Our psalm for today tells us we should praise God. Do you ever think about why we’re told to do that? I mean, it’s one thing to give thanks to God for all God has done for us—most of us understand why we need to do that. But why should we praise God? Why do we need to tell God that God is great? God already knows that, right? Is God so vain that God needs to hear our praise all the time?
Well, first let’s look at what the psalm says about all the things God does for us. It says God answers prayers. It says God forgives our sins. It says that God wants us to be happy and that if we have God close to us as we go through our lives, we will be happy. It says God will give us enough to satisfy us. It says the things God does are awesome, and it does not mean that word the way we sometimes use it now, it means it literally—the things God does will leave us in awe. It says God will save us. It says God is our hope, and not just our hope, but the hope of everyone on earth. It says that God is the creator of everything on earth and is in control of everything on earth. It says that God provides everything we need, and not just the bare minimum of what we need; it says that God will provide a great bounty for us. Finally, it says that God will give us joy.
That’s pretty incredible. That’s a pretty amazing God we have. That certainly is a God who deserves all the praise we can give and then some.
The fact that God deserves praise, though, is not the whole reason we’re supposed to give praise to God. It’s not that God is vain. It’s not that God needs to hear our praise all the time. God does not need us to do anything. I mean, this is the all-powerful, all-knowing, almighty God we’re talking about here. God existed a long time before we ever came on the scene. In fact, God existed before time itself ever existed. God does not need praise or anything else from us.
The reason we’re told to praise God is not for God’s benefit. It’s for our benefit. Our praises to God are not given because God needs to hear them. They’re given because we need to say them.
Most of us don’t spend enough time thinking about the greatness and goodness of God. I know I don’t. I mean, I praise God sometimes, but not as much as I should. Too often, I take the good things God has given me for granted.
I’ll bet I’m not the only one who does. It’s easy to do. It’s easy to blame God every time something bad happens and then just accept the good things that happen; to think, well, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Here’s the thing, though, every good thing that happens, and in fact every neutral thing that happens, is a gift from God. In fact, sometimes even bad things that happen can be gifts from God, because sometimes bad things can lead to good things later on.
What that means, really, is that we need to praise God no matter what happens. We need to praise God when things are going well, we need to praise God when things are going poorly, and we need to praise God when things are just going in kind of an average way. We need to praise God at all times and in all circumstances. Doing that helps us recognize that God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, almighty God, the God who will never leaves of give up on us and who is always ready to help us and to guide us, if we’ll only accept that help.
I’ve met a few of you, but there are still a lot of you whom I don’t know. I’m pretty sure, though, that most of you have gone through some pretty hard times in your lives. You don’t live a long time without experiencing your share of suffering, whether it’s physical suffering, emotional suffering, whatever. That’s just the way life works. In fact, some of you are probably experiencing some suffering right now.
Even in your suffering, though, try to find a reason to praise God. There is always something for us to praise God about, no matter what’s happening. Find that, and praise God for it. Doing that helps us recognize who God really is, and that helps us get through our suffering. When we do, then we can accept God’s help and God’s guidance, and do whatever we can to be God’s people.
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