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Psalms 86:12 says, “I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.” Psalms 86:12 (NIV)

Psalms 86:12 says, “I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.” The word that stood out to me the most in this verse is the word, all. It is the most unassuming word especially, when it’s combined with other words like praise, glorify, and forever. I think I was struck by the fact that it was included in the first place. The verse would still make sense even if it wasn’t there. It felt like it was intentional, and the older I get, the more I realize how intentional God is. God desires us to praise Him with all of our hearts, not a portion or a fraction, but every single fiber of our heart!

I saw this lived out the other day when I was baking with my kids. We were making one of our favorite recipes, and we had all the ingredients laid out all over the kitchen island. The kids had gotten out the measuring spoons and cups, and our mixing bowls were ready to go. I was mostly observing because this was something my kids had made many times before. I watched as they followed the recipe, measured the ingredients and added it all to the bowl. There was one point though when my son added the measured amount of flour and then was quickly moving on to the next thing to add. I noticed that he did not get all of the flour out of the measuring cup. I reminded him that he should empty that completely in the bowl before moving on and he looked at me with his eight-year-old eyes that said, “Mom, it’s not a big deal if it’s not all of it” but he went back and added it anyway. I know that if you don’t use ‘all’ of something, it will affect the outcome of the product.

Right there, is why I think Psalms 86 included the word all. God desires us to praise Him with all of our heart, not just a bit of it or even flippantly. Doing something halfway affects the outcome of the product, and He loves us so much that HE wants us to experience the fullness of complete praise, complete worship, with our whole heart. He knows the beauty and the peace we will find in that moment and how ultimately it will end up blessing us as we experience it, just as much as it blesses Him to hear it. Let’s be ALL in today!

“We pray that we are all in today and that we can praise You with all our heart. We lay anything that might be standing in the way of that at Your feet today, Lord. Amen!”

For His Glory

Rebecca Mahle
TRBC Women’s Life