Like millions of other people, I’ve enjoyed Matt Redman’s song Ten Thousand Reasons ever since he wrote it in 2011. I’ve sung it a lot, led it a lot, listened to it a lot and been helped by it a lot. But one of the lines in the chorus has kind of always bugged me. Sing like never before, O my soul…
Like, sing louder than I did last time? Or with more feeling? Or more genuinely? How can I—even after having sung this song something around 10,000 times—sing like never before? At some point, won’t I have reached the point of having sung like I can sing?
No. I can always sing like never before. But…how?
I came across these two quotes recently from commentaries on Psalm 145 (one of the Psalms in which David talks about worshipping God every day, forever and ever, etc.) and they helped answer that question:
The first from Matthew Henry:
God is every day blessing us, doing well for us, there is therefore reason that we should be every day blessing him, speaking well of him.
And the second from John Calvin:
Since God is constant in extending mercies, it would be highly improper in us to faint in his praises. As he thus gives his people new ground for praising him, so he stimulates them to gratitude, and to exercise it throughout the whole course of their life.
