“I just want to give glory to God . . .”
Whether it’s a post-game interview with a Christian athlete or everyday talk with friends and family, we’ve all heard it and likely said it. The strength of such a line is its Godwardness and rightness. A weakness of such talk can be its vagueness. How exactly does one “give glory” to God?
“Giving glory” to God is clearly a biblical category — and Scripture is not as vague as we often are. So, what does it mean to give glory to God, and how do I myself give him glory in my life?
‘Giving’ Glory
First, and vitally, what it does not mean is that we creatures give God something essential that he does not have otherwise. This is a critical qualification. We don’t “give glory” to God because he is lacking in glory and could use our help. As Paul preached in Athens,
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth . . . is [not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. (Acts 17:24–25)
“Needy God” is a contradiction in terms. The one true God, from his infinite fullness, made the world and everything in it. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you,” he says, “for the world and its fullness are mine” (Psalm 50:12). To give glory to him does not mean that we add to his inherent worth, meet any needs of his, fill any lack in him, or make him look better than he really is.
How, then, do we give him glory? The biblical texts on giving glory to God and glorifying him provide consistent categories for what it means (and thus how) to give glory to our God.
1. Audible Words
Far and away, giving glory to God most often refers to the words of his admiring, praising people. Our words, spoken audibly into the world, for other men and angels to hear, matter greatly in glorifying God.
When Peter reported on the conversion of Gentiles to his fellow Christian Jews, “they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life’” (Acts 11:18). That is, they gave glory to God by speaking God-centered, God-honoring words. Rather than making Peter’s preaching or the Gentiles’ faith the main reason for celebration, they commended God himself.
One way to give God glory with our words is to acknowledge him out loud as the source of his great acts in the world. Misguided as they were in their opposition to Jesus, the Jewish leaders sought to elicit such an acknowledgement from the blind man Jesus healed. “Give glory to God,” they said, assuming Jesus to be a sinner (John 9:24). A genuine healing must have come from God and not from Jesus, they thought. Similarly, in Acts 12, the people of Tyre and Sidon flattered Herod as divine, rather than human. Herod knew this was blasphemous, but did not acknowledge it. “He did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last” (Acts 12:23).
Another and more prominent way to press our words into the service of giving God glory is to voice praise for him or to worship him out loud. This is the most frequent use of “give glory” language in Scripture. God’s people give glory to him when they audibly praise him (see Joshua 7:19; Psalm 86:9; Isaiah 42:12). The Gospel of Luke, in particular, associates verbal praise with giving God glory (2:20; 5:25–26; 13:13; 17:18) — as do John’s visions in the book of Revelation (4:9; 14:7; 16:9).
And a specific and powerful way of voicing praise and worship is singing. “Sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!” (Psalm 66:2). Our God is glorified in and through his people in their Godward singing, shouts of joy, and eruptions of praise (Isaiah 44:23).
2. Visible Actions
While giving God glory through words may be the most prominent category, glorifying him through human deeds and visible actions is equally critical. Memorably, in his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to give glory to our Father through our visible good deeds, acted out in the world for others to see:
Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
Here viewers give glory to the Father through their words, which are prompted by the light they’ve seen shining in the actions of Jesus’s followers. These “others” echo the glory made visible by God-honoring good works. Amazingly, they see our good deeds but give glory not to us but to our Father. Our words and deeds work together in giving God glory. At some point, our words must give meaning to our works if others are to see us act yet give glory to our Father rather than to us.
Paul also emphasizes that God gets glory in our visible acts and through our bodies and behavior. He recognized his drastic conversion and transformed life as occasions for others to glorify God because of him (Galatians 1:24). Paul spoke of his hope that “Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). He also exhorted fellow Christians, “Glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20), and “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Peter also writes that the visible conduct of Christ’s people, in tandem with their audible words, is essential in giving glory to Christ (1 Peter 2:12; 4:11, 16).
3. The Inaudible, Invisible Heart
The third and final category is the deepest and most significant.
Psalm 95 unfolds in the same sequence we’ve seen here: first, a focus on the mouth (words, song, joyful noise, verses 1–5), then on the posture of the body (bow down, kneel, verses 6–7), and finally the heart of the matter — the human heart and inner person (verses 8–10).
Take note: The heart and its affections aren’t just as important as our words and deeds, but God has designed true (rather than hypocritical) words and deeds to be the audible and visible expressions of our hearts. Our outer lives of words and actions reveal the inner life of the person in the heart. Giving glory to God involves the whole person in a particular order: The heart’s affections for God are the heartbeat of giving him glory, and our words and deeds make the heart that glorifies him visible and audible.
This includes motions of the heart we might perceive negatively, like fear. Matthew says when the crowds saw Jesus’s authority, “they were afraid, and they glorified God” (Matthew 9:8). Luke also makes the connection: “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God” (Luke 7:16). In John’s Apocalypse, the conquerors “sing the song of Moses . . . and the song of the Lamb” and ask, “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?” (Revelation 15:3–4). A holy fear of God in the heart, expressed in words, gives glory to the Almighty, who indeed is worthy of fear.
Along with fear come wonder and amazement. “The crowd wondered,” says Matthew, “when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:31). “They were all amazed and glorified God,” writes Mark (Mark 2:12). “Amazement seized them all,” reports Luke, “and they glorified God and were filled with awe” (Luke 5:26). When people marvel at the attractive power and goodness of God, he receives glory.
Also gratitude in the heart glorifies him (Romans 1:21; Psalm 86:12). But most significant of all is the rejoicing of the heart. In Acts 13, Paul’s Sabbath sermon is met with Jewish reviling, and Paul himself counters by saying, “Since you thrust [the word of God] aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). Luke then adds, “When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed” (verse 48).
John, too, in the great cosmic worship scene in Revelation 19, hears “a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out . . . ‘Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory’” (Revelation 19:5, 7). Rejoicing in God, enjoying him, gives him glory by showing him to be desirable, delightful, and worthy of enjoyment and praise.
Wholistic Worship
The point isn’t to emphasize the heart to the diminishing of the mouth and body. God made us to bring all three together: We glorify God by perceiving his majesty (with our eyes and ears), duly rejoicing and delighting in him (in our hearts), praising him (with our mouths, in words spoken and sung), and demonstrating our affections and praise in our bodies through fitting demeanor and actions.
Isaiah 61:3 brings together the whole person — heart, words, and deeds — in giving glory to God:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me . . .
to grant to those who mourn . . .
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
Spirit-given gladness in the heart becomes audible in the world through genuine words of praise, confirmed in visible, lived-out, oak-like righteous deeds — and all “that [our Lord] may be glorified.”
In sum, three clear biblical categories guide us in how to give glory to our God: words, deeds, and heart. The heart is central and essential. And our words play a crucial part: They intelligibly express the feelings of our hearts so that others know our treasuring of God and can join us. And without accompanying deeds, our words soon prove empty.
Neither words alone nor deeds alone, nor even hearts alone, fully glorify God. He means to reflect his glory through the whole human person: centrally the inner person, with audible words and visible lives manifesting the otherwise unknown heart.
