Praise

Praise in the UPDV is the creature's answer to what Yahweh has done and to who Yahweh is. The Psalter dominates, but the same impulse runs from the Song of the Sea to the closing Hallelujahs of Revelation: redeemed people sing, lift their hands, name the divine attributes aloud, and call the rest of creation to join them. Praise is rendered with the body, with instruments, with the assembled congregation, and with daily conduct, and it culminates in a heavenly chorus already audible to the seer of Patmos.

Songs at the Hinges of the Story

Israel's first sustained act of praise comes at the sea. Moses and Miriam open the canon's hymn-tradition: "I will sing to Yahweh, for [by his Speech] he has triumphed gloriously" (Ex 15:1), and "Yah is my strength and song, And [by his Speech] he has become my salvation: This is my God, and I will praise him; My father's God, and I will exalt him" (Ex 15:2). The same instinct shows up again at the end of the barren years, when Hannah, given a son, lifts the song Mary will later echo: "My heart exults in Yahweh; My horn is exalted in Yahweh; My mouth is enlarged over my enemies; Because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy like Yahweh; For there is none besides you, Neither is there any rock like our God" (1 Sa 2:1-2).

David formalizes the practice when the ark comes to Zion. The chorus he appoints fixes the basic grammar of praise — declare, ascribe, worship: "Sing to Yahweh, all the earth... Declare his glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised... Ascribe to Yahweh, you⁺ kindreds of the peoples, Ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength; Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name: Bring an offering, and come before him; Worship Yahweh in holy array" (1 Ch 16:23-29). At the close of his reign David adds the doxology that names the divine inventory: "Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the grandeur: for all that is in the heavens and in the earth [is yours]; yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and you are exalted as head above all" (1 Ch 29:11).

The Duty of Glorifying God

Praise is not optional in the UPDV. It is owed. The Psalter states the obligation tersely: "You⁺ who fear Yahweh, praise him; All you⁺ the seed of Jacob, glorify him; And stand in awe of him, all you⁺ the seed of Israel" (Ps 22:23). Sirach tightens the same demand and ties it to ordinary life — to honoring the priest with the proper offerings (Sir 7:31), to giving "with a good eye" so that "in all your works let your countenance beam, And with gladness sanctify your tithe" (Sir 35:10-11), to song: "O magnify his name, And give utterance to his praise, With songs of the harp and of stringed instruments" (Sir 39:15), and to whole-hearted melody: "And now sing praises with all your heart, And bless the name of the Holy One" (Sir 39:35); "Now bless the God of all, Who does wondrously on earth, Who exalts man from the womb, And does to him according to his good pleasure" (Sir 50:22). The duty is grounded in the contrast between the living and the dead: "Thanksgiving perishes from the dead as from one who does not exist, [But] he who lives and is in health praises the Lord" (Sir 17:28; cf. 17:9-10, 17:27). Living, breathing creatures are made to declare God's name.

The apostolic letters carry the obligation forward without softening. The redeemed body itself is the instrument: "for you⁺ were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your⁺ body" (1 Co 6:20). The congregation glorifies God with one mouth: "that with one accord you⁺ may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ro 15:6). Christian fruitfulness and discipleship are themselves praise-acts: "In this is my Father glorified, that you⁺ may bear much fruit and may be my disciples" (Jn 15:8). Service and speech work the same way: "if any man speaks, [speaking] as it were oracles of God; if any man serves, [serving] as of the strength which God supplies: that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ" (1 Pe 4:11). Even Christ's name in the believer is mutual glorification: "that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you⁺, and you⁺ in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Th 1:12).

The Psalter's Vocabulary

The Psalms supply the working vocabulary the rest of the canon draws on. Praise is continual — "I will bless Yahweh at all times: His praise will continually be in my mouth" (Ps 34:1) — and it is corporate: "Oh magnify Yahweh with me, And let us exalt his name together" (Ps 34:3). It is interior before it is verbal: "Bless Yahweh, O my soul; And all that is inside me, [bless] his holy name. Bless Yahweh, O my soul, And do not forget all his benefits" (Ps 103:1-2). It is publicly declared in the assembly: "I will declare your name to my brothers: In the midst of the assembly I will praise you" (Ps 22:22).

The pilgrim psalm of Ps 100 gives the canonical grammar of approach: "Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all you⁺ lands. Serve Yahweh with gladness: Come before his presence with singing... Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, And into his courts with praise: Give thanks to him, and bless his name. For Yahweh is good; his loving-kindness [endures] forever, And his faithfulness to all generations" (Ps 100:1-5). The Hallel psalms close the Psalter with an unbroken summons. Ps 150 names every sanctioned instrument — trumpet, psaltery, harp, timbrel, dance, stringed instruments, pipe, loud cymbals — and finishes: "Let everything that has breath praise Yah. Hallelujah" (Ps 150:6).

Lifted Hands

The body participates in praise as concretely as the voice. The classic gesture is the lifted hand. The psalmist supplicates: "Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry to you, When I lift up my hands toward your holy oracle" (Ps 28:2). He blesses: "So I will bless you while I live: I will lift up my hands in [the name of your Speech]" (Ps 63:4). The night-watch psalm makes it the standard posture in the sanctuary: "Lift up your⁺ hands to the sanctuary, And bless⁺ Yahweh" (Ps 134:2). The same gesture turns the evening prayer into an offering: "May my prayer be placed as incense before you; The lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice" (Ps 141:2). It signals desperate need too: "I spread forth my hands to you: My soul [thirsts] after you, as a weary land. Selah" (Ps 143:6); "Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the soul of your young children" (La 2:19). Sirach remembers Hezekiah's court doing the same: "So they called to God Most High, And spread forth their hands to him, And he heard the voice of their prayer, And saved them by the hand of Isaiah" (Sir 48:20). Paul institutionalizes the gesture for the church: "I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing" (1 Ti 2:8).

Creation Joins In

When the duty of praise is laid on Israel, the prophets and psalmists immediately widen the circle. Heaven and earth are summoned alongside the worshipper: "Let heaven and earth praise him, The seas, and everything that moves in them" (Ps 69:34). Inanimate creation is given a voice — "Let the floods clap their hands; Let the hills sing for joy together" (Ps 98:8) — and so are the heavenly bodies: "Praise⁺ him, sun and moon: Praise him, all you⁺ stars of light" (Ps 148:3). The whole of Ps 148 stages the chorus, from angels and stars to "Fire and hail, snow and vapor; Stormy wind, fulfilling his word" and on to "Mountains and all hills; Fruitful trees and all cedars" and finally "Kings of the earth and all peoples" (Ps 148:1-13).

Even the agricultural year is heard as song: "The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered over with grain; They shout for joy, they also sing" (Ps 65:13). Isaiah turns the same image toward redemption. After Yahweh has acted, creation must respond in kind: "Sing, O you⁺ heavens, for Yahweh has done it; shout, you⁺ lower parts of the earth; break forth into singing, you⁺ mountains, O forest, and every tree in it: for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel" (Is 44:23); "Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for Yahweh has comforted his people" (Is 49:13); "the mountains and the hills will break forth before you⁺ into singing; and all the trees of the field will clap their hands" (Is 55:12). Sirach gathers up the same impulse: "You⁺ who magnify Yahweh, lift up your voice, As much as you⁺ are able, for there is yet more! You⁺ who exalt him, renew your strength, And do not be wearied, though you⁺ cannot fathom him" (Sir 43:30); the holy children are told to "bud forth As a rose growing by a brook of water... and as frankincense give forth a sweet odor... sing a song of praise; Bless⁺ the Lord for all his works" (Sir 39:13-14).

God Glorified in Christ

In the gospel of John, praise becomes Trinitarian. Glory is given by the Son to the Father, and the Father glorifies the Son. Jesus' own report at the end of his ministry is "I glorified you on the earth, having accomplished the work which you have given me to do" (Jn 17:4). At the Last Supper, with Judas gone, he says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him" (Jn 13:31). The promise about prayer in his name is framed in the same key: "And whatever you⁺ will ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (Jn 14:13).

The earliest Christian writers continue Israel's praise-tradition through Christ as mediator. Hebrews quotes Ps 22:22 on the lips of Christ himself in the assembly of his brothers: "I will declare your name to my brothers, Among the congregation I will sing your praise" (Heb 2:12), and frames the church's continuing offering the same way: "Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to his name" (Heb 13:15). Paul tells the Ephesian and Colossian assemblies how the praise actually sounds — "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your⁺ heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father" (Eph 5:19-20); "Let the word of Christ dwell in you⁺ richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs, singing with grace in your⁺ hearts to God" (Col 3:16). James reduces the rule to a single line: "Is any among you⁺ suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise" (Jas 5:13).

The Heavenly Chorus

The seraphic anthem of Isaiah — "Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory" (Is 6:3) — recurs as the unceasing song of the four living creatures: "Holy, holy, holy, [is] Yahweh, the God of hosts, He Who Was and Who Is and Who Is To Come" (Re 4:8). The twenty-four elders fall down and answer it: "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for you created all things, and because of your will they were, and were created" (Re 4:11). The Lamb's redeemed are added to the chorus — "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Re 7:10) — and the song spreads to the whole creation: "every created thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them, I heard saying, To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, [be] the blessing, and the honor, and the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever" (Re 5:13).

The closing scene of the Apocalypse is a cascade of Hallelujahs that pulls the canon's praise-language together. The great multitude cries, "Hallelujah; Salvation, and glory, and power, belong to our God" (Re 19:1); the elders and living creatures answer, "Amen, Hallelujah" (Re 19:4); the throne itself commands, "Give praise to our God, all you⁺ his slaves, and you⁺ who fear him, the small and the great" (Re 19:5); and the whole multitude returns with "Hallelujah: for Yahweh our God, the Almighty, has begun to reign" (Re 19:6), echoing in another key the final summons of the Psalter: "Let everything that has breath praise Yah. Hallelujah" (Ps 150:6). Earlier doxologies of the unsearchable name come to the same conclusion: "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you only are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before you" (Re 15:4).