The title of this Psalm of David is “Prayer and thanksgiving for the Lord’s Righteous Judgement”. In the world in which we live, we are exposed continually to bad news and the evil that is happening in countries all around the world. Because of this, we can forget two important truths. Firstly, God is a good God and we experience His goodness daily and secondly, God is in control of the earth, while things may take us by surprise God is not surprised by the events of the earth. We understand what Thanksgiving is but we need to be reminded of the true meaning of prayer is ’ to talk to ’ or more specifically ‘to have a conversation with’. Verse 1 says: “I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of your wondrous works “. Again I want to draw you to the attitude of David, he declares “I will” This statement leaves no doubt in your mind as to what he is going to do. In the way that we live with the pressures of life that we experience, it is so easy to have good intentions but never get around to doing what we would like to do. In the way that we live with the pressures of life that we experience. It is easy to have good intentions but hardly ever put them into practice. I want to suggest to you that David as King of Israel would be under constant pressure to do many things, but he chose to declare “I Will”, may we come to the same conclusion and decide to put Jesus first in our way of living and be strong and never compromise that decision although it is most likely to be unpopular. David declares “I will praise you O lord, with my whole heart”; the statement “ with my whole heart” is the key to having a great relationship with Jesus, we must be very clear that we cannot be too serious about our love for my Saviour and how important it is to you. Sadly over the years, I have seen many good people who start well with Jesus but allow other things (Which in themselves are not bad) to become more important than Jesus, they start missing church on Sunday which then develops into not going to church at all and when you talk to them they are not interested in spiritual living at all. Not only David praised His God, but he also told of god’s wondrous works. This is the secret of my happiness, every opportunity that I have, I declare the goodness of God in my life. This attitude has helped me with one of the greatest challenges of my life when almost 10 years ago my precious wife of 53 years, without warning went to heaven. From the moment I last saw her, I started to thank the Lord for bringing her into my life and for how good those 53 years were. This led me to write my first booklet “Reflections of a Married Man” which the church published and hundreds of copies were given away. This led me to start writing, since that time I have written 5 Books and 10Booklets all declaring the greatness of God. These are now available for download on my web page ianpike.com.au. Also, it has led me to my weekly blog which I find so inspiring to write, expressing the goodness of God is so inspiring and keeps me focused on His goodness. David said in this verse that he would ‘Praise and tell’ when we talk about the goodness of God in our lives not only does it encourage the people we are talking to but it also strengthens our relationship with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May we be people who are always praising but also telling everyone of the greatness of God in our lives?