Praise is Exciting, but it Don't Last

I’ll never forget running into one of my major PhD professors after publishing my first book. I just knew he would tell me how impressed and proud of me the seminary was. But first, we fell into chatting about my classmates. As expected, he began telling me about all the great things that they had accomplished since graduating, and what a credit to the program they all were. I was genuinely happy to hear all of this, and I smiled and nodded as I waited for my own rub on the head. For the next ten minutes, I kid you not, he praised every single person who had graduated from our relatively new program (yes, I counted), and then he looked at me and said, “Now what did you say your name was?” It was a very Ecclesiastes moment. In his final field report, Solomon speaks to us about the vanity of living for man’s praise.

There once was an old king who grew foolish. His people then turned to a poor, young nobody, wise beyond his years, who then became wildly popular! If this story sounds familiar, I think Solomon is talking about the decline of King Saul and the rise of his own father, David (see 1 Sam 16–31). David became an instant celebrity after he killed Goliath! Saul had defended Israel for decades, but now David stole all the headlines. David is who all the little boys pretended to be. David is who all the women sing about: “Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands!” Praise is exciting! Popularity is exhilarating! When someone recognizes your work, or posts some tribute to you online, or you receive a compliment on your appearance, when the story about you makes it into the newspaper, or the whole room laughs at your funny story…it just feels good!

But praise is also dangerous. Praise feels so good that many people become praise-addicts. They look for joy and significance in what people think and say about them. This craving for human affirmation can lead down some dark roads. We may become puffed up by the nice things people say about us, forgetting that all that we are is from God. We may put on an act around a certain group to gain their acceptance or exhaust ourselves with people-pleasing, afraid to risk disapproval by saying “no.” We can invest entirely too much emotionally in our likes or comments on social media. We can “fish” for compliments and promote ourselves to others, instead of looking for ways to serve and encourage them. We can resent anyone who is being celebrated more than us and even try to say and do things that will bring them down a peg in the eyes of others. Praise can do some sinister stuff to our souls!

So Solomon says, praise is exciting…but it don’t last! Remember our popular young king? “Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him” (16). He will soon be old news! Everyone will move on to the next flavor of the month, just like they did with the king before him! This is a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ world! Man's praise does not last!

The path of wisdom can be found in Be Thou My Vision:

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise /
Thou my inheritance, now and always.

Man’s praise really is empty. Don’t try to live for it! Make Christ your treasure! Make it your aim to please and be known by Jesus! After that, be yourself—don’t change who God made you to be to fit in with or appease other people. Don’t obsess over pleasing people and meeting all their expectations. Don’t focus on the recognition you get at the moment. Just be as faithful to God as you know how to be. Whatever your calling, do your best, do it with all your might, and don’t worry about who notices—God will take care of that! Get your mind off of yourself and look to love and serve people, not to weasel praise and promotion from them. If you do all that and praise does come your way, it’s OK to enjoy it—just don’t take it (or yourself) too seriously. In Christ, we already have the affirmation of God, and it will never fade away!

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church