What is praise when and how do we do it

November 1, 1:12 AMReno Catholic ExaminerCharles Gill

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I have been to the mountain top

Psalm 146: Hallel-u-jah! Hallel the Personal Name, my anima; I shall praise the Personal Name all my life, sing praise to my Mighty Judge while I live. I put no trust in princes, mere mortals powerless to save. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth; that day all their planning comes to nothing. Happy those whose help is Jacob's Mighty Judge, whose hope is in the Personal Name, their Mighty Judge.

The maker of heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The Personal Name sets prisoners free; the Personal Name gives sight to the blind. The Personal Name rises up those who are bowed down; the Personal Name loves the charitable. The Personal Name protects the stranger, sustains the orphan and the widow, but thwarts the way of those who view themselves first. The Personal Name shall reign forever, your Mighty Judge, Zion, through all generations! Hallel-u-jah!

What does praise mean anyway? After much thinking I have come to the conclusion that there is a difference between praise and thanksgiving. In thanksgiving we go to the person we are thanking and we thank them for a particular act or group of acts which they did. In Praise, on the other hand, we do not go the person we are praising, nor do we talk about particular acts. In Praise, we go to other people, other people in our nation, and in our community and we tell them that the person is the type of person who does acts worthy of praise, worthy of repeated trips back to give thanks. The statement, "I praise you," is not a statement fulfilled in its utterance. On the other hand, it is a statement that is either true or false, and God knows the difference. Words attributed to St. Francis include, ""Let all the brothers, however, and preach by their deeds." "Preach the Gospel at all times. Use words if necessary" Both quotes give us this truth. Everything we do preaches what we believe, whether we believe it or not or like it nor not. We praise God, not by going to church and singing songs which include the lyrics, "I praise you God," but by going out into the world and showing our love for God. We then go to church and tell him that we praise him by what we do.

So, what is this praise that we do in the community? First, the Psalmist tells us, "Put no trust in princes, mere mortals powerless to save. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth; that day all their planning comes to nothing." We do not put our trust in 18 to 22 year old kids that we dress in nice suits, we call uniforms, give them multi-million dollar toys, and send them off in great patriotic zeal to kill people neither they nor we know because the person who calls them their leader dislikes the person we call our leader. War is not a football game, or a basketball game, or a baseball game where kids can decide who is right or who is wrong. War is a crime against mankind, against nature and against God. "Happy those whose help is Jacob's Mighty Judge, whose hope is in the Personal Name, their Mighty Judge." That is the savior we call our leader. He is the one we send out to fight our battles for us.

Prayer is a reflexive verb. The Hebrew word for prayer is Teffilah, and is the reflexive form of Pallel, judgment, says Jastrow. When we pray the next paragraph of Psalm 146 we ask God to join us in the tasks stated: "He secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The Personal Name sets prisoners free; the Personal Name gives sight to the blind. The Personal Name rises up those who are bowed down; the Personal Name loves the charitable. The Personal Name protects the stranger, sustains the orphan and the widow, but thwarts the way of those who view themselves first."

As a nation, this is our call. We secure justice for the oppressed, give food to the hungry, sets prisoners free, give sight to the blind, rise up those who are bowed down by poverty and discrimination. The pay is that he loves us, the charitable. We protect the stranger, sustain the orphan and the widow, those who are without fathers for whatever reason. We block the ways of those who view themselves first. That leaves the question, as quoted in the article, Of bent over women fig trees mustard seeds yeast and life these facts are true, "23.6% of the world's prison population who live in the United States. There were 4,661 executions occurred in the U.S. in the period from 1930 to 2002, 135 soldiers the United States Army were executed between 1916 and 1999 and 38 Dakota people convicted of murder and rape in the Dakota War of 1862 were hanged, executed simultaneously on December 26, 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota." Why?

The article Going to court or going to God keep life in perspective reports, "The US Census Department reports, 50% of the population earns 21.35% of all income. The same report states, 5% of the population brings home 20.5% of all income. Why? The same article reports "As one example, one study showed that the Equal Opportunity Commission only agreed with employees in ADA cases 12.4% of the time. As another example, using the current counselors-at-law system, The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world at 738 persons in prison or jail per 100,000 as of 2005. It also has 5% of the world's population and 23.6% of the world's prison population. Why? The article When Jesus comes will he find faith on earth quotes a Harvard Study which recently reported 45,000 people die in the United State Every year due to a lack of health care,?a death every 12 minutes. This article also reported, "According to U.S. Department of Health And Human Services Centers for Disease Control there has been a plateau in the U.S. infant mortality rate from 2000–2005 which is the first period of sustained lack of decline in the U.S. infant mortality rate since the 1950s. There are more than 28,000 deaths to children under 1 year of age each year in the United States. The study sites increases in preterm birth and preterm-related infant mortality for much of the lack of decline in the United States’ infant mortality rate from 2000 to 2005. The United States ranked 29th in the world in infant mortality." Why?

When we sing our songs of praise in church we are telling God we praise him, by our words and by our actions in the world outside of church. When we do the things reported above, we show God that we are lying, bearing false witness to him about our actions, and to the world when we say God is about what we do. Is God not to hear? Is God not to see?

Let us therefore resolve to change and secure justice for the oppressed, give food to the hungry. Set those imprisoned in prisons of poverty and despair, in jails, in hospitals because they could not be treated when their illnesses were small because of a lack of health care, let us give sight to the blind by providing quality education for all, let us rise up those who are bowed down, let us protect the stranger, including foreigners who find their way to our land, let us sustain the fatherless and the parent with no spouse, regardless of how they got to be that way, and let us stop that 5% of the population who so view themselves as first among equals that they feel free to pay themselves 22% of all income. Let us work to make a real republic, a real orchestra of people working to promote the general welfare of all. God is watching us.