Psalms, Praise and modern Society ...

Friday, Jan 8, 2010. The Psalms command us to praise God. Praise of God is an important activity of faith. It is a crucial activity described in the bible again and again. God is great, and we should talk about his greatness, about his unbelievable and wonderful character, about his activities and his love, about his purity and his mercy, about his creativity and the wonders which accompany him.

Praise is also a central activity of our society. It is usually called “marketing”, but we also have various mechanisms of appreciation - prices and competitions, the small and large Olympics and championships which are carried out day by day everywhere on this planet.

From a biblical view, our world with its internal praise mechanisms is not very healthy. Clearly products need to be made known, otherwise we could not make decisions what we want to buy. In this sense marketing is necessary - it is a part of the communication between humans which we strongly need. But we go much beyond the information which would be healthy. The marketing machinery of our companies and institutions tries to fill our minds with needs and desires which make us buy. And our social structures push these mechanisms - we appreciate those who sell a lot, who gather a lot of money, who become rich - without paying that much attention to their principles, to the way in which the riches are collected. We are, in fact, quite stupid with a good part of our social costumes. We do not pay attention to God's view - and then we face all the difficulties which arise from this ignorance.

The bible tells us, we should not praise people, but God. He is the creator, all we have and all we are is because of his creativity, power and mercy. Humans can only take what he gave them - gifts, talents, power and resources. We can just use and modify what he has provided. Even our personal motivation, our abilities to work and to produce, are given by him. He has created us to be his children, to live in trust and community with him through the Holy Spirit. But we do not pay attention. We are so focused on the fame of some people, we are just following our desires, not his desire, not his love, not his truth and mercy.

But there is a better way. It is the way of faith - the way of the psalms. They guide us back to a good praise. They lead us back to the source of life. They show us how we can base our life and our goals on the only sustainable power which exists, the power of the Lord! Let us change our society, our customs, our behavior. It will change when we live in faith. We will change the categories of our mind - will start to love and to follow the Lord. This then changes our societies and our praise. Let our newspapers be full of the praise of God, of his wonders, of his creation, of people who carry out mercy and live in solidarity. There is a lot to do … the Lord is wonderful! [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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