God is Glorified

What does it mean for God to be glorified? Typically, when we talk about glory we are talking about fame and renown, but that can't be all there is when we talk about God's glory. In fact, even when I consider what it means for Christians to be glorified in Heaven what I find is not enough. In that instance I conclude that "glory" refers to approval from God, the delight of knowing that we have pleased our Father, but surely God's glory is not a matter of Him patting Himself on the back. The Bible says that we exist to bring God glory, so what does that mean? If we are talking about miracles or transformed lives bringing glory to God on earth it is enough to say that glory refers to fame, but at the same time the reason God desires that kind of glory is in order to love and be loved by us. It is a means and not an end. Is God better off for having received our praise? I should think not. Is He better off because we love Him? If that relationship really does cause Him to be "better off" then surely it is because it allows Him to love us rather than because our love for Him. So then how is He benefitted (while I would never say that God could not have been perfectly fine and eternally joyful without having ever created a single other living thing, I seriously doubt that Creation was the result of a whim) by loving us? The only answer I can produce is that by loving us God is able to be more Himself. It is in the nature of God for Him to be creative, wise, beautiful, humble, and, most of all, loving and through Creation and the drama that has unfolded since then He has been able to demonstrate and act upon those qualities. The Bible even says that God is love, which I take in a very literal and platonic sense. For God to be glorified (in a cosmic sense) is not for Him to be famous or approved of, but rather is the pouring out and fulfillment of God's own inherent nature and goodness.