That saying is inspired by the 67th Psalm and that’s also what the image for today’s post is about. Please take the time to read it in its entirety and to meditate on it.
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—
2 so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.
6 The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
7 May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.
-- Psalm 67 (NIV)
Last week we talked about how to get an answer from God, this week we’ll talk about one way to get a blessing from God. And, we even mentioned it in last week’s post: praising and thanking God for all that you do have to be thankful for, starting with salvation.
Just like we have fundamental laws of physics in the natural world, there are fundamental laws in the spiritual realm; “when praises go up, blessings come down” is one of them. Another one is “you will reap what you sow”. While that’s not the focus of this post, it’s important to keep that spiritual law in mind with whatever you do. If you give sparingly, you will receive sparingly. If you do something begrudgingly, you will be rewarded begrudgingly, if at all. It is the same with praising God, so how you praise Him is how you can expect to receive the blessing. We should praise God because he is worthy: His name, His word, His works, His overall goodness which I could go on and on about 🙂 However, and most of all, we praise Him because we love him. Well, let me tell you that He loves us too, and a lot more than we can ever believe.
Praise at its simplest means recognition, but it’s a word that is generally reserved for God. After receiving an award, you probably wouldn’t say “thank you for praising me”, but you would probably say “thank you for recognizing me”. And if you did something deserving, it would feel good to be recognized for it. You would probably even smile or be giddy as you received it. So it is with God: He smiles and is giddy when we praise Him. He gets beside Himself, it causes Jesus to move, and it quickens His Spirit; He must respond and do something and that’s why blessings come down.
In our current society and teachings, we’re programmed to think of God as this person with an emotionless stare or weirdly focused look that cannot be bothered with anyone, and that’s 100% not Him. If you only remember one thing from this post, remember this: When you praise God, He gets emotional about it!
I struggled to find the right scripture for this post because there were many to choose from, but I had it all along as I was studying the passage for a while. It’s in Exodus 34, if you read the chapter with how society views and teaches God, you will miss the subtlety of God’s character in it.
Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. — Exodus 34:2 (NIV)
Now, this sounds like just a command. It was, but there is emotion at work here. God was excited, he wanted to be with and show Moses something.
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the Lord. Exodus 34:5 (NIV)
This is such an amazing and powerful verse, yet at the same time there is a very little subtlety there that when you see it, it will make you cry. Let’s go back to the book of Genesis.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” — Genesis 3:8-9 (NIV)
I truly believe God missed walking and being with man in person. While in a cloud, I think He was ecstatic to meet with Moses like that as it reminded Him of his walks and talks with Adam and Eve.
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped. — Exodus 34:6-8 (NIV)
A lot more happened on that mountain than we’re told here. There were a lot of heavenly hosts and revelations only meant for Moses to see. While Exodus 34 isn’t directly about praise, it shines some light on how God feels as a Father. The better you understand that, the better you can not only praise Him, but also grow and devote yourself to Him. God wants our praise because He is our father and wants to be loved as such.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. — Acts 16:25-26 (NIV)
If heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool, I like to think God shook the earth with His big foot 🙂 Paul and Silas were not out seeking a blessing that night, they were simply just loving God. More people receive miracles from simply praising God than those who only focus on the need.
The title and spiritual law say “when praises go up, blessings come down”, but that is not why we do it. We do it to make our heavenly Father happy. It just so happens that while he’s happy with us “good things” happen.
If you are not saved/redeemed please do so today.
Come to God open, empty and without statements.
Ask him to be real to you and believe in Him.
Humble yourself before Him, confess who you are, and your sins.
Ask Him to forgive you and to come into your life and start a personal relationship.
Believe this and be born again!
May God bless and keep all who read this.
May God bless and keep all brothers and sisters, new and old, in the faith in his name.
With his love and mine,
Chrom