Why God Commands Praise: The Purpose of Missions

Hello, and welcome back to Nations 4 Jesus. Today I want to answer a question that trips up a lot of people—both Christians and non-Christians. Why does God command us to praise Him? Doesn't that make Him sound vain and egotistical? And what does this have to do with missions?

These questions are at the heart of Psalm 117, that shortest chapter in the Bible we looked at before. Let me read it again:

"Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!"

Today I want to focus on that command: "Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!" This is God's purpose—that He be praised by all the peoples, that He be made much of, that He be seen and savored and shown to be great. But why? This insight comes from John Piper's sermon "Everlasting Truth for the Joy of All Peoples."

[What is missions? - the definition]

Piper defines missions this way: "Missions is a cross-cultural movement aimed at helping people stop making much of themselves and start making much of their Creator."

Think about that! Missions isn't primarily about helping poor people or building schools or drilling wells—as good as those things are. Missions is about transforming people's hearts so that God is felt to be more praiseworthy than sports stars or military might or artistic achievements or anything else He has made.

Missions is helping people experience God as their Treasure above all earthly treasures forever. To see Him as the Pearl of Great Price. It's a life-and-death struggle to give people eternal life, which consists in knowing and enjoying God forever.

[How missions works - not just commands]

So missionaries don't just say, "Praise the LORD, all nations!" They also explain why. Piper writes: "We give reasons. We explain who He is and what He is like and how He has worked in history and spoken to us in the Bible and in His Son. We give reasons for why praising God is the only safe and satisfying response to God. We make clear: Not to praise is to perish."

This is crucial! We're not just barking commands at people. We're showing them the beauty and greatness of God. We're giving evidence that praising Him is good. We're explaining how Jesus made a way for sinners to approach God and worship Him.

[The objection - doesn't this make God vain?]

But here's the problem many people have. Piper quotes Michael Prowse, writing in the London Financial Times: "Worship is an aspect of religion that I always found difficult to understand. Suppose we postulate an omnipotent being who, for reasons inscrutable to us, decided to create something other than himself. Why should he expect us to worship him? We didn't ask to be created. We know that human tyrants, puffed up with pride, crave adulation and homage. But a morally perfect God would surely have no character defects."

Do you hear the objection? When human leaders demand praise, it's because they're insecure, vain, needy. So doesn't God's command to praise Him suggest He has the same character defect?

[The breakthrough - praise completes our joy]

But what if we have it backwards? Piper asks: "What if we have the need, and the need is to see infinite beauty and enjoy it so much that it spills over in authentic praise? What if admiration really is the highest pleasure and God is the most admirable being in the universe? If that were the case, wouldn't God's demand that we praise Him be a demand for our maximum joy. And do we not call that love?"

This is the breakthrough! God isn't seeking praise because He needs it. He's seeking our praise because we need to give it! He's not trying to fill some deficiency in Himself—He's trying to fill the God-shaped hole in us!

[C.S. Lewis's discovery - praise completes enjoyment]

C.S. Lewis struggled with this same question and made a profound discovery. He writes: "I thought of praise in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it."

Think about it! When you enjoy something, you naturally praise it. Lovers praise their beloved. Readers praise their favorite books. Sports fans praise their teams. Food lovers praise delicious meals. Hikers praise beautiful mountains. When we experience something wonderful, we can't help but talk about it!

Lewis continues: "I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: 'Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?'"

When we love something, we don't just praise it—we want others to praise it too! We want them to experience the same joy we're experiencing. That's exactly what the Psalmists are doing when they tell everyone to praise God!

[The key insight - praise completes enjoyment]

Then Lewis says something brilliant: "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."

Did you catch that? Praise doesn't just express our enjoyment—it completes it! You haven't fully enjoyed something until you've praised it, until you've shared it, until you've celebrated it with others.

[Why God seeks our praise - for our happiness]

So here's the answer to our question: Why does God command us to praise Him? Piper writes: "The reason God seeks our praise is not because He won't be complete until He gets it. He is seeking our praise because we won't be happy until we give it."

God is complete in Himself. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have enjoyed perfect love and joy and glory from all eternity. God doesn't need anything from us. But we desperately need to praise Him because that's what we were created for! We'll never be fully happy, fully satisfied, fully complete until we're praising the One who is infinitely praiseworthy.

Psalm 147:1 says, "Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant." Praising God is good for us. It's pleasant. It brings us joy!

[Missions is love, not arrogance]

Piper writes: "Therefore when we say that missions is the cross-cultural effort to help the peoples praise God, we mean that missions is love not arrogance."

We're calling the world to do what they were created to do—to enjoy making much of God forever. If missions doesn't reach a people with the Gospel, God will be dishonored and the people will be miserable forever.

[Two motives that are really one]

Piper concludes: "Therefore we are driven by two motives (which turn out to be one): the glory of God, and the good of man. They are one because praise to God is the consummation of pleasure in God."

We care about missions because we want God to be glorified—praised by all nations. But we also care about missions because we want people to be happy—truly, deeply, eternally happy. And those two things are the same! People are most happy when they're praising God. God is most glorified when people are most satisfied in Him.

[Practical application - worship and witness]

So what does this mean practically? First, examine your own heart. Are you praising God? Not out of duty, but out of delight? If you're not enjoying God, you won't be effective in calling others to enjoy Him. Missionaries can't export what they don't possess.

Second, understand that worship is the fuel and goal of missions. We worship, and that worship overflows into mission. We go on mission so that others can join us in worship. John Piper famously said, "Missions exists because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions."

Third, when you share the Gospel, don't just give commands. Give reasons! Show people who God is. Explain what He's like. Tell them what He's done in history and in your life. Help them see that God is beautiful, glorious, worthy of praise. Make them hungry to know Him!

[Closing challenge]

As we close, let me challenge you: God is calling all nations, all peoples to praise Him. Not because He's a cosmic egotist, but because He's an infinitely loving Father who knows that we'll never be happy until we're praising the One we were created to praise.

So praise Him yourself! And then, like those Alpine shepherds we talked about, call out to others: "Praise the LORD! For it is good! For it is pleasant!" Invite them to experience the joy you've found. That's what missions is—love in action, calling the world to the happiness found only in making much of God.

Let me pray: 

Thank you for joining me today. Until next time, remember—keep your eyes on the nations and help them discover the joy of praising God!

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Psalm 8 - Man and God

LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! 

You have set Your glory in the heavens. 

Through the praise of children and infants 

You have established a stronghold against your enemies, 

to silence the foe and the avenger. 

When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, 

the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, 

what is mankind that you are mindful of them, 

human beings that you care for them? 

You have made them a little lower than the angels

and crowned them with glory and honor. 

You made them rulers over the works of Your hands; 

You put everything under their feet: 

all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, 

the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, 

all that swim the paths of the seas. 

LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Psalm 8 

Imagine the scene. Here is young David out under the stars at night watching his sheep. The air at that time and place was not darkened with smog or polluted with the irritants that fill the atmosphere today. The stars were brilliant, and the moon, in its full phase, was crossing the heavens. He felt, as we have all felt as we have stood under the stars at night, something of mingled mystery and awe as he looked up into the star-spangled heavens. He considered the beauty of nature and its silent witness to the wisdom of God. All the breath-taking beauty of this scene broke upon his eyes as the sun set. He was astonished at the greatness of a God who could create such things.

Thirty centuries after David wrote these words, we feel the same awe when we consider the starry heavens. Astronauts have been physically able to walk on the same moon that David could observe only from a distance, yet all the knowledge that has been gained about the universe in which we live only serves to deepen our impression of the tremendous wisdom and power of God. How vast is the universe in which we live! These billions of galaxies whirl in their silent courses through the deepness of space. How tremendous is the power that sustains it all and keeps it operating as one harmonious unit! That is what impressed this psalmist.

Then he faces the inevitable question that comes to those who contemplate God's greatness. "'What is man," he asks, "in the sight of a God who could make a universe like this?" You will recognize that this is the question that cries for an answer in our day. What are humans? Where did they come from? What is their purpose here? Why do they exist on this small planet in this vast universe? These are the questions that are being asked more and more.

The psalmist goes on to answer his own question: "You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:5). Man has a unique relationship to God. He was made to be a little less than God. What is included in that remarkable expression is the revelation of God's purpose for man. According to the Bible, God made man to be the expression of God's life, the human vehicle of the divine life, the means by which the invisible God would be made visible to His creatures. Man was to be the instrument by which God would do His work in the world and the expression of the character and being of God. He is the creature nearest to God. There is none other nearer, for God Himself was to live in man. That is the revelation of the Bible. Man is such a unique being, such a remarkable being, that God Himself intends to live in Him to be the glory of man's life.

Prayer: We thank You, Father, that in You we find our true worth and identity. Thank You that You live in us through Your Holy Spirit. Thank You that Jesus took on the very nature of man so that He could identify with us and take our punishment for our sins and give us His salvation. In His name we pray, Amen.

Life Application: God created human beings to be fully alive in union with Him. Are we allowing God to restore that union with the risen Christ to be fully alive in and through us?

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Easter Devotion - Happy Palm Sunday!

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, 
"Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" 
"Blessed is the King of Israel!"
Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,
"Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." 
At first his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified did they realize that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.  John 12:12-16

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.  
Zechariah 9:9

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. 
They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
And they cried out in a loud voice: 
"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: 
"Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen!"  Revelation 7:9-12

As we celebrate Palm Sunday today, we should not only look back into the past, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem; but we should look forward to a day, in the future, when all those who have believed in Jesus as their Savior, throughout all of history, will stand around His throne and worship Him. But this time, there will be no Gethsemane or trials before Pilate or whippings or a cross waiting for Jesus. Instead, there will be year after year, century after century of enjoying life with our Lord and God. And praise God that there will be people in Heaven from every nation, tribe, language and people! What a joyous day that will be. May it come quickly!

Prayer:We love you Jesus. Today, in our hearts, may we lift up palm branches and say to You:
"Hosanna!"
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
"Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!"