It’s Good to Praise God

Ever since Sheba arrived in Jerusalem, I’ve been holding my breath, waiting for these words from 1 Kings 10:9 to pour from her lips: “Praise be to the Lord your God.”

Glory be, she did it! She stepped from the land of the lost into the land of the living, from believing in many gods to believing in the one true God of Israel.

In our society we’re called to respect those who worship other gods. I do so willingly, but I don’t praise their god. I don’t bend my knee. Yet Sheba was doing just that. She was praising, she was bending, she was honoring Solomon’s God, because He had become her God. This wasn’t about being socially correct but spiritually direct.

Sheba couldn’t proclaim such a truth on her own. In the same way that 1 Corinthians 12:3 tells us, “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit,” the queen of Sheba couldn’t say “praise God” without divine revelation and sincere dedication. It was God’s goodness, rather than Solomon’s, that drew Sheba in and won her heart.

In Matthew 12:42, the Lord specifically praised “the Queen of the South” because “she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom.” Jesus never would have done so if she were not His own. The Pharisees, blinded by their pride, couldn’t grasp what Jesus meant by “something greater than Solomon is here.”

Jesus held up our Queen of the South as the opposite of these religious men. She sought, she found, she believed.

Sheba was in Solomon’s presence long enough to discern the truth: Unlike the gods she feared in her home country, the God of Israel loved His people. While she imagined her false gods threatened, accused, and bedeviled, the God of Israel clearly provided, guided, and protected. The Israelites feared their God because they were in awe of Him.

The queen of Sheba was awestruck as well. Her first instinct was the right one: to call Him Lord and praise His holy name.

When, where, and how do you praise God? Privately? Publicly? And what stirs your heart to praise Him?

If you’ve ever praised God simply to be obedient, what did you discover in the process?

We know our praises do not change our unchangeable God. How do they change us?