6. The Biblical praises

All the most important prayers of the Bible begin with the praise to God  : the three youngs  in the furnace just left  the last  few verses for  supplication in their prayer  , while the first part of their song is dedicated to praise and blessing and recognition of the majesty and divine righteousness (Dan 3:24 ff) , before asking for the gift of wisdom , Solomon extols the wisdom of God and gives a lot of space to  the same exaltation of Wisdom (Wis 9:1 ff ) . The psalmist , then , are the great masters of praise :

O God, my King, I shall bless Thy name for ever and ever . Every day I will bless You and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable (Psalm 145.1-3 ).

Bless the Lord , O my soul , O Lord, my God, how great you are ! Clothed in majesty and splendor , wrapped in light as with a garment (Ps. 104.1-2 ) .

The hymn of praise is the result of loving contemplation , to put everything back in its place, God at the top and the creature at His feet.  Contemplating do  not means reaching some kind of high degrees of prayer , because each type of prayer can achieve a degree of contemplation , as every authentic prayer is communion with God. Moreover   in the praise we realize who we really are and how our true being is realized in  the relationship with God:  more  we praise and   more we grow in the knowledge of Him and realize our loving relationship.

As for the Virgin Mary in her beautiful singing of the Magnificat (Lk 1:46 ) , praise flows from the consciousness of God’s holiness:

Rejoice, ye just, in the Lord , give thanks to his holy name (Psalm 97.5)

Exalt the Lord our God, worship at his holy mountain , because holy is the Lord our God (Ps. 99.9) .

Sing to Him with songs of joy … Glory in his holy name (Psalm 105.2-3 ) .

God Himself , through His Word teaches us how to praise him , and if you fail in your own words , you can use those of Scripture (continued)

Laila Lucci,

Bible Teacher and professor of Hebrew Bible and S. Writing at the ISSR Rimini is the author of several essays and books, among whic are included: Witnesses of the Risen.

Paths of Lucan pneumatology, Pazzini, Verucchio (RN) 2007

Commentary to exegetical-theological “Wisdom Books” in The Bible VVV, S. Paul, Cinisello Balsamo 2009;

Introduction, translation and commentary on Joel, S. Paul (NVAT), Alba 2011;

Introduction, translation and commentary on Amos, S. Paul (NVAT), Alba 2012