6 Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever Praise

Firstly, to clarify, all of the components of prayer glorify God. Our petition because we are calling attention to God’s sovereign ability to answer. Our repentance because we are showing Him to be forgiving. Our thanksgiving for we are recognising & feeling gratitude to God for His gifts.

Throughout the Psalms, and the entire Bible, the continual commands to “Praise the Lord,” seem to cause a problem and make God look like, as CS Lewis described, “a vain woman wanting compliments.” However, God in demanding our praise is demanding our joy.

This is called ‘Christian Hedonism,’ that “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” As Revelation 19:7 says, “Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,” It is in our rejoicing and exulting in God that He is glorified.

Praise is enjoying God as you express to Him his character. This glorifies Him. Psalm 9:2 defines praise, saying, “I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” Praise is being glad in God, exulting, celebrating or rejoicing in God.

Again, this is clear in Psalm 70:4 “May all who seek you     rejoice and be glad in you!May those who love your salvation    say evermore, “God is great!”

Praise starts with expressing the nature of God, which simultaneously causes enjoyment of Him.

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well, in John 4, that ‘true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and truth.’ So worship, which is drinking of God as the all-satisfying well, involves the mind - that’s knowing & expressing the truth about God; and worship involves the affections -that’s your spirit/inner-being enjoying Him.

Psalm 63:2-5 “So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,     beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life,     my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live;    in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,     and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips”

Having beheld the King’s power & glory, since Jesus has brought us into his sanctuary, praise is expressing to God that “yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” as the Lord’s prayer goes. Furthermore, praise is joyfully feasting on Him who satisfies. It is in the act of praise that we both declare the greatness of God, and actually taste and enjoy him as great and greater than life itself.

Lewis said “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is it’s appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”

Therefore, praise, because in the very act of praise, your soul will be satisfied.