10,000 Reasons for My Heart to Find

How nature offers an infinite basis for our adoration of God

A music producer once commented that in the world of pop you can only really write four kinds of songs: “I love you,” “I hate you,” “Go away” and “Come back!”

That’s an amusing and yet astute observation. But gladly, when it comes to writing songs toward the God of all eternity, we have a whole different color palette to work with.

When I talk about the reasons for God’s worth and, as I sang on my latest album, say that there are “10,000 reasons for my heart to find,” that’s actually a huge, poetic understatement. The reasons for the praise of God are so wide and wonderful that we could sing from now until forever and never run out of ideas as to why He is quite so worthy.

Think about the world of nature for a moment. As of now, scientists have described more than 1.7 million species of animal, plant and algae on earth. Mammals make up one of the smallest groups—with less than 6,000 members known. For insects, on the other hand, we’re aware of about 1 million different species. And in all categories, there are more species becoming known every year. In fact, in some places like the depths of the ocean, we’ve hardly even begun to explore the terrain, and there are countless more species to find and identify.

But let’s stick for a moment to those 1.7 million species we know of so far. I think we could safely say that every kind of plant, animal or other living thing created by God is a reason to praise Him. So even though we’ve hardly begun, we’ve already found 1.7 million reasons why we might respond to Him.

Next, look up at the stars. Scientists are now saying there are more stars in the known universe than there are grains of sand on all the world’s beaches and deserts. So right there we have billions and billions more reasons to utter up an offering of praise.

Next, we look to our own lives—the countless blessings weaved into our everyday existence and the miracle of life itself. We think about families and social circles and provision in our lives. And we praise, and praise, and praise again. Perhaps that’s why at the end of Psalm 30 the worshippers say, “that My heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever” (v. 12, NIV).

The psalmist knows a multitude of reasons why he should worship God. And he knows of not one reason why he should refrain from doing so. He can’t think of a single motive why he should remain silent.

The same must be true for our own lives. The worship of Jesus should be vibrant, creative and colorful as we unfold our hearts in praise. There will be an eternity of reasons to adore and revere Him.

A Grammy Award-winning artist and songwriter, Matt Redman has been leading worship around the world since age 20. He and his wife, Beth, are now based in Brighton, England, where they are part of St. Peters, a new church planted out of Holy Trinity Brompton in London. His latest album was recorded live last month with Passion City Church in Atlanta.