Enjoyment Leads to Praise

There’s a unique connection between enjoying something and praising something. This is how one ancient poet puts it:
Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. - Psalm 43:4

Today we’re going to spend our time reflecting on a longer quote from a well known author from the 20th century. As you ponder what he writes, ask yourself what you enjoy about God.

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 worthier the object, the more intense this delight would be. If it were possible for a created soul fully (I mean up to the full measure conceivable in a finite being) to 'appreciate,' that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude.

• C.S. Lewis