Thank You!

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart;

          before the “gods” I will sing your praise.

I will bow down toward your holy temple

and will praise your name

for your love and your faithfulness Psalm 138:1-2 NIV

How often do you associate “praise” with “thanks?

When we hear the word praise spoken or written in the spiritual realm, our thoughts naturally and instinctively turn to giving glory to God. When we speak of praising people, it usually has to do with an accomplishment, a talent, or a personality trait, i.e. integrity.

Quite often I’ll read the same passage from another version of the Bible, because more times than not it gives me a different perspective on what I’ve just read. Here’s a great example of what I’m talking about...

Thank you! Everything in me says “Thank you!”

Angels listen as I sing my thanks.

I kneel in worship facing your holy temple,

and say it again: “Thank you!”

Thank you for your love,

          thank you for your faithfulness; Psalm 138:1-2 The Message

Would you agree that taking praise out of the passage and replacing it with thanks changes our perception of David’s offering in this Psalm? We now see that David wasn’t merely praising God; he was thanking God! What’s more is that on many of those occasions David was going through some unbelievable hardships.

Everything in me says “Thank you!”David says to the Lord. Everything in me…It sounds as if David is consumed with gratitude for God, doesn’t it?

Are you?

We thank God when life is good, when everything is just right, and when His plans for us are unfolding the way that we want them to. How about when life isn’t so good and when everything is going the wrong way, and when we don’t like His plans for us at all? Do we take the time to thank Him then?

Our natural inclination is to thank God for the obvious things. We thank Him for His provision, for our health, and for His protection. We thank Him for answered prayer. We thank Him for “stuff.”

How about other things that we may take for granted because they’re not so “obvious?” For instance, how often do we stop to thank Him for His presence in our lives? Or for being the ultimate Father? For His abounding love? For giving us another day? For allowing us to draw another breath? For the miracle of life?

Think about it for a moment. Without God, there is nothing. Nothing. No good. No bad. No plans. No “stuff.” No life. Nothing.

Keeping this in mind, how can we not, much like David, shout to the Lord, “Everything in me says ‘Thank You!’”