Why Praise and Worship?

Praise: to express thanks to or love and respect for

Etymology: to prize (value highly) "to laud, commend, flatter,"

Worship: reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; also: an act of expressing such reverence

Etymology: worthship. "condition of being worthy, dignity, glory, distinction, honor, renown,"

Often we see praise and worship tied together. Many of us have a “praise and worship” time at the beginning of our worship services. We listen to “praise and worship” music. And we see the following in scripture:

Ps 95:1-6 - Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.

Ps 149:3 - Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!

1 Chronicles 16:29 - Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;

The combination of praise and worship is significant because we are not only recognizing who God is but also ascribing worth to Him from our hearts. All spiritual beings recognize that God is the true God. They know that! However, not all spiritual beings praise and worship God – glorifying, revering and honoring Him. Scripture tells us that Satan and 1/3 of the angels were cast out of heaven. They knew who God was – the holy creator of the universe - but they were unwilling to praise Him or respect Him.  They were rebellious. In contrast, when we worship, we are humbling ourselves; recognizing our position in relation to the God of the universe and declaring His wonderful worth!

Praise AND worship are important to our spiritual journey because in recognizing who God is, we better understand who we are. And as we explored last week, when we proclaim our praise, we are fighting the enemy of our souls. Further, as we ascribe worth to the Lord, as we understand the importance of His hand in our lives, we position ourselves to realize the abundant life that Jesus spoke of (see John 10:1-10). If we do not see God as worthy of reverence, glory, and honor, we are not truly realizing the fullness of who He is. And in that state, we are prone to lean on our own understanding of this world, which means we will always come up short on understanding and wisdom. Our God is worthy of praise because He is the only true God! He is holy, perfect, benevolent, just, loving, merciful, tender, all-powerful…. And He is also worthy to be worshipped because of how He loves us, how He provides for us, how He protects and strengthens us, how He opens doors that no man can shut, how He chooses the foolish things to put to shame the wise and chooses the weak things to shame the strong... He is the only wise God and even our most adept and astute earthly thinking is nothing in comparison to His.

Our wondrous God is the only One who is truly worthy of all our praise and all worship!