followHIM - "Why does God need to be praised so much?": followHIM Favorites

Episode Date: August 21, 2022

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from this week's Come, Follow Me study.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the follow HIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers, SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Hello, my friends. Welcome to Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with the wonderful, amazing, closest friend, John, by the way. And if you've been following Follow Him Favorites this year, you know that we take a single question from this week's lesson. Well, John, I wanted to ask you a question. The title of this week's lesson is Let Everything That Hath Breath Praise the Lord. And it's all about the book of Psalms. My question for you, which I've received before from students, is why does God need to be praised so much? Is there something about him where he says, if you have breath, you should be praising me. Wow. John, what do you say to someone who says, why does God need to be praised so much? Or even that,

why does he need to be prayed to so much? Why does he need to be glorified so much? What do you say to that? Boy, that's such a good question. Because I think when we think of why we might want to hear someone praise us is a different reason. I think for God, and boy, you can help me with your thoughts, Hank, but it tells us where our hearts and where our minds are. If our hearts are on gratitude, on devotion, on our covenants, I think that our praise is not helping him as much as it's helping us. And it reveals kind of what's going on with us and what's going on in our hearts. Some of these Psalms are like that just, and they're so different that way because it's not God's words through a prophet, but it's our

words about God. And the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, he leads me besides still waters. It's not like God's going, okay, I need more of that. But look how it changed the writer of that to be thinking and pondering and how it filled him with gratitude and can fill us with gratitude. That's where I would go with that. What do you think? Yeah, I think when we say let everything have breath, praise the Lord. I think the Lord knows that the praising changes the praiser, not the praisee, right? Where you and I, we love to be praised because people say,

oh, John, Hank, you're so great. Thanks for doing this. We think, oh, thank you. Please don't stop, right? Like, yeah, don't stop. Don't stop. Yeah. But for the Lord, he realizes that when we praise him, we change. It's a lot like, I think, in prayer. I read this in the Bible dictionary when it comes to prayer. It says, prayer or praising in this case is the act by which the will of the father and the will of the child are brought into a correspondence, alignment with each other. The object of prayer or praise is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but have been made conditional on our asking for them or praising for them. Blessings require some work and effort on our

part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work. So I like the idea of God saying, if you will spend your time in praising me, you are spending your time aligning with me. Yeah. It reminds me of Joseph Smith's prayer in Liberty Jail that was so powerful and beautiful. How long? The answer that he got, he didn't suddenly pop out outside of the jail. Yeah. His perspective changed. Thy suffering and thine afflictions will be but a small moment. And he learned, like you just said, the will of the Lord and the circumstances didn't change much, but the perspective changed dramatically. When he, what was the word you used? He started to align his will with God's or at least learn what it was.

So that helps me a little bit. I think we see that same thing, don't you? In 2 Nephi chapter 4, where Nephi is in a really bad place. And he starts to praise the Lord. He first starts out talking about how terrible he is. Wretched man that I am. I would love to be as wretched as Nephi. Yeah. That's the first word I think of with Nephi.

Oh, wretched. Right? But that's what he thinks of. And then he says, he starts to align his will. If you read 2 Nephi 4.19,, he says, I grown because of my sins. Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. So in his act of writing and praying and praising, you can feel his alignment changing. My God has been my support.

He has led me through my afflictions in the wilderness. He's confounded my enemies. He talks led me through my afflictions in the wilderness. He's confounded my enemies. He talks about, I've been carried away in vision. If this is the case, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow? And then he starts to, towards the very end, he starts to praise the Lord. Oh Lord, I have trusted in thee and I will trust in thee forever. So I think this is a good example. 2 Nephi 4 is a good example of the praising changing the praiser.

Does that make sense? And not really, didn't change the Lord at all. But wow, it brought Nephi in alignment with the spirit he needed to have that enthusiasm to continue forward. Kind of look at what he started to do. It's like the counsel we get in that hymn, count your blessings and name them one by one. He started counting all the things the Lord had done for him and that changed him. The Lord knew that he had done those things, but when he started reflecting on it, I think he got out of that place where he was. And I don't think anyone would say to Nephi when he said, oh, wretched man that I am.

I don't think any of us would say, come on, Nephi, don't have low self-esteem. You know, this was one of his greatest moments when he recognized his dependence on God. Like we both joked, I'd love to be as wretched as Nephi. Maybe he was sad that he couldn't keep his family together. I was angry with my brothers, whatever. But as he put his reliance on God, God didn't need the praise, but look what it did for Nephi by the end. I mean, that's a perfect example to use, Hank. Yeah. So at night when you kneel down to pray and you might think, well, God already knows what I need. God already knows what I've done. Why do I have to pray? It's for you. It's not for him. It's for you to find out some things about you, not for God to find out some things about you or for God to find out some things about God. It's for you. And when you sing the hymns in church, we've been talking about Psalms so much. Songs, singing, taking part in these Psalms with the saints, the song of the saints can actually

change you. It can change your heart. It can soften your heart. I know that by the time I'm done singing a sacrament hymn, my heart is a little bit different, isn't it? It's a little bit different. It's a little bit softer. It's a little bit more repentant. That act of praising God in that hymn changed me, not him, but man, it changed me. So I think when the Lord says, let everything that have breath, praise the Lord, he means I want you in alignment with me. Yeah. I remember in the MTC having, I don't know, a thousand, a couple of thousand of us singing, called to serve together. That changed me. That was an amazing experience to feel like looking left and right and seeing all these elders and sisters and feeling part of this.

That was, I bet you had the same type of experience. The Lord knew why we were there, but it changed me. And when I was on my mission and having a moment where I felt pretty isolated alone, me and my companion, but I could remember, no, I've locked elbows with thousands of us in the MTC and we're doing this. We're going to go gather Israel together. It changed me. I don't know about you, but you're nodding. I think going to go gather Israel together. It changed me. I don't know about you, but you're nodding. I think you remember those times singing with an army of missionaries, how fun that is. You can feel it. It literally changes your soul every time you do it. So

go to church this weekend and sing the songs. Praise the Lord in your songs or on your own, on your own, sing, turn on some of that wonderful gospel music and sing and see if that act of praising God doesn't change you as the praiser. Thanks for joining us on Follow Him Favorites. We hope you'll join us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts and come back next week. We'll do another Follow Him Favorites.