Garment of Praise

Who are you wearing?”

I’ve covered a few red carpets in my day. It’s wild. You stand, squeezed tight into a packed scrum of other reporters (and usually squeezed tight into your dress), and wait/hope for celebrity A-listers to grace you with their absurdly attractive presence for a hot second. The pre-event scene at the big awards shows like the Emmys or Golden Globes is especially chaotic. Publicists squire impossibly thin and luminous clients down a gauntlet of live cameras, as ravenous network producers flag them over — hands outstretched grade-school style (“Over here, over here, over here!”) — hoping one of the uber-fabulous will deign to stop. These sought-after “interviews” last anywhere from thirty to ninety seconds. It is like speed dating, with even less chance of a genuine interaction.

The single question, ringing out again and again, as ubiquitous on red carpets as Botox and hunger pangs: “Who are you wearing?” It’s all part of the celebrity economy, of course. The stars get to borrow gorgeous clothes with the understanding that they will mention the designer at every available opportunity. Win-win!

Personally, I’ve never loved the question (and yes, I’ve asked it plenty). Aside from the crime against grammar, who really cares if the dress is Prada or PUCCI or Proenza? I like pretty things as much as anyone (and the outfits are the only reason to watch these red-carpet specials), but wouldn’t you rather know why they chose that particular gown? How many they tried on? If they’re wearing SPANX, and if so, how many pairs? Something — anything — more interesting than name-dropping a designer brand we can’t pronounce.

• “Who are you wearing?” A shallow, vapid question. But what if it is a penetrating spiritual question?

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord... has sent me... to comfort all who mourn... to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes... a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. — Isaiah 61:1–3

A garment of praise. What a treasure buried in a long, famous passage from Isaiah.

But let me back up a bit.

“Praise the Lord.” This exhortation is shot throughout the Scriptures. Old Testament and New, whatever translation you favor, you will see it time and again.

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name. — Isaiah 12:4

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise! — 1 Chronicles 16:25

Let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. — Hebrews 13:15

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. — Ephesians 1:3

And we haven’t even gotten to the Psalms!

Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool. — Psalm 99:5

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. — Psalm 150:6

I will extol the Lord at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. — Psalm 34:1

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. — Psalm 103:1

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim His name; make known among the nations what He has done. — Psalm 105:1

Praise the Lord, you His angels, you mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord, all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will. Praise the Lord, all His works everywhere in His dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul. — Psalm 103:20–22

Okay! Message received.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, especially in a book about faith, but at times I have wondered to myself — secretly — Uhhhh, what’s with all the requests for praise? Why is God always asking for compliments? Is He angling for credit? Is our God cosmically and eternally needy?

This irreverent thought jiggled around in the back of my mind for a long time, though I was too ashamed to really confront it. But of course, God knows the content of our hearts. So when I came across that phrase from Isaiah — “garment of praise” — it leaped off the page.

Garment.

Suddenly, I got it.

If praise is a garment, who is wearing it?

We are. We are ones who are adorned. God tells us to praise Him not for what it does for Him but for what it does for us.

Lightning bolt.

When we count our blessings and remember what we are thankful for and what is good in our lives, we are the beneficiaries. It lifts our spirits and fills us with joy.

It’s yet another example of “mostly what God does is love us,” this call to praise. Because God knows that when we can bring ourselves to a place of gratitude, to look beyond ourselves and to Him, it is a profound benefit to our hearts, our souls, and our persons. Sure, God, as the object of our affection, is praised as well, but we are the ones who are enhanced, heartened, and changed by the act.

How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him! — Psalm 147:1

• He calls for praise — not to fill His deep need but to fill ours. It is we who are dressed in that beautiful garment of praise.

So... who are you wearing?

I once heard gratitude referred to as the “low-hanging fruit” of well-being. Interesting. But that suggests finding gratitude is easy, and sometimes, it’s not. Sometimes finding gratitude feels like you’re scaling Half Dome in Yosemite, not picking up a peach that just fell fortuitously to the ground. It feels like it takes supreme effort from within.

If you’re of a certain era and religious upbringing, perhaps you’ve heard of a woman named Joni Eareckson Tada. My mother admired her and read her books in the 1980s. I distinctly remember my mom telling the young teenage me about Joni — probably as both a spiritual inspiration and a cautionary tale. Joni was just seventeen years old, an athletic young girl from Maryland, when she dove into shallow water and broke her neck. She was immediately paralyzed from the neck down — quadriplegic. Joni has since lived a beautiful, honest life of faith and service. (And creativity! She paints beautiful canvases using a paintbrush nestled between her teeth. Extraordinary.)

Years later, well into my adulthood, I came across an interview with her on Larry King Live.1 Remembering her from my youth, I stopped and watched. She told the story of how she came to faith. She said she had not been a particularly devout person before her accident, and in the excruciating weeks and months after, lying prostrate in her hospital bed, the buoyant life she imagined cruelly snatched away, her despair grew so unbearable she wished for death. She even tried to accomplish it — to break her neck again, right there in her hospital bed. Her paralysis left her unable to complete the task.

Joni told a story about the moment everything changed for her. Some family friends had come to her hospital room to cheer her up. They supplied pizza and watched NCAA football and, as she says, “treated me as a human being,”2 not an invalid. They also brought their Bibles. Though she wasn’t very religious, Joni said their kindness earned them the right to open them. The verse that changed her life was this one:

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. — 1 Thessalonians 5:18

I sat watching, astonished. I couldn’t believe this was the verse that had so deeply affected her. It wasn’t a verse of encouragement. It wasn’t even a verse promising a better life in eternity. It gave nothing to her; on the contrary, it asked something. It was calling Joni to gratitude, someone from whom so much had been taken. Give thanks? Seriously?

And yet that is exactly what turned her life around. Joni herself said she didn’t understand it right away. She didn’t spend every waking moment from that day forward in a state of radiant rapture. Life was hard. Someone still had to lift her out of bed, bathe her, feed her. Some days it took all she had to go on. But somehow, praise and gratitude were her most potent healer. And she said that the weaker she felt, the more unable to do it, the stronger God became.

Praise. Gratitude. Thanksgiving.

Wherever you are in this moment and however you feel, if you want to immediately alter the atmosphere, if you want to instantly change the air, praise Him.

I like the old King James translation of Psalm 22:3:

O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

He inhabits the praises of His people. If you’re wondering where God is, praise Him. Suddenly, you will be in His presence. We’ve already learned His phone number. If you’re looking for His address, this is where He lives.

Watch the Video

1. “Larry King Show—Joni Eareckson Tada Story,” brunetachka, June 6, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Foffh-gneRs.
2. “Larry King Show—Joni Eareckson Tada Story.”

Excerpted with permission from Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie, copyright Savannah Guthrie.

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Your Turn

Have you been looking for God and wondering where He is? Well, have you put on your garment of praise? He’s there! ~ Devotionals Daily