Throughout the Bible, God’s people are described as happy and blessed—a people who can rejoice in all circumstances. Why? Because we have a personal relationship with God—because we know God. In Him, we have hope and strength. We live in the continual joy of His presence.

And nothing can take that joy from us.

No trouble can remove His joy from our hearts.

This joy we possess is firmly founded in God, our Rock, the One Who Is and Was and Is to Come, the only Master of the Universe. He spoke and created everything, and we are part of that everything. We are His. Every time we praise Him, we join with all creation in acknowledging that. According to the book of Psalms, everything in all the earth praises God every day.

Praising God is a constant theme in the entire Bible, but it is the Psalmist David’s favorite subject. In Psalm 33, David illuminates fifteen reasons for praising God. With his encouragement, we can lift our vision higher than this natural world to a plane far above our present existence. David gives us the keys to experiencing God in a new way.

Praise is powerful. As we choose to praise God, we invite Him to fill us anew. David also wrote that God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). Praising God transforms and blesses us as we worship Jesus Christ our King.

I hope this teaching encourages you in praising the Lord, now and forevermore. And most of all, may your joy be a witness to those around you that our God loves them and wants to bless them. It is God’s will that all should be restored to Him through repentance and enjoy His presence. May we truly be known as the happiest people on this planet.