Bible Verses About Praise show why God’s people lift their voices to Him and what that praise is meant to express. Scripture treats praise both as the fitting response to God’s greatness and as a purpose He built into His people, from the psalmists of Israel to the great multitude in Revelation.
For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
Psalms 96:4 (KJV)
The LORD is great and greatly to be praised, the basic reason Scripture gives for praise.
I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
Psalms 145:1-4 (KJV)
David vows to praise God every day and says each generation shall declare His works to the next.
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Psalms 22:3 (KJV)
God is described as holy, the one who inhabits the praises of Israel.
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright.
Psalms 33:1 (KJV)
Praise is called comely, or fitting, for the upright who rejoice in the LORD.
Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.
Psalms 147:1 (KJV)
Singing praises to God is described as good, pleasant and fitting.
Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created.
Psalms 148:1-5 (KJV)
Angels, sun, moon and stars are all called to praise the LORD because He created them.
This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
Isaiah 43:21 (KJV)
God says He formed His people for Himself so they would show forth His praise.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1 Peter 2:9 (KJV)
Peter says believers were chosen to show forth the praises of Him who called them into marvellous light.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ephesians 1:5-6 (KJV)
Our adoption as God’s children through Jesus Christ is to the praise of the glory of His grace.
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.
Hebrews 13:15 (KJV)
Praise is described as a sacrifice offered continually through Christ, the fruit of our lips.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
Psalms 50:23 (KJV)
Offering praise glorifies God, and the psalm links it with ordering one’s life aright.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalms 107:8 (KJV)
Again and again this psalm urges people to praise the LORD for His goodness and wonderful works.
Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:11 (KJV)
Righteous fruit produced through Jesus Christ is unto the glory and praise of God.
And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?
Matthew 21:16 (KJV)
Jesus quotes the psalm that God has perfected praise out of the mouths of babes.
And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
Luke 19:37-40 (KJV)
When the crowd praised Jesus, He said the stones would cry out if they held their peace.
And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.
2 Chronicles 20:21-22 (KJV)
Jehoshaphat sent singers ahead praising the beauty of holiness, and the LORD delivered Judah, showing praise as trust.
And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Revelation 19:5-6 (KJV)
A voice from the throne calls all God’s servants to praise Him, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Praise in Scripture is first a response to who God is. Psalm 96:4 says the LORD is great and greatly to be praised, and Psalm 148 calls angels, sun, moon and stars to praise Him because He created them. Praise is simply giving God the honour that is already His due.
The Bible also presents praise as part of our calling. Isaiah 43:21 says God formed His people to show forth His praise, and 1 Peter 2:9 applies this to the church, called out of darkness into His marvellous light. Hebrews 13:15 describes praise as a sacrifice offered through Christ, which means it can be offered even when feelings lag behind.
A striking example comes in 2 Chronicles 20. Facing a large invading army, King Jehoshaphat sought the LORD, then appointed singers to go out praising the beauty of holiness, and God delivered Judah. The account shows praise as an act of trust, placing confidence in God before the outcome is seen. In the Gospels, Jesus welcomed the crowd’s praise on the road into Jerusalem and said the stones would cry out if people were silent.
Psalm 150:6’s instruction for everything with breath to “praise the LORD” treats praise as a universal, expected response.
You might also turn to Bible Verses For Eternal Life and Bible Verses For Spiritual Protection.
Each passage is quoted from the KJV, and Blue Letter Bible has the whole text if you want the surrounding chapter.
Bible Verses About Peace and Worry and Bible Verses About Seeking God explore related themes.
Two nearby collections worth opening next are Bible Verses About Family Relationships and Bible Verses About God's Healing.
Readers of this page often go on to Bible Verses About Faith in Hard Times or Bible Verses About Courage.
This subject overlaps with Bible Verses About Humility and with Bible Verses For Praise.
To see how other translations render these lines, look them up on Bible Gateway.
For word studies and cross-references, Bible Hub is a helpful next step.
Praise, biblically, is treated as a universal, expected response to God’s character, not an occasional extra.
These verses were never meant to sit on a page as decoration \u2014 they’re meant to shape how you actually respond the next time praising God feels forced during a disappointing week.
You don’t need polished or formal language for it \u2014 an honest, plainly worded sentence is enough, something as simple as telling God directly for praise rooted in who God is, not just how the week went.
Miriam took a timbrel in her hand after Israel crossed safely through the Red Sea, and all the women followed her with timbrels and dancing, singing back the same song Moses had just sung about Pharaoh’s horse and rider being thrown into the sea. It was celebration born directly out of deliverance, spontaneous rather than planned, erupting the moment the danger had visibly passed and safety finally felt completely real again for everyone watching. Bible Verses About Praise often begin exactly this way, as an immediate response to something God has just done rather than a scheduled religious exercise.
What stands out about Miriam’s praise is how physical and communal it was, not a private thought kept quietly to herself but an act that pulled an entire community into shared celebration together. Bible Verses About Praise frequently take this corporate shape throughout Scripture, one voice starting and many others joining until the whole community is caught up in the same grateful response, often within moments of the danger passing.
Hannah had prayed for a child for years, weeping bitterly enough that a priest once mistook her silent prayer for drunkenness, and when Samuel was finally born she brought him to the temple and poured out a prayer of praise rather than simply relief. Her prayer, recorded in detail, celebrates God’s power to bring down the proud and lift up the needy, reaching far beyond her own personal situation. Bible Verses About Praise here grow directly out of long, painful waiting rather than easy or immediate answers.
Hannah’s praise is remarkable because she had already decided to give Samuel back to temple service before she ever held him in her arms. Bible Verses About Praise like hers show that gratitude does not require keeping the very thing you prayed for; it can flow from trusting God’s character even while releasing what He gave.
Paul and Silas had been beaten with rods and thrown into the innermost part of a Philippian prison, their feet fastened in stocks, when at midnight they began praying and singing hymns loud enough for the other prisoners to hear them clearly. Nothing about their circumstances had changed; the chains were still on, the wounds still fresh, yet praise rose from that cell regardless. Bible Verses About Praise rarely picture a setting this uncomfortable, but Paul and Silas show that praise is not dependent on comfortable circumstances to be genuine.
An earthquake shook the prison doors open that very night, but the miracle that mattered most may have been the singing that preceded it. Bible Verses About Praise like this remind us that praise offered in hardship is not pretending pain away; it is choosing to declare God’s worth even while the difficulty remains fully present and unresolved.
David danced before the ark of the covenant with such energy and lack of restraint that his wife Michal watched from a window and despised him for it, considering his behavior undignified for a king. David’s response was that he would become even more undignified in future celebrations of the Lord, unconcerned with how it appeared to onlookers. Bible Verses About Praise sometimes cost a person their dignity in the eyes of others who are watching for the wrong reasons.
What David modeled was praise unconcerned with managing an image, focused entirely on the object of his celebration rather than his own reputation. Bible Verses About Praise invite that same freedom, praise offered because God is worthy of it, regardless of who is watching or what they might think of how it looks.
King Jehoshaphat faced a massive invading army with no natural means of defense, and rather than leading with soldiers first, he appointed singers to go out ahead of the army, praising the beauty of holiness before a single sword was drawn. It was an unusual battle strategy, placing worship at the very front line of a genuine national crisis. Bible Verses About Praise rarely picture praise functioning as military strategy, yet Jehoshaphat’s story shows it operating exactly that way, an act of trust placed ahead of any visible resolution.
As the singers began to sing, Scripture records that the Lord set ambushments against the invading armies, and Judah did not have to fight the battle themselves. Bible Verses About Praise like this suggest that praise offered before the outcome is settled is its own form of courage, a public declaration of confidence in God that precedes rather than follows the moment of deliverance. That sequence, praise first and victory after, remains one of Scripture’s boldest pictures of worship functioning as genuine warfare.
Lord, like Miriam, give me a heart quick to celebrate deliverance the moment I see it, rather than moving straight past gratitude toward the next concern. Like Hannah, let my praise be genuine even in seasons of long waiting or difficult release. Bible Verses About Praise remind me that worship is not reserved for easy circumstances alone.
Like Paul and Silas, teach me to sing even in hard places, and like David, free me from caring more about appearances than about honoring you. Bible Verses About Praise call me to worship that costs something real and means something, not performance for anyone else’s approval. Amen.
This five day plan follows the accounts above, tracing Bible Verses For Praise through very different circumstances and very different responses.
From a shoreline, to a temple, to a prison, to a battlefield, Bible Verses About Praise describe worship rising from remarkably different circumstances, some joyful, some painful, all genuinely offered.
Praise can feel automatic in good seasons and forced in hard ones. These questions are meant to help Bible Verses About Faith and Bible Verses About Praise move from these accounts into something you can examine honestly in your current circumstances, without pressure to feel a certain way before you begin.
Sit with one question honestly; Bible Verses About Praise mean more when they cost something real to offer.
Psalm 22 is the psalm that opens with “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” and a few lines later it says, “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3). Read that slowly. The man writing it feels abandoned, and yet he still describes God as seated among the songs of His people. He does not wait until the feeling of abandonment lifts. He puts the two facts side by side and lets them stand.
The word translated “inhabitest” carries the sense of sitting down, taking a seat, dwelling. Some translators picture a king settled on a throne, and the throne in this picture is the singing of a gathered people. You do not have to press that image into a formula, as if enough noise forces God to show up. Scripture never says God is absent until we sing. What the line says is that where His people honestly lift up His name, He is not a stranger to the room.
I once sat in a small church whose heating had failed in January. Maybe thirty people, coats still on, singing an old hymn badly and a little flat. Nobody would have called it a performance. But the old man in the front pew, who had buried his wife that autumn, sang every word, and the whole room seemed to tilt toward him. That is closer to Psalm 22:3 than any concert lighting.
English gives us one word, “praise,” where the Old Testament has several. The one most often heard is halal, which gives us the shout at the end of “hallelujah.” It carries the idea of boasting, of making a bright and public fuss about someone. When the psalmist says praise the LORD, this word often sits underneath, and it is not a whisper. It sounds more like a fan describing a favourite athlete to a stranger on a train.
Another word, todah, leans toward thanksgiving, and it is tied to something already received. Psalm 107:8 uses the thankful side of this idea: “Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Notice the two reasons given there. One is who God is, His goodness. The other is what He has done, His wonderful works. Good praise usually holds both, the character and the evidence.
This is worth knowing because many of us get stuck thinking praise has to be a feeling of excitement. Neither word is about a mood. One is about speaking well of God in public, the other about saying thank you for something specific. You can do both on a flat Tuesday with nothing stirring inside you, and the verses on this page treat it as perfectly ordinary to do so.
In the last week before the cross, Jesus walked into the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers. The blind and lame came to Him there and He healed them. Then children started shouting in the courts, “Hosanna to the son of David,” and the chief priests were furious. They asked Him whether He heard what these children were saying. He answered with a line from the Psalms: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise” (Matthew 21:16).
Think about who was offended. Not the crowds, not the Romans. It was the trained, respectable religious people who found the noise inconvenient. The children had no theology degrees. They had seen sick people made well, and they said so loudly. Jesus called that perfected praise, which is a startling thing to say about a group of kids who were probably off-key.
There is a gentle correction in this for anyone who feels their own praise is too clumsy to count. Children do not worry about whether the harmony is right. A toddler humming in the back seat, a teenager who mumbles through the chorus but means it, a grandmother who thanks God over the dishes in a voice she thinks nobody hears. Matthew 21:16 suggests heaven is listening more closely to that than to polish.
As Jesus came down the Mount of Olives on the donkey, the whole crowd of disciples began to rejoice and praise God loudly for the miracles they had seen (Luke 19:37). Some Pharisees in the crowd told Him to rebuke His followers. His reply is one of the sharpest lines in the Gospels: “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40).
Two things stand out. First, Jesus did not say the praise was optional. He said creation itself is so loaded with the fact of who He is that silence from people would be almost unnatural, like trying to hold back a river with a bedsheet. Second, He did not quiet the crowd to protect the Pharisees from discomfort. Some people will always prefer a calmer faith than the one in front of them.
Psalm 148 had already said something close, calling sun, moon and shining stars to praise their Maker. The Old Testament poets and Jesus agree that praise is not something humans invented to flatter God. It is the natural sound of a world that knows its Owner. When we join in, we are not adding noise to a quiet universe. We are finally catching up with the rest of it.
Hebrews 13:15 says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” The phrase “sacrifice of praise” is worth pausing over. A sacrifice implies cost. Nobody calls it a sacrifice when you give away something you were about to throw out. The writer is acknowledging that there will be days when praising God is the harder thing to do, and that offering it then counts for more, not less.
The same idea sits behind Psalm 50:23, where God says, “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me.” Glorifying here is not a matter of making God bigger, as though He needed it. It means displaying Him accurately, telling the truth about Him in a place where the opposite is being whispered. In a hospital corridor at three in the morning, a quiet thank-you for the nurse and for God’s nearness is a small act of honesty about who He is.
A caution belongs here. Praise should never become a way of denying real pain or of hurrying someone else through theirs. Psalm after psalm mixes lament and praise in the same breath, and Scripture is not embarrassed by either. If you are carrying something heavy, say so to God plainly, and then praise Him for what you can still honestly say about Him. Talk to a pastor or a counselor too, if the weight has been there a long time.
Readers interested in this topic often continue with Bible Verses For Praise, Bible Verses About Praise And Worship, Bible Verses For Praise And Worship, Bible Verses About Faith and Bible Verses About Hope.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
Praise in Scripture is first a response to who God is. Psalm 96:4 says the LORD is great and greatly to be praised, and Psalm 148 calls angels, sun, moon and stars to praise Him because He created them.
This page brings together 10 King James Version references about praise, drawn from 9 different books of the Bible.
Yes, the verses referenced on this page, including Psalm 96:4, are quoted according to the King James Version (KJV), and are suitable for daily reading, memorization, or devotional use.
Beyond the references highlighted on this page, praise appears throughout Scripture in books such as Psalm, Isaiah, 1 Peter, Hebrews, Exodus; this collection focuses on some of the clearest examples.
These praise verses are drawn from books including Psalm, Isaiah, 1 Peter, Hebrews, Exodus, among others.
