Grateful Praise

 For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,

for the love which from our birth over and around us lies,

God of all, to You we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the wonder of each hour of the day and of the night, 

hill and vale and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light,

God of all, to You we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of ear and eye, for the heart and mind's delight,

for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight,

God of all, to You we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love, sister, brother, parent, child,

friends on earth and friends above; for all gentle thoughts and mild,

God of all, to You we raise this, our hymn of grateful praise.

Folliot S. Pierpoint, 1867

How Do You Handle Compliments?

Article by
John Piper


One of my very wise teachers did something I have never forgotten—something I have never had anyone else do since. He apologized for paying me a compliment.

Having heard that my Old Testament professor liked a paper I had written, he was in the midst of telling me how impressed he was when he stopped, mumbled something about the dangers of pride, and quoted a proverb, “A flattering mouth works ruin.” The conversation turned to other things.

I have often thought of this incident as I have faced the problem of getting and giving praise. Some six years later I am coming to see more clearly why my teacher’s apology was wise and loving.

Not all getting is good, so we have the word “greed.” And some giving is bad; so we have the word “bribe.” Therefore praise, which always involves a giving and a getting, may not always be good. It may be flattery.

In a day when the therapeutic and motivational powers of praise are getting such good press, may we do well to ask, exactly what is bad praise?

The Greek word for it (kolakeia) occurs in the New Testament only once. Paul defends his ministry to the Thessalonian Christians: “We never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness—nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others . . . (1 Thess. 2:5–6, NASV). It is more than incidental that flattery and greed fall together here.

The idea of flattery is present in Jude 1:16, where Jude accuses certain men of “admiring persons for the sake of their own advantage.” This same Greek phrase for “admiring persons” (thaumazontes prosopa) is used in the Old Testament to describe something God never does, namely, “show partiality.” In Deuteronomy 10:17 and 2 Chronicles 19:7 this phrase is followed by, “neither does he take a bribe.” The NASV translates Jude 1:16, “they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage.”

In the Old Testament much more is said about flattery, especially in the Proverbs. In all the texts which are cited, the Hebrew word for flattery is derived from halak which means “be smooth, or slippery.” Our word “flatter” comes from the Old French falter which means “to smooth, caress.”

In the book of Proverbs a man is warned against “the smooth tongue of the adulteress” (6:24), “for the lips of an adulteress drip honey and smoother than oil is her speech” (5:3). The meaning is that “with her many persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him” (7:21). But wisdom is able “to deliver you from the strange woman and from the adultress who flatters with her words” (2:16; 7:5).

Flattery is dangerous not only in the mouth of the adulteress but in any mouth: “A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth works ruin” (Prov. 26:28). “A man who flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his steps” (Prov. 29:5; Ps. 5:9). Therefore David says of the ungodly, “With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak. May the Lord cut off all flattering lips” (Ps. 12:2, 3).

After all these warnings, it is not surprising to read, “He who rebukes a man will afterwards find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue” (Prov. 28:23).

As a college teacher, I am a prime target for flattery.

For example, Dick was a transfer student in my New Testament history course. He was behind in his credits and needed to pass my course. For about five weeks Dick took every opportunity to tell me how superior my course was to a similar one at his former college. But after he got a D on the second exam, his praise ceased.

He came to me later in the semester and explained that he had to pass my course in order to finish school with his class. I told him what the final exam would be like and how to study for it. He flunked it, and came into my office to try to get me to change his grade. After reviewing his scores, I refused.

“I don’t think I could stand to take another Bible course here!” he said as he walked out.

In an instant I knew that all of Dick’s earlier praise had been mere flattery.

Flattery is bad praise. It is bad because it is given with a view to obtaining some advantage (Jude 1:16). Good praise or a good compliment is prompted by a sincere delight in something good or beautiful, and it aims only to bring this delight to completion by expressing it. As author/theologian C. S. Lewis says, “We delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the joy; it is its appointed consummation” (Reflections on the Psalms). But flattery does not flow from a sincere delight in the thing praised. It is elicited by some other benefit which it hopes to entice or win through flattery.

Therefore, there is a duplicity in all flattery: “With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak” (Ps. 12:2). Outwardly, Dick gave the impression that he was moved by delight in the quality of my course. Inwardly, the quality of the course was irrelevant. His praise was not a sincere response; it was a device to curry my favor.

His flattery, like all flattery, was one of the many forms of hypocrisy.

Even if the compliments of a flatterer are true, he is still a liar, because he feigns delight in the thing praised when really his delight is in some other hoped-for favor. Here the essence of the flatterer’s sin emerges. There is an emptiness or insecurity in his heart which he is trying to satisfy by finagling human favors. He is not content or secure in God but is covetous or greedy (1 Thess. 2:5; Jude 1:16) for some benefit he can obtain by dishonest, hypocritical means.

His sin, therefore, is that he chooses to pin his hopes on some fleeting approval or advantage which he may obtain through flattery, rather than on the promises of God in whose hands are pleasures forever (Ps. 16:11). He thus exchanges the glorious trustworthiness of God for some man-made security. In so doing, he insults his maker.

Flattery is not only a sin for the flatterer, it is dangerous to the flattered.

Dick’s flattery in the early weeks of the semester was like an advance payment for services he hoped to receive. It was like a bribe, not a wage, and was offered to my pride. It was an attempt to gratify my vanity.

Since pride and vanity crave to be complimented, we are sometimes willing to return a service for the flattery. This service may be in the form of returned flattery (witness the proverbial “mutual admiration society”). Or the service may be a boost in rank, a hike in salary, or (as Dick was hoping) a good grade in school.

It is evident, then, that Dick was not only giving in to temptation; he was also giving a temptation—namely, to me. Pride and vanity are our arch enemies, for they are the arch enemies of faith. Flattery fans the fires of pride and resurrects the old self which Jesus has commanded us to crucify. This is why the Old Testament sage said, “A man who flatters his neighbor is spreading a net for his steps” (Prov. 26:28; 29:5).

How, then, can we avoid flattery?

One of the marks of a Christian is that his spiritual eyes have been opened to see and appreciate the glory of God in all of his gifts. There is nothing good in all the world that is not a gift from God (James 1:17; 1 Cor. 4:7).

For the Christian there can be no thought of praising men for some things and God for others. In all praise of men and things there should be an implicit praise to God. Only a person who does not love the glory of God resents this. As St. Augustine prayed in one of his moments of supreme eloquence, “He loves Thee too little who loves anything together with Thee which he loves not for Thy sake” (Confessions X 40).

Another characteristic of good praise and proper compliment is that in it there is no ulterior motive, no duplicity. Good praise is drawn out naturally by our sincere delight in what is good and beautiful.

When I fell in love with my wife back in college I experienced something very refreshing, namely, the pleasure of complimenting someone without the slightest tendency to be insincere. The question of sincerity didn’t even arise in me because my response to her personality was so spontaneous.

This, I think, is a pattern for all good praise. It is not calculated like a bribe to achieve anything other than the proper consummation of itself. It is the spontaneous overflow of the enjoyment of truth and beauty.

Next comes the nitty-gritty question of when—if ever—to praise children, students, and employees in order to encourage and motivate them. Does this involve duplicity, hypocrisy, bribery? For example, there is no denying that rewarding a child with praise will tend to produce the rewarded behavior again, just as punishment will tend to deter the punished behavior. Given this situation, I would suggest two guidelines.

First, praise should be genuine, that is, it should spring from a sincere delight in the child’s good behavior.

If my three-year-old son climbs down from the lunch table, washes his hands in the bathroom, and climbs into his bed for his usual nap without saying a word to me, my first response is sheer delight in the rightness of his uncoerced behavior. My next response as I tuck him in is to let my happiness overflow in a few words of appreciation and praise.

The overriding motive in praise and commendation always should be the pleasure that comes from bringing to expressing the delight we have in what is good and right. That this spurs the child on remains an inevitable, but quite secondary consequence. If we start calculating our praise to him at what is secondary, the child will perceive our hypocrisy sooner than we think.

The second guideline is this: our goal for our children should be that they come to love what is good for itself and not because it wins the praise of men. The more we think of our praise as reinforcement of their good behavior, the more they will see good behavior as nothing more than a means to getting praise. Therefore, we must seek the sincerity to praise a thing because it is praiseworthy and not because it will elicit more good behavior.

There is perhaps one qualification which would limit this spontaneity which makes good praise. As a teacher I have many occasions when I am drawn by a student’s performance to praise him or her. But there are excellent students for whom another compliment would make their swelling heads explode. In such cases I may check the natural, spontaneous impulse to praise.

In this fallen world, in which we battle daily against pride and vainglory, even praise of a good achievement may engender pride and stimulate vanity. The Christian will always, out of love, beware of feeding the fires of pride. He will seek wisdom from Christ to know when, for his neighbor’s sake, a compliment should be withheld. So there will be times when he sacrifices his own pleasure of praise so as not to “spread a net” for the steps of another.

It is sad that for now the joy of praise is so closely linked to the sin of pride. But it will not always be so. There will come a day when we will be transformed into the image of our Lord. Pride and vanity will vanish. Our delight in each other will be complete and our praise unrestrained. All of this will resound to the glory of God like the praise of a painting to the glory of the artist.John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist and most recently Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons.

Survivor Ministry

My husband, Paul, and I (and often our grown kids) have been led by the Lord to minister to the street homeless in Philadelphia. This is a video we put together several years ago after one of our trips there.  We live 3 hours away and because it has been getting increasingly difficult to go there as often as we would like, we are hoping to find a way to move closer to Philly. With God all things are possible.

While there are many shelters in the city, the street homeless often don't use them for various reasons (mental illness, addictions, paranoia, etc.).  These are the people we seek to find.  Some are new to the streets - others have been on the streets for many years.  They are different ages, ethnicities, genders and have different belief systems. We try to meet them where they are in order to show them the love of the one true God.

We make up what we call "survivor bags" -  zip lock bags filled with a variety of items depending on the season.  The bags usually contain something to drink, a protein, raisins, applesauce, crackers, granola bar, band aids, wipes, gum, socks, trash bag, tissues, Bible tracts, daily devotions and in the winter hat/gloves/scarf.  We witness to the homeless and often pray with them if they are willing. If you are interested in doing something like this for your town you can visit www.loveinabag.com to get a list of what we put in the bags.  It's a great project for a youth or women's group!

We hope to go again soon - the bags are made up and ready to go!  Please pray for softened hearts that are ready to hear and even accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior; that God would be glorified in all we do and say; that we would be obedient to our Lord; and also for our safety.  We give Him all the glory and praise Him for we could do nothing without Him. Thank you so much and may God bless you!

Cleansing of the Temple

The following is from an Easter Devotional put together by Covenant Fellowship.............

It often doesn't take long for heartfelt devotion and passion for God, to drift toward simply going through the motions.  Left unchecked, it can lead to hypocrisy - living your life with the appearance of devotion and love toward God that is not really there.  That's what happened to the Jewish people in New Testament times and the fig tree was a perfect illustration of this.  Jesus approached a fig tree with big, shiny leaves but no fruit.  On the outside the tree looked well, but it wasn't doing what it was created to do - produce fruit! So the Lord cursed the fruitless tree.  When Jesus approached the beautiful marble walls and gleaming gold pillar capitals of the temple with throngs of worshippers gathered around, all looked well - on the outside.  But the Jews received his strongest rebuke.  Jesus cursed the blatant hypocrisy and greed by turning over the tables and condemning their selfish practices.  The temple court was meant to be a place of prayer and worship for the Gentiles.  It was a place where men and women outside of Israel could seek God.  But it had become a den of robbers that hindered the Gentiles from praying and seeking God.  The same can be true today.  When we claim to have faith in Christ, but don't live lives transformed by his love and grace, we may hinder men and women from clearly hearing and responding to the gospel.  Unbelievers can see right through an outward "show" of religion.  Jesus wants us to know that how we live matters.  It matters that we pursue purity and obey God's Word.  It matters that we pray and seek God with sincere hearts.  Jesus died to free us from the trap of hypocrisy and to give us His Spirit, who purifies us and empowers us to live lives in line with the truths of the gospel.

Pray that God would help us to live pure lives that are dedicated to the glory of God, obedient to the Word of God and committed to prayer.

The Center of Your World

Narcissistic Personality Disorder may soon be dropped from the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  Why?  Essentially because it's now considered just a manifestation of normal personality.   But here is the problem - dropping it from the manual is essentially throwing in the towel and waving a white flag where self-centeredness exists.  It will basically be telling our culture it's OKAY to be a narcissist, just not an extreme one - well, not for now anyway. 

We have become such a society of me, me, me.  The minute our feet hit the floor in the morning it's  - "how do I feel?"  "I need a cup of coffee."  "What do I feel like doing today?"  "Which outfit should I wear?"  And it only gets worse as the day wears on. "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm lonely, I'm rich, I'm poor, I'm fat, I'm thin, I'm just right, I'm smart, I'm dumb," etc.  It's not necessarily what we are, it's that we're constantly thinking of ourselves in every thought throughout the day.

Now one would think that a culture filled with people looking for self-gratification would be brimming with lots of self-fulfilled, satisfied people. But they couldn't be more wrong. Our culture is actually brimming with divorce, drug use, spousal abuse, child abuse, alchoholism, crime, suicide, etc.  There is just one problem with the theory that self-gratification leads to self-fulfillment.  Self.  We cannot look to ourselves for any kind of gratification or fulfilment.  It's impossible.  Our fulfillment comes from the One who created us and gave us our purpose to begin with - God.  And He created us to bring Him glory.  So how could we be fulfillers of our own desires?  Wouldn't we then be giving ourselves the glory?   But we weren't created for that purpose.  And when we don't fulfill our purpose we end up with a society full of miserable, misguided people looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

Then there are those who believe that helping others will bring them happiness. After all, they've taken the focus off of themselves and placed it on others.  Or have they?  We look to their motivation and often find they are patting themselves on the back for a job well done - whether publicly or privately. And the happiness is fleeting.

Our goal is not to do good on this Earth. Our goal is to do God's will and then give Him the glory. And by doing that we no longer puff ourselves up thinking we are "good" when in fact, we are fallen.   When we are in the center of God's will, we have a sense of peace and joy.  We can know that we are fulfilling our purpose on this Earth by bringing Him glory. It means we have truly taken the focus off of ourselves and placed it on God, who will then guide us to those He wants us to serve. 

We don't need to "know ourselves" - at least not the way all the self-help books and programs tell us we should.  By listening to them we only continue to put ourselves in the center of our world.  Jesus is the one we truly need to know and place in the center of our lives.  He will then help us to know his Father.  And it is He who knows us better than we could ever know ourselves.  God created us to bring Him glory and with a purpose in mind.  He will guide us to accomplish that purpose if we allow Him.

Prayer for February 20

O Lord, Heavenly Father, from whom all good and perfect gifts come. O Father of light, who causes us both to desire and to do your good pleasure; O Lord Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of faith; O Holy Spirit, who works in all things according to your plan: We ask you to continue the good work that you began in us, until the coming of Jesus Christ.  May we become richer in all kinds of knowledge and experience so we may learn what is best.  May we remain pure and blameless.  May we be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which were produced in us by Jesus Christ, for the glory of God.  Amen.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

Prayer for February 3

O Eternal Light, eternal salvation, eternal love, eternal sweetness, let me see you, let me feel you, let me taste you.  O eternal delight, eternal consolation, eternal happiness, let me dwell in you; everything I lack in my misery I find in you.  You are all abundance, and apart from you is nothing but poverty, woe, and misery.  Life without you is a bitter death.  Your kindness is better than life itself.  Amen.

Because they lovingkindiness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.  Thus will I bless thee while I live:  I will lift up my hands in they name.  Psalm 63:3-4

Prayer for January 25

When You, O God, emerge in splendor from your ivory palace, your garments are noble myrrh, aloe, and cassia.  You are the King of Glory, strong and powerful, mighty in battle.  Fling wide the door and unbar the gate so that the King of Glory may enter!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the Lord God who enlightens us.  O Lord, aid us so that we will succeed!  You have removed sin, curses, and death, and you have blessed us eternally in heavenly places.  Give your people power, strength, and victory over all spiritual and physical enemies.  Amen.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.  Lamentations 3:25-26

Prayer for January 24

God, You created me to praise you; make me worthy of your love.  You are the noblest, most praiseworthy, the holiest, most righteous, most beautiful, most benevolent, the kindest and the truest.  You are just in all your works, and holy in all your ways.  You are the most wise, and you know all your works from eternity past.  You are all-powerful, and none may withstand you.  Amen.

Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.  1 Chronicles 29:11

Prayer for January 23

You are our Creator and Provider, O Lord and heavenly Father, under whose gracious protection we have mercifully passed this night in peaceful rest.  For this we praise and thank you!  But, dear Father, where we have in some way abused your kindness against your divine will, we freely confess and ask that you would forgive us for the sake of your dear Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

But now thus saith the Lord that created thee . . . Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by they name; thou art mine.  Isaiah 43:1

Prayer for January 17

We should praise and bless you above all else, O holy Father in heaven, for you are our God and Creator. You molded and made us in your image, and you have blessed us much more than any other creature.

And for this we acknowledge, O holy Father, that we, more than any other creature, owe you praise, thanksgiving, and blessing.  Therefore we fall to our knees before you.  Amen.

This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.  Isaiah 43:21