You alone, are worthy of my praise...

Once again, I'm listening to a song on the way home...here's the chorus:

I will give You all my worship, I will give You all my praise
You alone I long to worship, You alone are worthy of my praise.

I remember singing this in Youth Group, one of the leaders commenting about not liking this song, because he thought it made it seem like we are running around with praise looking to offer it to some one. I, on the other hand, do like it, because I think it hits on a important truth that we are tempted to overlook--the fact that we do have something important to offer God.

I don't think that we offer Him something in the sense that we make up for His lack, but rather we are important, and what we give has value. Denying this I think denies who we are, our value, and so denies His work in us--we are fearfully and wonderfully made, in His image, and that is important. Because we are valuable (He did send His son to die for us) then it is important what we praise, because our praise is valuable. He is a jealous God, and our praise is to be only directed towards Him. Were our praise nothing, then it would not matter that we give it to Him, and Him alone.

Simple song to be sure, but in that simplicity is wrapped up some significant truth about who we are, and how that effects our relation to God.