Monday, July 18, 2011

Sacrifice of Praise

"Therefore, through Him [Christ], let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name" (Hebrews 13:15, HCSB).

After this verse popped up in several unrelated places over the course of two days, I decided to play along and choose it as my memory verse for the next two weeks, even though it really felt like the verse was choosing me. Does that ever happen to you?

It is already teaching me so much, and I'm only getting started. Slowing down makes such a difference!

"Through Him" - The offering up of praise sacrifices is through Christ. He is the reason and means of my offering; through His cleansing my worship is acceptable to God.

"Let us" - What does that "us" mean? The letter to the Hebrews addressed a group, not an individual, so in the original context the plurality is obvious. In church also, the corporate nature is obvious.

Even alone in my home, though, my praise invisibly joins with the praises of other Christians all around the world in the concept historically known as communion of the saints. This is not something I normally think about, but even in my morning reading today I read in Psalm 148 how all kinds of things, creatures, and persons were called to praise Yahweh. Perhaps my praise is not as solitary as meets the eye?

"Continually" - We are to offer praise through Christ at all times. All. Continually. Over and over.

"Offer up" - Praise is a free gift, arms outstretched, hands open and not grasping. As You wish, Lord.

"To God" - Not to the universe, fate, or mother nature. God is the one to whom our praise is due.

"A sacrifice of praise" - A sacrifice is costly. Sometimes in Leviticus it costs a life; at least it costs convenience and the reallocation of something I value (money, grain, oil, crops). Praise is a sacrifice; it costs my convenience and the reallocation of something I value; it will at some point mean laying down my ideas of what life ought to look like and declaring by faith that God's are better.

"The fruit of our lips" - Most of my prayers are silent ones. Is there some kind of added value in speaking or singing them?

"That confess His name" - My praise should confess (agree with, acknowledge) His name.
Adonai: Lord, Master.
Yahweh Jireh: The Lord will provide (or see).
El Olam: Everlasting God.
Rapha El: The God who heals.
Yahweh Mekoddishkem: The Lord who sanctifies.
Yahweh Tsidkenu: The Lord my righteousness.
Yahweh: I am. I am who I am. I will be who I will be.
Praise agrees with God's revelation of who He is (His name) and confesses that who He is is good.

"Therefore, through Him [Christ], let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess His name" (Hebrews 13:15, HCSB).

God, I thank and praise You for
~Your Word
~Your name
~the (inexplicable) value You place on our worship and praise
~Your pleasure in Your people (Psalm 149:4)
~Your promise to beautify the afflicted ones with salvation (ditto)
~a rough week improved as it went along
~pain keeping me ever-mindful of my dependence on the Lord
~the sharp-edged gift of hip pain while we discuss bell sheep and broken legs
~access to medical care for all my various and sundry needs
~more pink roses (red are more elegant, I know, but the pink ones make me happiest)

~funny little yellow orchids with their baby dragon faces sticking out forked tongues at me

~cicadas playing percussion outside all day long
~dragonflies zooming back and forth in the evening as though they were World War I flying aces
~drought reminding us to pray for rain to the One who governs it
~a friend sharing her chronic illness experience and empathy with me this week
~unexpectedly finding an article by another friend on a blog's linky list and "hearing" her voice as I read it
~opportunity to trust Your boundaries again for my desire to attend a family celebration coming up Saturday
~lots of post ideas, more ideas than time or strength. No writer's block.
(Gratitude list #910-927)

Still counting God's endless gifts with the gratitude community at Ann's place,...



with Laura at The Wellspring,...


and with Jen at Soli Deo Gloria...


12 comments:

  1. @Brandee Shafer Thank you, friend. Back from the doctor. I'll post when I'm up to it. Love to you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Enjoyed slowly savoring the verse with you here. And I'm totally with you on pink roses! I guess I'm just not into red. I could get into orchids though--that one is fascinating.
    Blessings and prayers. Share more when you feel led. . . despite the timing or details shared, you are being lifted up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love how you walked me through this scripture. I have never focused on praise as a sacrifice--as something costly--before. What you say is true...sometimes it does require a laying down of my will. Fascinating to consider. I've been trying to "slow down and chew" a bit lately and this post is a great encouragement to me in that regard.

    Beautiful photos!

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Amy Orchids remind me of our time in Thailand; they are everywhere there. My mom found this one when she was buying groceries for me and added it to the cart for some cheer. We'll see how long it survives, but it's pretty for now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Laura I'm glad it encouraged you. That's a good thing, I guess, if you had never considered the costly side of praise before. I mainly need that reminder when life hurts. God bless your week.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love how you broke down the verse.

    And you ask an intriguing question about our prayers "is there any added value in speaking or singing them?" I don't know the answer.
    Sometimes, for me, I have to speak aloud. I am reminded of David, and somehow I imagine he spoke (and we know that he did sing) some of his prayers aloud. Speaking aloud is sometimes what I need to do. You ask a good question. I'd like to learn more about this.

    Your flowers are simply gorgeous. That orchid, that rose... such beauty! I like so much on your gratitude list. Thankful with you for the last one!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love your list (we have bigtime noisy cicadas here, too), and I love your close lectio divina reading of this verse. Maybe you'd be interested in linking up something like this at the Hear It, Use It community at my place on Mondays? Just a thought...

    Lovely to meet you here!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a wonderful reminder. Thank you. visiting from Soli Deo Gloria.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm ruminating on the sacrifice of praise. For whatever reason (which I'm sure God will fill me in on later), this has struck a chord with me. Thank you for bringing it to light.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Clicking over from Soli Deo Gloria...great job encouraging me to go deeper.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Love the verse study. Love offering God a sacrifice of praise -- I could praise all day long and not begin to cover it all. Right now I'm praising God for your post that reminded me to stop and praise.

    Blessings,
    Pamela

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your day with me! Your presence here is a gift. *You* are a gift. Right now I am unable to reply to every comment, but please know I read and pray for each and every commenter. Grace and peace to you in Christ.