If your eyes are open to see the hand of God moving in your life, you are going to be a person of praise and thanksgiving. If you are someone who closes your eyes to the hand of God, you are are going to be self-congratulatory. You are not going to see God's hand, you are just going to see your own efforts. You are not going to see God’s hand, you are just going to see your own desires. You are not going to see God's hand, you are only going to see yourself. And the fact is, that if God opens our eyes to see the invisible hand of providence moving in our lives, we become people on whose lips his praise is continually. You can tell a lot about a person just from their ordinary conversation.
And here is Ezra, he gets down to the end of this really astonishing decree from a pagan king who had no regard, no respect for anybody but himself. Ezra sees this as being nothing less than the hand of almighty God who actually holds kings and princes, and nations and kingdoms in his hand and he does exactly as he pleases with them. And Ezra bursts forth into praise for his covenant-keeping God who does everything on behalf of his people for their good and for his glory.1
Brian Borgman
27 Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem,