What does it mean to praise the Lord? Does it mean to simply say it? Does it mean that only in the meetings of the church we raise our voices and we say, Praise God? This morning I was encouraged to see further than to worship God and to praise God means to simply present Christ the Son to the Father and to others.
The best worship to God the Father is to present the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced to Him and to give this wonderful Christ to the ones around us. We shouldn’t be religious and praise the Lord only when we are in the meeting; rather, our whole life we should offer up a sacrifice of praise to God through Christ and with Christ!
Offering up a sacrifice of praise
We are not naturally inclined to praise the Lord, and many times we pass through situations and things that cause us to rather suffer than be happy and praise God spontaneously. But through Christ we need to offer up a sacrifice of praise to God – we pass through Christ, who is the channel, the agent, and the means, of our praise.
We shouldn’t be unnecessarily disappointed with our inability to offer up a sacrifice of praise (Heb 13:15). What is sweet to the Lord is when the praise is a sacrifice when our whole natural being is in need and in pain, but we realize that the Lord is the I AM, He is the Same, and we just praise Him!
When we bear the reproach of Jesus and when we suffer on His behalf, we don’t need to “suffer and be quiet”, “groan and be full of pain” but we need to offer praise to God! It may seem crazy and abnormal, not matching our experience and our natural inclination, but in the midst of our sufferings and reproach, we can offer praise as a sacrifice to God.
We pay a price to praise Him, and we become little by little a praising person, even a being of praise! And this is not in and of ourselves, but it in Him, of Him, and through Him – the praising One, the Christ, the only One who was, is, and will be this kind of a person.
Praising God through Christ and with Christ
To praise the Lord is not only to utter words of praise to Him but even more, to experience and enjoy Christ, and then offer the Christ we enjoyed and experienced to God and to man. The real praise in the meetings needs to be constituted with our daily experiences of Christ. This is what God delights in – He wants Christ, He loves Christ, and He delights in Christ.
It is pleasing to God’s heart when we offer His Son up to Him, the Christ whom we have experienced and enjoyed. It is a great delight to God when we give Christ to the unbelievers, helping them to receive Christ, enjoy Christ, and be one with Christ.
“The real praise to the Father comes out of our experience of Christ in our daily life. This is a very pleasing praise to the Father, gladdening and rejoicing His heart. The Father desires that we glorify Him with the Son. If we glorify the Son, we glorify the Father.” (Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament)
When we glorify the Son by enjoying Him and experiencing Him, we glorify the Father – the Father is glorified in the Son’s being glorified by us (see John 17:1).
What have you experienced of Christ? What is Christ to you in your experience? When He is so much to us in our experience, praise ascends to Him for His glory!
Singing the song of the overcomers
In Revelation, it says that the overcomers sing a song to God for His praise, a song that no one knows except themselves (Rev. 14:3). What does this mean? As we daily go through things, as we experience Christ in our normal day-to-day life, as we learn to pay the price and offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, there’s a song being written which only we know.
The words and the melody are being composed, and it becomes a memorial between us and Him, with hundreds and thousands of conversations… This song will eventually be sung in the entire universe as the song only the overcomers know and can sing! What a praise to God through our experience and enjoyment of Christ!
The best way we can praise the Lord is by offering the fruit of our lips as a sacrifice of praise, calling His name and singing His praise. The praises which are the result and the issue of our experience and enjoyment of Christ are the best praises to the Father. On the one hand, this is very high and wonderful, and on the other hand this can be and should be our daily experience!
Our Christian life is day to day, from glory to glory, and from praise to praise! The more we experience Christ, the more we praise God and a costly sacrifice of praise is offered to Him through Christ and with Christ! Hallelujah!
Lord, keep us experiencing You and enjoying You daily. Make us those who offer up to You a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips calling on Your name and praising the Lord. Make us the singing and praising overcomers, who are daily in the process of composing the eternal song of praise to God! We want to offer the Christ we experienced and enjoyed to God for His satisfaction and praise! Praise You Lord for being our daily supply, our experience, and our reality! Praise the Lord!
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from portions in, The Conclusion of the New Testament (pages 3843-3844), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms (2), week 24.
- Recommended reading: Heb 13:15 and note; Rev. 14:3 and note 1;
- Hymns on this topic:
# Our mouth shut up defeats us / And wins the Devil’s smile; / So why not open battle / And chase him all the while. / By “sacrifice of praises” / And shouts of victory— / ‘Twill cost us but our faces / God’s chosen fools to be!
# I’m gonna praise God unceasingly / Because He lives in me, / He’s everything to me, / Gives life continually.
# Christ is the hope of glory, my very life is He, / He has regenerated and saturated me; - Picture source: A Sacrifice of Praise.
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