There are two points to be remembered : (1) the rich inheritance of the traditions of praise derived from the Temple services, and (2) the teaching of the Synagogue that, when one is cut off from partici- pation in sacrifices, praise should take their place. The few scattered hints in the Acts support the paradox that least is said in the NT about that
which is most familiar in thought and practice. The preparation of the apostles for Pentecost was to be continually in the Temple praising God (Lk 24°^). Afterwards we read that the apostles ' did take their food with gladness, . . . praising God ' ( Ac 2*"). Peter and John going to the Temple at the hour of prayer were certainly in accord with the Psalmist : ' Seven times a day will I j)raise thee' (Ps 119'") ; and the lame man, wliom Peter healed, instinctively praised God (Ac 3"*). When Peter reported to the ai)ostles and brethren the gift of the Holy Ghost to the Gentile Cornelius and his friends they glorified God (11'").
St. Paul goes very deeply into the thought of praise as an essential part of devotion when he speaks of the degradation of the heathen world as in a great measure due to their neglect of praise. ' Knowing God, they glorified him not as God ' (Ro 1-').* His own practice may be illustrated by the fact that when he and Silas had been beaten with rods at Philippi they sang hymns to God (Ac 16"''). And in Ro 1-= he turns from the loathsome subjectof heathen immorality to give glory to God, as if to guard himself from contamination, just as he prejiares himself for his impassioned argument on backsliding Israel by an ascription of praise to ' God blessed for ever ' (9=), and passes into another doxology at the end of his argument (11^-™). As he pictures Abraham when he received God's promise of a son giving glory to God (4^'), so he desires that Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy (15«, quoting Ps 18" 117' LXX).
The Epistle to the Ephesians opens (1'"''') with a great ascription of praise to God for the blessing of the Church. We are chosen in Christ that we should be ' holy to the praise of the glory of his grace.' Again and again he repeats the cadence ' to the praise of his glory.'
This level is worthily sustained in He 2'- : ' in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee,' when the writer quotes Ps 22"-. As the typical king David comes to his own despite Saul's persecution, so does Christ the true King in the hour of His victory over pain acknowledge His people as brethren, and the citizens of His Kingdom take the song of praise from the lips of their King.
Again in He 13" it is suggested that our praises are only worthily oft'ered through our great High Priest : ' Through him let us otter up a sacrifice of praise.' The phrase is quoted from Lv 7''", where it is used for the highest form of peace offering. B. F. Westcott {ad loc. ) adds that the word ' sacrifice ' in Mai 1" 'appears to have been understood in the early Church of the prayers and thanksgivings con- nected with the Eucharist.' From praise for ' the revelation of God in Christ (His Name) ' the writer goes on naturally to speak (v.'*) of kindly service and almsgiving, for 'praise to God is service to men.'
St. Peter also has a characteristic passage on praise (1 P 2') : ' That ye may tell forth the excel- lencies of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.' He is quoting 2 Is 43-', and his word ' excellencies,' standing for Hebrew ' my praise,' means an eminent quality in any person or thing, and the idea is blended with that of the impression which it makes on others ; ' the one sense involves the other, for all praises of God must be praises either of His excellencies or of His acts as manifestations of His excellencies' (F. J. A. Hort, ad loc). St. Peter does not say how the Asiatic Christians are to tell them forth, but he implies that their lives must correspond to their worship.
There is a fine saying of Rabindranath Tagore to
• Cf. Ac 1223, ' Herod was punished because he gave not God
the glory.'
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PRAISE
the effect that the future Saviour of India will be known not so mucli hy tlie light which streams from Him as by the lifiiit which is rellected to Him from His people. 'This calling into God's light ... is thus titly chosen as the characteristic act of Him whose excellencies the Christians were to tell forth, because it was on their use of the realm of vision thus opened to them that their power of exhibiting Him to men in grateful praise would depend ' (Hort, ad loc).
The reference to 'marvellous light' suggests a reminiscence of the Transtiguration, and the idea is paraphrased in Clement of Rome (36) : ' Through Him [Jesus Christ] let us gaze into the heights of the heavens ; through Him we beliold as in a mirror His spotless and supernal countenance ; through Him tlie eyes of our heart were opened ; through Him our dull and darkened mind burgeons anew into the light ' (quoted by Hort, ib. : of. 2 P l'«).