A Season for Thankfulness (Part 1)

This 5-part series is also posted on my pastoral blog Our Long View.

The Psalms have provided the language of worship for God’s people for thousands of years. As we have seen, they express the whole range of human emotions (rising out of a diverse set of circumstances) and process those emotions through the character of the Lord.

This week is the time we have set aside in the United States to give thanks to God for his goodness to us—not because we deserve it, but because we need it. Very little Biblical gratitude arises out of material wealth and prosperity but out of remembering a desperate need for God’s deliverance and his faithfulness to answer that need. Recent studies on PTSD have shown that those who go through traumatic experiences and are most resilient to their negative effects are those who choose to focus on thankfulness for what they have rather than focusing on anger or fear in the face of what they may have lost or nearly lost. 

I have compiled a fairly complete list of verses from the Psalms that express human gratitude to the Lord God and will post a few each day this week for your devotional reading. Gratitude is one spiritual practice at which we need more practice.

May we not gather primarily for a football game or turkey and potatoes and pie, but to celebrate the faithfulness of God and to share his goodness with our family and friends.

My hope is that this sequenced release of verses this week will tenderize our hearts with thankfulness and re-center our view of God's loving map of our life.

With each of the following passages, take time to read it out loud, and then after reading it, ask two simple questions…

1.       How does this passage reveal God’s goodness?
2.       What can I learn from this passage about my gratefulness? 

Psalm 7:17

I will give to the Lord the thanks due to his righteousness,
    and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High.

• His goodness?
• My gratefulness?

Psalm 9:1-2

Photo by Alex Woods on Unsplash

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

    I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you;

    I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

• His goodness?
• My gratefulness?

Psalm 28:6-8

Blessed be the Lord!
    For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
       in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
                  my heart exults,
    and with my song I give thanks to him.

The Lord is the strength of his people;
            he is the saving refuge of his anointed.

• His goodness?
• My gratefulness?

Psalm 30:3-5

O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
    you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
    and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment,    and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,    but joy comes with the morning.

• His goodness?
• My gratefulness?

Psalm 33:1-3

Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
    Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
    make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song;
    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

• His goodness?
• My gratefulness?

Here are just a few of the answers to the questions asked above:

• Psalm 7 I should be thankful that God is righteous and not corrupt like worldly powers.
• Psalm 9 Gratitude takes the time to remember and retell the good things that God has done for them.
• Psalm 30 Gratitude confesses how messed up we were inside before God’s love rescued us.
• Psalm 28 My enthusiastic gratitude expresses my adoration for a strong salvation.
• Psalm 33 Music lends itself to expressing thanks to the Lord. Gratitude is expressed joyfully through diverse creativity.