One way we can express our adoration for the gift God sent is to praise Him with joyful hearts. Even though I love words, I often feel unable to praise god adequately. I often let the psalmist help me bring him praise. He praised God so well that we have leaned on him for expression for thousands of years.

“I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart,“ David writes.

Even generic ones seem appropriate for Christmas praise: thank God that when we “lie down and sleep” and wake again, it is because he sustains us (3:5), that he never “forsakes those who seek” him (9:10),  that he “has made our lot secure” (16:5b),  that he “reached down from on high and took hold of (us)“ (18:16), that “the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him (32:10), that “the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit ((34:18), that “under his wings” we find refuge” (91:4a), that he forgives our sins, crowns us with love and compassion and satisfies our desires with good things (103:3-5), that his love is with those who fear him from everlasting to everlasting (103:17).

I, like David the psalmist king, want my heart to sing and not be silent. “O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever” (30:12)
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New Testament passages can help you praise God during this Christmas season as well.

Praise him and thank him that he has “called us out of darkness into his wonderful light” (I Peter 2:9). Praise him that He has become our intercessor, our great high priest, that we “can approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4).  Thank him that when the host of angels brought “good news of great joy” to the Bethlehem hillside that Holy night, it was for “all people” and we now have peace with God. Join the angels in saying, “Glory to God in the highest!“

Another source of praise is music. Find CD’s that proclaim the advent. Put on Steven Curtis Chapman’s The Music of Christmas CD and praise God with songs like, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.“ Every time I hear it, I’m carried away to another, better place. Often when I’m alone, I put up my hands and sing with him, “Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel / Shall come to Thee, O Israel!“ Jesus has come and he’s dispersed “the clouds of night / and death’s dark shadows put to flight!“  Christmas is rejoicing the end of exile from God.

Anna and the shepherds praised God and told people about what God had done. We can do this in our Christmas cards and Christmas letters, by making attending a Christmas Eve service a priority and taking others with you, by reading the Christmas story with our families as the focus or culmination of our Christmas festivities.

How will you praise God this Christmas season?