“Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth! Sing about the glory of his name! Tell the world how glorious he is. Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! Your enemies cringe before your mighty power. Everything on earth will worship you; they will sing your praises, shouting your name in glorious songs.” Interlude Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people! He made a dry path through the Red Sea, and his people went across on foot. There we rejoiced in him. For by his great power he rules forever. He watches every movement of the nations; let no rebel rise in defiance. Interlude Let the whole world bless our God and loudly sing his praises. Our lives are in his hands, and he keeps our feet from stumbling. You have tested us, O God; you have purified us like silver. You captured us in your net and laid the burden of slavery on our backs. Then you put a leader over us. We went through fire and flood, but you brought us to a place of great abundance. Now I come to your Temple with burnt offerings to fulfill the vows I made to you— yes, the sacred vows that I made when I was in deep trouble. That is why I am sacrificing burnt offerings to you— the best of my rams as a pleasing aroma, and a sacrifice of bulls and male goats. Interlude Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me. For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer. Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw his unfailing love from me.”
Psalms 66:1-20 NLT
Praise is important. It is an outlet for the expression of true adoration. Emotions are designed specifically to express it and keeping them from doing so is keeping that function from happening. That is to say that not giving praise is disordered to the human being. This is why there is overwhelming wealth of praise material in the form of love songs. Yet, praise is also not mindless. It is not expression for the sake of expression. Praise has a destination and a subject. David notes that praise from all of humanity, regardless of border, ought to go to God. This praise is a directed experience and it is filled, not just with emotion, but also with remembrance and awe. It is a praise that is able to recount why it exists. It is conscious of the true God and his movement in our history. This is a key factor of a mindful praise. It is not generic but distinctive, recalling actual events alongside feeling and thereby asking God to also look upon those events and be pleased with his own efforts. In this way, praise is relational. It is a meeting of the minds and emotions of God and man wherein both parties affirm that their relationship is good. David highlights that all these times were good times, whether hard or not.
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