Thus Will I Bless Thee

Psalms 63:3-4 KJV

Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.

The word thus would mean "for this reason, upon this occasion or surely".

The Psalmist says before "my lips shall praise thee" and after "I will lift up my hands in thy name." And he says he will bless God while he lives.

The practice of lifting up of hands can become over done or at least improperly done. I will often stretch out my hands to the Lord in time of need or in time of rejoicing. But it is in my private times of devotion. To do it in public worship settings can have the effect of drawing too much attention on the individual (and we have a tendency to like attention too much anyway.) It also distracts from the message being preached and we need to remember the importance of the sermon.

Praising the Lord with our lips has a number of applications;

• Singing
• Praying
• Witnessing

are all uses of the lips to praise God. Giving testimony of God's goodness is another means of praise. And then just purposefully praising God to God alone is an obvious means.