24 Bible Verses About Praise and Worship

Psalm 100:1-2

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.”

Reflection: The psalm’s heading reads “For giving grateful praise,” and its call goes to “all the earth,” not to Israel alone. Verse 4 describes entering God’s gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, and verse 5 gives the reason: “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever.”

Psalm 95:1-2

“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.”

Reflection: Singing and shouting in verses 1-2 give way to kneeling in verse 6: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” The psalm then turns to a warning, “Today, if only you would hear his voice,” and recalls the generation that tested God at Meribah and Massah.

Psalm 150:6

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.”

Reflection: The closing verse of the book of Psalms. Psalm 150 names the trumpet, harp and lyre, timbrel and dancing, strings and pipe, and two kinds of cymbals, then widens the call to everything that has breath. Its “Praise the Lord” renders the Hebrew hallelujah, from the verb halal, and the psalm both opens and closes with it.

Psalm 34:3

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.”

Reflection: The heading ties the psalm to the time David pretended to be insane before Abimelek and was driven away. He first praises God alone (“his praise will always be on my lips”) and then invites others to join. Verse 4 gives the reason: “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

Psalm 96:9

“Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth.”

Reflection: The call goes to “all you families of nations,” who are to bring an offering into God’s courts. Verse 10 gives them a message to carry, “The Lord reigns,” and verses 11-13 call the heavens, the sea, the fields and the trees to rejoice, “for he comes, he comes to judge the earth.”

Colossians 3:16

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

Reflection: Just before this, Paul tells the Colossian church to forgive one another, to put on love, and to let the peace of Christ rule in their hearts: “And be thankful” (verse 15). The singing here is also teaching, since members “teach and admonish one another” through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit. Ephesians 5:19 names the same three kinds of song, and the next verse in Colossians extends thanks to “whatever you do, whether in word or deed.”

Exodus 15:11

“Who among the gods is like you, Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?”

Reflection: Moses and the Israelites sing this after the Lord brought the sea back over Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen while Israel walked through on dry ground (verse 19). The question “Who is like you?” is followed by what God did: “You stretch out your right hand, and the earth swallows your enemies” (verse 12). Then Miriam the prophet took a timbrel, the women followed her with timbrels and dancing, and she sang the song’s opening lines to them (verses 20-21).

Psalm 145:3

“Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”

Reflection: The heading calls Psalm 145 “A psalm of praise.” God’s greatness cannot be fathomed, yet the psalm goes on to name his works, and verse 4 says how praise is kept alive: “One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.”

1 Chronicles 29:11

“Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.”

Reflection: David prays before the whole assembly after the people have given gold, silver and other gifts for building the temple. He gives the credit back to God in verse 14: “Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” At the end of the prayer the assembly bows down and praises the Lord (verse 20).

Isaiah 6:3

“And they were calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.’”

Reflection: The seraphim’s words name God’s holiness three times and say that his glory fills the whole earth. Isaiah hears them in a vision of the Lord on a throne “in the year that King Uzziah died” (verse 1). At the sound the doorposts shook and the temple filled with smoke, and Isaiah cried, “Woe to me! … I am a man of unclean lips.” One of the seraphim touched his mouth with a live coal from the altar and said his guilt was taken away (verses 6-7).

Revelation 4:11

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Reflection: In John’s vision of the throne in heaven, four living creatures say “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty” day and night. Whenever they do, the twenty-four elders fall down, lay their crowns before the throne and say these words. The reason they give for God’s worthiness is creation: “you created all things.”

Psalm 103:2-4

“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.”

Reflection: David speaks to his own soul, and the benefits come as a string of verbs: God forgives, heals, redeems and crowns. Verse 5 adds that he “satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Isaiah 25:1

“Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.”

Reflection: Isaiah praises God for “things planned long ago,” and the next verses name some of them: a fortified city made a ruin, and God as “a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress.” The city is not named.

John 4:24

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Reflection: A Samaritan woman raises the old dispute over where to worship: “on this mountain” or in Jerusalem. Jesus answers that a time is coming when the Father will be worshiped in neither place, and that “the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.”

Psalm 51:17

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

Reflection: The heading places the psalm after the prophet Nathan confronted David over his adultery with Bathsheba. Verse 15 asks, “Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise,” and verse 16 says God does not delight in burnt offerings. Verses 18-19 then look ahead to a rebuilt Jerusalem where God will “delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,” so the psalm does not reject offerings as such.

Romans 12:1

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”

Reflection: The verse names “God’s mercy” as its ground, and the close of chapter 11 has just said that God bound everyone over to disobedience “so that he may have mercy on them all” (Romans 11:32). The Greek adjective is logikos, rational or reasonable, which is why the King James Version reads “your reasonable service.” The next verse describes the change that follows: “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Hebrews 13:15

“Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.”

Reflection: The letter has just said that Jesus “suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood” (verse 12). The sacrifice now offered is praise, “the fruit of lips,” a phrase from Hosea 14:2. Verse 16 names a second kind: “do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

Hebrews 12:28-29

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ‘God is a consuming fire.’”

Reflection: The chapter contrasts Sinai, with its fire, darkness and trumpet and Moses saying “I am trembling with fear,” with Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and angels “in joyful assembly.” Thankful worship under the new covenant is still to be offered “with reverence and awe.” The closing words quote Deuteronomy 4:24: “the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”

Psalm 22:3

“Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.”

Reflection: The psalm opens with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, the words Jesus cried from the cross (Matthew 27:46). Verse 3 begins with “Yet” and sets praise in the middle of the complaint, and verses 4-5 recall that Israel’s ancestors trusted God and were delivered. The King James Version reads “O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.”

Psalm 42:11

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.”

Reflection: The same question and answer appear in verse 5. Between them the psalmist, one of the Sons of Korah by the heading, says “all your waves and breakers have swept over me” and hears his enemies ask all day long, “Where is your God?” The praise is in the future tense: “I will yet praise him.”

Isaiah 61:3

“…and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

Reflection: The sentence begins in verse 1, where the speaker, anointed by the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord, is sent to bind up the brokenhearted. Verse 2 adds “to comfort all who mourn,” verse 3 names them as “those who grieve in Zion,” and lists three exchanges: beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, praise for despair. Jesus read the opening of the chapter in the synagogue at Nazareth and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).

Habakkuk 3:17-18

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.”

Reflection: In verse 16 Habakkuk says his heart pounded and his legs trembled, and that he will “wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.” Verse 17 sets out three conditions, each opening with “though”: the fig tree and the vines, the olive crop and the fields, the sheep and the cattle. Verse 18 answers them with “yet I will rejoice in the Lord.” The chapter ends with a note for the director of music: “On my stringed instruments” (verse 19).

Acts 16:25-26

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

Reflection: In Philippi, Paul and Silas had been stripped, flogged with rods and put in the inner cell with their feet in stocks (verses 22-24). They sang hymns at midnight, “and the other prisoners were listening to them.” The earthquake came after the singing, and it opened every door and loosened everyone’s chains, not only theirs.

2 Chronicles 20:21

“After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.’”

Reflection: Moab, Ammon and the people of Mount Seir were invading Judah. After the people fell down in worship and the Levites praised God “with a very loud voice” (verses 18-19), Jehoshaphat placed singers at the head of the army. Their song is the refrain of Psalm 136:1 without the words “for he is good,” and verse 22 says that “as they began to sing and praise,” the Lord set ambushes against the invaders.