Revelation 19 Lesson

PRAISE

Praising God is about giving Him the reverence, respect, and glory that He deserves.  

Dictionary.comdefines the word praise as:

• “To express approval or admiration of.”
• “To offer grateful homage to (God or deity), as in words or song.”

There are two ways primarily that we praise God:

1. By what we say,
2. By what we do. 

BIBLE VERSES ABOUT PRAISE

1. “Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.” - James 5:13,
2. “Come, let’s worship and bow down.  Let's kneel before the Lord our Maker.  For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. ” - Psalm 95:6-7,
3. “Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name.” -Hebrews 13:15,
4. "Everything that has breath shall praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!" - Psalm 150:6,
5. “Therefore I will give thanks to You, Lord, among the nations, and I will sing praises to Your name.” - 2 Samuel 22:50.

PRAISE IS IMPORTANT TO GOD

There are a lot of reasons to praise God. Perhaps the most important reason is that praise is important to Him.

In the final psalm, theword “praise” is used thirteen times!  

• “Praise the Lord!   Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty expanse.   Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness.   Praise Him with trumpet sound;praise Him with harp and lyre.   Praise Him with tambourine and dancing; praise Him with stringed instruments and flute.   Praise Him with loud cymbals; praise Him with resounding cymbals.   Everything that has breath shall praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” – Psalm 150.

According to christianbiblereference.org, the word “praise” appears 179 times in the Old Testament, and 28 times in the New Testament (NASB).  

The sheer number of times the word is mentioned in the Bible tells us a lot about its importance to God.  

PRAISE HIM WITH HUMILITY AND THANKSGIVING

An important part of praise is giving God the reverence and respect that He deserves.   When we are praising God, we need to follow the example of Jesus who when He taught others to pray began with:

• “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” – Mathew 6:9.

Jesus recognized God’s authority and showed Him all the honor and respect that He deserves by making sure to say, "Hallowed be Your name."  When we praise God, we need to make sure that we do the same.  

An important part of praising God is giving thanks and recognizing that every good and perfect gift is from above (James 1:17).

The Apostle Paul wrote often wrote about praising God. For today’s lesson, we have highlighted the following four scriptures:

1. “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:18,
2. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.” - Colossians 3:17,
3. “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” - Philippians 4:6,
4. “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God.” - Ephesians 5:18-20.

One of the ways that we praise God, is by thanking Him for the things that we have.

PRAISING GOD PUBLICLY AND PRIVATELY

It is important to thank God publicly.   It gives Him glory and shifts the attention from us to Him.

But what about the times when we are alone?   Should we also praise God then?

Absolutely!

When we are alone, we need to remember that everything we have is from God so we can humbly give Him the thanks that He deserves.  

CONCLUSION

Praising God is important to God, and something that we should do every day.   When we offer Him praise, we need to do so humbly and with thanksgiving.  

Whether we are alone, or with others, God wants us to give Him constant praise.

We will end today’s lesson with the following scripture:

• “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth.Serve the Lord with jubilation;Come before Him with rejoicing.Know that the LordHimself is God;It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.Enter His gates withthanksgiving, and His courtyards with praise.Give thanks to Him, bless His name.For the Lord is good;His mercyis everlasting and His faithfulness is to all generations. - Psalm 100:1-5.