“O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise, even with my glory” (Psalm 108:1).

This seems a somewhat strange expression. A similar statement is found in Psalm 30:12. “To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.” Also, note Psalm 57:8: “Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp.”

The Hebrew word is the normal word for “glory,” as in Psalm 19:1, for example: “The heavens declare the glory of God.” But what, then, is meant by “my glory”? The explanation is found in the way the New Testament quotes Psalm 16:9: “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth.” In Acts 2:26, this verse is applied to Christ, and translated: “Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad.”

It becomes clear, then, that in such passages “my glory” simply means “my tongue.” In fact, the word was translated “tongue” in these and other similar passages in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Old Testament.

But why, then, did the inspired Hebrew text here use the words “my glory” instead of the usual Hebrew word for tongue? The answer probably is that, when our tongues are used to praise the Lord, they do, indeed, become our glory!

It is this very ability, in fact, that primarily distinguishes man from the animals. Animals can bark, roar, grunt, and send out sonar signals, but they cannot speak in intelligible, symbolic, abstract speech. This is an unbridgeable evolutionary gulf that cannot be crossed, because only men and women were created in the image of God.

Mankind alone has the ability to speak, for the simple reason that God desires to communicate with us so that we can respond in praise to Him. This is our glory! “I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations” (Psalm 89:1). HMM