Praise (αἴνεσις) is defined within Scripture as the fruit of our lips confessing the name of God.
Therefore, because of this let us offer up a sacrifice of praise through all to the God, that is, the fruit of our lips confessing His Name – Hebrews 13:15
Confession means, “to say the same thing”, and “name” refers to the character of a person. This means we praise God when we verbally agree with Him concerning the manner in which He expresses His character towards us.
The angels are seen praising God when they speak of His good will towards men resulting in giving the world Christ, Luke 2:13. After heeding the voice of the angels, the shepherds found Christ and told all of what they saw and heard, praising God as they returned, Luke 2:20.
In the seventh Psalm, a Benjamite writes of praising God according to His righteousness. Righteousness is an aspect of God’s nature that is expressed through His character. David encourages the Gentiles to praise God for His mercy to His anointed, Psalm 18:48, and as his strength and shield he trusts in God singing praises to Him, Psalm 28:7.
Praise can be done with music and song (Psalm 33:2) or by word (Psalm 75:1), for in it we are speaking of God’s name and therefore confessing His character.
For a Christian, praise is a spiritual sacrifice. As priests, we have religious services that we perform before God. One of these sacrifices that is a part of our priestly service is praise. Through praise we express our admiration for God’s grace (Ephesians 1:6), which is based upon expressing a proper opinion of Him (Ephesians 1:12,14). This admiration also expresses itself in the way we live, not just by our words, (Philippians 1:10), so that our faith results in others appreciating God because of His character and giving Him praise (1 Peter 1:7).
What aspect of God’s character is impacting our lives today? Is it his goodness, kindness, love? Or perhaps it is more His longsuffering and faithfulness as we struggle with living a life that glorifies Him in contrast to fulfilling the desires of the flesh. God’s love seeks the best for us, His joy gives us contentment in any situation, His peace settles our minds, His longsuffering withholds His anger, His kindness makes us feel at ease, His goodness gives us that which is beneficial, and because of His objectivity of mind He continues to express these to us even when we refuse to follow His desires for our lives.
Therefore, let us praise God today for who He is, not just with words, but with how we live a life that shows are admiration for Him and expresses a proper opinion of who He is so that others will also praise Him.
