Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
– Psalm 111:1
Part of me just wants to keep reading the rest of the psalm. It just continues, saying: “Great are the works of the Lord. They’re studied by all who delight in them.”
Psalm 111:1 Celebrates God’s Goodness
Oh, what a picture to study God’s works and delight in them because his work is full of splendor and majesty. Verse three says, he causes his wondrous works to be remembered. Then it just lists them how God is gracious and merciful providing food for those who fear him, showing his people the power of his works, the works of his hands are faithful and just, but I want to come back to verse one. When this Psalm starts, it says: “Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the company of the upright, in the congregation.”
And I just want to encourage you to think about your gathering with God’s people with your local church, which I, hope that’s a priority for you every week that’s possible for you to gather together with God’s people, with the congregation and the company of the upright in which doesn’t mean in the company of perfect people, in the company of people who God has worked salvation for them, they have found their righteousness, not in their own deeds, but in the life, the death and the resurrection of Jesus to gather together with the church and to give thanks to the Lord with your whole heart.
Psalm 111:1 Invites Us to Congregational Adoration
I just want to ask you, when you gather together with your church, do you give thanks? Do you worship to praise God with your whole heart? I think that for so many followers of Jesus, a gathering on Sunday can just become routine religion, monotonous spiritual motion where we come together, we kind of mindlessly sometimes sing some songs and pray some prayers and listen to a sermon.
And I just wanna encourage you based on Psalm 111:1, to engage in worship and thanksgiving and hearing God’s Word and in prayer in the congregation with your whole heart, just ask, what would it look like for you to worship and give thanks with your whole heart this Sunday, and then do it worship. Give thanks. Pray He from God with your whole heart engaged. Don’t settle for monotonous religious motion and activity.
Psalm 111:1 Calls Us to Wholehearted Worship
God, we pray that you would help us to worship you, to give thanks to you in this way, to praise your name with an exclamation point behind our praise, to give thanks to you with our whole hearts, to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And for that to be evident in the way we sing in the congregation, for that to be evident in the way we pray in the congregation, for that to be evident in the way we open our Bibles and hear from your Word in the congregation for that to be evident in the way we give in the congregation.
God, help us to worship with our whole hearts for great are your works. We delight in them. God, we delight in studying them. We praise you for your provision in our lives, for your power in our lives, for your faithfulness, for your justice, for your grace, for your mercy, for your steadfast love for us. We say with Psalm 111:1: “Holy and awesome is your name!”
So help us, we pray by your Spirit in us to give thanks to you, to worship you appropriately with our whole hearts. Guard us, keep us, deliver us. Save us. We pray, from monotonous religious motion and activity, devoid of spiritual affection. That’s evident in our worship.
Praying for the Batgama People
God, we pray for the spread of this kind of worship among the Batgama people of Sri Lanka, nearly 400,000 of them, and a few of them followers of Jesus.
God, as they gather together this week, may they give thanks and worship with their whole hearts. And may your works spread among the Batgama people of Sri Lanka, this Buddhist people group, God may your good works ultimately in Jesus’s life and death and resurrection cause the congregation that is there, however small to flourish, to spread, and to multiply, that the Batgama people of Sri Lanka would be giving thanks to you with their whole hearts studying your works and delighting in them. God, we pray that over them even as we pray all of this over our own lives. In Jesus’ name, according to Psalm 111:1, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
