“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1 NIV
So many times when I pray I ask God for something. Please understand that I am thankful and thank Him daily for what He has blessed me with but I don’t feel like I dedicate many prayers or much prayer time to simply praising God and giving Him thanks. David writes this Psalm as a way of expressing how thankful and grateful he is for all that God had done for him. He opens the psalm by stating that he will give thanks to God and that it will be with all of his heart, his whole heart.
Sometimes we give thanks to God but it almost seems like it is an after thought. We are enjoying whatever the blessing is or enduring the trial and we simply forget to give thanks for it. When we realize we haven’t given thanks yet, we hurry to say a prayer of thanksgiving.
The idea of giving thanks with your whole heart can be described as being as grateful as you can be. You are ALL in, your gratitude and thankfulness is pouring out of you so much that you cannot contain it. One of the ways we show that level of thankfulness is by telling just about everyone we know all about the wonderful thing we are grateful or thankful for. That is the last part of the verse.
David states that he is going to tell of ALL of God’s wonderful deeds that He has done for David. Just like us, David was not perfect and sinned, but with a humble heart, he repented to God and changed his behaviors. God accepts a repenting sinner and forgives them. That is not all that David did though, he also did his best to follow God’s will for his life by listening to God.
God was gracious to David from helping him with Goliath to protecting him from Saul and eventually blessing him as King. David didn’t have to be perfect for God to bless him, but he did need to listen to God, follow God’s will and directions. When David did those things then God blessed him and David is writing in his psalm telling God that he will not keep all the wonderful things God has done for him a secret. He wants to tell everyone.
Has God blessed you? I know He has blessed me. Have you told people about what God has done for you? I have and not in a bragging kind of way, but in a humble, grateful manner, I have told people how God has blessed me with a wonderful husband, beautiful son, and awesome family. I also state that I know that I do not deserve any of the blessings that God has given me and that I am so thankful that God wants to have anything to do with me, a sinner.
That is the beautiful thing about God, He does want to have everything to do with me and you. He did the most wonderful deed already, He gave us the gift of salvation and eternal life with Him. If I could only tell of one wonderful deed that God has done for me, it would be that one. Thankfully, I am not limited to telling people only about one of His deeds, I can tell them about ALL of them. What wonderful deeds has God done for you that you can tell others about? Think about it and then tell them to everyone.