Psalm 66:1-3a (NIV) Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious. Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!”

God is an awesome God. There is nothing that He needs, nothing that He can improve on and nothing that can outshine Him. That’s why all the praise and the glory goes to Him and belongs to Him. Even the earth sings praises to the Lord (Psalm 66:4). The glory of God is beyond comprehension. His glory is the radiance of His holiness, the perfection of His love and the splendor of His majesty. Surely all praise and glory rightfully goes to Him and to Him alone. But given all of that, how in the world can we, faulty and imperfect creatures that we are, make His praise glorious? Isn't it already glorious?

The truth is that God has made it that it is only we, His most prized creation, that can make his praise glorious. I say that we are His most prized creation because He didn’t lay down His glory to come to the earth to die for anyone else. It wasn’t for the angels that He did it, and it wasn’t for the earth or the cosmos either. He only did that for us. He also created us in a most unique way in that He gave us a will. We can love and serve Him, or we can decide to reject Him (to our own demise). We can choose to acknowledge His glory, or we can do what many atheists and agnostics do and totally ignore or refuse to acknowledge it. We can live our lives in submission to Him or we can live our lives as we see fit. That’s why we and only we can make His praise glorious. It is when people like you and me willingly and enthusiastically praise the God who made us that His praise becomes glorious. When we choose to ascribe glory to our God and when we celebrate His glory, His praise becomes glorious because it is offered not only from our mouths but also from our hearts and our souls.

In Psalm 103, David sang, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!” (ESV). David was making God’s praise glorious by praising Him with all of his being. That’s the kind of praise that God is worthy of and the kind of praise that we should offer to Him. It is a freewill offering and that is where the glorious praise to our Lord is found. Glorious praise also includes praising God at all times, not just when things are going well. Even under the toughest of circumstances, we should continue ascribing the glory that is due to the name of Jesus. In another example, David sang the following in Psalm 34: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (KJV).

Join the chorus of those who have seen the beauty of who our God and Savior is, who have had our hearts circumcised so that we can love the Lord Jesus with all of our hearts and who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb as we make His praise glorious by ascribing to Him exuberant and heart-felt praise at all times. Let it continue until we see Jesus face-to-face to continue the joyful celebration of His glory for all eternity and beyond.

Pastor Joey Vazquez