As in so many of the psalms, we read of the challenges of life (v 7), as the setting for thanksgiving (v 1). You may be gathering with other Christians to praise God today. Look around. Even if it is not apparent, it is certain that you are surrounded by people facing a range of challenges in their lives. How do we give thanks, despite our problems?

Notice that David chooses to praise (v 2): he doesn’t wait until his problems are sorted. He knows that, in the very act of praise, God will reveal himself again as the loving and faithful centrepiece of his life (v 2). Next, he reflects on God’s past help as a means of readjusting his perspective on his problems (v 3). Then, he reminds himself that although life is tough, God is especially close to the needy. It may appear that those who ‘have it all together’ are especially blessed, but appearances can be deceptive (v 6).

David draws great confidence from his ‘praise-encounter’ (vs 7,8). It really is ‘good to praise the Lord’ (Psalm 92:1)! 

‘I pray that you … may have power … to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ’.¹ 

This psalm is a study of contrasts. The first of a series of eight psalms attributed to David, it picks up some of life’s complexities and conveys its message through the contrasts it draws. Contrasts often convey messages starkly. There is the contrast between the one God and the many ‘gods’, in verse 1. The one to whom the psalm is addressed is unique. He alone is the eternal, living one, transcendent in power. People commonly believed and lent credence to many powers and petty deities even though, in reality, they had no real existence. Second, there is the contrast between the faithfulness of God and the failures of others. God exhibits ‘unfailing love and … faithfulness’ (v 2), whereas human beings created trouble and made false accusations, so that David needed vindicating (v 8). Third, there is the contrast between the personal and the global. The psalm is wrung out of intensely personal experience and offers personal testimony. Its opening verses begin with a stress on the ‘I’. In contrast, verse 4 shifts the focus to international politics with ‘all the kings’ being exhorted to sing God’s praise, whatever their religious background and upbringing. He alone is worthy.

Overall, the psalm contrasts a powerful, glorious God with a vulnerable human being (vs 6–8). The gap between them is immense: he ‘is exalted’ but, remarkably, ‘he looks kindly on the lowly’. The overlord of the universe is not so grand as to be uncaring about the troubled lives of ordinary people, a fact that is confirmed by another contrast: in the midst of a fragile and problematic life, David experiences the deliverance and preservation of a holy God. No wonder he offers praise unreservedly, ‘with all my heart’ (v 1).

Think of a time when God rescued you from trouble. Did you praise him then as he deserved? How does this psalm help you put your praise into words?

¹ Eph 3:17,18