Praise matters…in the Bible, although in different versions the numbers differ, the word praise occurs approximately 250 times. In my own walk with the Lord I try to praise him several times a day. So often, as in the photo of the sunset, I praise him prompted by the beauty he has created. Other times I praise him for the beauty of his Holy Word and the assurance it gives me of his love. In the times we are living in now I feel the need to praise him more. Even though circumstances around me are rapidly changing, God never changes. He is the same today as he was yesterday, he will be the same in my future. I can trust in everything the Bible tells me about his love and his divine providence.

“Divine providence is the governance of God by which He, with wisdom and love, cares for and directs all things in the universe. The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. He is sovereign over the universe as a whole (Psalm 103:19), the physical world (Matthew 5:45), the affairs of nations (Psalm 66:7), human destiny (Galatians 1:15), human successes and failures (Luke 1:52), and the protection of His people (Psalm 4:8). This doctrine stands in direct opposition to the idea that the universe is governed by chance or fate.” Read more at GotQuestions.Org

In this paragraph from ‘John’s Doxology,’ Spurgeon is speaking of John’s praise for Jesus in Revelation 1: 5-6. I’ve highlighted three quotes from the paragraph below.

“We shall see his inmost self here, for he is carried off his feet, and speaks out his very heart in the most unguarded manner.”

“…this man of doxologies, from whom praise flashes forth like light from the rising sun, is first of all a man who has realized the person of his Lord.”

“It is a grand thing personally to know the Christ of God as a living existence, to speak into his ear, to look into his face, and to understand that we abide in him, and that he is ever with us, even to the end of the world Jesus was no abstraction to John; he loved him too much for that.”

First, let us look at THE CONDITION OF HEART OUT OF WHICH OUTBURSTS of adoration arise. Who was this man who when he was beginning to address the churches must needs lay down his pen to praise the Saviour? We will learn the character of the man from his own devout language. We shall see his inmost self here, for he is carried off his feet, and speaks out his very heart in the most unguarded manner. We shall now see him as he is, and learn what manner of persons we must be if, like him, we would overflow with praise. It would be easy to talk at great length about John from what we know of his history from other parts of Scripture; but at this time I tie myself down to the words of the text, and I notice, first, that this man of doxologies, from whom praise flashes forth like light from the rising sun, is first of all a man who has realized the person of his Lord. The first word is, “Unto him;” and then he must a second time before he has finished say, “To him be glory and dominion.” His Lord’s person is evidently before his eye. He sees the actual Christ upon the throne. The great fault of many professors is that Christ is to them a character upon paper; certainly more than a myth, but yet a person of the dim past, an historical personage who lived many years ago, and did most admirable deeds, by the which we are saved, but who is far from being a living, present, bright reality. Many think of Jesus as gone away, they know not whither, and he is little more actual and present to them than Julius Cæsar or any other remarkable personage of antiquity. We have a way, somehow, a very wicked way it is, of turning the facts of Scripture into romances, exchanging solidities for airy notions, regarding the august sublimities of faith as dreamy, misty fancies, rather than substantial matters of fact. It is a grand thing personally to know the Christ of God as a living existence, to speak into his ear, to look into his face, and to understand that we abide in him, and that he is ever with us, even to the end of the world Jesus was no abstraction to John; he loved him too much for that. Love has a great vivifying power: it makes our impressions of those who are far away from us very lifelike, and brings them very near. John’s great, tender heart could not think of Christ as a cloudy conception; but he remembered him as that blessed One with whom he had spoken, and on whose breast he had leaned. You see that is so, for his song rises at once to the Lord’s own self, beginning with, “Unto HIM.

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