Why Praise and Worship Him?

I was looking for a quote on a website the other day, when I came across this one by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: “I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”  After getting over being totally appalled by his words, I started thinking about this statement and wondering how I would refute this if someone ever said it to me. 

                                                       

Why do we praise God?  Is He a dictator that sits up there on His throne and demands that we bow down to Him or else?  To answer this question, I started examining the meaning of those two words; praise and worship.   

According to Biblos.com, the word “praise” comes from the Latin pretium, meaning “price” or “value”, and may be defined generally as an ascription of value or worth. True praise consists in a sincere acknowledgment of a real conviction of worth.  The principal Old Testament word for “worship” is shachah, meaning to “depress”, “bow down”, or “prostrate”.   The word is applied to acts of reverence to human superiors as well as supernatural superiors.  Next in frequency for “worship” is sebomai, meaning “venerate”, and its various cognates, sebazomai, eusebeo, theosebes, sebasma. Its root is sebas, meaning “fear”, but this primitive meaning is completely merged into "reverence," meaning to "hold in awe”. 

So to simplify: we praise something or someone that has great value or worth to us.  We worship something or someone by being in awe of or bowing down to it/them.

After I had the definitions established, I began to think about how these two things applied to my relationship with God.  In Genesis 5:1, the bible tells us that “When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself.”  I was created to be like Him, so how do I expect my children to act towards me? 

I want to be of great value or worth to them and I love when they acknowledge my value to them. There is a whole day set aside for that…Mother’s Day!  I gave birth to them and I would give my life for them. I love them and protect them and provide for them.  All that I expect in return is for them to love, honor, obey and respect me and to be thankful.  There is nothing worse than an ungrateful child!!  I want to have a relationship with them (that is why I had them)!   What would I do if they began to give all of their love and attention to another “mother” that does nothing for them?   How would I feel if they put someone else above me in value after all that I have done? 

Everyone can understand the concept of a parent-child relationship.  That is how I view God.  He is my Father.  He created me; He knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13-14 NIV – For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.)  He is the ONLY one who knows EVERYTHING about me and loves me anyway.  He wants to have a relationship with me.  He wants to see me happy.  He wants good things for me. (Matthew 7:11 NIV - If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!)  And most importantly, He gave His only Son to die for me, so that I could have access to Heaven and spend eternity with Him. 

How do you think He feels when we put great value in someone else, or worship someone or something besides Him?  Exactly how we would feel if our kids did that to us!  Exodus 20:5 NIV - You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God…”  He is jealous for us because we belong to Him.

So what would my answer be if someone said those words to me, “I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.”??   My answer would simply be this,  “How can we not give Him praise?  How can we not worship Him?  He loves us more than anyone else ever could.  He is our everything.  We owe our lives to Him.  He deserves nothing less than what we would expect from our own children: love, honor, obedience, respect, gratitude…But He also deserves SO MUCH MORE:  praise, worship, EVERYTHING.