PRAISE DEFINED

'Praise is the mode of love which always has some element of joy in it.'
CS Lewis, A Grief Observed, p.53.

CHRISTIANS TALK TO THEMSELVES

'...he is no fool that...talks to himself and excites his own soul to that which is good.'

Matthew Henry in Julian Hardyman, Fresh Pathways in Prayer, p.27.  

OUR SUNG PRAISE IS MEDITATION

'Through the centuries the rich Word of Christ, working in the meditating hearts of Christians, has produced the spiritual wisdom in which Christians have addressed one another in songs of exhortation and God in songs of praise. In spite of many detours into formalism or sentimentalism, the hymnody of the church has returned again and again to the richness of devotional meditation on the Word of the Lord. If Christians begin to understand the meditative nature of the praise together, their approach to the corporate praise of God would be transformed. The recovery of meditation will also bring a tide of fresh songs of praise. Motre Christians will begin to sing their meditations and to compose hymns of thanksgiving to the Lord for his mighty works of saving love.' 

Edmund P Clowney, Christian Meditation, p.80. 

PRAISE

'Praise is a multi-species activity, expressed in the peregrine falcon's graceful flight as well as a performance of Handel's Messiah.'

Belden C Lane, Ravished by Beauty, p.222.  

AWE

'Awe acts like a kind of reset button: it makes people forget themselves and their petty concerns. Awe opens people to new possibilities, values, and directions in life.' 

Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind, p.264. 

EMOTIONS

'Some Christians repress their emotions as they sing. They fear feeling everything too strongly and think maturity means holding back. But the problem is emotionalism  not emotions. Emotionalism pursues feelings as an end in themselves. It's wanting to feel something with no regard for how that feeling is produced or its ultimate purpose. Emotionalism can also be view heightened emotions as the infallible sign that God is present. In contrast, the emotions that singing is meant to invoke are a response to who God is and what he's done. Vibrant singing enables us to combine truth about God seamlessly with passion for  God.'  

Bob Kauflin in David G Peterson, Encountering God Together, p.141. 

PRAISING GOD

'In thanking, blessing or praising God, a person expresses his or her own relation to the God he or she is adoring: joyous gratitude for what God has done and reverent alignment with God's character from which God's actions spring.' 

Miroslav Volf in David G Peterson, Encountering God Together, p.120. 

PRAISE

'...the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards...'
JRR Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, p.709.

PRAISE

'I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment: it is its appointed comsummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.'

CS Lewis in Derek Tidball, Signposts, Psalm 92.

PRAISE

'It is good ethically, for it is the Lord's right; it is good emotionally, for it is pleasant to the heart; it is good practically, for it leads others to render the same homage.'

Charles Spurgeon in Derek Tidball, Signposts, Psalm 92.

GIVING THANKS

'You say grace before meals.
All right.
But I say grace before the play and the opera,
And grace before the concert and pantomime,
And grace before I open a book,
And grace before sketching, painting,
Swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing;
And grace before I dip the pen into the ink.'
GK Chesterton in Julian Hardyman, Idols, p.37.

PRAISE

'Praise is the great act of rebellion against sin, the great repudiation of our wicked refusal to acknowledge God to be the Lord.'

John Webster, Holiness, p.76.

PRAISE

'...inner health made audible.'
CS Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, p.81.