God Be Praised!

“Thank God! Give him the praise and the glory. Before all the living, acknowledge the many good things he has done for you, by blessing and extolling his name in song. Before all men, honor and proclaim God;s deeds, and do not be slack in praising him.” Tobit 12:6

Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, and He began by extolling the Father, proclaiming His name “hallowed”. It should come to us as no surprise, then, that the archangel Raphael radiates such joyful adoration to begin his prayer. I read Tobit once in high school, and, as I did with many reading assignments in those days, I promptly forgot everything about it. I confess, I have not re-read it until very recently, but this passage struck me as one of the most profound in the Old Testament. How rare it is that we are shown an example of prayer by a member of the heavenly host! And yet this exultation of Raphael is remarkably (though, not surprisingly) similar to that of the angels in Revelation.

We have the predictable tendency to ask for God's help when things are not going as we had planned. It is so easy to forget that it His will we must seek. Even when things are going our way, how often do we remember to thank God, or simply acknowledge His majesty? In times of trouble, it is even of greater importance to appreciate God's sovereignty—it is in this that we can place our trust, whatever the trial, that everything works for good.

I once heard that single worst thing that can happen when we pray is that we get what we want. The emphasis, of course, is on the comparative quality of “worst”. If we don't get what we ask for, we can trust that God will answer our prayer, and His answer will be even better than we could have guessed. So we thank God now, for the blessings of peace and the fruits of discipline that help us and lead us to be one with Him.

Queen of Heaven,
All creation exists through your Son. May His name be glorified to the glory of the Father by all that same creation. Pray for us, that our minds are lifted to the praise and adoration due to His name, and that we may have the peace and hope of our salvation even in our times of greatest tribulation.