Spirituality of Praise 

What is Praise?
Praise is a path that can lead you to joy, hope, peace, and more. Praise is the MOST repeated command in the Bible. In the New Testament alone, praise was commanded 692 times. In the Old Testament, there are around 6,160 mentions of praise. We can see this clearly in this verse. “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised.” Psalm 96:1-4. (there are different synonyms of the word).

Praise is the work of the angels who are continuously standing before the Throne of God without boredom or unrest because it is their pleasure and joy to praise their Creator. Praise is the highest level of prayer one can attain. For us, it is participation with the Heavenly hosts in praising the Lord.

Additionally, St. Gregory the Theologian says in his Liturgy: “Who gave those on earth the praise of the Seraphim, accept our voices with the unseen, count us with the heavenly hosts...” On Earth, we use the same praise as in the heavens, showing how precious this act is.
Since the church is considered the Living Body of Jesus Christ, praise is undoubtedly one of its functions. Praise has been offered since the beginning of the Church. It is said in the Book of Acts “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and break bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:46-47). We must participate with the angels and praise the Most High.

How do We Get to the Level of Praise?
Before we attain a life of praise, we must learn to have a life of worship. Worship comes from the Greek word to kneel down and kiss; to give Him the adoration that is due. The essence of worship is staying obedient and following God’s commandments. We can look at this type of worship from Our Mother the Virgin Saint Mary. She was initially a vulnerable girl serving in the Altar but she had a sudden vision that she would give birth to the Son of God and was obedient in agreeing to do so. After hearing this good news, she went to Elizabeth and Elizabeth said

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Saint Mary responded by saying “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Her dedication and worship of the Lord from a young age led her to be able to praise. Once God had visited her, she felt all that she had to do was praise Him out of her love and this is the kind of posture that we should all strive to have. Sincere praise is from the heart and is all about you putting your trust in God and realizing who he is and what he can do.

EVERY righteous man or woman of God in the core of their life is living in a world of praising God and giving thanks despite hard times. Praise is not only the voice, the words, or the action. It’s rather what teaches us inside. It is a Divine sacrifice that we offer to the Lord of Hosts. “Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound” (Psalms 89:15)

We will learn in heaven how to praise Him but we should start on earth. Through this, we will feel the presence of the Lord in our hearts. Let us truly learn to let’s enjoy praises in our hearts and the church so that we are prepared to praise Him in Heaven

What’s Really in it for Me?
“Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry loud, you who have not labored with child!” (Isaiah 54:1). In this verse Isaiah is telling a barren woman to praise. In the Old Testament, the barren woman was the most miserable and pitied of all people. At that time, they believed that if a woman was barren, it was a curse from God but Isaiah comes to this circumstance and says to rejoice. The Lord goes on and says, “For you shall expand to the right and to the left, And your descendants will inherit the nations, And make the desolate cities inhabited. "Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore” (Isaiah 54: 3-4). God told the woman what’s to come and that you will be joyful. Normally, we think once I get the things I want I will praise. This is not how it works with our Lord. It’s easy to sing when you have everything, but it’s not praise. Praise is when everyone tells you that you have nothing but you know that you have everything, like the barren woman. The Lord will provide if we praise. Joy comes from the presence of God. The presence of God comes from praise. God will inhabit our lives when we praise. When God comes, everything will come with Him.

Focusing on what He has given me is more important than focusing on what He hasn’t given me. This can be seen with the Prodigal Son. He had freedom and money once he left which is what he wanted. Once he ran out of money, he didn’t say if only I had more money. He said if only I had my father. We need to come to the same realization. We need more of God and we will get this through praise.

Praise makes God bigger and makes me and my circumstances smaller. It's telling God I have so many things happening in my life, but my focus is on You. Focusing on what’s greater is what’s rewarding. It is important to note that you will have the same problems before, during, and after praise. But you won’t be the same person. “Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills. To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Let’s stop telling God how big our problems are. Let’s tell our problems how big God is.

How can I live this practically?

One way we can offer praise to Our Creator is midnight praises. The best thing about midnight praises is that we ONLY praise the King of kings for His mighty acts.
Another way is to start taking advantage of the time in the car. Listening and singing praises is a way to regulate praise in our lives.
Although these are merely examples, the goal isn’t the action. The goal is what it trains you to do. Giving yourself muscle memory will help you when the storm hits. Look at Job for example. Before his tribulations, he praised God and offered sacrifices so that when he lost everything, he was able to praise God knowing that there was something greater to come.
The Effect of Practicing Praise in One’s Life
Paul and Silas preached the word of God and were overtaken by a mob, stripped from their clothes, beaten by rods, and thrown into the inner prisons with their feet chained. The inner prisons were completely isolated and left them with no one to aid them. “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:25). They chose not to focus on the problem at hand. Rather, they focused on what’s greater than the problem. “Suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed” (Acts 16:26). The main focus is to transform the energy of complaining and anger into praise to Our Father. Praise will not fix your problem, but solutions to the problem will be opened up by God. Let’s think of ourselves as Moses. He was an old man and climbed Mount Sinai to be in the presence of God. Like Moses let’s climb and leave the cares of the world aside and praise God. We will climb and keep praising to reach God at the top every time.

“O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth your praise” (Psalms 51:15).

In the end, let’s pray that we focus on the Lord. Because we know that the presence of God is what brings joy. And praise is what brings the presence of God.

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” ( Hebrews 13:15).

The biggest takeaway:
My focus will not be on myself, my problem, or my situation. My focus will be on the Lord.