Praise will always be our response when we see God. He’ll always be more than enough. His blessings will always enrich us. He is the God who stoops down to wash our dusty feet (John 13:1-17) and as we see how much He blesses us, we realise that He will never short-change us or sell us short and our response to that is praise.
Praise is not an automatic reaction, however; it’s a choice (we are ‘made to worship’, but this involves a choice to believe God over our feelings: see ‘Made To Worship’ by Chris Tomlin.) Many find this concept hard to grasp. They believe it’s hypocritical to praise God when you’re feeling cross, hurt or just indifferent. They believe you have to feel like praising God before you praise Him.
The world has a saying ‘fake it until you make it’ which reminds us that feelings follow action, however; they don’t have to precede it.
Ps 134’s command, its antidote to feelings-led response, is ‘Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.’ (Ps 134:2) Eugene Peterson reminds us that, for most of us, ‘you can lift up your hands regardless of how you feel; it is a simple motor movement.’ (‘The Journey’, P 176) The Levites had a professional job to do in leading worship through the watches of the night when tiredness and staleness often have a habit of making us feel our worship is sluggish. The practical command to lift hands reminds us that praising God is not all about feelings (Humphrey Bogart once defined a professional as a person who ‘did a better job when he didn’t feel like it’); it’s about a determination and choice to remember who God is and what He has done and to speak well of these things.
Praising God is easy when we start to ‘count our blessings.’ We begin by speaking (or singing) out truths we know about God. We focus on His character and His actions and we pause to remember and declare. The more we do this, the more we find to say and sing! God’s will is for us to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thess 5:18) and even to give thanks for everything (Eph 5:20), for we know He is sovereign over all and working all things together for good. (Rom 8:28)
As we choose to believe that and lift up our hands, as we choose to praise no matter what our feelings, we will find that feelings follow faith, rather than the other way around.
