Day 9: The Command To Praise Him

This exhortation to praise the Lord, to thank Him, to bless Him, runs throughout the whole Bible, Old Testament and New Testament alike. Let’s look at some words in Psalm 100, verses 4 and 5, speaking about how we have access into God’s presence:

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations.”

That is really not an option; it’s instruction. You could call it a command. How do we come into God’s presence? With thanksgiving. With praise. It’s not a question of whether we feel like it, but: what does the Bible tell us to do? If we’re Christians, we’re committed to obey God’s Word. We don’t obey primarily out of emotions; but out of a decision of our will. You might say: “Well, right now I don’t see anything to praise God for. My situation is not the way I want it and things don’t seem to be going right.” I want to point out to you that the reason given in this psalm for praising and thanking the Lord does not depend on situations. You see, praise should never depend on your situation.

The psalmist gives three great, unchanging reasons why we ought to praise and thank the Lord and here they are:

1. The Lord is good.
2. His lovingkindness is everlasting—that’s the same word that David used when he said God crowns with lovingkindness and tender mercies.
3. His faithfulness endures to all generations.

Notice, every one of those reasons is an eternal reason. They are always true. Whether we see it or not, whether we feel like it or not, is irrelevant. The truth of the matter is: the Lord is always good. His kindness is everlasting, it never ceases. Another psalm says, “His mercies never come to an end.” And His faithfulness endures to all generations.

Now, those are three very powerful, absolutely true and unchanging reasons why we owe it to the Lord (and to ourselves, incidentally) to praise Him, to thank Him, to bless Him.

I want to place now the responsibility right before you, my dear reader, at this point. Have you ever made this decision? How is your relationship of praise to the Lord? Do you wait until you feel like it? Do you wait until things are going right? I could almost promise you that things will begin to go less and less right until you change that attitude. God will see to it that you offer Him praise as a sacrifice. That’s what the New Testament says in Hebrews 13:15: “By Him [Jesus Christ] let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually [all the time].”

Let me repeat what I said before: praise brings satisfaction. The satisfied Christians are the praising Christians—the ones who don’t let situation or emotion dictate to them, the ones who have made that decision with their will to bless the Lord at all times and to have His praise continually in their mouth. If you’ve never made that decision, I suggest that you make it right now.