Press the arrow to listen to David Crowder’s “You Make Everything Glorious” while reading today’s devotion about praise.

Scripture
“…Praise is beautiful, praise is fitting.” Psalm 147:1

Observation
We praise for two reasons: God is good and praise is good for us.

Praise is as natural a response to seeing the Lord as is a gasp at first sight of Pikes Peak at sunrise. Praise is the reflex of our relationship with God.

But there is more to praise than the obvious. We are called to praise because it is good for us. Without praise humans become self-focused absorbed. What will matter most are our problems, our pride, our perspective, our needs, our anxieties, our selfishness and more. A person without a praise-life is someone who looks down at his scuffed shoes absorbed in self.

A person with a praise-life is looking at the feet of Jesus resting on the footstool of his enemies. Praise takes the focus off from self and puts it squarely on the Lord. The face radiates with love and grace beyond ourselves. Praise is becoming on us. We are lifted out from despair, elevated above our problems to see things from God’s point of view. Praise brings peace to the heart because our world is put into order.

Application
The first sentence of Psalm 147 could very well be paraphrased like this: “praise looks good on you.” Praise is what sets us apart from cows, dogs and cats. To us is given the privilege of looking up at a sunrise and knowing whom to thank. Praise not only declares that God is God and we are not, but it also airbrushes our lives with the residue of the Lord’s passing.

Prayer
Father, so often I get immersed in detail and forget that there is someone who holds it all together. Help me to be as mindful of praise in the middle and the end of the day as I am at the start, and on Monday as much as on Sunday. Amen.