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The Joy in Praising God
God is ready, willing, and able to deliver Christians from the grip of bondage into victory. From the Scriptures, Charles H. Spurgeon reveals how, through boldly praising God, you can… As you worship the Lord in this way, you will find that instead of merely surviving daily struggles and temptations, you will experience victory and enjoy an overcoming life.
- GenresChristianNonfiction
124 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1999
About the author
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
5,742 books1,706 followersCharles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian, John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues, Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle.
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March 14, 2020
On the topic of the verse, "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," (Hebrews 13:15), Spurgeon wrote, "Fruit is a natural product. It grows without force; it is the free outcome of the plant. So let praise grow out of you lips at its own sweet will. Let it be as natural to you, as regenerated men and women, to praise God as it seems to be natural to profane men to blaspheme His sacred name."
But I have to say that praise hasn't seemed natural to me. It's always something I have to cultivate, something I have to be conscious about. It's just easier for me to focus on my problems and prayer requests than it is God's amazing power and strength. But I find that I do need to lift my eyes above my circumstances.
One of the primary ways - probably the chief way - I do this is to rely on scripture to remind and prompt my own soul to praise. For a period in my life, I found myself re-reading Psalms every summer, a season in which fatigue particularly seemed to sap my sense of praise. I also "lead" a school prayer group, which I invariably open with piece of scripture as a praise-prompt, as a sort of crutch to focus my own thoughts and to remind me Whom we're addressing with these school concerns. I feel like any of those other prayer group members can praise better than I can, so it makes me chuckle at the strangeness of God that I am the one who leads it ...
Speaking of that prayer group, I chose to borrow Spurgeon's Psalm 145 to begin a few of those meetings, and found it rich soil for praise.
It is always good to be reminded of reasons to praise God.
I can also imagine much of this book being appropriate for studying Thanksgiving.
I looked up the Huntingdon's "Bank of Faith" that Spurgeon mentioned as having "not been told in the best possible manner." It sounded to me like he was being generous, that Huntingdon had some strange views, leaning towards antinomianism, although perhaps not some of its extreme forms.
I wasn't sure about Spurgeon's approach, "To conceal one's own griefs for the sake of cheering others implies a self-denying sympathy that is the highest kind of Christianity." I know that was a once-popular approach, but I'm not convinced whether it's always right. It might be right while you've got a papercut, and you're trying to help someone with a terminal illness. But whenever you've got something serious going on, I think it's more appropriate what Paul said, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life." - 2 Corinthians 1:8, NIV. That doesn't mean that everyone has to be told everything, but pertinent people should. Plus, I've discovered in the real world that it doesn't do to hide it. People invariably have good imaginations to envision something worse than the real trouble. Plus, if you've kept life-altering information from them before, they are more likely to wonder and over-interpret every little bump on the way afterwards. Plus, silence robs you of the prayers and the support you might've had.
Spurgeon also talked about performing vows as a form of praise, but I think he forgot Matthew 5:34-36.
I don't really have much to say about this book, other than yes, God is good. ;)
"My aged brothers and sister, I congratulate you, for you are almost home. Be fuller of praise than ever. Quicken your footsteps in the glorious land shines more brightly. You are close to the pearly gates. Sing on, though your infirmities increase. Let the song grow sweeter and louder until it melts into the infinite harmonies."
Favorite quotes:
"If we want to remember His goodness, we must let it make an impression on us. We must notice it, consider it, meditate on it, estimate it, and allow it to exert its due influence on our hearts."
"They receive the bounties of providence, but do not see the hand of God in them. They are fed by His liberality and guided by His care, but attribute all that they receive to themselves or to secondary agents."
"His goodness is seen in creation. It shines in every sunbeam, glitters in every dewdrop, smiles in every flower and whispers in every breeze. Earth, sea, and air, teeming with innumerable forms of life, are all full of the goodness of the Lord. Sun, moon, and stars affirm that the Lord is good, and all terrestrial things echo the proclamation."
"It is in the storm that we learn to 'praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.' (Ps. 107:8)."
"He gives like a king - no, He gives as only God can give. Behold, your God has not given you a few minted coins of gold, but He has endowed you with the mines themselves. He has not, as it were, handed you a cup of cold water, but He has brought you to the flowing fountain and given the well itself to you. God Himself is ours: 'The Lord is my portion, saith my soul' (Lam. 3:24). If you must have a little list of what He has given you, ponder the following: He has given you a name and a place among His people. He has given you the rights and the nature of His sons. He has given you the complete forgiveness of all your sins, and you have it now. He has given you a robe of righteousness, which you are wearing now. He has given you a superlative loveliness in Christ Jesus. He has given you access to Him and acceptance the mercy seat. He has given you this world and the world to come. He has given you all that He has. He has given you His own Son, and how can He now refuse you anything? He has given as only God could."
"Remember God's goodness by the objects around you that are associated with it. For instance, let your bed remind you of God's mercy in the night watches, and let your table bring to remembrance His goodness in supplying your daily needs. My garments, when I put them on this morning, reminded me of times when my hand was not capable even of that simple task. All around us there are memoranda of God's love if we choose to read them."
"When we say, 'I am the man that hath seen affliction' (Lam. 3:1), we are filling the cup of memory with gall and wormwood (v. 19). But when we see the goodness of God in it all, we turn the handkerchief with which we wiped our tears into a flag of victory, and with holy praise, in the name of our God, we wave His banner."
"See well to your faith and your hope, for otherwise God will be robbed of His praise."
On the verse, "But I will hope continually, and will yet praise Thee more and more." - Psalm 71:14, Spurgeon wrote, "David had not been slack in praising God. Indeed, he was a sweet singer in Israel, a chormaster unto the Lord. Yet he vowed to praise Him more and more. Would he praise God more when he was infirm than he had when he was young and vigorous? Also, he was in trouble in Psalm 71, yet he would not allow the heyday of his prosperity to surpass the dark hour of his adversity in its notes of loving adoration."
"Among all the joys of earth - and I will not depreciate them - there is no joy comparable to that of praise."
"We should not overemphasize temporal mercies to the point that we become worldly, but I am afraid there is a greater likelihood of our underestimating them and becoming ungrateful."
"The young people may tell of His lovingkindness, but older people must tell of His faithfulness."
"For a surgeon to set a man's limb when it is out of joint or broken is kindness, although he may do it somewhat roughly and in an offhand manner. But if he does it very tenderly, covering the lion's heart with the lady's hand, then he shows lovingkindness. A man is picked up on the battlefield, put into an ambulance, and carried to the hospital. That is kindness. But if that poor soldier's mother could come into the hospital and see her boy suffering, she would show him lovingkindness, which is something far more. A child run over int he street and taken to the hospital would be cared for, I have no doubt, with the greatest kindness. However, after all, send for the child's mother, for she will give him lovingkindness. In the same way, the Lord deals with us. He gives us what we need in a fatherly manner. He gives us what we need int he tenderest fashion. It is kindness; it is 'kinned-ness.' But it is also the combination of the two; it is lovingkindness. The very heart of God seems to be written out in this word. We could hardly apply in full force to any but our Father who is in heaven."
Spurgeon said of Psalm 65:1, "But, perhaps, you are aware, dear friends that there are other translations of this verse, 'Praise waiteth for Thee' may be read 'Praise is silent unto Thee,' or, 'Praise is silent before Thee.' One of the oldest Latin commentators translates it, 'Praise and silence belong unto Thee.'" I like that, because I can envision an awe so deep that it renders us speechless. God parts the Red Sea, and we stand there slack-jawed. I can identify with that form of praise.
"It is not because you pray well that you are to come, but because the Lord hears prayer graciously."
"Gratitude to God must never become an excuse for ingratitude to men."
"Praise will preserve us from many evils. When the heart is full of the praise of God, it does not have time to find fault and grow proudly angry with others... Self-love and its natural irritations die in the blaze of praise."
But I have to say that praise hasn't seemed natural to me. It's always something I have to cultivate, something I have to be conscious about. It's just easier for me to focus on my problems and prayer requests than it is God's amazing power and strength. But I find that I do need to lift my eyes above my circumstances.
One of the primary ways - probably the chief way - I do this is to rely on scripture to remind and prompt my own soul to praise. For a period in my life, I found myself re-reading Psalms every summer, a season in which fatigue particularly seemed to sap my sense of praise. I also "lead" a school prayer group, which I invariably open with piece of scripture as a praise-prompt, as a sort of crutch to focus my own thoughts and to remind me Whom we're addressing with these school concerns. I feel like any of those other prayer group members can praise better than I can, so it makes me chuckle at the strangeness of God that I am the one who leads it ...
Speaking of that prayer group, I chose to borrow Spurgeon's Psalm 145 to begin a few of those meetings, and found it rich soil for praise.
It is always good to be reminded of reasons to praise God.
I can also imagine much of this book being appropriate for studying Thanksgiving.
I looked up the Huntingdon's "Bank of Faith" that Spurgeon mentioned as having "not been told in the best possible manner." It sounded to me like he was being generous, that Huntingdon had some strange views, leaning towards antinomianism, although perhaps not some of its extreme forms.
I wasn't sure about Spurgeon's approach, "To conceal one's own griefs for the sake of cheering others implies a self-denying sympathy that is the highest kind of Christianity." I know that was a once-popular approach, but I'm not convinced whether it's always right. It might be right while you've got a papercut, and you're trying to help someone with a terminal illness. But whenever you've got something serious going on, I think it's more appropriate what Paul said, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life." - 2 Corinthians 1:8, NIV. That doesn't mean that everyone has to be told everything, but pertinent people should. Plus, I've discovered in the real world that it doesn't do to hide it. People invariably have good imaginations to envision something worse than the real trouble. Plus, if you've kept life-altering information from them before, they are more likely to wonder and over-interpret every little bump on the way afterwards. Plus, silence robs you of the prayers and the support you might've had.
Spurgeon also talked about performing vows as a form of praise, but I think he forgot Matthew 5:34-36.
I don't really have much to say about this book, other than yes, God is good. ;)
"My aged brothers and sister, I congratulate you, for you are almost home. Be fuller of praise than ever. Quicken your footsteps in the glorious land shines more brightly. You are close to the pearly gates. Sing on, though your infirmities increase. Let the song grow sweeter and louder until it melts into the infinite harmonies."
Favorite quotes:
"If we want to remember His goodness, we must let it make an impression on us. We must notice it, consider it, meditate on it, estimate it, and allow it to exert its due influence on our hearts."
"They receive the bounties of providence, but do not see the hand of God in them. They are fed by His liberality and guided by His care, but attribute all that they receive to themselves or to secondary agents."
"His goodness is seen in creation. It shines in every sunbeam, glitters in every dewdrop, smiles in every flower and whispers in every breeze. Earth, sea, and air, teeming with innumerable forms of life, are all full of the goodness of the Lord. Sun, moon, and stars affirm that the Lord is good, and all terrestrial things echo the proclamation."
"It is in the storm that we learn to 'praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men.' (Ps. 107:8)."
"He gives like a king - no, He gives as only God can give. Behold, your God has not given you a few minted coins of gold, but He has endowed you with the mines themselves. He has not, as it were, handed you a cup of cold water, but He has brought you to the flowing fountain and given the well itself to you. God Himself is ours: 'The Lord is my portion, saith my soul' (Lam. 3:24). If you must have a little list of what He has given you, ponder the following: He has given you a name and a place among His people. He has given you the rights and the nature of His sons. He has given you the complete forgiveness of all your sins, and you have it now. He has given you a robe of righteousness, which you are wearing now. He has given you a superlative loveliness in Christ Jesus. He has given you access to Him and acceptance the mercy seat. He has given you this world and the world to come. He has given you all that He has. He has given you His own Son, and how can He now refuse you anything? He has given as only God could."
"Remember God's goodness by the objects around you that are associated with it. For instance, let your bed remind you of God's mercy in the night watches, and let your table bring to remembrance His goodness in supplying your daily needs. My garments, when I put them on this morning, reminded me of times when my hand was not capable even of that simple task. All around us there are memoranda of God's love if we choose to read them."
"When we say, 'I am the man that hath seen affliction' (Lam. 3:1), we are filling the cup of memory with gall and wormwood (v. 19). But when we see the goodness of God in it all, we turn the handkerchief with which we wiped our tears into a flag of victory, and with holy praise, in the name of our God, we wave His banner."
"See well to your faith and your hope, for otherwise God will be robbed of His praise."
On the verse, "But I will hope continually, and will yet praise Thee more and more." - Psalm 71:14, Spurgeon wrote, "David had not been slack in praising God. Indeed, he was a sweet singer in Israel, a chormaster unto the Lord. Yet he vowed to praise Him more and more. Would he praise God more when he was infirm than he had when he was young and vigorous? Also, he was in trouble in Psalm 71, yet he would not allow the heyday of his prosperity to surpass the dark hour of his adversity in its notes of loving adoration."
"Among all the joys of earth - and I will not depreciate them - there is no joy comparable to that of praise."
"We should not overemphasize temporal mercies to the point that we become worldly, but I am afraid there is a greater likelihood of our underestimating them and becoming ungrateful."
"The young people may tell of His lovingkindness, but older people must tell of His faithfulness."
"For a surgeon to set a man's limb when it is out of joint or broken is kindness, although he may do it somewhat roughly and in an offhand manner. But if he does it very tenderly, covering the lion's heart with the lady's hand, then he shows lovingkindness. A man is picked up on the battlefield, put into an ambulance, and carried to the hospital. That is kindness. But if that poor soldier's mother could come into the hospital and see her boy suffering, she would show him lovingkindness, which is something far more. A child run over int he street and taken to the hospital would be cared for, I have no doubt, with the greatest kindness. However, after all, send for the child's mother, for she will give him lovingkindness. In the same way, the Lord deals with us. He gives us what we need in a fatherly manner. He gives us what we need int he tenderest fashion. It is kindness; it is 'kinned-ness.' But it is also the combination of the two; it is lovingkindness. The very heart of God seems to be written out in this word. We could hardly apply in full force to any but our Father who is in heaven."
Spurgeon said of Psalm 65:1, "But, perhaps, you are aware, dear friends that there are other translations of this verse, 'Praise waiteth for Thee' may be read 'Praise is silent unto Thee,' or, 'Praise is silent before Thee.' One of the oldest Latin commentators translates it, 'Praise and silence belong unto Thee.'" I like that, because I can envision an awe so deep that it renders us speechless. God parts the Red Sea, and we stand there slack-jawed. I can identify with that form of praise.
"It is not because you pray well that you are to come, but because the Lord hears prayer graciously."
"Gratitude to God must never become an excuse for ingratitude to men."
"Praise will preserve us from many evils. When the heart is full of the praise of God, it does not have time to find fault and grow proudly angry with others... Self-love and its natural irritations die in the blaze of praise."
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