Psalm 50

Whoever offers praise glorifies Me…

(Psa 50:23a)

I thought this psalm would give us a good opportunity to talk about what it means to GLORIFY God. It is a word that get’s thrown around a lot in Christian circles, but one that I think most f us don’t really understand. So, let’s start by defining it. The root word in Hebrew is one the High School kids are familiar with because I talk about it frequently. It is the word Kabad (say it like KA – Vode, cause it sounds cool that way). In its raw root form it literally means Weightiness or Heaviness. You see, God is weighty… He isn’t light-weight or froofy… Here the word means that we acknowledge the HEAVINESS of God. We acknowledge that He is far above us and all else we know… that is what it means to glorify Him.

Webster says it means to ascribe honor to someone in thought or words. That is accurate as well. When we acknowledge how great God is, we HONOR Him. We set Him apart from all else, declaring Him to be greater.

In this psalm we are told that one of the ways we can GLORIFY God is by OFFERING HIM PRAISE. The idea here is that we sacrifice to God by giving Him praise. This is something that involves far more than our lips… anyone can say “praise the Lord”. The idea is that if we live a life of praise that offers up words of praise to and about the Lord, then we successfully glorify Him; acknowledging His greatness to the world all around us. Friends, live lives of praise, and glorify God in ALL you do!