Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving

1Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
2Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
3Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.
4For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
5For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
6Splendour and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
8Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.
9Worship the LORD in the splendour of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.
10Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.
11Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
12let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;
13they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth. Psalm 96


Richard Foster says that, “Prayer is the human response to the perpetual outpouring of love by which God lays siege to every soul.” He calls this type of prayer “adoration” and says that it contains two aspects: Praise and Thanksgiving. He goes on to explain, “In one sense adoration is not a special form of prayer, for all true prayer is saturated with it. It is the air in which prayer breathes, the sea in which prayer swims. In another sense, though, it is distinct from other kinds of prayer, for in adoration we enter the rarefied air of selfless devotion. We ask for nothing but to cherish Him. We seek nothing but His exaltation. We focus on nothing but His goodness. In the prayer of adoration we love God for Himself, for His very being, for His radiant joy.”

In the Psalm above David’s (see 1 Chron. 16:7) total focus is on the wonder of God. He asks for nothing, for himself or others, he communicates nothing about himself, rather he can only sing of the marvel and the nature of the most important person in his life. Such a prayer can be said all day long and for years without running out of material. Such prayer is a measure of the hold which God has on us. It can be said at the most difficult of times or the most joyous of occasions. It can be said collectively out loud with others or in the solitude of our souls.

O’Hallesby calls this prayer “the breath of the soul.” A. W. Tozer wrote, “True Christian prayer is the heart’s harmonious response to the Lord’s song of love.” E. M. Bounds adds, “Gratitude and thanksgiving always looks back at the past though it may also take in the present. But prayer always looks to the future. Thanksgiving deals with things already received. Prayer turns to gratitude and praise when the things asked for have been granted by God.”

The lovely aspect of prayer as adoration/praise/thanksgiving is that it takes our vision off of ourselves. It causes us to look heavenwards and recognize the author of all true goodness, the carer of our souls; remind ourselves of His attributes and His great unceasing love for us. As we do this, our perception of our current environment changes and we find ourselves transported – or our circumstances transformed – into one of God’s perception. Even as we look adoringly at Him we begin to see ourselves and those around us more accurately and this changes our response to the circumstance. None of this is deliberate or difficult, but automatic, as His Spirit works in us and in our prayer lives. This too is a part of the “simple prayer” we have been looking at these past few days.

If at present you are struggling with the “how to” of all this I thought that you might also like to read this short story of simple prayer by Leo Tolstoy:

There were once three hermits who lived on an island. Their prayer of intimacy and love was simple like they re simple: “We are three; you are three; have mercy on us. Amen” Miracles sometimes happened when they prayed in this way.
The Bishop, however, hearing about the hermits, decided that they needed guidance in proper prayer, and so he went to their small island. After instructing the monks, the Bishop set sail for the mainland, pleased to have enlightened the souls of such simple men.
Suddenly, off the stern of the ship he saw a huge ball of light skimming across the ocean. It got closer and closer until he could see that it was the three hermits running on top of the water. Once on board the ship they said to the Bishop, “We are so sorry, but we have forgotten some of your teaching. Would you please instruct us again?”
The Bishop shook his head and replied meekly, “Forget everything I have taught you and continue to pray in your old way.”

Mike Clarkson