Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Why does the Bible talk endlessly about praising the Lord? For example, Psalm 150: "Praise Him according to His excellent greatness" (cf. vss. 1-6; and numerous other psalms). What does our praise do for Him? It cannot be that He exists on endless flattery; He is not vain! Psalm 22:3 says, "You are holy, enthroned upon the praises of Israel" (Hebrew).
Are we to praise Him endlessly because of His mighty power as Creator and Sustainer of the universe, the Author of life?
The Lord of the Bible, the God of Israel, and also "the Lord of all the earth" (Zech. 6:5), is indeed the Almighty who holds the nations as dust in His hands and they are counted as "a drop in a bucket" (Isa. 40:15-17). But is that the reason why we praise Him so much? No, there is a far greater reason that fuels the numerous calls in the Bible to "praise the Lord."
The Lord of the Bible is the One whose love motivated Christ, and drove Him to "taste" the second death for this lost world. He "tasted death" for every one of its doomed inhabitants (Heb. 2:9). It was eternal death that He tasted, hell itself. That's the measure of His love.
Understand that width and length and depth and height of His love (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19), and you too can never stop singing His praise.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 30, 2007.
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