God is Worthy to be Praised

“I will call upon the LORD,” says David, “who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies” Psalm 18:3 (NKJV). The Book of Psalms is my personal favorite to read in the Bible because it has the entire span of human emotion. The psalmists write and sing about love, loss, anxiety, triumph, despair, illness, grief…and always tie each human experience and feeling back to God in praise.

What does it mean to praise? Modern dictionaries will tell you that it’s to show warm admiration for someone or something, as in “wow, look at how well Mabel did on her driving test!”, and while that is certainly good, I don’t think it fully captures the extent of Biblical praise. 

The very Psalm where David calls the LORD “worthy to be praised” is actually 50 verses dedicated to descriptions of God’s immense power–the God who “bowed the heavens” (vs 9) and by whom the mountains “quaked and were shaken” (vs 7). To say this is the LORD who is worthy of praise in the sense of Mabel and her driving test doesn’t do the term justice at all! 

The LORD who is worthy to be praised is the God who creates and destroys, the God who can build worlds with His power, turn armies aside,  and cause storms and earthquakes and miracles. This praise is the praise of awe; it is the created thing looking to the Creator of all power and acknowledging our insignificance against His awesome might.

But the LORD is worthy to be praised in another way as well, which we can see in 2 Samuel 22, when David writes another song with the same phrase:

“The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence. I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies” (2 Samuel 22:2-4; NKJV).

Like Psalm 18, the praise is connected to God’s power; unlike Psalm 18, however, the emphasis seems much more personal. God is worthy to be praised because He is a refuge, a safe place for anyone who seeks it. There is awe at God’s power there, but there is also praise in the sense of thankfulness for a God who loves and cares and protects. 

God isn’t the only one deemed worthy of praise, however. His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is referred to as the Lamb, this is usually used in the Bible in reference to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, like a lamb without fault that would have been sacrificed in the Old Testament. In Revelation, the angels praise Christ with the phrase “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain […] Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” Revelation 5:12-13 (NKJV). 

While that verse does not have the word praise in it, the sentiment reflects all the attributes of praise: acknowledgement of God’s power, gratitude for all that has been done, and awe of His mighty works being accomplished through the Lamb (Christ). I think this tells us that Jesus is worthy of praise because of what he accomplished through his Father’s power.

There is nothing wrong with the praise we’d give Mabel for passing her driver’s test–it’s a big accomplishment! But I urge you to think about what things or people you find worthy of true praise, admiration, and gratitude. Do we love the things that God hates, and do we secretly praise them? Do we attribute our praise to ourselves, for our accomplishments, or like Daniel receiving the interpretations of dreams, do we cry “I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; You have given me wisdom and might” Daniel 2:23 (NKJV)? 

I think, in a world where what seemed impossible 200 years ago is now taken for granted, we may have forgotten just who made all those things possible, and the awe we should have for Him.