His Delight

How do you genuinely change the praise of man into the currency of God’s glory?

Recently, I was talking to another worship leader about the difficulties of how to give God glory when all the praise and affirmations are coming your way. Let me explain. The gift of leading is given because of our kind and benevolent God. He selects those who have the gift of music and requires them to give the glory back to Him, just like he does with all the other gifts. Just how to do this is the hard part. Often, attempts have been made on the stage during a powerful worship set by throwing out a phrase like, “Let’s give God the glory.” Sometimes when people come up to me and lavish praise concerning my gifts, an attempt to give God glory is in the response to the person like, “All the credit goes to God,” meanwhile inside of my heart, I have planted that praise and will use it as fuel for my hungry insecurities. So then, how do we please the Lord in this? How does He get glory? What should we do? How do you genuinely change the praise of man into the currency of God’s glory? 

“His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” Psalm 147:10-11

The strength of the horse reminds me of the excellence of the gift. The legs of man remind me of the output of the gift. Both things we can generate and both of them do not require the Holy Spirit to be successful. This is why unbelievers can still thrive and why believers can succeed, even though they chase after glory with vain ambition. These are some of the irrevocable gifts that the Lord hands out and does not take back. The first half of the verse is easy to understand, but the back end of it leaves most in confusion. How does one practically fear God? How does one practically hope in his love? Do we sit in a dark space and make our body tremble, trying to look like one who is scared before an almighty God? Do we walk blindly into situations while claiming hope in the name of Jesus? 

I’m after his pleasure over me. I desire for my God to delight and sing over me. I don’t want to waste time on earth getting this wrong. 

The worship leader mentioned above was confessing some things that were heavy on his heart, and while the conversation evolved, I realized how similar my story was. We both talked about pride and how we so badly want people to affirm us. We both agreed on how disgusted we were with those thoughts and how wrong it was to steal glory from a God who is asking for it. As we finished the conversation, I said, “We did it. We gave him glory. We feared Him. This is how we exchange our currency of man’s praise with the currency of heaven.” 

It’s very difficult to give God praise when all the praise is coming your way. This must be done in private. The Lord sees the heart in private. He understands the feelings of man’s praise and how confusing they could be. He knows the temptation. He is not unable to sympathize with us. He did miracles upon miracles where He could have said nothing of His father, but He was super intentional by saying He was only doing what He Father said, and then He would withdraw to solitude places in order to present His heart. 

Fearing the Lord is confessing your constant need to be affirmed by man and letting God deal with it in secret. Fearing the Lord is fixing your mind on creation during a walk and allowing yourself to be captivated by the vast dimensions of the heavens. Fearing the Lord is admitting your weakness to your Heavenly Father and apologizing for being a glory thief. Hoping in His love is posturing yourself in dependency while driving your car. Hoping in His love is staying your mind on Him throughout the day instead of saturating it with noise and selfish pleasures. Hoping in His love is trying again when you have strayed from the abiding place. 

He takes much pleasure in those who learn how to practically fear him and who know how to hope in his steadfast love. Often we over spiritualize these two things, which can move us into a passive way of living. If we just believe them to be true but never learn to practically walk them out, we have only heard the word and not done what it says. 

Be intentional in praising Him in the public space following the praise you just received. But more than that, withdraw to a private place and confess how good all of man’s praise felt. This conversation in private is an excellent way to give God the glory. This prayer is rooted in holy fear. This moment of confession is hoping in something greater than yourself—his steadfast love. This is where the pleasure of God can be felt. This is where His delight can be heard from his singing voice over us. The humble aren’t those who don’t have pride, they are just the ones that admit it. God takes much pleasure in the humble.