Why does God want praise for himself?

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It seems like God “wants” praise from us - someone said we are created to praise Him, and so forth. I believe he is worthy of praise, of course, but doesn’t it seem… selfish (?) to “want” praise? I know God isn’t selfish, of course- but it seems sort of out of his character to want praise…
 
I just read somewhere that God of course does not need our praise, rather, He wants us to praise Him because it does us good. Now if only I could remember where I read that … 😊
 
HeWillProvide said:
but must the contact be in the form of praise, rather than simple conversation?
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Put it this way - true conversation with Him, meaning it comes from the heart of one who has true knowledge of Him, will naturally include a substantial portion of praise of Him.

He is indeed worthy of all praise, and one who knows Him well enough to communicate with Him will be aware of His worthiness and so will spontaneously praise Him heartily.
 
As a child I had a nun try once to explain to me the phrase, “the fear of God.” It was an epic fail on her part; one cannot tell a 7-year-old that fear and love are the same thing.

I still don’t get it, nor do I accept her explanation. The question about God “wanting” our praise is along those same lines. The words used to indoctrinate instead confuse the issue and cause us to question and doubt.

I believe we give glory to God when we use His gifts to us in ways He would endorse. I can’t imagine God wants anything.

gen
 
genevievelives,

Yesterday I happened to stumble upon a series of video lectures given by Father Anthony Messeh of the Coptic Orthodox Church, the first of which was about “fear of God”. I think you and I must’ve had parallel childhoods in this regard, because I remember getting a similar response when I asked my Sunday School teacher about that around the same age, and being dissatisfied with the answer. But Fr. Anthony does a good job, I think. of explaining this idea, so here it is if you or anyone else would like to watch it.
 
What good parent does not want love and appreciation from the children? If we can praise Mom for a good meal or Dad for a bedtime story (and good children do this naturally, not under compulsion) how much more natural is it for us to praise the One who has given us existence, life, free will and the ability to love?

God wants to be with us forever. Those who spend eternity with God will be so in awe of Him that praise will be natural. We’re designed for it.
If we can be naturally awed by a nice sunset, how much more will the Beatific Vision thrill us?
 
HeWillProvide said:
It seems like God “wants” praise from us - someone said we are created to praise Him, and so forth. I believe he is worthy of praise, of course, but doesn’t it seem… selfish (?) to “want” praise? I know God isn’t selfish, of course- but it seems sort of out of his character to want praise…
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Philosophically, it it totally appropriate for God to be so self-centered, because he actually is the good of the universe and knows it. The reason why we say selfishness is bad is because it is bad for creatures, because the universe is not ordered to creatures.
 
LilyM said:
Put it this way - true conversation with Him, meaning it comes from the heart of one who has true knowledge of Him, will naturally include a substantial portion of praise of Him.

He is indeed worthy of all praise, and one who knows Him well enough to communicate with Him will be aware of His worthiness and so will spontaneously praise Him heartily.
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Yes, I agree, but, still, picturing God say “praise me” just doesn’t fit into my idea of him. Not that I’m trying to reduce him to “my idea” of him 🙂
 
svid said:
What good parent does not want love and appreciation from the children? If we can praise Mom for a good meal or Dad for a bedtime story (and good children do this naturally, not under compulsion) how much more natural is it for us to praise the One who has given us existence, life, free will and the ability to love?

God wants to be with us forever. Those who spend eternity with God will be so in awe of Him that praise will be natural. We’re designed for it.
If we can be naturally awed by a nice sunset, how much more will the Beatific Vision thrill us?
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I agree that we should want to praise him. But again, picturing a parent tell a child to “praise me” just seems very … un-parentlike. I agree, children should want to praise their parents but to have the parents, or God, say “praise me” or “give me praise” just seems like looking for kudos or digging for compliments or something.
 
The analogy to parenthood fails, because parents are only roadsigns to God (if they’re good parents). Apollos’ post really comes close to the truth, I think. 🙂 The Blessed Lord, the Holy Immortal, is so completely necessary for existence that He is at the center of it. God’s all-powerful gaze outward from the center of time and space is glory itself!

We praise God by our nature, as naturally as one looks out of the window when unidentified emergency vehicle sirens are heard. It is those who do not praise God that are cut away from Him, by their own sinful choices and selfishness. To praise God is selflessness beyond measure!
 
SElfishness is only wrong because we do not deserve everything we want, because we are not worthy of everything.

God i worthy of ALL THINGS. THerefore for him to want praise is not selfish: It is just, because he REALLY deserves it.
 
HeWillProvide said:
It seems like God “wants” praise from us - someone said we are created to praise Him, and so forth. I believe he is worthy of praise, of course, but doesn’t it seem… selfish (?) to “want” praise? I know God isn’t selfish, of course- but it seems sort of out of his character to want praise…
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No, it is not selfish because the praise is for OUR benefit. Think of it this way, have you ever seen a glorious natural scene (e.g. a snow capped mountain, a vast lake or valley) and thought to yourself, “WOW!” When we see this kind of beuty we almost have an innate desire to want to praise it by saying things like, “wow, and AWEesome.”

But ofcourse, we dont praise such beuty because we somehow think the mountains or valleys benefit from it. We just can’t help it! So the praise really fills our heart with more and more wonderment. Or say you are going out with someone who you think is amazing! You might write them poetry (i.e. praise) because you realize that the more and more you think praise them, the more in Love you fall with them.

This tells us that the usually the formula is this: BEAUTY —> PRAISE
But it can also be this: Praise —> Beauty

In Psychology for example, it has been shown that you can get people to feel happier by sticking a pencil in between their lips which forces them to artificially smile.

But more importantly, we praise him because he deserves it and we feel more complete in knowing the source of our joy.

However,
 
HeWillProvide said:
Yes, I agree, but, still, picturing God say “praise me” just doesn’t fit into my idea of him. Not that I’m trying to reduce him to “my idea” of him 🙂
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God doesn’t say ‘praise me’ or ‘give me praise’ any more than I say ‘praise me’ or ‘give me praise’ when I do good for others. Of course praise that comes in response to a request from me is forced and unnatural and not what I want.

However, as naturally as night follows day, when others are aware of the good I have done, they will naturally thank me, which is itself a form of praise.
 
I understand this issue as being part of our journey into God the Holy Trinity; think of the way the Trinity operates: God the Holy Trinity draws human communities, and the Church, to the goal of communion-in-love-without-rivalry: we are to cherish each one’s gifts and individuality in the Body in such a way that he or she can “become more him or herself” in the growth of non-oppressive unity. We are on a journey into the Trinity, our destination is to enter into the life of God, a journey made truly possible through Jesus’ Incarnation. It is in the Incarnation that He unites God to man, to use a biblical analogy used by Jesus; He becomes the vine.

In this sense, the Trinity represents everything for us, yet we are separated, distanced by the Fall. We long for God, as St. Augustine opines: “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” and so we need to praise and worship Him who is all Holy and all Good.

It is not God’s need that we praise Him, but solely ours, because He is the only thing that will satisfy our deep longing.

As the CCC puts it:
2626 Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God’s gift and man’s acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man’s response to God’s gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing.
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2627 Two fundamental forms express this movement: our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father - we bless him for having blessed us;97 it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father - he blesses us.98
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2628 Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us99 and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the spirit to the "King of Glory,"100 respectful silence in the presence of the “ever greater” God.101 Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications.
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If you go to you tube, and run a search for “fulton sheen and prayer” a talk comes up where he answers this toward the end of part two. Here’s the short version.

Us worshiping God is like a little girl picking flowers and giving them to her mother. Does the mother need the flowers? No, the mother doesn’t need them. Does the child need to give them? Of course. The child has been given a home, been cared for, loved etc. For her to not give the flowers would mean that she would be lacking in affection and love and gratitude. Similarly, God does not need our worship for his own sake. We need it, ie, we need to give it. We have been given life, Jesus etc and for us to not give worship would mean that we would be lacking in affection, love, and gratitude.

So, God does not demand our worship for his own sake, any more than the mother needs the flowers. But the mother still values the flowers as an expression of her daughter’s love and gratitude. Similarly, God does not need our worship (He has no needs), but he does value it as an expression of our love and gratitude. And more, being love himself, he values wants us to come to know him and so values our worship in that it brings us closer to him. So God does not need our love, we do, but he still values it.
 
The reason God made us is because He is infinitely generous and wants us to have a share in His eternal life. God is Love, Goodness, Truth and Beauty itself—that’s why Jesus says we must serve God with all our heart, all our strength and all mind: God made man in His image and likeness—this simply means that we have an intellect and a will for a very clear purpose: The purpose of your intellect is TRUTH (GOD) and the purpose of your free will is GOODNESS AND LOVE (GOD).

We give God praise when we serve Him with our intellect and our will, thus we are fulfilling our purpose, which is Supreme Happiness.
 
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