Praise to be Personal – Charles Spurgeon

“BLESS the Lord, O my soul,” let the true Ego praise him, the essential I, the vital personality, the soul of my soul, the life of my life! Let me be true to the core to my God; let that which is most truly my own vitality spend itself in blessing the Lord. The soul is our best self; we must not merely bless the Lord with our body, which will soon become worms’ meat, and is but dust at its best; but with our inner, ethereal nature, which makes us akin to angels—yes, that which causes it to be said that in the image of God we were created. My spiritual nature, my loftiest powers, must magnify God—not the voice which sings a hypocritical magnificat, but the heart which means it;—not the lips which cry Hosanna thoughtlessly—but the mind which considers and intelligently worships. Not alone this little narrow walk of my body would I fill with song, but the infinite—through which my spirit soars on wings of boundless thought!—I would make that shoreless region vocal with Jehovah’s praise. My real self, my best self, shall bless the Lord. But the soul is also our immortal self, that which will outlast time; and, being redeemed by precious blood, shall pass through judgment and enter into the worlds unknown, forever to dwell at the right hand of God, triumphant in his eternal love. My immortal soul, what have you to do with spending your energies upon mortal things? Will you hunt for fleeting shadows, while you are yourself most real and abiding? Will you heap up bubbles, while you yourself will endure forever, in a life coeval with the existence of God himself, for he has given you eternal life in his Son Jesus? Bless the Lord, then—so noble a thing as you are should not be occupied with less worthy matters. Raise yourself on all your wings, and like the six-winged cherubim adore your God.