The Sacrifice of Praise: by
15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of
praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his
name.
Hebrews 13:15
“By him”
The only people ordained to give sacrifices under the Old Law were those
of the Levitical priesthood (Hebrews 5:4). Under the New Law we find that
“pattern” (Hebrews 9:23) is the same (yet of things spiritual), those who are
sanctified have been brought into a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) under the
“high priest,” Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1). Having become spiritual priests
then, we are able to offer acceptable and worthy sacrifices through Christ
because he is the “mediator between God and men” (Hebrews 8:6; 1 Timothy 2:5).
“offer the sacrifice of
praise”
A sacrifice often gets a negative connotation in the world, they think
of blood and slaughter, loss of goods, loss of life. Sacrifice has been all
those things, but the meaning gets lost when we equate sacrifice with a simple loss.
The true sacrifice is so relevant because it is a willful giving up of
something important because it is counted as nothing before God (Philippians
3:8).
Knowing this, what makes praise a sacrifice? What is being given up?
Times of extreme distress are the easiest examples. When times are good and
easy, so is (often) all that is spiritual. It’s easier to praise the Lord (no
matter on our knees, at our jobs, or in church) in times of plenty, we have
that “plenty” to praise him for. Well, that doesn’t quite cover every day. Maybe
the meal is running low and there’s only one cruse of oil left like the woman
in 1 Kings 17, close to starvation and close to death for her and her son. Maybe
you lost a family member, not uncommon but not easy either. These times (and
far less than these) are the times when maybe you feel like you can give no
more, but you give God your praise anyways because He is worthy (Revelation
4:11), and you have the confidence that no matter what happens, He’ll see you
through. This is a blessed assurance; God sees His people through every time!
“continually”
This
is a call to action to give God the praise He deserves, and He deserves our
all. So, what does it look like to give praise continually? How can we give Him
a sacrifice of praise if we are not in times of famine? Praise is still a sacrifice
if given in plenty (we still must offer up our time), it’s just a more overt
sacrifice in famine. We are constrained in our love of God to find His praise
continually in our mouth in the times when we are up or even in the times when
we are getting up (as some of the older folks used to say). We can find that
when we make it a point to praise God whenever we think of it, it will begin to
be automatic throughout the day. To put things simply, David had it right in
Psalm 34:1 “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be
in my mouth.”
May we all praise the Lord continually.
