of every kind, that
regard either us or other men; but we thank Him, properly speaking, for the
instances of His goodness alone, and for such only of these as we ourselves are
in some way concerned.
There are two ways of praise. The first and the
one I don’t do enough of is through prayer. Look at Matthew 6. Jesus started the
Lord’s Prayer with Praise to God. As the definition above tells us, to praise is
to lift up. We think we satisfy the requirement of praise when we thank God for
all he has done for us. The second way we praise God is through song. In fact
most of the praise in the Old Testament is found in the book of Psalms. These
Psalms praise God for what He is, not for what He has done. There are a couple
of songs in the New Testament (Luke
1:46-56).
The songs of today are not as good as the old
songs we sing. Most of the songs of today are songs of thanksgiving. I have 20
songs to my credit and I’m ashamed to say I follow the pattern and only about
half of my songs are songs of praise. We also have to be careful with some of
today’s song because they tend to have more praise for the writer than for
God.
There are two other types of praise contained in
the scriptures. The first is praise for one another. As the definition
indicates, this is a good thing. To praise someone for doing something well will
build their self confidence. It will also give them something to strive for.
Paul in his writings always praised the people of the churches (Romans
1:8)
to encourage them to continue on in the faith. The second type of praise is the
praise from God to a person through the writer (2 Timothy 1:2).
Notice Paul gives praise from God before he gives praise from himself.
Many
people think this uttering is simply a salutation, but remember, God inspired
the bible not Paul. Why would Paul give two praises just from him?
It is important that we take care not to carry praise for one another too
far. There are people who seek praise for themselves (Acts
8:18-25).
This type of praise does not honor God. The giving of trophies in some cases is
too much.
Learn to tell the difference between praise and
thanksgiving and it will help you greatly in understanding God’s
Word.
Daily
Bible Readings:
Read
Psalms 50
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