Reflections on the Psalms

Lewis prefaces the chapter by saying that the problem it deals with is personal to him and may not apply to everybody. Early in his faith journey, Lewis found the obligation to “praise” God a stumbling block because it created a self-aggrandizing mental picture of God and a sycophantic one of human beings. The Psalms were especially “distressing” with their emphasis on praise, especially praise as a “reward” to God for saving the Psalmist from trouble.

As a way to approach the question, Lewis proposes thinking of God as a being to whom “admiration is the correct, adequate or appropriate” (92) response—similar to many objects we are familiar with from nature and art. To praise God is simply to be spiritually aware, and to fail to do so is “to have lost the greatest experience, and in the end to have lost all” (92). The Psalms contradict the notion that God “needs” praise in some vain or self-aggrandizing way. Rather, worship and praise are among the means by which he reveals himself to us. Finally, praise is the natural byproduct of enjoying God, just as it is of enjoying things in the natural world, and it makes us want others to join us in praising it.