Psalms 138:1
I give You thanks with all my heart; before the gods I sing Your praises.
BSB
ASV
I will give thee thanks with my whole heart: Before the gods will I sing praises unto thee.
KJV
I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
And in the sight of the angels I will sing psalms to you. See the advancement of the penitent, that after confession and repentance he is counted worthy to sing psalms with the angels. But he who sings psalms no longer performs repentance, but gives thanks, and blesses.
The praise David speaks of is that which is of a public kind. The solemn assembly is, so to speak, a heavenly theater, graced by the presence of attending angels; and one reason why the cherubim overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant was to let God's people know that the angels are present when they come to worship in the sanctuary.
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."
IT is a very grievous thing, to one who worships the only living and true God, to see others engaged in idolatrous worship. It stirs one's indignation to see a man worship—not his own hands, but what is even worse than that—the thing which he has made with his own hands and which must, therefore, be inferior to himself.
I will praise thee with my whole heart--(Compare Ps 9:1). before the gods--whether angels (Ps 8:5); or princes (Ex 21:6; Ps 82:6); or idols (Ps 97:7); denotes a readiness to worship the true God alone, and a contempt of all other objects of worship.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 96:4For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.
leads to
Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.
Through
Psalms 95:3For the LORD is a great God, a great King above all gods.
leads to
There is none like You, O LORD. You are great, and Your name is mighty in power.
Reached by 2 independent paths from here.
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.
Through
1 Corinthians 14:15What then shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.
leads to
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to…
Pray in the Spirit at all times, with every kind of prayer and petition. To this end, stay alert with all perseverance in your prayers for all the saints.
But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.