Praise is the mode of love which always has some element of joy in it. Praise in due order; of Him as the giver, of [it] as the gift. Don’t we in praise somehow enjoy what we praise, however far we are from it?
C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
Thanks or Praise
It is nearing Thanksgiving, the time of year stuffed between Halloween and Christmas that most of us forget about, unless it’s to watch the game and eat far too much food. I’m sure you’ve all heard how important it is to be thankful for what you’ve been given. But I thought that today I would share a little bit more about praise.
I don’t consider that thanksgiving and praise are the same. They can be included both at once, but thanksgiving is giving thanks for something, a gift, while praise is showing honour and glory to someone as a person. When it comes to God, which of course it always does, praise encompasses all of these things, since, after all, He did give us all things we are thankful for. However, we rarely forget that he also gives us things we aren’t thankful for.
The C.S. Lewis quote above is from a short essay he wrote after the tragic death of his wife from cancer. He spent most of the essay furious at God for taking her away, wondering how God could be real or good at all when He would do such a thing. Yet he eventually came to the conclusion that all this tearing heartache was part of God destroying the human ideal of himself and showing the world who he truly is.
Praising God
It is sometimes difficult to praise God. We may have a very good life with much to be thankful for, but I don’t believe for a minute that most of us aren’t broken about something. We may ignore that pain, but, nonetheless, it isn’t gone. What do we praise God for then?
Let me return a moment to Lewis’s book. Before he comes to the place of praising God, he says something which perhaps may shed light on the subject. Sometimes it is hard not to say, ‘God forgive God.’ Sometimes it is hard to say so much. But if our faith is true, He didn’t. He crucified Him.
It is in the crucifixion that God deserves the most praise. It seems to us that God is entirely unjust sometimes, that the wicked prosper and the righteous are defeated, that death never ends, that good people suffer for no reason. But we must remember that we are not the only people to have felt so. When Jesus was here on this earth, the wicked prevailed–they killed him. He died. He suffered after having done nothing wrong.
Sometimes it is hard not to say, ‘God forgive God.’ Sometimes it is hard to say so much. But if our faith is true, He didn’t. He crucified Him.
In his final prayer to his father before being captured and crucified, Jesus prayed “Father, the hour has come. Glorify the Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). In the hour of his death he believed that he was glorified, and, through that, his father was as well. Is glory, then, in death?
To Glorify
It seems to me that this is where we distinguish between praise and thanksgiving. That is not to say that we do not give thanks that we have suffered, but we may come across something that simply is not “Good,” in itself. It is only the result of it that can be called good, at least to a human understanding. It is there that we praise God–not for the thing, but for Himself.
That is what Lewis meant in the first quote when he said: “Praise in due order; of Him as the giver, of [it] as the gift.” We must not focus our praise on the things God has given us first of all. Our thanks for them is significant, but it is not exclusive. They may be taken away at any moment, and we certainly don’t deserve them. Our praise should be reserved first and foremost for the one who gives all things to us. His character will never change; we never have to worry about losing him. It is impossible.
When we come to this time of year, concerned with family gatherings and feasting and giving gifts; or conversely concerned with surviving another year alone, we have to remember Him. Consider the psalm of David, also a prophecy of Christ, who quoted the first line upon the cross:
My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?
Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.
O my God, I cry by day, but You do not answer;
And by night, but I have no rest.
Yet You are holy,
O You who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
In You our fathers trusted;
They trusted and You delivered them.
-Psalm 22:1-4
He is enthroned upon your praises, lifted up because, despite the agony, the sorrow, the unfairness of it all, you do not deny his name. In this praise, you recognize that despite how awful it seems, he is still who he always was and shall not change. It is his eternality, his constant holiness, that deserves all praise. No matter what is happening in the world, you can thank him for who he is.
Thanksgiving
That is my challenge for this Thanksgiving. I will remember when it seems ridiculous that God is still Good. That he is who he says he is, despite how I feel about him. I will remember to sit for a moment and praise him that he was glorified on the cross and has redeemed us by his pain. I will remember that His gift to us is the ability to praise him because he is good regardless of our circumstances.