Give thanks in all things

Lord, I will lift my eyes to the hills,
Knowing my help is coming from you.
Your peace you give me, in time of the storm.
You are the source of my strength.
You are the strength of my life.
I lift my hands in total praise to you.

—Richard Smallwood, “Total Praise”

Composer Richard Smallwood is said to have composed the anthem, “Total Praise” in 1996, at a time during which he was caring for both his mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s, and a family friend who was suffering from cancer. Smallwood felt called to write a piece of music, and he imagined as he was getting ready to write that what would come would be a “pity party” with God. Instead, what the Holy Spirit gave him was a piece that reminded him first and foremost that he should remember to look to the source of his help – and in all things, to speak praise.

Smallwood was quoted as saying, “God said, ‘I want your praise no matter what the situation you are in, good or bad.’” The composer turned to Psalm 121 and found his inspiration for an anthem that is one of the most listened-to and performed – and enduring – of all Gospel anthems.

How do we speak praise and thanks in the midst of trial? When the people called Israel found themselves exiled to Babylon – and points beyond – as Jerusalem was taken over and the temple was razed, they lamented – as we find particularly in the words of Psalm 137. And as their Babylonian captors asked them to sing their songs, they sadly wondered how they could sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land.

Yet, had they been able to sing, their songs would have been a testimony to God’s providence that even in the midst of such a time of trial, and even away from their homes, their temple and everything they had known, they were alive, in no small part due to God’s great grace.

I recently spoke with a friend whose son died in a tragic accident. She recalled words of a priest – reminding her to see the hand of God still at work in the friends and loved ones who surrounded and supported their family with so much love and care after the accident. “I’ve never forgotten that,” she said. “It’s been my reminder of God’s presence, always, even when it seemed my prayers weren’t answered, and my reminder to give thanks.”

Smallwood’s beloved anthem begs a question of us: How do we find our voice of thanks on the foreign soil of pain and suffering, violence and devastation, disappointment and fear, loneliness and longing? Smallwood’s testimony in “Total Praise” reminds us to recognize and tap into the source of our strength and the strength of our life, to give thanks in all things for the abiding presence of our God in our lives, and to pray to find voice for our own song of praise.