Even When… Choose to Praise

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

"Even When It Hurts (Praise Song)" 

By Hillsong UNITED 

Even when it's hard to find the words

Louder then I'll sing your praise

(Written during COVID-19 in April) 

I have never felt the grief of the world so heavily on my shoulders. Through this pandemic with panic, unjustness, and pure distraction, I have seen the true power Satan has to kill, steal, and destroy (See John 10:10a). The world has been heavy in my prayers and my heart. Yet, I have not become overwhelmed with the pain of our world. Yes, it hurts, and I cry out to God for deliverance, but I also worship God. I lean into Jesus deeper than ever as my heart aches and the world rages.

Through this whole pandemic, there is one profound thing God taught me to do better. That was to worship. I will be posting more of what I have learned about worship in a few weeks, for today I want to focus on the peace aspect that worship gave me. 

In this song Even When it Hurts, the lyrics and melody of the song have such a peaceful feel to them. Even when… I will still praise. That is a such a strong statement to sing. Even when a plague seems to rule, I  personally chose to praise. Even when people die, I chose to praise. Choosing to praise is easy when life is wonderful. When it hurts or when we see the full darkness of our world, that is when choosing to praise can be harder, but one thing that I have learned from this song is: praise can be simple and praising creates peace. 

But what is praise exactly? And how do we do it? I was wondering the same thing as I read Bible verses and sang this song. So first thing I did was go to the dictionary. This is the definition for the Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 

Praise

• an expression of approval

Then I also Googled the definition.

Praise

Verb: 

• express warm approval or admiration of 

Noun

• the expression of respect and gratitude as an act of worship.

From those two sources one thing sticks out to me the word “approval”. Sometimes it is hard to approve of things that seem to hurt us. We want God to just come down and take them all away. But this is the definition of approval from Google:

Approval

• the belief that someone or something is good or acceptable.

Belief that someone is good. Over and over in the Bible, God is called good. This verse in Nahum is a great one to turn to in a time when you want the weight of the world to go away.

“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble, he cares for those who trust in him.” — Nahum 1:7 (bold added)

The Lord is good and we can show approval of His goodness by worshiping Him. Our world may not be good, our life may not being going as planned, but God is still good. 

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” — Hebrews 13:8 

So what is praise? Praise is showing approval and love to the God who is good and who never changes. That’s what is means to always sing your praise. Now that we know what praise is, how do we do it? How do you praise when it hurts, when the world rocks, when we feel weak, when we cant even speak? 

Well, first I would turn to Psalms. I have been reading through Psalms, and the biggest thing I have noticed is how the poem fluctuates. David will start with a question of despair, but in the end he will have a verse declaring he will praise God. Psalm 13 is my favorite picture of this. Read it carefully and notice how the end is so powerful. You can feel David’s heart and his trust in God alone. 

“How long, Lord? Will you forget me

forever?

How long will your hide your face 

from me?

How long must I wrestle with my 

thoughts

and day after day have sorrow in 

my heart? 

How long will my enemy triumph 

over me? 

But I will trust in your unfailing love; 

my heart will rejoice in your salvation. 

I will sing the Lord’s praise, 

for he has been good to me.” — Psalm 13: 1-2, 5-6

David is choosing to praise even when he does not understand. The other picture of praising even when is Job. 

“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”— Job 1:21b

This may be one of the most misquoted Bible verses, simply because some meaning was lost in  translation. God will not take away. He is not a mean God, and the Bible says: 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”— Jeremiah 29:11 

God does not harm you, but sin is in our world, so we get hurt. But God is still good even when we get hurt. I love the verse from Job, because in a simple way it is saying may God be glorified in my pain. Even then it hurts may He be praised. Job is praying this right after He has lost everything. Even in his pain, he desires for God to be glorified (See 2 Corinthians 12:10). 

I will praise God in the pain because I know that through my pain He will be glorified. Even when it hurts He is still good and woking all things out for good. I can praise God with my pain. And as I praise, peace falls on me. I feel more at rest and close to the God who is good. 

Maybe our pain is too deep to understand, and that is when we become true worshipers. 

“Yet a time is coming and has come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” — John 4:23

We can praise God even when our words fail by using the Holy Spirit and focusing on the truth. 

So praise God even when… We praise him because He is good. He will always be good, he does not harm us, he uses our pain. We can express acceptance that even in this trial, He is good.

I challenge you to listen to this song and declare that you will sing Him praise even when… God is worthy of praise because He is good. Let’s accept that goodness.