Sunday September 21, 2008 | Greg Boyd
Praise the LORD.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD
Praise Him! We may not always feel like praising God, however, there is something transformational about praise that realigns how we see God and how we see our own situations. Praise is one of the ways we fight against the lies of the enemy and walk in the victory of Jesus. Discover how praise can impact your life right now.
We don’t always feel like praising God. Things happen in everyday life that steals our inner innate desire to praise God. In praise, we celebrate who God is, His goodness and His greatness. When we are in a dark spot, the last thing we want
to do is celebrate. But when we are in the darkest place is the exact time when we need to celebrate who God is the most.
The worldly perspective is that we celebrate when things are fortunate. In the world, your circumstances define your disposition. By contrast, we celebrate God not because life is good but because God is good. If we are defined by our
environment, then we have nothing to bring to our situations. However, when we can focus on God in the midst of our situations, we gain a perspective that allows us to bring joy to our environment.
We celebrate because God is victorious in the midst of evil in this world. Praising God is a form of spiritual warfare. By praising we are proclaiming God’s victory in the midst of what looks like defeat. This is not just for our own sake, but also for the sake of others. Praise allows us to do warfare for others who are too weak to fight. When we praise together, it causes us to realize that “the joy of the Lord is our strength.”