When the preschool children paint well, their teacher praises them. When they write a letter of the alphabet correctly, they get praise. When they help another child on the playground, their teacher praises them: “Good job. You did so well. Thank you. My, that letter ‘N’ is about the nicest letter ‘N’ I’ve ever seen written.”
We like to receive praise, right? You know how it is. You’ve cleaned the bathrooms, washed the clothes, vacuumed the house, and mopped the floors. Your child takes out the garbage and expects words of praise — and maybe a cookie.
It is good to praise each other for big things and for little things:
● That someone looks nice.
● That they are in worship.
● That they are a friend. Praise them for putting up with you.
Turn to the person next to you and praise them for something. It is good to praise God — to give God the honor, glory and thanks He deserves. Praise is bragging on God.
So how do we praise the Lord? There are many ways to praise the Lord. We can praise God with our hands. When we want to thank someone for what they’ve done we often will applaud, we clap our hands. Our psalm says we can lift up our hands. Way up. Other psalms say we can praise God with a variety of instruments, maybe a drum or a flute or a piano or kazoo.
Then it reads we can praise God with our lips. [PUT ON LIPS]
“I will praise the Lord with my lips.”
Maybe we could say “mouths.” I will praise the Lord with my mouth. But I like the word “lips.” Can you name some ways we can praise God with our mouths or our lips?
We can sing. We might not sing well but that doesn’t matter. We don’t have to be professional singers to praise God. In fact, the Bible says, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” What is a joyful noise? Singing with a smile on our face and joy in our heart. Sometimes we don’t know the words to songs or we can’t read the words.
We can praise the Lord with our lips by whistling or humming the tune. Or speaking the words if we can’t carry a tune in a bucket. [PUT ON LIPS]
“I will praise the Lord with my lips.”
We can shout. Shout to the Lord, the Bible says. Shout for joy. Shout our thanks. Shout Amen when something in worship inspires us. Shout Hallelujah. Do you know “Hallelujah” comes from the Hebrew word Halel? To celebrate, to rave or to be noisy, raucous, rowdy. Similar to a celebration at a sporting event. It’s the base of the word “Hallelujah.” Be as noisy as you can and say, “Hallelujah!”
We praise God when we pray. It can be a praise prayer — thanking God for the beautiful weather and all of creation. It can be a prayer about our hurt, our sadness, our pain. Our doing wrong. You see, these prayers praise God because we know that God is so good so strong and so mighty there’s nothing our God cannot do.
Pray with me:
For the sunshine through the pine trees; for the hills and sky so blue; for the joy of our endeavors; for the prize of friendships true, God, we thank you! Amen.
We can praise God by telling others about God and Jesus.
When you like Swift Preschool you praise the school by telling others. Thank you for that.
When you enjoy a movie, you praise the movie by sharing with others that they ought to see it. A medicine that takes away the joint pain; an easy healthy recipe, a good hairstylist. You get the idea. We praise a person; we praise an event when we’re pleased.
