Dear Irene,

Great question!  I don’t think people praise God because God needs the praise. I think people praise God because people have a need to praise God. And I think praising God is valuable and meaningful and worth doing (with some care), even if God does not require it of us.

I don’t experience God as a person-writ-large with human features and attributes. I experience the sacred as the life at the very center of all life, the love at the very heart of all love, and the being at the very depth of all being.

Because I don’t experience God as a person with human features and attributes, I don’t find human needs and desires helpful in trying to make sense of God’s demands. People absolutely need praise, and people are undeniably insecure. If, however, God is not a person like us (albeit immeasurably bigger and more powerful), God does not need praise and is not insecure.

So, maybe the idea that God needs to be praised is a human intuition rather than a command from “on high.” When we make God in our own image, we imagine a deity that needs praise as we need praise, and that is insecure (or otherwise temperamental) as we are. Nothing wrong with that; that’s just us being human.

But people seem to have a need to praise the holy, to acknowledge our limitations and imperfections in the face of all that surrounds us. We accept that there is something larger than us, something that grounds us, something that holds us, something that invites us to be our best selves. For secular people, this may be one’s community or social group. For people of faith, it is the sacred as we understand the sacred – the source of all we are and all we have. And so, as the liturgy proclaims, it is right to give God thanks and praise.

Finally, we need to avoid some all-too-human pitfalls when we praise God. First, our praise should not demean humanity; we each have a sacred spark within us that demands respect. (See Leonard Cohen’s song, “You Want It Darker.”) Second, we must avoid the temptation of idolatry, worshipping something that can’t save us – so we’ve got to get God right. (Too many people in the US are worshipping fascism even as I write this.) Third, our praise must not be conditional or imply any limits on God’s love. If anything, our understanding that sacred love is for and available to all people, including our enemies, should inspire us to praise all the louder.

In closing, here’s a doxology; the first line will be familiar:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Love that helps us learn and grow.
Praise Source and Path and Sacred Call.
Praise Peace and Hope and All-in-All.

~ Dr. Amanda Udis-Kessler