It’s not what you’d expect. Given what seems to be David’s circumstance, you just wouldn’t expect this song of his to begin this way. But it does.

My heart is steadfast, O God!
     I will sing and make melody with all my being!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
     I will awake the dawn!
I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the peoples;
     I will sing praises to You among the nations.
For Your steadfast love is great above the heavens;
     Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
     Let Your glory be over all the earth!    (Psalm 108:1-5 ESV)

Given what appears to have been going down around David, I’m thinking that he would have gone to bed at night anxious and with a heavy heart. And, as is often the case with me, I’d expect that he’d wake up the same way. Instead, he awakes the dawn with harp and lyre . . . giving thanks to the LORD among the peoples . . . singing praise to his great God among the nations . . . acknowledging afresh the out-of-this-world steadfast love of God . . . declaring anew the heights of God’s faithfulness.

Even though David’s in need of deliverance from his enemies (v.6) . . . even though God is not going out with David and his armies (v.11) . . . even though it feels like God has rejected their cause . . . even while he asks for help against his foes (v.12) . . . David still begins his lyrical meditation, and apparently his day, desiring, above all, that God would be exalted . . . that God’s glory might be known over all the earth.

And I sit back and pause. Unbelievable! When all else fails, worship. When things are the most desperate, sing praise. When you don’t know what else to do, desire the glory of God to be known. O to have a heart like this man who had a heart after God’s heart (Acts 13.22).

So where did the praise come from? In what was the worship sourced? It was in believing the promises of God. David’s offering of praise is founded on what “God has promised in His holiness” . . . that David would rule over his people and triumph over his enemies (v.7-10). And so David awakes to the day’s desperation with an abiding confidence.

With God we shall do valiantly; it is He who will tread down our foes.    (Psalm 108:13 ESV)

Faith, by the grace of God . . . plus the promises of a holy and faithful God . . . result in worship for the glory of God.

O’ . . . to be more like David.