Laus Deo

Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.
12 Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.
~ 1 Chronicles 29:11-12

A Psalm of David. Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
~ Psalm 29:1-2

Laus Deo, by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The following contains an excerpt from his sermon.

Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

II. The apostle puts his pen back into the ink bottle, falls on his knees — he cannot help it— he must have a doxology. “To whom be glory for ever, Amen.” Beloved, let us imitate this DEVOTION. I think that this sentence should be the prayer, the motto for every one of us— “To whom be glory for ever, Amen.”

I will be but very brief, for I would not weary you. “To whom be glory for ever.” This should be the single desire of the Christian. I take it that he should not have twenty wishes, but only one. He may desire to see his family well brought up, but only that “To God may be glory for ever.” He may wish for prosperity in his business, but only so far as it may help him to promote this— “To whom be glory for ever.” He may desire to attain more gifts and more graces, but it should only be that “To him may be glory forever.” This one thing I know, Christian, you are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than the one motive of your Lord’s glory. As a Christian, you are “of God, and through God,” I pray you be “to God.” Let nothing ever set your heart beating but love to him. Let this ambition fire your soul; be this the foundation of every enterprise upon which you enter, and this your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow chill— only, only make God your object. Depend upon it, where self begins sorrow begins; but if God be my supreme delight and only object,

“To me ‘ tis equal whether love ordain
My life or death— appoint me ease or pain.”

To me there shall be no choice, when my eye singly looks to God’s glory, whether I shall be torn in pieces by wild beasts or live in comfort— whether I shall be full of despondency or full of hope. If God be glorified in my mortal body, my soul shall rest content.

Again, let it be our constant desire, “To him be glory.” When I wake up in the morning, O, let my soul salute her God with gratitude.

“Wake, and lift up thyself, my heart,
And with the angels bear thy part,
Who all night long unwearied sing
High praises to the eternal King.”

At my work behind the counter, or in the exchange, let me be looking out to see how I may glorify him. If I be walking in the fields, let my desire be that the trees may clap their hands in his praise. May the sun in his march shine out the Master’s glory, and the stars at night reflect his praise. It is yours, brethren, to put a tongue into the mouth of this dumb world, and make the silent beauties of creation praise their God. Never be silent when there are opportunities, and you shall never be silent for want of opportunities. At night fall asleep still praising your God; as you close your eyes let your last thought be, “How sweet to rest upon the Saviour’s bosom!” In afflictions praise him; out of the fires let your song go up; on the sick-bed extol him; dying, let him have your sweetest notes. Let your shouts of victory in the combat with the last great enemy be all for him; and then when you have burst the bondage of mortality, and come into the freedom of immortal spirits, then, in a nobler, sweeter song, you shall sing unto his praise. Be this, then, your constant thought— “To him be glory for ever.”

Let this be your earnest thought. Do not speak of God’s glory with cold words, nor think of it with chilly heart, but feel, “I must praise him; if I cannot praise him where I am, I will breakthrough these narrow bonds, and get where I can.” Sometimes you will feel that you long to be disembodied that you may praise him as the immortal spirits do. I must praise him. Bought by his precious blood, called by his Spirit, I cannot hold my tongue. My soul, canst thou be dumb and dead? I must praise him. Stand back, O flesh; avaunt, ye fiends; away, ye troubles; I must sing, for should I refuse to sing, sure the very stones would speak.

I hope, dear friends, whilst thus earnest your praise will also be growing. Let there be growing desire to praise him of whom and through him are all things. You blessed him in your youth, do not be content with such praises as yon gave him then. Has God prospered you in business? give him more as he has given you more. Has God given you experience? O, praise him by better faith than you exercised at first. Does your knowledge grow? Oh! then you can sing more sweetly. Do you have happier times than you once had? Have you been restored from sickness, and has your sorrow been turned into peace and joy? Then give him more music; put more coals in your censer, more sweet frankincense, more of the sweet cane bought with money. Oh! to serve him every day, lifting up my heart from Sabbath to Sabbath, till I reach the ever-ending Sabbath! Reaching from sanctification to sanctification, from love to love, from strength to strength, till I appear before my God!

In closing, let me urge you to make this desire practical. If you really glorify God, take care to do it not with lip-service, which dies away in the wind, but with solid homage of daily life. Praise him by your patience in pain, by your perseverance in duty, by your generosity in his cause, by your boldness in testimony, by your consecration to his work; praise him, my dear friends, not only this morning in what you do for him in your offerings, but praise him every day by doing something for God in all sorts of ways, according to the manner in which he has been pleased to bless you. I wish I could have spoken worthily on such a topic as this, but a dull, heavy headache sits upon me, and I feel that a thick gloom overshadows my words, out of which I look with longing, but cannot rise. For this I may well grieve, but nevertheless God the Holy Ghost can work the better through our weakness, and if you will try and preach the sermon to yourselves, my brethren, you will do it vastly better than I can; if you will meditate upon this text this afternoon, “Of him, through him, and to him are all things,” I am sure you will be led to fall on your knees with the apostle, and say, “To him be glory for ever;” and then you will rise up, and practically in your life, give him honour, putting the “Amen” to this doxology by your own individual service of your great and gracious Lord. May he give a blessing now, and accept your thank-offering through Christ Jesus.

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