Reasons for Praise and Worship

The reasons for praise and worship are almost endless. First, it’s the greatest antidepressant known to humanity. The passage Jesus read when it was His turn to read in the synagogue of Nazareth, Isaiah 61, says, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted.” (Verse 1) The passage continues, “to comfort all who mourn … giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.” (Verses 2-3) The mantle of praise can keep us warm on the very darkest of nights. Praise can be sung with a voice breaking with tears. If the praise doesn’t actually rescue us, as it often does, it will at least remind us Who is at our side working for good, and that things could be much worse, and would be, if we didn’t know God.

Worship, by the way, also includes lament. Just read the Psalms. If God wants us to praise using our true, own, deepest emotion, then He wants to hear the truth about the not-so-thankful parts of us, too. Only when these dark shadows are brought out honestly into His light can He take away their sting, do any spiritual surgery we might need, and give us real joy.

Another reason for praise is the wonder of our bodies. We may praise Him for health, or we may praise Him for the miracle of healing that takes place, from a paper cut to major surgery. It is really unimaginable, the things our bodies are silently, secretly doing all day, all night, keeping us going. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” indeed! (Psalm 139:14)

We can praise God for His patience and love, as passage after passage of the Bible do. One can almost open the Bible at random and be fairly sure of finding a praise passage. One example is found in Psalm 135:3, “Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praises to His name, for it is lovely.” And if times are evil, then look at the example set by Habakkuk in Chapter 3 of his book: Even if the Deuteronomy covenant promises themselves look like they are failing (Verse 17), “Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation,” (Verse 18)

We can worship God for His sovereignty. After all, that’s why He is worthy of our worship to begin with. Ultimately, His will shall be done. “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.”(Rev. 21:3) We can praise God that we know and love His law. Of course, we know we don’t understand it all yet, or love it as much as we will, but what if we didn’t know Him at all! What an awful alternative! “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.” (Psalm 119:14)

We must certainly praise God for the incredible gift of His righteousness. “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! … Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 7:25, 8:1) This is something we will never tire of praising and thanking God for, throughout our undeserved stay in eternity.

We can praise Him for our leaders, for the prophecies He’s given, for our homes and jobs and children. But there is one overwhelming thing we can never praise Him for enough, and that is the salvation that comes to us through Jesus Christ. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3) “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:1-5)

If we can read and contemplate such words as these and not feel our hearts overflow with praise, something’s wrong! But does that mean we will always praise the same way someone else does, or that if we see others not praising the way we do, they must not be really saved, or really love God? God forbid! He is the only one who can read hearts. We need to stop trying to usurp His privileges, stop trying to make everyone else worship the way we like to do, and keep our eyes on God.

Jesus only gave two requirements for true worship. They are found in His discussion with the woman at the well, in John 4. God Himself had set up Mount Zion in Jerusalem as the place where His name would be known and His people would come to worship. Yet now He said that the time would soon come when people would no longer worship there, but would worship wherever they were, “in spirit and in truth.” He then repeated it, as if to impress it on her mind (and ours). “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:24)

These are words which deserve close scrutiny. In spirit must mean from the heart, from the truth at the depths of our beings, where we know God is the Maker and we are only the children, holding hands and singing around Him. In truth means all the truth we can spend our lives learning, from His Word, from each other, from songs and paintings and sculpture, from birds and flowers, from communion bread and wine, from dreams and visions, and from the person in our church who is the most different from us. But can we claim to know fully what it means to worship in spirit and in truth? Not yet. Maybe not even a million years from now.