Psalm 149:2-5

How do we rejoice in our Maker? We give Him thanks; we give Him praise; we sing; we dance. True joy and thanksgiving cannot contain themselves—they must be expressed. God continually gives us reasons to thank Him each and every day. We woke up this morning, didn’t we? Give Him thanks for that! We take so much for granted.

As we have read through the Psalms, praising God is one of the key themes throughout the book. Yet there is more to praising God than singing a song. We praise Him with our lives—by what we become, not in the sense of accomplishments, but in who we are as people. What good is outward beauty if it does not exist on the inside?

Jesus made reference to this when speaking to the Pharisees:

“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Matthew 23:27–28 (NLT)

God sees and knows everything, so when we praise Him, we should submit all that we are to Him, as David wrote:

“Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.”
Psalm 103:1 (NLT)

Proverbs also speaks to this truth:

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.”
Proverbs 31:30 (NLT)

Inner beauty cannot be hidden. It reveals itself through acts of kindness, patience, compassion, and love for our fellow man. Scripture tells us that out of the heart, the mouth speaks. We cannot hide who we truly are—especially from God. The beauty of God is that He changes us from the inside out.

How do we know when someone has truly encountered the Lord? Their life changes. Some of the most hardened individuals become tender in His presence. The Kingdom of God is not made up of perfect people, but of submitted people—recreated through Christ. Truly, we are all works in progress.

To this day, I remember an encounter with a business executive who, by his own admission and by those around him, was a hardened man. I was playing in an all-day golf event and happened to be seated at his table for breakfast. During our conversation, he discovered that I was a Christian. We spoke briefly about faith and then went out to play golf.

As it turned out, he was seated at my dinner table that night, and the topic of faith came up again—though not directly from him. He simply listened. Suddenly, tears began running down his cheeks, and in front of all of us he exclaimed that he was a changed man. I asked if he had family members who were believers, and he replied, “Oh yes—my daughters.” I asked if they were praying for him, and he said, “All the time.”

The Lord answered their prayers and met this man on the golf course. I encouraged him to call his daughters that night and tell them what had happened, because it would mean the world to them. Like them, I had a father who was a tough nut, and I was praying and believing that he, too, would come to the Lord.

If we are willing to praise God with everything we are, the world cannot help but notice—and, as was the case with this man, they may just decide to join the celebration.