Biblical prayers are saturated with praise, the recognition of who God is and what he does. It’s giving God the glory. It’s never that we add to his glory—that’s impossible. But we’re willingly and openly recognizing God as God. All prayer has to begin with praise, recognizing who God is and what he does.
Psalm 146 is a perfect example of this kind of prayer. It recognizes God as the creator, the sustainer of life, and the Sovereign King. And it calls on the one reading the prayer and those praying the prayer with the reader to live their lives for the sole purpose of praising God.
“Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.
Blessed is he whose help in the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea and everything in them—
the Lord, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.
Praise the Lord.”
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