Why Would God Want Us to Praise Him?
February 27, 2005 Posted by Amy Hall
I was recently asked why God would want us to praise and worship Him. This is a question I hear every so often since we immediately assume that a person who demands praise is a pompous big-head. I think there are many Christians out there who secretly wonder about this–afraid to ask the question (lest they be thought unspiritual), but bothered all the same.
God is completely self-sufficient and doesn't need our praise and worship. However, He does deserve it. Would you agree that it is right and good to praise someone who is worthy of praise? We instinctively know this and praise people for all sorts of achievements. We praise the people we love and admire, and it's not right or good for us to withhold praise from them.
We all understand the concept of praise being due certain people. Imagine that you crafted an incredibly beautiful sculpture and won a prestigious award for your creation; but when the time came for the award ceremony, they gave the prize for your sculpture to the wrong artist! That would not be just, right, or good. In the same way, God–as the only being perfect in goodness, justice, love, etc.–is worthy of our praise. We do, in fact, owe Him that praise. He wants us to praise Him because it is right and good for us to do so. Since God wants us to do right and good things, of course he wants us to praise and worship Him.
Beyond the praise being right and good (and because of its being right and good), worshiping God also brings us joy and enhances our relationship with Him. We see this in human relationships as well–think of a man with his wife. Doesn’t it bring him great joy to praise her?
Finally, God created us for His pleasure (just as we create delightful things for our pleasure). Praising God–acknowledging His goodness, love, perfection, and all the incredible things He has done for us–brings Him pleasure. If you have children, you know what a beautiful thing it is to have them praise you. You also know the pain of having them selfishly take you for granted and ignore you. When that happens, neither you nor your children are enriched, and your relationship is strained. In the same way, the right response from us toward God is praise because He deserves it. When we act out our love and acknowledgment of Him in this way, we fulfill our purpose; and when we are rightly fulfilling our purpose, we have the best possible joy–God is pleased, our relationship with Him is enhanced, and He has rightly received what He deserves. Luckily, this is not a difficult command to follow, for when we truly love Him, our praise will flow naturally from that love.
Related posts:
- Praise the Lord Who Reigns Above
- O Holy Night (11) – Let All Within Us Praise His Holy Name
- Evil and the Cross
- In Spirit and in Truth
- CD Review: Awesome God
- Pain Now, the Land of Happy Later
Posted in Amy's Posts, Main Page, Theology
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April 3rd, 2005 at 11:36 pm
by Anonymous at 03:40PM (PST) on Mar 3, 2005
It's not that GOD is pompous, because GOD does deserve praise but, that's right, GOD is secure enough in itself to not need to be praised. And it's not that GOD is jealous in that we are attributing praise to something else; there is simply the absense of attributing priase at all. Face gave the analogy of the artist that doesn't receive praise due. Analogies are dangerous when used to explain GOD because analogies will always fall short due to the stark differences between the nature of man and the nature of GOD. We run the risk of anthropomorphizing GOD. We are offended when we do not get due praise because we need others to acknowledge our greatness. GOD knows there is no one other to acknowledge and is then not threatened. If GOD did need praise, any praise that we could give GOD would be insufficient. Does that mean we shouldn't priase GOD at all? If someone saved my life, i wouldn't send them simply a thank you note but i couldn't spend my entire life on my knees in front of them continuingly saying “thank you.” We will never be able to adequately praise GOD for all that GOD is worth. We can have an inner attitude of praise without the repetitive insufficient actions. Since GOD does not need our praise, then we praise GOD in order for us to FEEL closer to GOD, which is completely arbitrary. How close or far away we feel from GOD gives no claim to GOD's actual proximity. Either GOD is there or GOD isn't there; GOD cannot be related in terms of near or far. So, i may be burned as a heretic but give me your reasons before any matches are lit.
shell
Re: Re: Why Would God Want Us to Praise Him?
by Amy at 09:26PM (PST) on Mar 4, 2005
Shelly, I think God is offended when we give our praise away to other things or people when it is due to God. I don't think this is because He needs us to affirm Him, but because we are doing wrong when we worship something other than God. As He has said, He is a “jealous” God–that is, He hates to see us break our covenant with Him and run off to some other “god” who will end up hurting us. It is good and right for us to be with Him, and evil of us to forsake Him. He created us for Himself. Therefore, any deviation from that is wrong just as all sin is wrong. And as with sin, it hurts us and angers Him. Whole nations have been punished over it!
June 26th, 2007 at 7:34 am
I guess that the foundation of your belief and understanding of YOUR God is the biblical Hebrew and Greek writings. Consider what YOUR God/Jehovah said to his chosen people about NOT praising/worshiping/obeying him (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). What malevolence, spite, and blatant bullying. Think of the mind of the entity that said that. If a person likes me that is fine, if they do not I would NEVER threaten them. The words from God (Deut) are a tirade of threatening, bullying violence AND torture.
You talk of an award ceremony and a prize to be won. I hate all competitions where a winner is chosen and all the rest are disappointed. Can’t you see and understand that a person might struggle for days/weeks to produce something and be beaten by someone who only took half a day because he/she was talented. Consider who deserves the encouragement? Do you praise/worship someone for doing something, which is easy for him or her to do? Should a blind cripple praise and worship me because I can see and walk? If God can have a billion, billion separate thoughts in a nana second while I can only manage two or three in ten seconds should I say ..Thank you God for making me so dumbed down and stupid..let me worship you. Remember that God CAN do anything at any time he so chooses (Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay His hand or say unto Him, `What doest Thou?’). He can change anything and everything at any time he chooses to do so.
YOU live in the wealthiest country in the word with a population of 301 million people. I guess that you lead comfortable affluent life’s (consider China, Russia, India, etc, etc). There are more firearms per head of population than any other country (it’s in your constitution). The majority of the rest of the world is in a terrible state. Starvation, disease (Aids etc), famine, ignorance, wars, murder, torture, drugs, violence, exploitation, uncaring leaders/despots. Now who do YOU think placed all the vicious leaders and all the immoral people in authority that are responsible for it all? That would include past leaders like Hitler and Stalin. Of course, it is God..Romans 13:1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
My opinion is that you are like a person living in a pleasant orderly apartment while the surrounding building is burning and chaos reigns outside. But you cannot see or understand. It is as if you are drugged and blind. I am in the same position but can see that the building is on fire and that chaos reigns. What would my desire for you be? For you to open your eyes and see and understand.
Consider just one thing. The word that has been translated as Heaven from the Greek in the New Testament is The Greek word Uranus. (Matthew 3:2). The word is spelt omicron-upsilon-rho-alpha-nu-omega-nu in the Greek scriptures. It is in fact the proper noun of Uranus the Greek god and was subsequently used to name the seventh planet from the sun in 1781 and was also used to name the element Uranium that is used to produce nuclear fission in atomic bombs. Doesn’t that make nonsense of everything in the bible?
Robert
June 26th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
“Consider just one thing. The word that has been translated as Heaven from the Greek in the New Testament is The Greek word Uranus. (Matthew 3:2). The word is spelt omicron-upsilon-rho-alpha-nu-omega-nu in the Greek scriptures. It is in fact the proper noun of Uranus the Greek god and was subsequently used to name the seventh planet from the sun in 1781 and was also used to name the element Uranium that is used to produce nuclear fission in atomic bombs. Doesnt that make nonsense of everything in the bible?”
No.