Section 3
always come from the mouths of the smooth- sailing ones. They come much more from those who are under discipline and trial. In the Psalms we can touch the most wounded feelings, and in the Psalms we also can find the greatest and highest praises. God uses many hardships, dif ficulties, and slanders to create praises in His people. He causes them to learn through dif ficult circumstances to become praising persons before the Lord.
The happiest persons are not always the ones who have the loudest praise. The loudest praise comes very often from the ones who are passing through hardships. This kind of praise is most pleasing to God and is blessed by Him. God does not want men to praise Him only when they are on the mountaintop surveying Canaan, the prom ised land. God desires much more to see His people writing psalms and praising Him when they "walk through the valley of the shadow of death" (23:4). This is genuine praise.
This shows us the nature of praise in the eyes of God. The nature of praise is an offering, a sac rifice. In other words, praise comes from pain and suffering. Hebrews 13:15 says, "Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continu ally to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing