"Praise the LORD! Praise God in His Sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sounds; Praise Him with harp and lyre; Praise Him with timbre and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe;

Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!" - Psalm 150:1-6

 

 

Praise means To be boastful, glory in. 

 

You're walking down the street when you hear a deep gravely voice, "Psst!" the voice says. You stop and turn. A scrawny man in thick rimmed dark glasses comes out of the shadows. "Hey,Slick," the man says, glancing left and right as if to see that no one is watching.  "You wanna make the best deal of your life?" You start to turn and walk away, the faster the better. 

The man hustles in front of you and after taking a quick glance up and down the street opens his coat just enough for you to see the inside lined with baseball cards pinned to the inside of his jacket.

 

"I got a 1953 Walt Zambrisky card for five bucks." You shake your head, trying to again get around him, but he again blocks your path.

"Ok, ok I can see you're smart - your in it for the good stuff. I have a Mickey Mantle, rookie card, only let's say ... a thousand?"

 

Ok I'm not a big baseball fan at all, so I'm not sure how accurate all those numbers are, but I do know Mickey Mantle is more valuable than Walt Zambrisky.

 

What is the difference between those two cards? They're both only made of ink and paper. It's the picture on the card that makes it worth so much. It's the picture on the card and all the person has achieved that makes the card worth so much money. It's the same with God. He is worth so much praise because of who He is and all that He has done. That is why I should praise Him; that is why He deserves my praise.

 

 

 

Person of Praise -  We as Christians are His workmanship created for Him by Him. As His children we are on the receiving end of His endless, boundless grace, so who is there better than us to praise Him. In these verses, it is not just a call to praise the Lord but it is a command. 

 

"Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; Praise Him, O servants of the LORD." - Psalm 135:1

 

"Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD." - Psalm 134:1

 

"Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, Praise the name of the LORD." - Psalm 113:1

 

 

 

Perspective of Praise - Paul and Silas had been beaten, chained and imprisoned in the inner prison. Back then wasn't like it is today. You didn't have rights when you were a prisoner. You didn't get a bed and three hot meals a day. There were rats crawling around you, and in the inner prison, there weren't windows or fresh air. The air probably smelled something close to a port-a-potty and a sweaty guy filled locker room.

 

But if you read that story it says,

 

"But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them." Acts 16:25.

 

Nothing in where they were would have made them want to praise. Nothing in how they felt physically would have given them strength to praise. Nothing in how they had been treated would have made them want to praise.

 

Break down what had happened to them: they had been preaching Christ like they were commanded to do, so they were doing the right thing. Then they were imprisoned for doing the right thing, they were publicly humiliated, they were physically beaten, then they were in one of the most depressing places. But what did they do? PRAISE!

 

Don't tell me there is some circumstance that you can't praise in, because after reading this story there isn't.

Keep your perspective right. Keep how you see when and where you can praise right. I and you can praise while going through the deepest valley or the highest mountain. The key to that? Choosing to praise him regardless of how I feel or what's happening to me or around me. Like the Nike slogan says, "Just do it".  

 

"Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!" - Psalm 150:2

 

"Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; Sing praise to His name, for it is lovely." - Psalm 135:3

 

This is my favorite. David is fleeing Saul and is in a cave. He is hiding to preserve his life from a man he used to be friends with. He had already been promised by God that he would rule Israel.

But he was hiding in a cave, running for his life. He could have chosen to be angry and point out all that he had gone through, all that was going wrong, all the promises that people had made that they hadn't kept. But listen to what David has to say...

 

"I will sing, yes, I will sing praises!" - Psalm 57:7

 

 

Praise Him For - You want to praise Him. You see that you should praise Him. So how practically do you praise Him? The word praise means boast or glory in, so go through scripture and find things He is and that He's done and glory in them. Boast in them to Him, and you've just praised Him.  

 

Praise Him for what He's done ...

 

"For His loving kindness is everlasting." - Ps 136:1

 

"Him alone does great wonders." - Ps 136:4

 

"TO Him who makes the heavens with skill." - Ps. 136:5

 

Praise Him for His working in my life ....

 

"I am fearfully and wonderfully made." - Ps. 139: 14

 

"He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; and He has set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm." - Ps.40:2

 

"God rescued us from dead-end valley's and dark dungeons. He set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating." Col. 1: 13-14

 

"You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need! His generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus." - Phil.  4:19

 

 

Praise Him for who He is...

 

"Holy,Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." - Isaiah. 6:3

 

"We have a Priest-friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, Righteous Jesus." - 1 John 2:1

 

"They will go to war against the Lamb but the Lamb will defeat them, proof that He is Lord over Lords and King over Kings, and those with Him will be called chosen and faithful." - Rev 17:14

 

 

Consider the last stanza of John Newton's Hymn "Amazing Grace" and think for all eternity we will SING HIS PRAISE...

 

"When we've been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We've no less days to sing God's PRAISE

Than when we'd first begun."