Psalm 150:6 "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord."
The above verse of Scripture which is the last verse of the last book of the Psalms admonishes us to praise God. The scripture enjoins us with something of a sense of urgency to offer praise to God and not to allow anything stop that praise. Interestingly unlike what a lot of people think, the verse of Scripture only gives one criteria for praising God. It has nothing to do with you and being happy or sad. It has nothing to with what God has done for us or what we perceive that he hasn't done. It has nothing do with what people think of God or not. The only criteria for praising God the Bible tells us is that of having breath in our lungs. Therefore it's not about how much money we have or what health issues we are facing that should determine whether we praise God or not. The only thing needed is to be alive. As long as we are alive and we have breath, we should praise God.
Looking at the Jewish words that are translated into praise in the Bible like halal, tehilah, barack, shabach and others, I have recently become convinced that it is more the norm to praise God with shouting, singing and dancing than it is to praise him silently. I personally begun to believe that we can't effectively praise God without some outward expression of the praise we are offering up to him. Even when the praise is rising from unmoving lips, the praise coming from our hearts will cause us to lift our hands in adoration. There must be some sort of response in us and from us in praise to God which manifests outwardly in a song, a dance or the raising up of hands. We cannot effectively praise God without an outward expression manifesting itself. Therefore when praising God, someone looking at us shouldn't have to ask what we are doing. It should be obvious. That in itself tells me something. It tells me that when we praise, the fact that we are going through trying times or terrible circumstances should not be obvious. Whether or not things are fine and dandy, our praise should not reflect our position but should reflect the goodness and glory of God and our love for him.
The above verse of Scripture which is the last verse of the last book of the Psalms admonishes us to praise God. The scripture enjoins us with something of a sense of urgency to offer praise to God and not to allow anything stop that praise. Interestingly unlike what a lot of people think, the verse of Scripture only gives one criteria for praising God. It has nothing to do with you and being happy or sad. It has nothing to with what God has done for us or what we perceive that he hasn't done. It has nothing do with what people think of God or not. The only criteria for praising God the Bible tells us is that of having breath in our lungs. Therefore it's not about how much money we have or what health issues we are facing that should determine whether we praise God or not. The only thing needed is to be alive. As long as we are alive and we have breath, we should praise God.
Looking at the Jewish words that are translated into praise in the Bible like halal, tehilah, barack, shabach and others, I have recently become convinced that it is more the norm to praise God with shouting, singing and dancing than it is to praise him silently. I personally begun to believe that we can't effectively praise God without some outward expression of the praise we are offering up to him. Even when the praise is rising from unmoving lips, the praise coming from our hearts will cause us to lift our hands in adoration. There must be some sort of response in us and from us in praise to God which manifests outwardly in a song, a dance or the raising up of hands. We cannot effectively praise God without an outward expression manifesting itself. Therefore when praising God, someone looking at us shouldn't have to ask what we are doing. It should be obvious. That in itself tells me something. It tells me that when we praise, the fact that we are going through trying times or terrible circumstances should not be obvious. Whether or not things are fine and dandy, our praise should not reflect our position but should reflect the goodness and glory of God and our love for him.
JC Cruz is the author of
DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can
follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.
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