I am thankful to God for a whole litany of things, both the prayers He has answered, and the requests that I expect He will answer. And every Thanksgiving season, I run through the list, expressing great thankfulness to my heavenly Father for all He has done and will do in my life and in the lives of my loved ones.
But this year, I’m changing it up a bit. Instead of focusing on what He has done (or will do) for me, I’m going to share my love and devotion to Him with glory, honor, and praise because of Who He is. So why am I shifting my attention away from what He’s done for me to Who He is? I’ll tell you why.
In my prayers to God throughout the day, I noticed that I did A LOT of supplications (humble requests for myself) and intercessions (for others), but very little worship and praise. If you are a parent, you may have experienced this from your children: few, if any, “I love yous” or “Thank yous,” or even a small adoring smile. And yet, the requests come pouring in: “Can I have this?” or “Will you fix this for me?”
This is especially true of the young ones who are naturally focused on themselves. But as we teach and show them God’s love, they mature, recognizing that they are not the center of the universe. So I was a little shocked at my own childish prayers. I needed to express both need AND praise—both are important aspects of our prayers to our heavenly Father.
So I started on my own to give Him glory, thanks, and praise but could only come up with “Bless you, Lord,” or “All my praise to you, dear Father,” or “Glory to your name.” You can imagine how humdrum these can become if that’s all you can come up with. Then “remembered I the Word of the Lord,” literally. I could pray God’s Word’s words! He just supplies it all, doesn’t He? His own words to speak to Him, the love to love Him back, holy spirit power to work His mighty works. Perfect.
Here are a few of my current favorites. I picked these especially to help me focus on Him and Who He is, rather than on my own needs and wants. This first one emphasizes His mercy, and NOT our own righteousness.
Daniel 9:18:
… for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
The next set of scriptures is from the Psalms, revealing our God to us, and providing our response to Him.
Psalms 8:1:
O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Psalms 29:2:
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Psalms 30:12:
To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.
Psalms 64:10:
The righteous shall be glad in the Lord, and shall trust in him; and all the upright in heart shall glory.
Psalms 71:8:
Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.
Psalms 104:1:
Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.
Psalms 115:1:
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
And there are two complete Psalms that glorify, praise, and bless our God that I will soon begin to memorize, Psalm 96 and Psalm 145.
That’s an abundance of holy spirit inspired words to start with! And to round out our collection, here are a few from the New Testament.
Romans 16:27:
To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen.
Ephesians 1:6:
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ephesians 3:20-21:
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
I Timothy 1:17:
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:15:
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Jude 1:25:
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
What a feast of praise, blessings, honor, and glory we have to choose from, to give thanks to the almighty God, our heavenly Father!
5 replies on “Bless the Lord, O My Soul!”
Wonderful article Sherry! It’s so easy to pray for things we need or desire but you remind us of the importance of simply offering praise to our Heavenly Father. It must warm God’s heart when we do this, much like parents get blessed and warmed when their children simply praise or honor them for just being great parents. Thank you!
God is good! Thank you! It’s like putting the horse before the cart rather than the cart before the horse! Love you
Wow Sherry! This is great! I’m going to need to read this again. I can relate to mostly asking for things in prayer without as much thought to praise. Great verses! I’m also thankful we can speak in tongues and speak the wonderful works of God! Thanks and love to you and Gene!
Thank you for sharing your insight, thoughts and verses. Not being a parent myself and not having good parents, it dawned on me why it is difficult for me to even think along those lines. I am thankful to God for many things, but your share got to my heart and I had this AHA moment in understanding, WHY of “praise and worship”. Every time I would hear those words I would cringe inside, because it gave me a “bad taste of religion”, but your article cleaned those words for me and gave me a new understanding and appreciation of why praise our heavenly Father and worship Him, because He is so very wonderful!
Rita, thanks for your beautiful response. We love you very much! Sherry and Gene