Praise Completes the Enjoyment

A few weeks ago I finished preaching through 2 Timothy and I’ve been preaching through some of the Psalms. Last Sunday I was preaching through Psalm 28 and I quoted CS Lewis,

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.

It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that ‘man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”

So, we bring our experience of beauty to its full experience by sharing it with others. We grow in sharing and in others sharing with us. In the telling others about the God we love, we bring Him more glory, but we also grow in our love for Him!

The picture above was my view this past Saturday morning. Camp Sumatanga is a place where I often find myself when I have time to be alone. Saturday was special. I had time, there was no one there, and the weather was perfect. I just sat, read through some psalms, and worshipped.

It was wonderful, this introvert needed the time of refueling, but I felt the need to share it. I was experiencing glory and beauty and didn’t want to keep it to myself. I want to simply suggest something…if you find that you are growing stagnant, maybe you are doing all the right things, but still you feel dry…it could be that you are not sharing the experience with anyone. To share it, to get others to enjoy with us, it to fully experience it!