I don’t quite know why, but recently I have felt a strong impulse to focus on the importance of praise in private and public worship. This has been helped, firstly by remembering the wonderful praise sessions in which I participated during the early days of renewal, and secondly, by rereading books on the subject such as Merlin Carothers’ Power in Praise (1972), Judson Cornwall’s Let us Praise (1973), and Paul Hinnebusch’s Praise a Way of Life (1976).

The New Testament strongly encourages us to praise God. In Eph 1:12 we read: “We who have first hoped in Christ, have been destined and appointed for the praise of his glory.” Heb 13:15 adds: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise-- the fruit of lips that confess his name.” Again in 1 Pt 2:9 we are told that: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” The prayer of praise helps us to escape the gravitational pull of self-absorption to become engrossed in God and in the victory Christ has won over Satan, sin and death. As the scriptures show, the prayer of praise can take many complementary forms.

Anticipatory praise - the festal shout

In this article I intend to focus in on one biblical form of praise known as the festal shout of victory. In the Old Testament there were frequent references to battles. Over and over again, the people of God had to contend with armies that were larger and better equipped than their own. But the Israelites had one great advantage. They had confidence that if they were following the will of the Lord, God would fight with them, so no matter what odds were stacked against them, they would be victorious. As they marched into battle they would utter the teruwah Yahweh. It was a blood curdling war cry that was intended to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies. It was also a liturgical chant which was meant to express their unshakable confidence in the One who would give them victory. There are many examples of this form of anticipatory praise. I will focus on one. It is to be found in 2 Chron. 20.

King Jehoshaphat had received news that his kingdom was about to be attacked by formidable armies. From a military point of view the position looked hopeless. Not surprisingly the king was filled with fear and anxiety. But instead of wrestling with the problem, he nestled by faith in the Lord by means of prayer and fasting. Having poured out his heart to the Lord, Jehoshaphat waited for a divine response. It came through one of his priests who spoke a word of prophecy. “Your majesty,” he said, “and all you people of Judah and Jerusalem, the Lord says you must not be discouraged or afraid to face this large army. The battle depends on God and not on you.” 2 Chron 20:15.

We are told that: “early in the morning .... As the army set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful.” After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” In other words, the priests and musicians led the soldiers in shouting the teruwah Yahweh as they marched into battle. The scriptures tell us what happened next: “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.” 2 Chr 20:20-22.

Later in the Old Testament we find that when the chosen people had settled down in Palestine there were fewer wars. But they remembered with nostalgia the battle cry of victory. They modified it for use in their temple worship. It became the “festal shout” that is sometimes mentioned in the psalms. For example in Ps 47:1-8 we read: “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.....God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.” However, Ps 89:15 sums up the biblical attitude when it declares: “Blessed are the people who know the festal shout.” There are a number of examples of the festal shout in the Old and New Testaments, e.g., Josh 6:1-20; Dan 3:24; Jonah 2:9-10.

Jesus’ festal shout of victory as he died

On Palm Sunday, the praises of the people constituted a festal shout that anticipated the victory of Jesus by means of his saving death and resurrection. As Jesus said on that occasion, if the people didn’t utter the festal shout “the very stones would cry out” Lk 19:40. I firmly believe that Jesus uttered the festal shout of victory as he died. We know that when he hung on the cross he quoted the first line of Ps 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Scripture scholar Albert Gelin points out that, as a devout Jew, Jesus would have gone on to recite the rest of the psalm in his mind. At one point it suddenly switches from complaint to praise.“I will praise you to all my brothers; I will stand up before the congregation and testify of the wonderful things you have done. “Praise the Lord, each one of you who fears him” Ps 22:22-25. So when Jesus cried out on the cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Lk 23:46) it was the culminating festal shout of victory which anticipated his vindication when his Father would raise him from the dead. In view of the Christological significance of the festal shout, it is not surprising that it was uttered in the early Church. For instance, we are told that having being unjustly scourged, Paul and Silas praised God and were liberated from prison in a miraculous way (cf. Acts 16:25-26).

“The work and the weapons are one. They are praise”

My conviction about the importance of the festal shout of praise was nurtured during the troubles in Northern Ireland. Because ecumenically minded Christians seemed to face impossible odds we had to rely on God. For example, an inter-denominational conference was held in Belfast during the general strike of 1977. There was the threat of violence in the streets and of power failures. Nevertheless, over a thousand Protestants and Catholics gathered in Church House in the center of the city for a “Festival of Praise.” It was a remarkable experience. There was an outburst of strong, sustained praise such as I had never heard before. God’s anointing fell upon us and we were graced with the festal shout, the kind that anticipated in praise the liberating action of God which was to come to fruition twenty one years later with the Good Friday agreement. In a prophecy the Lord called upon us to be united as his army. “The work and the weapons are one,” he said, “they are praise.” At a time when we face so many problems both inside and outside the Church, those words are as relevant now as they were in the seventies.

I feel that those who lead worship at charismatic prayer meetings and conferences need to encourage praise that is loud and long. As Sir 43:31-34 says, “Lift up your voices to glorify the Lord, though he is still beyond your power to praise; extol him with renewed strength, and weary not, though you cannot reach the end; for who can see him or describe him? Or who can praise him as he is.” It seems to me that praise leaders need to explore the nature, motives and different means of praising God. The Lord has said through his modern day prophets, notably John Paul II, that a Christian Springtime is on the way. No matter what difficulties we face in the meantime, we should anticipate the harvesting of a great number of souls for God with faith filled praise. “Faith” as scripture tells us, “is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” Heb 11:1.

Fr Pat Collins CM is a prolific writer and a respected retreat leader. He is based in Dublin, Ireland.