Psalm 138:1 - "I give you thanks with my whole heart"
#2 in our verse-by-verse study of Psalm 138.
Of David.
I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise; (ESV)
Introduction
Psalm 138 was written by King David and the ESV Study Bible notes that “Psalms 138-145 are the final collection of psalms attributed to David.”
In our first study in this series, we noted that thanksgiving is one of the major themes in this psalm. That’s very evident beginning in verse 1, so with that in mind, let’s take a look at the first line of this section of Scripture.
(v. 1) “I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart”
When you read verse 1, what is your immediate reaction?
Is it one of the following?
I’m not going to do that;
I can’t do that right now; or
I’m trying to do that.
Living a life of thanksgiving sounds easy, but many times it isn’t. It takes practice, it takes a mindset, and most importantly, to do it correctly, it requires a right view of God. We can break Psalm 138:1 into three pieces that help us to understand this better.
“I give you thanks”
For many reasons, I love the holiday we call “Thanksgiving,.” but especially because everyone is called to give “thanks” and at some point during this process we should be asking ourselves “whom should we be thanking?”
The obvious answer, of course, is God.
When we give God thanks we are specifically pausing to recognize what He has done for us. In the context of the Thanksgiving holiday, we are responding with gratitude as a result of what He has done. But we don’t just give God thanks when He has done stuff for us. No, the Bible commands that we give thanks to God all of the time. For example, in 1 Thessalonians 5, the Apostle Paul gives us the command to “give thanks in all circumstances.”
In many ways, there’s something magical about saying thank you. We experience this when we hear someone tell us thanks. It changes us. It changes things. Because of this we are very willing to teach and encourage our children, grandchildren and students to learn this valuable practice. When we view in this context, how easy it is to see the importance of giving thanks to the Lord.
When we read Psalm 138:1, we hear the well-practiced soul giving gratitude to his God.
“O LORD”
Again, the direction of this gratitude is toward God. David says, “I give you thanks, O LORD.” [Italics added.] That’s easy to see and it isn’t up for debate.
But I do want to pause hear and address the phrase “O LORD,” and specifically why the word “LORD” is placed in all capital letters. As we look through the Old Testament, we will frequently see this being done, but we never see this in the New Testament. Why is that? To help answer this question I have have inserted the quote below that is helpful to our understanding:
In Exodus 3:13-15, God reveals His covenant name as יהוה, the Hebrew verb for “to be,” expressing the absolute and ultimate nature of God. This word is transliterated into English characters as YHWH, which is the tetragrammaton, or combination of four letters without vowels used to represent the name of God.
This name was written without vowels to avoid misusing God’s sacred name and to preserve its nature. In order for readers to phonetically interpret God’s Hebrew name, scribes took vowels from the word adonai, meaning “lord” or “master.” This transformed YHWH into Yahweh.
When we see LORD written in all caps, this a reference to Yahweh, the name for God’s true and complete “to be” nature, both sovereign and divine. This word expresses God in His fullness, Lord and Creator. This is the closest rendering to the original Hebrew Old Testament.
Now, picture yourself as David and you’ve just written, “I give you thanks…” What would be the right word or phrase to immediately follow? Well, when we consider the definition above, of course it would be “O LORD.”
“with my whole heart”
David is directing his passionate thanksgiving to God and the last phrase in this verse lets us know the intensity of his gratitude. This isn’t a thank you under duress. This isn’t a thank you said just to be mannerly. This is a thank you given “with my whole heart.”
Can a thank you like this be coached or taught? Can it come as the result of an instruction? Can we read this phrase, repeat back to God what David said and then consider our “thank you” finished?
Practically speaking, this type of gratitude flows more easily out of a person who understands or experiences - at least partially - what God has done for them. For example, we may receive our salvation as a six year old, but our greatest sins and failures are most likely ahead of us. When we experience God’s grace and mercy related to those failings, our response to Him should also change. In that sense, returning thanks to God as a six year old would be different than what we may say to God as an adult. [Though the child-like expression of thanks to God is certainly wonderful and to be encouraged.]
However, that is not the only way this type of deep gratitude develops. The Bible tells us that when we have a relationship with Christ, we have “been set free from sin.” (Romans 6:7) We don’t have to sin more so that we can experience more of God’s grace (Romans 6:1) for the purpose of deepening our gratitude to God. No, through the power of the Holy Spirit we can pursue a life in Christ that calls us to obedience and repentance and that calls us to a love of His word. As we spend more time with God and His word, we will clearly see - and we will want to pursue - this gratitude that flows from deep in our hearts.
Conclusion
Our challenge is for this to be the attitude of our heart - to give thanks to the Lord with our whole heart - no matter our age and no matter our experiences. Our challenge is to be thankful to God, not just for what He has done, but for who He is.
We cannot do this on our own. As a famous theologian once said, our hearts are idol factories. On our own, we will rationalize anything and work our way away from God, not to Him. So, we need help. We need His Spirit, we need His word, we need His Church and we need His people.
Thanks again for reading. I had initially planned to cover both lines of this verse, but the first half turned out so be so much fun that I decided to wait on the second line. That’s the way God’s word is. And besides, there’s no need to rush through. I apologize for the typos. As always, if I have goofed up, let me know by replying to this email.