By Steven J. Hogan
~ A Saturday Morning Post #350 ~
The most important thing you can do as a Christian is to praise the Lord! When you read the Psalms, the longest book in the Bible, the book that has the most to say about your relationship with God, you learn that praising Him is the #1 subject. In today’s post, I write out a number of verses that speak about praising the Lord.
First, let me summarize some things we learn from the Psalms about praising the Lord:
* Praising the Lord brings you into His presence.
* Praising the Lord gets your eyes off yourself and your problems and onto Him.
* The word “praise” is comprehensive, encompassing many aspects of what it means to worship God. Other words describing different facets of praise are sing, thanks, bless, extol, exalt, shout, ascribe, boast, glory, love, laud, and honor.
* An excellent way to praise God is by singing praises to Him. As you know, the Psalms are songs.
* Praising the Lord is always personal, and can be done in private or in public.
* Praise God for His work, and for His name, His character, whether it’s His truth, love, power, greatness, goodness, righteousness, justice, or faithfulness.
* Praising the Lord results in you being close to Him, and being blessed by Him.
* Praising the Lord is what you are to do all day long, day after day, and forever.
* Praising the Lord is a good measure of your spiritual health, a sign to you and others of how you are doing as a Christian.
* Jesus Christ reigns over the world during the millennial kingdom, and your primary duty will be praising Him. During this kingdom age, the whole world will be praising Christ. The focal center of praise during that time will be Jerusalem.
Here are 81 verses from the book of Psalms that talk about praise. I encourage you to read through the entire list – you will find it instructive and motivating.
9:2 – I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High. 9:13 – Be gracious to me, O Lord… that I may tell of all Your praises. 18:49 – I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Lord, and I will sing praises to Your name. 18.13 – I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. 21:13 – Be exalted, O Lord in Your strength; we will sing and praise Your power. 22:26 – The afflicted will eat and be satisfied; those who seek Him will praise the Lord. 30:4 – Sing praise to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name. 30:11-12 – You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. 33:1-2 – Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre, sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. 34:1 – I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. 35:18 – I will give You thanks in the great congregation; I will praise You among a mighty throng. 35:28 – My tongue shall declare Your righteousness and Your praise all day long. 42:5 – Why are you in despair, O my soul?… Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.
47:6 – Sing praise to God, sing praises; sing praise to our King, sing praises, for God is the King of all the earth. 48:1 – Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. 48:10 – As is Your name O God, so is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness. 56:4 – In God whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. 57:7-10 – My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises… I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your lovingkindness is great to the heavens and Your truth to the clouds. 59:17 – O my strength, I will sing praises to You; for God is my stronghold, the God who shows me lovingkindness. 63:3-5 – Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You… My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. 66:1-2 – Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious. 66:4 – All the earth will worship You, and will sing praises to You; they will sing praises to Your name.
69:30 – I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving. 69:34 – Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them. 71:6 – By You I have been sustained from my birth; You are He who took me from my mother’s womb; My praise is continually of You. 70:8 – My mouth is filled with Your praise and with Your glory all day long. 71:14 – As for me, I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more. 71:23 – My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to You; and my soul which You have redeemed. 76:10 – The wrath of man shall praise You. 84:4 – How blessed are those who dwell in Your house. They are ever praising You. 89:5 – The heavens will praise Your wonders, O Lord; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the holy ones. 96:4 – Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. 98:4-5 – Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. 99:3 – Let them praise Your great and awesome name; holy is He.
100:4 – Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. 101:1 – I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, to You, O Lord, I will sing praises. 102:18, 21 – This will be written for the generation to come, that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord… that men may tell of the name of the Lord in Zion and His praises in Jerusalem. 104:33 – I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 104:35 – Let sinners be consumed from the earth and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord! 105:42-45 – He remembered His holy word with Abraham His servant… He gave them all the lands of the nations… praise the Lord! 106:1 – Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. Who can speak of the mighty deeds of the Lord, or can show forth all His praises? 106:47 – Gather us from among the nations to give thanks to Your holy name and glory in Your praise. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting even to everlasting. And let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise the Lord!
108:1, 3 – My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing, I will sing praises, even with my soul… I will sing praises to You among the nations. 111:1 – Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart, in the company of the upright and in the assembly. 111:10 – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever. 113:1 – Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord… from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. 113:9 – He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children. Praise the Lord! 117:1 – Praise the Lord all nations; laud Him all peoples, for His lovingkindness is great toward us and the truth of the Lord is everlasting. 119:164 – Seven times a day I praise You because of Your righteous ordinances. 135:3-4 – Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praises to His name, for it is lovely, for the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself. 145:1-2 – I will extol You, my God, O King… Every day I will bless You. And I will praise Your name forever and ever.
145:21 – My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever. 146:1-2 – Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord while I live, I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. Ps 146:10 – The Lord will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord! 147:1 – Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and praise is becoming. 147:12 – Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. 148:1, 7, 11, 12, 13 – Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise Him in the heights… Praise the Lord from the earth… let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted. 149:1 – Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation of the godly ones. 149:3 – Let them praise His name with dancing; let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre. 149:9 – To execute on them the judgment written, this is an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the Lord! 150:1, 2, 6 – Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds. Praise Him for His excellent greatness… Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
We live in the end-times, the last years leading up to Christ’s return to rapture the church. In this post, we have focused on the supreme importance of praising the Lord. So does it not make sense that praising the Lord needs to be your #1 priority during these final years of your life on earth? And is it not true that God deserves all your praise? And do you not see that praising God is central, is critical to His glory, your work, and your success and joy as a Christian?
Revelation 4-5 describes a heavenly scene, the awesome, powerful prelude to God’s holy and victorious work on earth – and the principal theme is that the four living creatures, the 24 elders, the angels, and the believers are praising God the Father and Jesus Christ. Rev. 4:8, Rev. 4:11, Rev. 5:9, Rev. 5:11. Rev. 5:13 – “Every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.’ And the four living creatures kept saying, ‘Amen’. And the elders fell down and worshiped.”
P.S. When I was in our church in Tampa, we sang a number of Scripture songs, songs that were straight from the Bible, and many of them from the Psalms. Our music team recorded many of these encouraging, God-glorifying songs, and here are the links to them: Scripture Songs – Our Legacy, Volume 1 and Scripture Songs – Our Legacy, Volume 2