The Glory of the Name
“Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness!”—Psalm 115:1
God delights in being praised. In fact, He commands it throughout the Scriptures. Isn’t it strange that God commands us to praise Him? Is that like a wife commanding her husband to pay her a compliment? Or is it entirely different?
Why did God create us? The Bible says that He created us for His own glory, “for everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made”—Isaiah 43:7. Why would God do that? For the glory of His name so that He might be made known. God delights in glorifying His name. He desires that we give Him praise. It sounds a bit strange to our ear, the idea of God making His name known, so that He might receive praise. At least that is what C.S. Lewis thought, in his book Reflections on the Psalms. It troubled Lewis that God desired our praise:
“We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people round every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify that demand. Thus a picture, at once ludicrous and horrible, both of God and His worshippers, threatened to appear in my mind. The Psalms were especially troublesome in this way – ‘Praise the Lord,' 'O praise the Lord with me,' 'Praise Him.' . . . Worse still was the statement put into God's own mouth, 'whoso offereth me thanks and praise, he honoureth me' (50:23). It was hideously like saying, 'What I most want is to be told that I am good and great.' . . . It was extremely distressing. It made one think what one least wanted to think. Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy. . . .”
But, Lewis came to realize something vitally important about this command to praise and worship God. He wrote,
“…it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the 'fair beauty of the Lord' is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men; in the central act of our own worship of course this is far clearer – there it is manifestly, even physically, God who gives and we who receive. The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard him, is implicitly answered by the words, 'If I be hungry I will not tell thee' (50:12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don't want my dog to bark approval of my books.”—C.S. Lewis, “The Problem of Praise in the Psalms” (found in Reflections on the Psalms [New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1958], pp. 90-98)
God desires us to worship Him so that we may experience Him. Lewis was right; it is in the process of worshiping Him that He communicates His presence to us.
God wants to make His name known, not ours. Our name being made known doesn’t benefit anything but our egos and pride. It’s not about our name and getting our name known; those who delight in their own name being made known over God’s will soon discover that it is fruitless and futile. We shortchange our listeners and ourselves when we try and promote our own name and agendas. It’s not about having our name up in lights, or being famous. Our names will largely be forgotten, but not God’s. God’s name will continue to be made known, and we are to make His name known, because when we do, it results in double joy—joy for ourselves and joy for those who hear us.
May God enable us to make His name known so that those who proclaim and those who hear may experience great and abundant joy. Amen.
God delights in being praised. In fact, He commands it throughout the Scriptures. Isn’t it strange that God commands us to praise Him? Is that like a wife commanding her husband to pay her a compliment? Or is it entirely different?
Why did God create us? The Bible says that He created us for His own glory, “for everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made”—Isaiah 43:7. Why would God do that? For the glory of His name so that He might be made known. God delights in glorifying His name. He desires that we give Him praise. It sounds a bit strange to our ear, the idea of God making His name known, so that He might receive praise. At least that is what C.S. Lewis thought, in his book Reflections on the Psalms. It troubled Lewis that God desired our praise:
“We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people round every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify that demand. Thus a picture, at once ludicrous and horrible, both of God and His worshippers, threatened to appear in my mind. The Psalms were especially troublesome in this way – ‘Praise the Lord,' 'O praise the Lord with me,' 'Praise Him.' . . . Worse still was the statement put into God's own mouth, 'whoso offereth me thanks and praise, he honoureth me' (50:23). It was hideously like saying, 'What I most want is to be told that I am good and great.' . . . It was extremely distressing. It made one think what one least wanted to think. Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy. . . .”
But, Lewis came to realize something vitally important about this command to praise and worship God. He wrote,
“…it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the 'fair beauty of the Lord' is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men; in the central act of our own worship of course this is far clearer – there it is manifestly, even physically, God who gives and we who receive. The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard him, is implicitly answered by the words, 'If I be hungry I will not tell thee' (50:12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don't want my dog to bark approval of my books.”—C.S. Lewis, “The Problem of Praise in the Psalms” (found in Reflections on the Psalms [New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1958], pp. 90-98)
God desires us to worship Him so that we may experience Him. Lewis was right; it is in the process of worshiping Him that He communicates His presence to us.
God wants to make His name known, not ours. Our name being made known doesn’t benefit anything but our egos and pride. It’s not about our name and getting our name known; those who delight in their own name being made known over God’s will soon discover that it is fruitless and futile. We shortchange our listeners and ourselves when we try and promote our own name and agendas. It’s not about having our name up in lights, or being famous. Our names will largely be forgotten, but not God’s. God’s name will continue to be made known, and we are to make His name known, because when we do, it results in double joy—joy for ourselves and joy for those who hear us.
May God enable us to make His name known so that those who proclaim and those who hear may experience great and abundant joy. Amen.
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