For the one who has

“What can I offer the LORD for all he has done for me?”
—Psalm 116:12
What do we give to God, who has everything? The Bible gives us some ideas as to what we can give to God as we begin this holiday season.
In Psalm 116, we find a number of things that we can do to show our thanksgiving to God. The psalmist speaks of God’s blessing in his life and specifically thanks God for protecting him from danger, even potential death. As he reflects on that, he considers what he can offer to the Lord.
In verse 12, the psalmist poses this question: “What can I offer the Lord for all he has done for me?” (NLT).
And in the next verse, he gives us the answer: “I will lift up the cup of salvation and praise the Lord’s name for saving me” (verse 13 nlt).
We think nothing of cheering on our favorite teams at a game. We wear their jerseys and yell and scream. And we see this as relatively normal.
But when we go to church and see people lifting their hands in praise to God, we call them fanatics.
Is there not a place for verbally praising God? Yes, there is.
Is there not a place for lifting our hands to the Lord in worship? Yes, there is.
The psalmist wrote, “Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer” (Psalm 63:3–4 NLT). It is biblical to lift our hands to the Lord. It’s a good thing to do. We shouldn’t be reluctant to lift our hands in praise to God.
Nor should we be hesitant to verbally sing His praises. Sometimes during a time of worship in a church service, we just stand there and don’t even try to sing. Why is that? God wants to hear our praise.
If you’re married, don’t you like to hear “I love you” from your husband or wife? There is a place for saying “I love you.” In the same way, when we come into God’s presence, we should praise Him. We should let Him know that we love Him.
Maybe you’re thinking that you don’t have all that much to be thankful for today. You may be going through a hardship right now or a time of crisis. But perhaps you need to put things into perspective.
Take the apostle Paul, for example. One of the main themes of Philippians is joy. Again and again in this epistle, Paul wrote that we need to have joy in the Lord.
Meanwhile, Paul was facing some very difficult circumstances personally. He was a Roman prisoner at this time, and his trial was coming up shortly. He faced acquittal or death. He didn’t know what lay ahead.
Yet Paul said, “I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. . . . I have learned the secret of living in every situation” (Philippians 4:11–12 NLT). Paul shows us that we can learn to find joy and contentment in a troubled world.
On this day set aside for giving thanks, let’s offer the One who has everything our verbal praise.