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Praising God

             May all the kings of the earth praise you, Lord, when they hear what you have decreed. May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great. (Psalm 138:4-5)

This is another “different perspective” post. I say “Amen!” to what David said above. Yes, amen! But let’s look at it just a little differently. Let’s suppose we were both at some meeting, and you rose and announced. “Murder is wrong.”

I might stand up, too, and say any of the following:

“_______ is a genius and absolutely correct!”

“_______ is right.”

“Yes, only a fool would say murder isn’t wrong.”

“Yes, murder is wrong.”

“I don’t care what you say; murder is wrong.”

It doesn’t take much thought to figure out that I would directly praise you if I said either of the first two. The second three might be described as indirect praise. I’m not praising you as much as I am the thing you said, but I’m still telling the world that I think you’re right, even if I try to exclude you from the picture (as with the last example.)

It may seem obvious that murder is wrong, but theoretically, God could have created a universe in which murder was considered right, and then it would be equally obvious to people that such is the case. So even though kings or other people try to exclude God from their pictures, they may still give Him indirect praise.

I've been discussing ideas with some atheists who brought this idea to mind. That sparked memories of other discussions with atheists who have resented being told that are immoral (having bad morals) or amoral (having no moral sense at all.) They are correct that it is not fair to use either label for them based strictly on their atheism, but it is appropriate to ask them from whence their moral sense came. Why is murder wrong? For the vast majority, I suspect it is because their families or their culture taught them it was wrong. Sure, lots of non-Judeo-Christian cultures had or have laws against murder, but in their particular case, those cultures didn’t have an immediate impact on theirs. Judeo-Christian principles did. They may now have some personal logic to back their belief, but whether directly or indirectly, they originally got it from God’s teaching of the Jew. That means that when they think or say it’s wrong to murder, they’re agreeing with God and giving Him indirect praise, no matter how much they protest otherwise or curse Him in the next breath.

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