What is Praise?

I want to simplify what has become a very mysterious topic in our days, so complicated that the normal believer must have an expert to explain what is plain in the scriptures.

Allow me to use our normal relationships, especially with our leaders.

What happens when a leader visits a region, especially a place far removed from much development?

Do the residents start with whining that they have been neglected for a long time?

Of course not.

They start by talking positive about the leader and his leadership.

In positions where leadership is got through the electoral process, they will seek to compare him with his predecessors to demonstrate to him that he is the best among all the leaders they have elected, even if he had just been elected.

They will tell him that they voted for him, even if he got a pittance of votes from that region, because of his good heart and development record even if he had never occupied a public office.

They will even sing songs that have been composed for that visit to make him feel good.

This is what will warm the leader’s heart immensely before they then make their demands.

That in simple terms is what praise is.

Praise is not singing, though it will sometimes involve singing. It is not dancing though the explosion of the same could very easily burst into dancing.

The detestable person we call a bootlicker is the embodiment of praise, only that he uses it for personal gain and against others.

Let us take it to the spiritual realm since that is where it is most spoken and taught.

Praise is not a song or series of songs.

Praise is simply telling God who He is, especially to you.

It is not running a commentary of what has been happening to you. It is not whining about what He has failed to do. It is not reporting the devil and his mischief. It is not telling Him how much faith you have in Him.

Yet the simple act of genuine praise will do all that and more.

But praising God is telling God in the best way you know how He has been good to you.

Gratitude and praise have a seesaw relationship.

Just as praise will very quickly lead to gratitude, gratitude will also result in praise.

Gratitude is recognizing God for what He has done for you and praise is doing the same for who God is to you.

One is looking at the person of God while the other is looking at the workings of God, the same God.

Hearing some of the songs being called praise is as scandalous as hearing a dirge in a wedding or a party song in a funeral.

Many have no relationship with the person of God or His acts.

To many people, any danceable song is praise and any slow song is worship even if both have identical lyrics.

But I will not write about worship in song since I have written about worship just recently.