Have You Finished Your Master's Praises?
When a chazzan heaped extra praises on Hashem, Rebbi Chanina taught him that true praise is humble.
It is told that one day a man went down to lead the davening in the presence of Rebbi Chanina. When he reached the opening blessing of the Shemoneh Esrei, he did not stop at the familiar words. He went on and on: the great, the mighty, the awesome, the powerful, the strong, the fearless, the steadfast, the honored.
Rebbi Chanina waited patiently until the man had finished his tefillah. Then he turned to him and asked: Have you completed all the praises of your Master? Why do we need all of this?
He explained. The three words we say, great, mighty and awesome, we would not dare to say on our own. We say them only because Moshe Rabbeinu used them in the Torah, and the Men of the Great Assembly placed them in our tefillah. And you went ahead and added all of these.
Then he gave a parable. Imagine a king who owned thousands upon thousands of gold coins, and people praised him for owning silver ones. Is that not an insult to him? Whatever words a person can find for Hashem are no more than a few silver coins beside His true greatness. Piling them up does not add to His honor; it only shows how little we can grasp.
The lesson was not that a Jew should hold back his love for Hashem. It was that before the King, humility speaks louder than many words.
Source: Talmud Bavli, Berachos 33b (parallel in Megillah 25a)
When you reach the words "HaKel hagadol hagibor vehanora" in the first blessing of Shemoneh Esrei today, slow down. Remember that you are saying them only because Moshe Rabbeinu said them first, and let that make you a little humbler. You do not need to impress Hashem with many words. Say the words our sages gave us, slowly and with your whole heart, and trust that they are enough.