No.26 Referenced from ~ Part1 - Chapter 3 - Christianity Proposition 5

Praise is not a response to God's grace, but God's absoluteness

Therefore, in Jesus and Paul, praise suddenly arises out of despair without any concrete hope, and this is understood to be the basic form of praise in the Bible.

"When it was beyond hope, he had faith in the hope" (Romans 4:18 CEB)

Unlike thanksgiving, praise is not a response to God's grace. Praise is a response to God's absoluteness. It is simply acknowledging God's truthfulness regardless of one's situation, and entrusting one's hope for oneself to God's truthfulness.

I once asked, "Can I sing when I am not happy?" and "Does it come from the heart?" But it is possible to have hope even in despair. Praise, that focuses on God's unchanging faithfulness, has a history that goes back to the Old Testament, as seen in the Psalms, and it has long been known that there is something in it that renews faith.