Daniel (Greek) 3:51-57: in context

This is one of the most extraordinary songs in Scripture, and where it is sung is the whole point. Three young men have refused to bow to the king's golden image and have been thrown, bound, into a furnace heated seven times hotter than normal, a furnace so fierce it killed the men who threw them in. And there, in the flames, the three of them, as with one voice, begin to praise and bless God. Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, to be praised and exalted above all forever. Blessed is your glorious and holy name. Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom, in the firmament of heaven. Line after line of pure, exultant blessing, rising not after their rescue but from inside the fire, while the flames are still around them.

That is worth sitting with, because it inverts the order I usually put things in. My instinct is to wait until I am delivered to praise, to hold my worship in reserve until the trouble has passed and I can see how it turned out, and to spend the time in the furnace pleading and fearing rather than blessing. The three men do the opposite. They bless God in the fire, before any deliverance is guaranteed, their praise not contingent on being rescued but grounded in who God is regardless of what happens to them. Their song is entirely about God, his name, his glory, his throne, not about their circumstances at all, and it goes up while the furnace still roars.

That searches whether my praise is conditional. So much of my worship waits on outcomes, thankful when things go well and silent or resentful when I am in the flames. These three sang in the furnace, blessing God from inside the fire because he was worthy of it whether or not they came out. When I am in the middle of the fire, with no deliverance in sight, can I bless God from within it, as they did, because of who he is, or does my praise wait, always, until I have been safely brought out?