If you read through Psalm 148, the psalmist makes it abundantly clear that everyone and everything in heaven above and on earth below have reason to praise God. He is the Creator of all things and all people. His name alone should be exalted and praised.
Should . . . Ah, that’s a difficult and often condemning word, isn’t it?
Everyone and everything should praise God, but sadly, that isn’t the case. They don’t. Maybe people feel that God hasn’t done enough for them. He should do more. Or perhaps their lives have been filled with hardship and heartache, and the idea of praising a God who would allow such things to happen seems impossible.
Whatever the case, people reject God’s love and curse his name all the time. They give praise to others instead: fellow created beings, ideals, philosophies, and false gods.
How about you and me? What’s going on in our hearts?
For me, the word should is a painful reminder that hits heavily. Accusatorily. Condemningly. I should praise God—all the time—but I don’t. I might not curse his name, but do I find myself giving him half-hearted praise, just going through the motions? Absolutely.
Even worse, I have moments where my sinful mind has me thinking shameful thoughts: God should do more for me. Or I feel that he’s dealt me and my loved ones a pretty rotten hand lately, giving us some heavy, stressful burdens. Now he should lighten that load. He owes me.
God forgive me!
God, forgive me for those shameful moments and my half-hearted worship and praise. Save me. Direct my eyes, as the psalmist wrote, to the horn you have raised up for your people—including me (Psalm 148:14). Point me to Jesus. Point me to his undeserved mercy and love. Point me to his faithfulness, his perfect praise that he demonstrated—all the time and in all places.
Jesus’ perfect praise was for me . . . for you. For all people. For all the times we should praise God but don’t. Because of Jesus, God doesn’t hear our half-hearted—or even our lack of—praise. No, those imperfect sounds were all drowned out in our Savior’s cry on Calvary. “It is finished!”
Now, God only hears our praise in the tone of Jesus’ perfect praise. He hears it and sees it in all aspects of our lives. And the incredible thing is, what Jesus has done for us motivates us to praise God—and keep striving to praise him more and more. Not because we feel we should or ought to, but because we want to. And though we’re sinful people and we struggle with the godly desire to praise our Savior, Christ has set us free from our sins! We now live for him.
We look forward to the day our Savior returns to make all things new, just as he promised. On that day, there won’t be any more shoulds. There will simply be perfect praise from God’s children—us, the people close to his heart entirely because of Jesus.
And so, dear Christian, as the psalmist closed Psalm 148 . . .
Praise the Lord!
In an easy-to-read format, Christ: He Is My Lord reveals who Jesus is from what the inspired Scripture writers testified about him in the Old and New Testaments. He wasn’t merely a prophet or a good man—he is the sinless Son of God. Learn what that means for you today.
Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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