Populated with Praise

 

We are still on the topic of praising God, so clearly there is something that God wants us to get that we haven’t quite got yet. God wants us to truly understand this spiritual weapon of mass destruction that we can load deep into our souls then use our mouths to shoot it out.

Proverbs 18:21 (NIV) states that the tongue has the power of life and death, which means that what we say can produce life or cause death. We can either give life to a situation or kill it. Too often we choose to give life to things we ought to be putting an end to. When we offer praises to God, we infuse our circumstances with the One who not only gives life but is Life, the Source of all that exists.

Praising God magnifies Him, making Him bigger until He looms over your life, overshadowing your circumstances and situations.

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:30 ESV)

St. Kitts photo courtesy O'Reilly Lewis

We need all the areas of our lives to be populated with praise. To populate means to fill or be present in a place or sphere, to settle in a place, to live, to occupy.

Now, even more than ever, our lives require a population growth of praise.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (2 Timothy 3:1-4 NASB)

Notice the behaviours that Paul tells Timothy will be an indication of terrible times. Paul lists ungrateful just before unholy and he goes on to say that people will have a form of godliness but deny its power. My goodness, we are seeing this play out every day.

Ingratitude is one of the blights that have corrupted humanity, humans are a thankless species and it’s spilling over into our attitude toward God, we show no gratitude towards one another and certainly we aren’t thankful to God. Being ungrateful has led to our becoming an unholy society that has no interest in praising God.

You see, thankfulness gives rise to praise, if there’s no gratitude there’ll be no praise.

let us always bring God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess his name (Hebrews 13:15 ISV).

Beloved, praise will never well up from inside you if you don’t even acknowledge or appreciate the good things God has done in your life. You won’t even take the time to think on these things, instead you’ll wake up, get out of bed and hurry off to do your thing, preoccupied with everything else but God.

It cannot continue like this beloved, it just can’t, you can’t.

If you’re looking for explosive results that will positively affect your life, then you have to look up – praise God, glorify and magnify Him. You cannot afford to forget God’s benefits.

The truth is, we just don’t remember but we must make a conscious decision to remember and to glorify God through praise. God is still good no matter what and He deserves your sacrifice of praise.

Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits (Psalm 103:2 NIV)

Look at the world today, times are bleak, but what is happening in the population does not have to adversely affect you, you have to populate your space with praise and when your spaces are populated with praise, you become a conductor of God’s miraculous power.

Can you imagine what would happen if an entire population got together in one accord and used the power of their tongues to praise God, their spaces will become populated with praise and what that outcome might look like?

Beloved, it’s not far-fetched; ever heard of Jehoshaphat?

As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. (2 Chronicles 20:22 NIV)

Faced with what was to them an impossibility, was nothing for God to accomplish, but only after King Jehoshaphat and all who lived in Judah and Jerusalem began and continued to sing His praises. God destroyed and annihilated the problem on their behalf, they did not have to fight.

Beloved, it’s not far-fetched; ever heard of the wall-enclosed city of Jericho?

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. (Joshua 6:20 NIV)

After marching around Jericho for six days in silence, on the seventh day, those fortified walls were no match against God’s strength, they crumbled right in front of them. Sometimes we have to silently wait on God as we allow Him to do whatever He needs to do before we start shouting His praises. But when our spaces and places are populated with praise problems crumble right before our eyes.

What does Psalm 91 verse 8 ESV translation say?

You will only look with your eyes and see the recompense

And that is God’s promise to you.

Beloved, every five minutes you spend griping and complaining is five minutes of your life wasted; your precious time will be better spent praising God with your entire being, making sure that your place or sphere is properly populated with praise.

Amen †

Shelley Johnson “Populated with Praise” ©2026 February 2, 2026