Psalm 138:1 NKJV
I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
No More Barren Praise: Finding Spiritual Intimacy in Psalm 138:1
MY NOTES
“I will praise You with my whole heart; Before the gods I will sing praises to You.” — Psalm 138:1 (NKJV)
Psalm 138 opens with a declaration—not a whisper, not a half‑hearted intention, but a bold, joyful resolve. David steps into worship with his whole heart. Nothing held back. Nothing reserved for idols, opinions, or fear of people.
This is worship that is wholehearted, courageous, and undivided.
There is a specific kind of “crime” that often creeps into the life of a believer, and it isn’t what you’d expect. It’s the crime of barren praise. We are often quick to offer up “leaves of prayer” (our lists of wants) or “days of fasting” (our sacrifices), but we can be strangely stingy when it comes to simply thanking God for who He is.
To quote Charles Spurgeon, “We need a broken heart to mourn our own sins, but a whole heart to praise the Lord’s perfections.”
David decides right out of the gate that he’s going to be “all in.” He isn’t just offering a polite nod toward heaven; he is bringing his whole heart. A Heart That Is “Whole”. We often talk about having a “broken heart” before God—and we should! As we saw in Psalm 51, a broken heart is necessary for repentance. But David shows us that while we need a broken heart to mourn our sins, we need a whole heart to praise God’s perfections.
Praising with a “whole heart” means there are no “reserved seats” in your soul for idols. It means you aren’t scrolling through your phone with one eye while singing a worship song with the other. It’s an “enthusiastic eagerness” that says, “Lord, for the next few minutes, You have 100% of my bandwidth.”
Worship in the Enemy’s Face
The second half of the verse is where David gets a bit salty. He says, “Before the gods I will sing praises to You.” In David’s day, this meant singing in front of the literal stone idols of the surrounding nations. It was a bold act of defiance. He wasn’t going to let the presence of “fake gods” or the opinions of “important people” (judges, kings, or skeptics) dampen his volume. In fact, the existence of those false gods made him want to sing louder.
Today, our “gods” might look like the “god of public opinion,” the “god of productivity,” or the “god of self-doubt.” David’s advice? Don’t get into a shouting match with the culture. Don’t waste your life in a constant state of controversy. Just go on worshipping. As Spurgeon famously put it, the “Hallelujah Legion” wins the day. Praise is our armor, our comfort, and our most effective weapon.
And that’s the invitation for us:
Worship that is wholehearted, unashamed, and unafraid.
We need a broken heart to mourn our sins, yes—but a whole heart to praise God’s perfections.
If ever our heart should be fully engaged, fully alive, fully awake, it is when we are praising the Lord.
Prayer for a Whole Heart
Abba, I confess that my heart is often fragmented. I give You 10% here and 20% there, but today I want to give You the whole thing. Clear out the “idols” of distraction and the “gods” of other people’s opinions that keep me quiet. Help me to be so captivated by Your goodness that I don’t care who is watching or listening. Let my life be a song of praise that starts in the quiet of my heart and rings out before the world. I ask You for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- Praise is Priority: A single line of heartfelt praise is often more spiritually “weighty” than a long list of requests.
- Single-Mindedness: Wholehearted praise requires us to “kick out” any rival distractions or “idols” that are trying to share space in our hearts.
- Unembarrassed Faith: We shouldn’t wait for a “friendly audience” to worship. Sometimes the most powerful praise happens right in the middle of a world that doesn’t understand it.
- Contagious Courage: When you worship God with “cheerful courage” in difficult places, other people start to wonder if the God you’re singing to might actually be real.
Cross References (NKJV)
Psalm 9:1
“I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of all Your marvelous works.”
Psalm 95:3
“For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods.”
Psalm 119:2
“Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!”
Psalm 119:46
“I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed.”
Things to Think About
- What are the “gods” (distractions, worries, or pressures) that currently make you feel hesitant to praise God loudly or honestly?
- What is the difference for you between a “leaf of prayer” and a “line of praise”? Which one have you been focusing on lately?
- David didn’t even mention God’s name in this verse because he felt so close to Him. When was the last time you felt that kind of “first-name-basis” intimacy with the Lord?
Proverb for Today
Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:8-9 NKJV
Daily Scripture
These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 NASB1995
Bill
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Summary of Commentaries:
Psalm 138:1 reveals David’s “all-in” strategy for worship. By offering God a whole heart, we effectively evict the modern “gods” and distractions vying for our attention. This devotional shows that while repentance requires a broken heart, praise demands a whole one. Choosing vibrant worship over “barren praise” isn’t just a duty—it’s a powerful weapon that deepens your intimacy with the Lord and shuts out the noise of the world.
Commentaries:
Charles Spurgeon
“I will praise thee with my whole heart.” His mind is so taken up with God that he does not mention his name: to him there is no other God, and Jehovah is so perfectly realized and so intimately known, that the Psalmist, in addressing him, no more thinks of mentioning his name than we should do if we were speaking to a father or a friend. He sees God with his mind’s eye, and simply addresses him with the pronoun “thee.” He is resolved to praise the Lord, and to do it with the whole force of his life, even with his whole heart. He would not submit to act as one under restraint, because of the opinions of others; but in the presence of the opponents of the living God, he would be as hearty in worship as if all were friends and would cheerfully unite with him. If others do not praise the Lord, there is all the more reason why we should do so, and should do so with enthusiastic eagerness. We need a broken heart to mourn our own sins, but a whole heart to praise the Lord’s perfections. If ever our heart is whole and wholly occupied with one thing, it should be when we are praising the Lord.
“Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.” Why should these idols rob Jehovah of his praises? The Psalmist will not for a moment suspend his songs because there are images before him, and their foolish worshippers might not approve of his music. I believe David referred to the false gods of the neighbouring nations and the deities of the surviving Canaanites. He was not pleased that such gods were set up; but he intended to express at once his contempt of them and his own absorption in the worship of the living Jehovah by continuing most earnestly to sing wherever he might be. It would be paying these dead idols too much respect to cease singing because they were perched aloft. In these days when new religions are daily excogitated, and new gods are set up, it is well to know how to act. Bitterness is forbidden, and controversy is apt to advertise the heresy; the very best method is to go on personally worshipping the Lord with unvarying zeal, singing with heart and voice his royal praises. Do they deny the Divinity of our Lord? Let us the more fervently adore him. Do they despise the atonement? Let us the more constantly proclaim it. Had half the time spent in councils and controversies been given to praising the Lord, the church would have been far sounder and stronger than she is at this day. The Hallelujah Legion will win the day. Praising and singing are our armour against the idolatries of heresy, our comfort under the depression caused by insolent attacks upon the truth, and our weapons for defending the gospel. Faith, when displayed in cheerful courage, has about it a sacred contagion: others learn to believe in the Most High when they see his servant.
Calm ‘mid the bewildering cry,
Confident of victory.
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Enduring Word
I will praise You with my whole heart: David began this song with a bold declaration – that he would hold nothing back in his praise to God. It would be done with all his being, with his whole heart. (Guzik)
i. My whole heart: “We need a broken heart to mourn our own sins, but a whole heart to praise the Lord’s perfections.” (Spurgeon)
ii. “‘With the whole heart’ leaves no room for mixed motives of divided devotion.” (Morgan)
Before the gods I will sing praises to You: We can’t imagine that David meant he would praise Yahweh in the actual presence of idols and images of other gods. There are three ideas about what David meant by his singing praise before the gods (elohim).
· Perhaps it was a declaration of allegiance to Yahweh and Him alone, and the gods represent the idols of the heathen.
· Perhaps gods (elohim) in this context refer to angelic beings, as in a few other places in the Hebrew Scriptures.
· Perhaps gods refers to kings or judges, such as are spoken of later in Psalm 138:4. (Guzik)
i. “A witness against the impotence of idols…. Praise belongs to the Lord alone and not to the gods of the nations, whose kings will have to submit to the Lord.” (VanGemeren)
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Albert Barnes
I will praise thee with my whole heart – Reserving nothing in my heart to give to idols or to other gods. All that constitutes praise to God as God, he would address to him alone. He would use no language and cherish no feeling, which implied a belief that there was any other God; he would indulge in no attachment which would be inconsistent with supreme attachment to God, or which would tend to draw away his affections from him. See the notes at Psalms 9:1.
Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee – The idols; all idols; in preference to them all. This does not mean that he would do this in the presence of other gods, but that Yahweh should be acknowledged to be God in preference to any or all of them.
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John Gill
I will praise thee with my whole heart,…. Cordially and sincerely, in the uprightness and integrity of his heart; which denotes not the perfection of his service, but the sincerity of it; his heart was in it, and his whole heart; all the powers and faculties of his soul were engaged in it, being deeply sensible of the great favours and high honours bestowed upon him; and though the object of praise, to whom he was obliged for them, is not so fully expressed; yet is easily understood to be Jehovah, the Being of beings, the Father of mercies, even Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, and especially the Messiah; see Psalm 111:1;
before the gods will I sing praise unto thee; before the princes, as Jarchi; before the kings, as the Syriac version; with which agrees Psalm 119:46; and who would join therein, Psalm 138:4; or before the judges, as the Targum, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech; or civil magistrates, who are sometimes called gods, Psalm 82:1; and they are the powers ordained of God, and represent him on earth; or the sanhedrim, as the Midrash; or before the gods of the Gentiles, those fictitious deities, above whom Jehovah is; and over whom the psalmist triumphs, having conquered the nations where they were worshipped; and therefore in their presence, and notwithstanding them, or in opposition to them, praised the Lord; see Psalm 18:49; or rather before the ark, the symbol of the presence of the true God; or, as Gussetius interprets it, “before thee, O God, will I sing praise”; or I will sing praise to thee, the Son the Messiah, one divine Person before another; the Son before God the Father, and it may be added before God the Holy Spirit, the two other divine Persons; the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, render it, “before the angels,” who are sometimes called gods, Psalm 8:5; and who attend the assemblies of the saints and churches of Christ, 1 Corinthians 11:10.
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Matthew Henry
How he would praise God, compare Ps. 111:1.
1. He will praise him with sincerity and zeal-“With my heart, with my whole heart, with that which is within me and with all that is within me, with uprightness of intention and fervency of affection, inward impressions agreeing with outward expressions.”
2. With freedom and boldness: Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee, before the princes, and judges, and great men, either those of other nations that visited him or those of his own nation that attended on him, even in their presence. He will not only praise God with his heart, which we may do by pious ejaculations in any company, but will sing praise if there be occasion. Note, Praising God is work which the greatest of men need not be ashamed of; it is the work of angels, the work of heaven. Before the angels (so some understand it), that is, in religious assemblies, where there is a special presence of angels, 1 Co. 11:10.
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Miscellaneous Comments
I will praise thee with my whole heart. It is a part of our thankfulness to engage our heart to praise God in time to come, since we find that all the thanks we can give for the present are short of our duty or desire to praise him: “I will praise thee,” saith David. Sometimes the believer will find his heart set at liberty in God’s worship, which at another time he will find to be in bands, and then he should take the opportunity of an enlarged heart to run in the way of God’s service, as David doth here: “I will praise thee with my whole heart.”
—David Dickson.
“I will praise thee.” Up, dear soul! What though thou hast once complained like Israel of thy captivity in Babylon, Psa 137:1, yet now sing once more a song of joy to the Lord. Thou hast been pressed like a cluster of grapes, now give forth thy ripe juice.
—Christoph Starke.
“I will praise thee.” Alas, for that capital crime of the Lord’s people—barrenness in praises! Oh, how fully I am persuaded that a line of praises is worth a leaf of prayer, and an hour of praises is worth a day of fasting and mourning!
—John Livingstone, 1603-1672.
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