Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 147:1

Praise. There is one other thing which is a serious embarrassment to praising through the song service of the Church, and that is, that we have so few hymns of praise. You will be surprised to hear me say so; but you will be more surprised if you take a real specimen of praising and search for hymns of praise. You shall find any number of hymns that talk about praise, and exhort you to praise. There is no lack of hymns that say that God ought to be praised. But of hymns that praise, and say nothing about it, there are very few indeed. And for what there are we are almost wholly indebted to the old churches. Most of them came down to us from the Latin and Greek Churches...There is no place in human literature where you can find such praise as there is in the Psalms of David. —Henry Ward Beecher.