I Will Praise with a Song

“I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.” – Ps 69:30 (ESV)

David writes this in the depths of one of his most desperate psalms — ‘the waters have come up to my neck,’ ‘I sink in deep mire.’ And yet the psalm pivots to praise and thanksgiving. ‘I will praise’ is a deliberate act of the will — not ‘I feel grateful’ but ‘I will praise.’ The decision to magnify God with thanksgiving precedes the feeling of gratitude. This is the discipline of thanksgiving: choosing to praise before the emotional state of gratitude has arrived, trusting that the act of thanksgiving will bring the heart along. God values this sacrifice — the next verse says ‘this will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.’

Reflection:

Have you learned to choose thanksgiving as a deliberate act of the will before your emotions cooperate — to say ‘I will praise’ from the deep mire as well as from the mountaintop?

Prayer:

Lord, from wherever I am today — deep water or high ground — I will praise. I will magnify You with thanksgiving as an act of the will before it is a feeling of the heart. Bring my heart along. Amen.