Eight Expressions of Praise

Eight Expressions of Praise¹

One of the things I am working on is a Purity Ball for dads and their daughters. Faith for Fathers is a ministry out of Spartanburg that holds a similar ball each May. This is time for fathers and their daughters of all ages to come together and make a covenant with each other. Fathers affirm before God that they will be models of purity before their daughters and daughters affirm before God that they will guard their purity until they are married. In the midst of all of this is a fun time of food, dancing, and games.

I was talking to Abigail about going this year and she replied, “But dad, I can't dance!” I have a confession to make. I can't dance either. As we continue to look at the different expressions of praise, we began last week by looking at the expression of kneeling using the Magi when the first saw the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:11).

Today, we want to look at another expression of worship, and that is dancing. Psalm 149:3 (NASB) says, “Let them praise His name with dancing; let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.”

David himself danced before the Ark of the Covenant as it was brought into Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). Now, being Southern Baptist, dancing has been frowned upon in any form. However, like many things within our denomination, I believe this has been a knee jerk reaction. Like anything else we do, dancing can be done for the wrong motives and in the wrong way. Nevertheless, genuine, joyful dancing before God and for God is absolutely biblical.

Another visible form of praise is raising our hands. We are exhorted in several passages to lift up our hands. A favorite verse is Psalm 63:4: “I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.”

Read Nehemiah 8:5-6. The people responded when Ezra read from the Law by lifting their hands. The Hebrew word used in these verses is yadah. Yadah is the second most frequently occurring word that is translated “praise” in the Old Testament. It means “to worship with extended hands, to throw out the hands, to give thanks to God.” It is often translated “thanks” or “thanksgiving” in the English translations. Yadah is the exact word Jehosphaphat used to instruct the singers when he appointed them to go out at the head of the army saying, “Give thanks (yadah) to the Lord” (2 Chronicles 20:21b). Now we can add another dimension to our mental picture of this amazing story: imagine hundreds of musicians leading the army, singing at the top of their lungs with their hands stretched toward the sky.

Perhaps you have a son, daughter, or grandchild. How did you feel the first time you saw this child looking up at you with those big eyes and holding out those tiny hands? You probably stopped whatever you were doing and reached down to hold that child, didn't you? Imagine how our Father must feel when we reach up for Him!

1 This material comes from DeWayne Moore's book Pure Praise (Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2009), 32.