Praise Opens Our Eyes

TO READ: Psalm 50:1-23

Giving thanks is a sacrifice that truly honors me. If you keep to my path, I will reveal to you the salvation of God.

Psalm 50:23

The whole duty of people is to glorify God. We glorify God when we praise him. To praise or worship means to ascribe value or worth to someone or something —in other words, “worth-ship.” We worship through our praise. The more we know about God, the more praise we will want to express. Then, the more praise we express, the more our eyes will be opened to who God is and what he has done.

If we would learn to truly worship, we must first have some understanding of the one true God. As we study the Scriptures, we can begin to understand God’s worth through a realization of his character. We find him revealing himself in various ways in the Old Testament; we see him fleshed out in Christ as we watch him in action through the Gospel narratives. Above all, through quiet contemplation of his work on the cross for us, we will find ourselves responding in praise and thanks.

Praise opens our eyes to something that cannot be seen any other way but through suffering. A friend who has been a missionary in France for a long time told of extremely difficult circumstances that led her to inquire of a fellow worker, “How can you be so serene when everything has collapsed around you?”

“Well,” the fellow missionary replied, “when I can’t praise God for what he allows, I can always praise him for who he is in what he has allowed.”

Praise God —and let him open your eyes to see who he is.