Praise and Worship Explained: Understanding What God Loves

By Dodzweit Achero

Praise is the joyful thanking and adoring of God, the celebration of His goodness, His grace and the audible proclamation of His Deity. When one does not know how to praise, he will end up copying what others are doing without a solid scriptural foundation that produces authenticity in what they do.

Worship is the inner attitude of reverence displayed outwardly by a posture of obeisance. The one chief purpose in worship is to get the total man, (spirit, soul and body) to a place of humility and brokenness where worship will freely flow to God.This book answers the questions many people have concerning what praise and worship is, who a true worshiper is, the hindrances and expressions of praise and worship, the Presence of God, praise and worship dress code and many others.

The author, Dodzweit Achero, not only shares his musical journey as an instrumentalist and a worship leader but also
unveils profound truths from God’s Word to make the reader gain a wider understanding of what praise and worship entails.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716858857

Book preview

Chapter 1

What is Praise?

When I was in primary school, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the architect of the country’s 1990 reunification and mentor to Angela Merkel visited our country. As students we lined up on the roadside to welcome this politician from the country I got my first name from.  I remember how we were so excited. We practised songs that we would sing as he passed by. I imagined he would stop, greet us and talk to us as we belted out our voices in his praise.

When the day finally came, we were not the only ones by the roadside but a huge crowd had also gathered. Everybody was trying to get the best spot to catch a glimpse of this great statesman visiting our country. We sang incessantly until our voices were hoarse and our throats hurt badly. Regardless of the pain we felt, it did not stop us from singing. We were there for a mission and that was to give him a befitting welcome to our beloved country. Other different groups were also there singing and dancing with reckless abandon. They came with traditional dancers and all manner of musical instruments.

When his convoy snaked through the ecstatic crowd, you could feel excitement and jubilation building steadily. The sight of his entourage accompanied by secret service agents amplified our voices to try and catch his attention. Seeing him with our president waving to the throngs of people by the roadside, made us shout, dance and sing praise to someone we barely knew. I doubt if he understood the lyrics of the songs composed in his honour because they were in Swahili. He smiled indistinctly and waved at the crowd as his entourage quickly moved past us. Our euphoric moment was short-lived but exhilarating. Our praise was not hinged on any tangible impact he had on our lives, rather, we were just going through the motions of praising someone who was a total stranger to us.

Most people do not know what praise is, they barely understand the essence of what praise is all about. One goes through the motions- dances, claps and shouts but fails to understand what they are doing. They have no revelation of what praise and worship is.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines praise as follows;

Spoken or written words about the good qualities of someone or something: an expression of approval for someone or something.

An expression of thanks to or love and respect for God.

The English Oxford Living Dictionary defines praise as follows;

To express one’s respect and gratitude towards (a deity), especially in song.

The expression of respect and gratitude as an act of worship.

Finally, the Collins English Dictionary defines praise as follows;

The act of expressing commendation, admiration, etc.

The extolling of a deity or the rendering of homage and gratitude to a deity.

To proclaim or describe the glorious attributes of (a deity) with homage and thanksgiving.

These definitions underscore one very important thing about praise; you must know the object of your praise. You cannot express all these if you do not know the Person to whom the adoration is due. You must know Him, His attributes and His great acts for you to praise Him accordingly. Without knowing God, what He is capable of doing or what He has done, your praise will be casual and without depth. You will just participate in the motions without understanding. Having a robust relationship with God positions us to praise Him effectively. When we praise God, we not only proclaim good things about Him, but also His mighty acts and His awesome power. In other words, we commend, extol, honour, and declare His greatness. Praise is the joyful thanking and adoring of God, the celebration of His goodness, His grace and the audible proclamation of His Deity.

How should we Praise God?

Praising God is an art that we need to learn and know how to effectively apply in our lives. Failure to do so is the reason why many lack the understanding on how to effectively offer acceptable praise to God. When one does not know how to praise, he will end up copying what others are doing without a solid scriptural foundation that produces authenticity in what they do. So how should we praise God?

We should praise God individually; Nobody can praise God for you. You cannot say, We praised God in Church today, if you know very well that you did not participate fully as an individual. If you were absent-minded and half of the time you were bored and restless, then you cannot say that you praised God. God is not just looking at us; He is also looking at you as an individual.  Praise is an individual responsibility. You can be surrounded with musicians playing musical instruments with dexterity, singers singing with great skill and people who are praising God but if you are not participating fully as an individual, you cannot claim to have praised God.

Do not ever think that when you are in a crowd God does not see you; He does. God sees each of us and expects that we praise Him regardless of how big the crowd is. He can hear your voice even when the music is loud and the crowd is huge. Sometimes we think when one is in a praising crowd, God cannot identify who is praising Him; He can because He is all-knowing.

As a father I have children who love me, as a husband I have a wife who loves me and as a pastor I have members who love me. Everyone loves me uniquely and each of them expresses their love in a different way depending on the relationship we have.

For instance, my wife expresses her love to me in a very unique way like none other. She gets to see the good, the bad and ugly but still loves me just as I am. The members of the Church I pastor have their unique way of showing me love as well. They constantly verbalize their love to me and demonstrate it through countless gifts. Then, there are my precious children who in their unique ways express their love to me. I get a hug before they go to sleep and they always profess their love to me.

All of these people are doing the same thing; they are showing me love in the best way possible. If any of them stopped loving me there would be a hole in my heart!  I would feel something is missing in the puzzle of love, and so it is with praising God. God wants to hear from each of us regularly. Only you can praise Him in your unique way and nobody can replicate your praise to God. God expects each of us to praise Him in our diverse uniqueness.

We should praise God orally; You cannot praise God while your mouth is shut, you must vocalize your praise. Have you ever seen someone in Church looking like an inanimate object? They do not sing, they do not clap, they do not shout even when asked to, and would not even attempt to say amen to a profound revelation. When you ask them why they do not participate, their answer is, I praise God in my heart. The Bible teaches that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If your heart is full of praise then God expects you to vocalize it.

The Book of Hebrews 13:15 (KJV) says, "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Sacrifice is about giving up something of value for the sake of other considerations. Out of our lips should flow the sacrifice of praise. The writer of Hebrews challenges us to inculcate the lifestyle of praise on a continuous basis regardless of what we are facing in life.

My wife knows that I love her, but she also wants me to say it over and over again. No matter how many times I say it she will not be bored because it is such a nice feeling to be told those words. That is how it is with our God!  He wants to hear us vocalize our praise to Him and He will not be tired of listening to the fruit of our lips regardless of the frequency.

We should praise God incessantly; Praise should not be an activity that only takes place on Sundays in Church, it should be done all the time; in good times, in bad times, in between, in times of plenty and in times of scarcity, when you are up and when you are down.  Some people say, But I cannot praise God when I am discouraged or in pain, God will understand my silence, it is natural.  However, that may be when you need to praise Him the most because praise reminds us that God is still God regardless of our circumstances. David says in Psalm 34:1, I will bless the Lord at all times and his praise shall continually be in my mouth. David reminds us that praise has no time-off. Every time is praise time. We must inculcate the habit of praising God until nothing can hinder us from doing so.

We should praise him collectively; There is an element of praise and worship that cannot be experienced in the privacy of our house or by just listening to gospel songs. There are dimensions of blessings and power that God gives only in the ‘meeting together’ with other believers. This should motivate every praiser not to miss opportunities to gather with other believers in corporate praise sessions.

Dr. Martin Luther King said these words about praising God with