Praise in Prayer, Part 3
Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
Psalm 147:1
When we praise God our own hearts rejoice. It is pleasant to praise Him, and it is fitting or right to praise Him.
The theme of Psalm 147 is the redemptive grace of God. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (147:3), is a reference to the returning exiles from Babylon. For over 70 years many Israelites were forced to live in Babylon and serve the government there. But God finally put an end to this period of His discipline and restored His people back to Jerusalem. By His grace they returned and a new hope was given to their hearts.
There is a spiritual image in this for Babylon is often used in Scripture as symbolic of the world. A Christian can never be at home in the world and its values. Our hearts are not here; they are in heaven with our God. Praise takes into account the redemptive purpose and power of God. What sin has sought to destroy, God is in the process of restoring.
Praise takes into account not only the eternal attributes of God but also His eternal purpose and plan. David, in Psalm 23, used the Shepherd motif to compare the Church to a flock of sheep. The first verse, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want,” is an expression of praise. When the believer realizes in His heart that the eternal purposes of God will triumph in the end, and triumph for all eternity, it is the cause of joy and praise.
I have known many a married man to wake up one day and realize what a wonderful wife he has — many to be brought to tears, and of course, they would probably never show those tears to their wives. But a good wife is a cause for rejoicing and for praise. It is right for a husband to praise his wife, and it is right for a wife to praise her husband, both doing so for their good attributes, and especially for their faithfulness to the marriage relationship.
It is even better, though, to praise the Lord, to brought to a fresh realization of how great our God is. Do you realize that God will never forget you? Do you realize that He loves you entirely and for all eternity? Do you realize that Christ has paid for all of your sins and has given you a new life and a new nature? Take time to praise Him for His goodness, His love, His grace, and for the assurance of eternal victory. Your heart will agree that it is pleasant to do so, and it is fitting to praise Him.
