In the Greek of the New Testament there were several
words that have been translated "praise" in the English language. One of
these words is the Greek word "ainos" which is different from the other
words in the fact that it is only used twice in the New Testament. First
in Matthew 21:16, "And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And
Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes
and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?" In the context of this verse
was Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the people proclaiming Him
the son of David. The rulers of the Jews objected and asked Jesus if He
heard what they were calling Him. His answer was the rest of the verse.
Jesus quoted part of Psalm 8~:2 as His answer, this is a Psalm of praise
to God by David and expressed an humble attitude by David the King when
he compared man to God. For our worship to be praise to God we must have
the correct attitude and that is the attitude of humbleness.
The second use of this word is found in Luke 18:43,
"And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorying God:
and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God[' In this context
Jesus is about to enter into the city of Jericho where He passes by a blind
beggar. When this poor soul understands that Jesus is passing by he cried
out to him saying, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." Jesus
stopped and commanded the blind man to come to Him and He healed him. All
the people who saw what was done then gave "ainos" praise to God for what
Jesus had done for this blind man.
This word "ainos" praise was used only these two
times in all the New Testament and in both cases of praise it was directed
toward God. Again we see a key element in making our worship truly praise
to God, and that is an humble attitude. In John 4:24, Jesus declared what
will make our worship praise to God. "God is a Spirit: and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth.' Jesus said for our worship
to truly be praise to God we must worship Him with our whole being "spirit;"
but sincerity alone is not enough to make our worship praise to God and
acceptable in His sight, we must also worship according to "truth," or
the way God has prescribed in the New Testament! The word "ainos" is a
fitting word for correct praise of our God. When we come before Him in
worship, we need to be mindful of just who it is that we are worshiping.
This will help us worship with the right attitude or spirit and studying
His word will allow us to worship according to "truth"! Is your worship
praise to God?