10,000 Reasons

What This Song Teaches Us About God

Drawing from Psalm 103, the song opens with “bless the Lord, O my soul” — a command to direct your whole inner life toward worship. Praise here isn’t a feeling that washes over us; it’s something we tell ourselves to do. That matters because it means praise is partly an act of the will. We can choose to orient our hearts toward God even when life is hard and feelings are flat.

The final verse imagines the moment of death, and the songwriter commits to blessing the Lord with whatever strength remains. The song isn’t built on good circumstances — it’s built on the unchanging character of God. His love is great, His mercies are new every morning, His faithfulness stretches to the horizon. Those things are true regardless of what our day looks like, and they’re still true at the end of our lives.

Scripture Connections

• Psalm 103:1–2 — The direct source of the song’s opening, calling the soul to bless the Lord and not forget any of His benefits.
• Lamentations 3:22–23 — “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning” — the theological heart of the song’s chorus.
• Psalm 145:3 — “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” — the inexhaustibility that gives the song its title.