Praise to God according to the Bible is the way in which his greatness is manifested and exalted. The term “praise” contains different verbs such as: exalt, celebrate, adore, exalt, ponder to highlight the relevance of God in our lives.
For this reason it is very important to praise his name at all times. However, we must sincerely praise and leave behind everything that worries us in this world.
Praises to God and his royal purpose
The real and true purpose of praising God is to magnify his name with all our heart and disposition. So the praises to God have as their center to recognize the majesty of him and everything he does for us in the moments when we need it most.
In this sense, the meaning of praising God is rooted in recognizing who he is and what he is like, and one of the ways in which the Lord’s character is revealed is through his names, since to get to know him we must know the meaning of his various names, and in this way we can praise him according to what they mean.
In the same way it is important to consider the nature and the will of God that is perfect and that is intended for each of his children. So to praise God we must take into account the following aspects:
1.- The origin of the name “Jehovah”
In order to praise God in a correct way, we must know our Father and the origin of his name, since every time we name him, we will know its meaning, and we can find it when God gave Moses the revelation in the bush. fiery, as expressed in his word:
Exodus 3:13-15 “Moses said to God: -If I go to the children of Israel and say to them: “The LORD, the God of your fathers, has sent me to you”, they will ask me: “What is his name? ” So what will I answer them? God answered Moses: -“I am who I am.” And he added: -Thus you will say to the children of Israel: “I am” “he sent me to you”. Furthermore, God said to Moses: “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; with him I will be remembered for all the centuries.” (Exodus 3:13-15)
2.- The various names attributed to God according to the Bible
To give our full adoration and praise to God it is important to know the sacred scriptures and know the various names attributed to him. According to the Bible, the name of God by Jehovah-tsidkenu means “Jehovah our righteousness”.
As revealed in the book of Jeremiah 23:5-6 “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up David, a righteous renewal, and he will reign as King, who will be blessed and will act according to law and justice on earth. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell in safety; and this will be his “Jehovah, our righteousness.”
On the other hand we find the combined name of God Jehovah-m’kaddesh, which means “the Lord who sanctifies”. This can be seen in the following biblical quote that is in Leviticus 20:8 “Keep my statutes and put them to work. I am the LORD who sanctifies you.”
Another of the combined names of God is Jehovah-shalom which denotes: “Jehovah is peace”, and in the Bible we can find it in the book of Judges 6:24 “Gideon built an altar to Jehovah there and called it Jehovah-shalom. This altar remains to this day in Ofra of the Abiezerites.”
Similarly, there is the combined name, Jehovah-sama, whose meaning is: “God is here”, and can be seen in the book of Ezekiel 48:35. “The entire contour will have 18,000 reeds. And from that day the name of the city will be Jehovah-sama”.
We can also find in the Bible the combination Jehovah-rophe which means “Jehovah heals”, and we can appreciate it in the book of Isaiah 53:5 “But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our sins. For giving us peace, punishment fell on him, and by his sores we were healed.”
In this way we can see that there are many combinations to name God and each one of them has a meaning and a purpose of being, for this reason it is of great importance to have knowledge to praise with awareness of what we are doing and thank him through adoration for everything. what he does every day for us.
Meaning of the terms “praise” and “worship”
The terms “praise” and “worship” are used by many people in congregations, which turns out to be something positive, but when it comes to real biblical praise, where homage is rendered to one true God.
However, we must recognize that those people dedicated to the praise and worship of God have rarely taken the time to study in depth what the Bible teaches about these important actions.
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According to the Bible, to worship God means to prostrate yourself before Him. But the term “adoration” as such does not appear in the sacred scriptures, not in the Reina-Valera version of 1960. This is really surprising to us, but the word “to adore”, if we can find it about 150 times.
According to the Bible, worshiping God is a response of gratitude for his blessings, and this response should be with our whole being. There are three Biblical examples of this:
- When Abraham went up Mount Moriah to worship the Lord, offering his son Isaac as a burnt offering: “Then Abraham said to his servants, Wait here with the donkey, and I and the boy will go there and worship, and we will return to you.” (Gen. 22:5)
- Micah by saying “…do justice, love mercy, and humble yourself before your God” (Michael 6:6-8)
- The worship of the apostle Paul: “…that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your rational worship” (Rom. 12:1).
What is the main objective of praising God?
According to the Holy Scriptures, the main objective of praising God is to please God and give all the glory and honor to his name, to the Great I Am. But true praise and adoration is not egocentric, but theocentric, since in the center we are not as an “I”; there is God
In this sense, praising God is not about our tastes, but about what pleases the Lord and we can know this by knowing in depth the meaning of true worship that the Holy Scriptures teach us, since in many cases the message can be misrepresented.
Therefore we must make sure to practice a sound doctrine that is within the principles of Christ. Which is a challenge, since there are many false sects today that are breaking with that message of salvation that truly should be the center of all praise.
According to the Bible, singing and praising God are two things that are related but at the same time they are very different. Therefore, the lyrics of most hymns and songs present phrases such as great are your works!”, “Holy, holy, holy, Almighty Lord!”; “Your fidelity is great!”; “How big is the!”; “You are big!; among other.
In this sense, the praises of God have a biblical basis and we can find them especially in the book of psalms where we can appreciate psalms of lamentation, trust, thanksgiving, messianic psalms, psalms crying out for help, among others.
One of the aspects that must be considered in the psalms is the fact that they express different circumstances, both good and bad, from anguish to plenitude.
Therefore there are two more important aspects than songs and that is the Word of God and prayer. And praise times turn out to be very important for everyone in general, since there we fully expose our personal feelings, letting out everything we have experienced and showing gratitude for his unconditional help in each of the situations of our life.
Within the Old Testament, music turns out to be very important, but more so is the Word of God and prayer. In fact, there are complete books that do not contain any notes about music. In the four Gospels there are not so many references to music and we can only find one reference to singing to the Lord.
How is the praise of God today?
According to the Bible, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ marked a pattern in the matter of worship, as can be seen in the following quote when the Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman saying: “The hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you adore the Father… The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will adore the Father in spirit and in truth; because the Father also seeks such worshipers to worship him…” (John 4:21-24).
In this quote the Lord tells us about a change in worship while waiting for his second coming, where true worship must praise the Father in spirit, and where the work of Jesus Christ is manifested.
Worship before Jesus Christ focused on his future coming to earth; and post-Christ worship focuses backwards on his representation, his death, and his resurrection. Therefore, the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ must be at the center of our praise and adoration.
Yet some believers speak of Christ, the Cross, and the gospel as if it had nothing to do with praise and worship. But in the book of Revelation; It largely describes the worship of believers and angels in heaven, and it is also one of the books of the Bible that most mentions Christ, where it begins and ends with the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Bible we can find about twenty-four names of Jesus, of which the name of the Lamb was used the most, where all praise was based on his perfect sacrifice.
“And I looked, and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and of the living creatures, and of the elders; And their number was millions upon millions, saying with a loud voice: The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and praise. (Revelation 5:11-12)
In this sense, praising God has no value if there is no true worship in our lives. It is not easy to live the faith in everyday life, as it is challenging, but sometimes we change a lot when we are in our homes and we get carried away by the old man. Therefore we must live righteously if we want to worship God from the heart.
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Even the Lord had to rebuke his people Israel on different occasions for the inconsistency between their worship and their lives, as can be seen in the following biblical quote: “Wash yourselves and be clean; remove the iniquity of your works from before my eyes; stop doing bad” (Is. 1:16).
On the other hand, the apostle Paul refers to our “rational worship” in relation to our lives, not to what we do within the church: “So, brothers, I beg you by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your rational service. Don’t settle for…