Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
This line comes out of a psalm written in a wilderness, by someone who says their soul thirsts and their flesh faints for lack of water. That's the setting worth remembering before reading the praise that follows. This isn't gratitude from a comfortable place. It's praise offered while still parched, still exposed, still waiting for relief that hasn't arrived yet.
And in the middle of that, this claim: your steadfast love is better than life. Not "will be better, once things improve." Better, now, in present tense, from inside the hard place.
If you've ever thought gratitude toward God only makes sense once your circumstances get good, this verse pushes against that. It suggests praise can be a response to who God is, not a report card on how life is currently going. That's a different kind of honesty than most of us are used to — praise that doesn't wait for permission from your circumstances.
If you've been waiting for life to improve before you'd consider faith, it's worth noticing this was written by someone still waiting.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.