Praise [10'TH]

Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. 

While I live will I praise the Lord: 

I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 

(Psalm 146:1-2)

These last five Psalms are all about praise. I have been puzzled by praise all of my life. I think we conflate praising God with exhortation to praise God, but I don't know what this does to us. Perhaps it does not matter.

What do I mean? I remember a particular evangelist speaking of going throughout the house saying over and over, "Praise the Lord!" But is that actually praising God? No. It is admonishing one's self or others to do so. So the question is, "What would we do if we did that which we are admonished to do?" That is, "What exactly is praise?"

Another preacher once preached so well I sent him a note of thanks, expressing my appreciation for the excellent sermon. He responded saying, in part, "I think some of your praise is over the top." Praise, of course, means simply to tell someone how good they are.

When we praise the Lord, as the Psalmist urges us to do over and over again, we are reveling and recounting how great He is, how good, how amazing, how awesome. In my experience this is something that is hindered, not helped, by simply saying "praise the Lord" as if that expression, in and of itself, is praising God.

I do not think this is over-thinking, but since my 10 minutes are up I will lay this on the shelf and resume in another week. 

Now is time to pray.