Praise is awaiting You, O God, in Zion… – Psalm 65:1
It is to be feared that some of our praise ascends nowhere at all, but it is as though it were scattered to the winds. We do not always realize God. Now, “he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him;” this is as true of praise as of prayer. “God is a Spirit,” and they that praise Him must praise Him “in spirit and in truth,” for “the Father seeketh such” to praise Him, and only such; and, if we do not lift our eyes and our hearts to Him, we are but misusing words and wasting time. Our praise is not as it should be, if it be not reverently and earnestly directed to the Lord of Hosts. Vain is it to shoot arrows without a target: we must aim at God’s glory in our holy songs, and that exclusively.
“Jesus, where’er Thy people meet,
There they behold Thy mercy-seat;
Where’er they seek Thee, Thou art found,
And every place is hallow’d ground,
For Thou within no walls confined,
Inhabitest the humble mind;
Such ever bring Thee where they come,
And going, take Thee to their home.”
There should be in all our solemn assemblies a spiritual incense altar, always smoking with “the pure incense of sweet spices, mingled according to the art of the apothecary”: the thanksgiving which is made up of humility, gratitude, love, consecration, and holy joy in the Lord. It should be for the Lord alone, and it should never go out day nor night. ~ C.H. Spurgeon
https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/1023.cfm