The tone of Psalm 9 is set by the first two verses, where David wrote, “I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart, I will tell of all your wonders, I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” (Psalm 9:1-2, NIV). There are a few important matters that we must examine in these verses. First, ‘praise’ is an act of the will. It is a conscience choice. It doesn’t automatically happen. David wrote, “I will praise you, O Lord…” (Psalm 9:1a, NIV). Second, David evidently believed that the kind of ‘praise’ that pleased God more than any other was ‘whole-hearted’ praise, not ‘half-hearted’ praise. God-pleasing ‘praise’ is authentic, sincere ‘praise.’ That’s why David wrote, “I will praise you…with all my heart…” (Psalm 9:1a… 1c, NIV). A third lesson we can learn from David is that when we develop the habit of praising the Lord whole-heartedly, we will also develop the habit of testifying to others about Him. That’s why David wrote, “…I will tell of all your wonders.” (Psalms 9:1d, NIV). A technical point to consider is that ‘praise’ is directed toward the Lord—for His ears, while a testimony is directed toward others—for their ears. The fourth matter David confronts us with in the opening lines of Psalm 9 is that consistently ‘praising’ the Lord and ‘testifying’ about Him before men will have a positive influence on our emotional state. He wrote, “I will be glad and rejoice in you…” (Psalm 9:2a, NIV). Joy and gladness were viewed by David as the natural emotional by-products of ‘praising’ the Lord and ‘testifying’ about His wonders! One final matter revealed by David in the opening lines of Psalm 9 is that when joy and gladness reach a certain level in the lives of God’s people it will cause them to burst into song! He wrote, “…I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.” (Psalm 9:2b, NIV). Singing joyful songs is one thing but singing ‘praise’ directly to the Lord is an even better thing!