Did Paul ever directly praise the LORD?

[Elijah John]

Did Paul the apostle ever praise the LORD, or honor YHVH by name? As King David does in the Psalms, or the Prophets do in their writings.

Yes, there are many instances where Paul preaches, honors and praises the name of the Lord (capital "L", lower case "o r d") Christ, but how often does Paul honor LORD (all caps) YHVH by name?

[bjs]

[Replying to post 10 by Elijah John]

Saying that Paul put another God (Christ) before YHVH would make little sense from Paul’s perspective. Paul believed that Christ is God, and wrote so explicitly. For Paul, elevating Christ is elevating the Father, and visa-versa.

Also, saying that Paul “seldom if ever� praised the Father is certainly inaccurate. He focused more on Christ, but regularly praised God the Father.

[Elijah John]

[Replying to post 10 by Elijah John]

Saying that Paul put another God (Christ) before YHVH would make little sense from Paul’s perspective. Paul believed that Christ is God, and wrote so explicitly. For Paul, elevating Christ is elevating the Father, and visa-versa.

Also, saying that Paul “seldom if ever� praised the Father is certainly inaccurate. He focused more on Christ, but regularly praised God the Father.

Paul's "Trinitarianism" is a matter of debate. Jehovah's Witnesses for one, would take issue with the claim that Paul thought Jesus was God.

But calling him the "firstborn of all Creation" would make him a god as well, were it a Pagan pantheon. The Father being the "high God" and the Son, a "demigod" as DI puts it.

But I agree, Paul seems to have seen Christ as mediator to God, (1 Timothy 2.5), but if he considered Jesus in any way "God" isn't putting a mediator, in effect putting another God before]/i] YHVH? Or at least between humankind and YHVH.

Yes, I agree that Paul also praised the Father, and in somewhat of a panetheistic way, ("in Him we live and move and have our being") as in the prologue to Romans. Very Deistic there too. (God can be apprehended by observing nature.)

But it is a matter of emphasis...as you concede, Paul focused more on Christ.

So allow me to rephrase and put it this way. Paul's Christ, (whether one in the same with the Father or not) certainly seems to have eclipsed the Father, and relegated Him to a background figure. That or a proud papa cheering on His beloved Son.

I doubt very much the real, historical Jesus saw it that way. That his own name would be revered even above the Father's in the minds and hearts of his future disciples.

In the hearts of Christians. Music is the language of the heart. Consider, how may hymns to the Father exist in comparison to hymns to the Son?

The Son, seemingly in Paul's mind and heart (and almost certainly in the mind and hearts of today's Christians) is the heroic, beloved one, while the Father is the stern Judge. He who must be appeased in order to uphold justice in the Universe.

An oversimplification? Perhaps.