THIRD QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #9
AUGUST 27, 2022
“A LIFE OF PRAISE”

 

 

True praise can never occur in an atmosphere of obligation, requirement, or fear. Praise, like so many other traits that God values, such as faith, honor, respect, friendship, and love, can only occur in a relationship based on mutual respect and freedom built on an appreciation for the goodness and beauty inherent in God’s character and manifested in all His actions towards us. There can never be a law or rule requiring or obligating praise – even by God. As soon as praise is framed in language of requirement, the best that can be obtained is a form that looks like praise, but the heart will not be won to true praise and appreciation.

God’s desire for praise springs not from some divine insecurity or narcissism that is propped up by us telling God how wonderful He is – irrespective of whether we actually believe that in our hearts. God’s desire for praise is rooted in His hope that we know and appreciate the same principle of love and self-giving that is inherent in His character. Ultimately, He desires praise not for His benefit, but for our benefit. When we see beauty, kindness, unselfishness, in His character, He hopes we will love Him and His principles, and praise will be the inevitable response.

Praise isn’t an obligation, or spiritual discipline, of Christian experience, it is an inevitability in Christian experience to the degree that we know God.

“To know God is to love Him” (Desire of Ages 22.1).

As David said in Psalm 27:4, “One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.”

Principle of praise #1 – true praise only occurs from an appreciation of the love and beauty of God’s character – never from a sense of requirement or obligation. Praise is inevitable when we see God’s goodness.

Principle of praise #2 – our praise is not based on how we feel at a given time, but on our appreciation for the faithfulness of God to us.

The darkest emotional hour in human history, was the experience of Christ as He bore the sin of the world in Gethsemane and on Calvary. If anyone would have been justified in being unable to praise God, it would have been Jesus in this most trying hour of universal history. But notice Christ’s words in the Messianic crucifixion Psalm 22 – which begins with, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me”, and ends in the LXX with, “it is finished”.

In Psalms 22 Christ says, “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly, I will praise You. . . My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. vv. 22 & 25.

Notice how Ellen White identifies the source of Christ’s faith and strength that enabled Him to praise His Father even as Jesus felt a sense of abandonment in the time of His greatest need.

“In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him Whom it had ever been His joy to obey.” (Desire of Ages 756.3)

The faith of Jesus enabled Him to praise His Father (Palms 22) in His darkest hour. And as we partake of that faith of Jesus, we will also be enabled to praise God in our darkest hours. Notice, Jesus was, “acquainted with the character of His Father”. We need to be likewise acquainted! Notice, Jesus had built up “evidence” of His Father’s acceptance. We need to likewise be accumulating evidence, in our daily experience, of our Father’s acceptance and faithfulness – so that when we reach the “time of Jacob’s trouble” – we will have the same faithfulness and capacity to praise that Jesus had.

It is these truths that have carried many Christians through the darkest times in their experience. Horatio Spafford, the author of the great hymn, “It is Well With My Soul”, lost his only son when his son was only 2 years old. He was bankrupted by the Chicago fire of 1871 due to his finances being primarily in Chicago real estate. And then the better-known part of his story when he lost all four of his daughters when the ship they were traveling on with his wife sank in the north Atlantic. When he soon followed his wife and crossed near the location where his daughters had drowned, he penned the famous words of this hymn.

“When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say

It is well, it is well, with my soul.”

 

Fanny Crosby, the poet of so many of our favorite hymns such as, “Blessed Assurance”, “Safe in the Arms of Jesus”, and “Take the World but give me Jesus”, was blind from infancy due to treatment errors. As she looked on her life of blindness, she was able to praise God for her circumstances. Notice her view of her blindness!

“It seemed intended by the blessed providence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dispensation. If perfect earthly sight were offered me tomorrow I would not accept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been distracted by the beautiful and interesting things about me. If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind...for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Savior.”

 

As our lesson rightly points out, “Praise is faith in action . . . Praise shouldn’t so much be a specific act but a specific way of life itself.” This will only occur as we discern and appreciate the goodness and faithfulness of God, and accumulate, “evidence” of our Father’s unwavering presence and acceptance. May we keep our eyes fixed on God in Christ.

~Bob Hunsaker