Praising Him Before the Answer Comes

I was studying Isaiah 42 this morning and verses 10-13 really caught my attention and taught me an important lesson about praise:

"Sing to the Lord a new song,

And His praise from the ends of the earth,

You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,

You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!

Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,

The villages that Kedar inhabits.

Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,

Let them shout from the top of the mountains. 

Let them give glory to the Lord,

And declare His praise in the coastlands.

The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;

He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.

He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud;

He shall prevail against His enemies." (Emphasis mine)

Isaiah is calling the people to praise. Why? Because the Lord is going to do something! He hasn't even done it yet, but the people begin to praise Him.

I believe this is true faith.

Bringing our requests before Him, laying them at His feet, and then praising Him!  Why can we praise Him before He answers?  Because "this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him" (1 John 5:14-15).  Because "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7).  Because "whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him" (1 John 3:22). 

There are many other instances in the Scriptures of where men and women praised the Lord for answering their prayers when as yet they hadn't seen His answers with their eyes. But they knew their Lord and they trusted Him.

One of my other favorite examples is in Psalm 71. I read this at a time when I was waiting on the Lord for some answers and beginning to doubt if they would ever come.  But the Lord was very gracious to me as I read the prayer of the psalmist, specifically verses 12-14:

"O God, do not be far from me;

O my God, make haste to help me!

Let them be confounded and consumed

Who are adversaries of my life;

Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor

Who seek my hurt.

But I will hope continually,

And will praise You yet more and more." (Emphasis mine)

The writer of this psalm cried out to the Lord, and, before He even gave the answer, this man said, "I will praise You yet more and more."  More and more?  Wow, that's amazing!  Here's a man who hasn't even received the answer to His prayer yet, but he is resolving to praise God even more than he has ever done in the past?  Wow--that's really inspiring!

So today, let us be like the psalmist.  Let us be like Isaiah.  And let us be like the countless thousands of other Christians who have gone on before us with shouts of praise.  We serve a God of miracles, a God who is generous beyond our greatest imaginations, a God Who is faithful even when we are not.  Let us praise Him today for all that He is!  Truly, He is worthy of our adoration.

"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name." 

 ~Hebrews 13:15