hello my friends welcome to follow him favorites my name is Hank Smith I'm here with the wonderful amazing closest friend John by the way and if you've been following follow him favorite this year you know that we take a single question from this week's lesson well John I wanted to ask you a question the title of this week's lesson is let everything that has breath praise the Lord and it's all about the book of Psalms my question for you which I've received before from students is why does God need to be praised so much is there something about him where he says if you have breath you should be praising me wow John what do you say to someone who says why does God need to be praised so much or even that why does it need to be prayed to so much why does it need to be glorified so much what do you say to that
 boy that's such a good question cuz I think I think when we think of why we might want to hear someone praise us is a different reason I think for God and but you can help me with your thoughts hang but it tells us where our hearts and where our minds are if our hearts are on gratitude and devotion on our covenants I think that our praise is not helping him as much as it's helping us and it reveals kind of what's going on with us and what's going on in our heart some of these songs are like that just and they're so different that way because it's not God's words to a prophet but it's our words about God and the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he leads me beside Still Waters it's not like God's going okay I need more of that but look how it changed the writer of that to be thinking and pondering how it filled him with gratitude and can fill us with gratitude that's where I would go with that what do you think yeah I think
 when we say let everything that has breath praise the Lord I think the Lord knows that the praising changes the Fraser not the crazy you and I we love to be praised because to Paseo John Hank you're so great thanks for doing this with a go thank you please don't stop it right like but for the Lord he realizes that when we praise him we change it's a lot like I think in prayer I read this in the Bible dictionary when it comes to prayer it says prayer or praising in this case is the act by which the will of the father and the will of the child are brought into a correspondence alignment with each other the object of prayer or praise is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to Grant
 but have been made conditional on are asking for them or appraising for them blessings require some work on effort on our part before we can obtain them prayer is a form of work so I like the idea of God saying if you will spend your time in praising me you are spending your time aligning with me yeah it reminds me of Joseph Smith's first prayer in Liberty Jail that was so powerful and beautiful how long their answer that he got it he didn't suddenly pop out outside of the jail
 his perspective changed I suffering and I fully since we'll be but a small moments and he learned like you just said the will of the Lord and the circumstances didn't change much but the perspective changed dramatically when he what was the words you use he started to align as well with God's at least learn what it was that helps me a little bit I think we should that same thing don't you and 2nd Nephi chapter 4 where Nephi is in a really bad place and he starts to praise the Lord be first starts out talking about how terrible he yes man that I am I would love to be as wretched as Nephi yeah that's the first word I think of with Nephi right but that's what he thinks so and then he says he starts to align his will if you received any 5419 he says I groaned because of my sins
 nevertheless I know in whom I have trusted so in his act of writing of and praying and praising you can feel his alignment changing my God has been my support he has led me through my afflictions in the wilderness he's confounded my enemies he sucks about I've been carried away in Vision if this is the case why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow and then he starts to at the towards the very end he starts to praise the Lord O Lord I have trusted in thee and I will trust in thee forever I think this is a good example 75 for is a good example of the praising changing the appraiser
 that makes sense and not really didn't change the Lord at all but wow it brought Nephi in alignment with the spirit he needed to have that enthusiasm to continue forward kind of look at what he started to do it's like the the council we get in that him count your blessings and name them one-by-one he started counting all the things the Lord had done for him and that changed him the Lord knew that he had done those things but when she started reflecting on it I think he got out of that place where he was and I don't think anyone would say to Nephi when he said oh Wretched Man that I am I don't think any of us would say come on if I don't have low self-esteem you know this was one of his greatest moments when he recognized his dependence on God like we both joked I'd love to be as wretched as Nephi maybe he was sad that you couldn't keep his family together I gave him whatever that I was angry with my brother's whatever but as he put his Reliance on God
 God didn't need the price but look what it did for Nephi by the enemy as a perfect example you think yeah so at night when you kneel down to pray and you might think we'll. Already knows what I need God already knows what I've done why do I have to break it's for you it's not for him it's for you to find out some things about you. For God to find out some things about you or for God to find out some things about God it's for it's for you and when you sing the hymns in church we could talk about Psalms so much song singing taking part in these songs of of with the Saints the song of the Saints can actually change you can change your heart it can soften your heart I know that by the time I'm done singing a Sacrament him my heart is a little bit different isn't it it's a little bit different is a little bit softer it's a little bit more repentant that act of praising God in that him changed me not him but man it changed me so I think when the Lord says let everything that has breath
 praise the Lord he means I want you in a weinman with me yeah I remember in the MCC having
 I don't know thousand couple of thousand of us singing called to serve together that changed me that was an amazing experience to feel like looking left and right and seeing all these elders and sisters and feeling part of this that was I bet you had the same type of experience the Lord knew I were there but it changed when I was on my mission and having a a moment or I felt pretty isolated alone me and my companion but I could remember no I'm I've locked elbows with thousands of Us near d.c. and we're doing this we're going to go gather Israel together I take changed me I don't know about you but you're not and I think you would remember those times singing with an army of missionaries out fun when you can feel it it literally changes your soul every time you do it so go to church this weekend and sing the song Praise the Lord in your
 songs or on your own on your own thing turn on some of that wonderful gospel music and sing and see if that act of praising God doesn't change you as an appraiser thanks for joining us on follow him favorites we hope you'll join us on her full podcast it's called follow him and get it wherever you get your podcast and come back next week we'll do another follow him favorites