“From the rising of the sun to its setting, let the name of the Lord be praised.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭113‬:‭3‬ ‭CSB‬‬

I struggle with praise. I find it hard to praise other people, and I also find it hard to praise God. I guess it’s just not something I have much experience with. On the other hand I find gratitude and saying thank you very easy. I thank people for big things and small quite often. And the first thing I do when I pray is thank God for His many blessings. But thankfulness and praise are not the same thing at all, although they are often mistakenly used interchangeably. After studying the Psalms, especially David’s writings, I have learned a lot about praise. The big difference between gratefulness and praise is that gratefulness is all about me while praise is all about God. When I thank God for a beautiful sunrise, I’m telling Him that I appreciate how His art has affected me. It made my morning more beautiful and joyful. When I praise God, I tell Him I appreciate His creativity in making such art and marvel at the fact that He makes this art whether anyone is there to notice it or not. I simple tell Him how beautiful His character is. When I was first studying praise, I wondered why God wants me to praise Him. Is He really that needy and insecure that He had to create people to tell Him how wonderful He is? Ha, no! After writing new praises every morning in a “praise journal”, I quickly learned the real reason God wants me to praise Him. It is really for me, not for Him. He doesn’t need anything from me. But it is incredibly helpful for me to spend time contemplating how big, powerful, holy, loving, beautiful, patient, creative, funny, forgiving (and so much more!) God is. It increases my faith, builds my trust of Him, and calms my fears. When I praise God, I am reminded of who He is and how silly of me it is to worry about anything.

Dear Beautiful Creator,

Thank you so much for being you! You are amazing. You created everything, you are everywhere, and you know everything. You fill the vast space between the stars as well as the areas between the molecules of my thumb with your holiness and love. You are more than I can imagine and yet you love it when I try. Praise to you, oh Lord!