How do we “praise” God? Over time words become just words. For most of my life I’ve said things like, “Oh God, I praise your name.” “I exalt you.” What does that mean? Is that really praise and exultation?
“O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.” (Isaiah 25.1 ESV)
How do we “praise” God? Over time words become just words. For most of my life I’ve said things like, “Oh God, I praise your name.” “I exalt you.” What does that mean? Is that really praise and exultation?
Isaiah declared to God, “…you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name…”. I’ve found myself, during prayer or in a worship setting saying, “I praise your name.” Actually, when Isaiah (and David, et.al.) says “I will praise your name,” they committed to speak favorably of the Lord, both in his presence and before others.
To exalt God is not saying, “Oh God I exalt you.” When we say, “I will exalt you” we commit to living our lives in a certain way. We are committing to God that we will exalt him through our attitudes, our actions, and our living. We have exalted him to lordship in our lives because he is our God. We have exalted him by making Christ the center of our lives. We exalt God by making his ways higher than our ways.
[shareable]When we say, “I will exalt you” we commit to living our lives in a certain way. We are committing to God that we will exalt him through our attitudes, our actions, and our living.[/shareable]
To praise God is to speak of his excellent goodness, grace, mercy, love, justice, wisdom, kindness, compassion, etc. When I praise my wife I don’t say, “Oh Donna I praise you, you are worthy of praise.” No, I say something like, “You are an awesome wife, the way you care for me and love me.” I might say, “You are a precious person, always kind and loving and I love you for that.” When I praise my wife to others I tell them about her. I tell them why I think she is awesome! I talk about her virtues.
Isaiah said, “I will praise your name.” When I praise God I tell him what I think is awesome about him. I tell him what I think about his virtues. I praise him for what he’s done in my life. When I’ve made a commitment to praise God I talk about his wonderful works, I talk about what I think is so great about him. I praise him by speaking positively about him.
When I exalt God I elevate him in my life, in my conversations. I exalt God by living my life according to his greatness and attributing all of the glory (credit) to him. Here’s the thing… when I give glory to God then people see God. This is a revelation of God, they are seeing God through his work in my life. When people see God (revelation) they are changed (transformation). When I exalt myself no one transforms, no one is positively and eternally changed. When I exalt God, He receives glory, he is revealed to others, and it opens an avenue of transformation.
[shareable]I exalt God by living my life according to his greatness and attributing all of the glory (credit) to him.[/shareable]
So, praising and exalting God may include standing in a “worship service” and saying, “I praise you, I exalt you, I worship you, etc.”, but truly praising God is becoming verbal with specifics for three reasons — first, I worship him by attributing worth to him by rehearsing his greatness revealed in my life, second, that I remember what’s so great about God and third, that others hear about the specific greatness of God as He is revealed in my life.
I praise and exalt God for three reasons (among many others)…
- To attribute worth to him by rehearsing the revelation of his greatness in my life.
- To continually remind myself what’s so great about God that his glory may continually affect my life.
- To communicate to others God’s specific greatness revealed in my life, that they too may experience it.
I write in my journal for myself. I’m not trying to impose anything on anyone else, I’m just making myself vulnerable by sharing some of the contents of my journal in the obedient hope that someone might see themselves in it and be encouraged. I’m not imposing the following on anyone else, but I am making a conscious effort to be more intentional in my exaltation and praise of God.
[callout]Moving forward, my praise of God will be more specific.[/callout]
Moving forward, my praise of God will be more specific. I’m not going to just say, “Lord I praise your name.” I am going to be specific. To say, “I praise you” is a hanging declaration begging completion. Rather say, “I praise you for….”
I am going to see exultation of God as something I do and not something I only say. I exalt him by making him the Lord of my life in every way. I worship him by the way I live my life. Words without action are useless. True praise, exaltation, and worship elevates Him in me and He becomes visible through me.
Why will I exalt him? Why will I praise him? Well, I will just use the words of Isaiah to answer that question: “…for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”
I will exalt Him. I will praise His name.
