A Season of Thankfulness (Part 5)

This is Day 5 in our 5 Days of Thankful Preparation…Thanksgiving Day is here!

I am thankful that my family got to spend time together today and as part of our celebration of thanks, we drew some of these verses out of a jar and shared them with each other. I was blessed by some of the responses.

My hope is that this sequenced release of verses this week has helped to tenderize our hearts with thankfulness and re-center our view of God’s loving care for us.

With each of the following five passages from the Psalms, take time to read it out loud, and then after you finish it, ask two simple questions…

• How does this passage reveal God’s goodness?

• What can I learn from this passage about my gratefulness?

Psalm 118:19-21

Open to me the gates of righteousness,    that I may enter through them
    and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord;
    the righteous shall enter through it.
I thank you that you have answered me
    and have become my salvation.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 138:1-3

I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;

    before the gods I sing your praise;

I bow down    toward your holy temple

    and give thanks to your name 
                             for your steadfast love 
                           and your faithfulness,

    for you have exalted above all things

                                  your name and your word.

On the day I called,   you answered me;

   my strength of soul you increased.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 140:12-13

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted,

    and will execute justice for the needy.

Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name;

    the upright shall dwell in your presence.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 142:6-7

Attend to my cry,

    for I am brought very low!

Deliver me from my persecutors,

    for they are too strong for me!

Bring me out of prison,

    that I may give thanks to your name!

The righteous will surround me,

    for you will deal bountifully with me.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 145:9-12

The Lord is good to all,

    and his mercy is over all that he has made.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,

    and all your saints shall bless you!

They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom

    and tell of your power,

to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds,

    and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

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

• Psalm 118… God, in his goodness, answers our prayers. He makes us righteous. Gratitude is an act of righteousness, for we know we are not able to save ourselves, but we have put our faith in the Lord to do what we cannot do.

• Psalm 138… We should be moved to wholehearted thankfulness for God’s wholehearted commitment to keeping his promises and showing his loving kindness to us.

• Psalm 140… God is just towards everyone, not just the powerful and privileged. My gratitude for God’s deliverance will pay it forward to the afflicted.

• Psalm 142… God’s goodness inspires us to hope that he will help…and he does. Gratitude recognizes that God will always deal bountifully with me, so I can deal bountifully with others.

• Psalm 145… Because what God does is good, his works will inspire gratitude to the Lord in our hearts. He invites us to share in his glory, power, and kingdom! Let us enter in by faith!

Happy Thanksgiving from our gathering to yours!

A Season of Thankfulness (Part 4)

This is Day 4 in our "5 Days of Thankful Preparation".

Now, as we travel home, or out of town, to be with friends and family, our gratitude can be tested by traffic, turkey drama, and terrible weather.

It is in exactly such moments that we need to break into our supply of psalms to give us the words of thankfulness with which to lead our hearts into the love of our faithful Savior!

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 care for us.

With each of the following passages from the Psalms, take time to read it out loud, and then after you finish it, ask yourself two simple questions…

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

Psalm 106:47

Save us, O Lord our God,
    and gather us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
    and glory in your praise.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 107:1

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever!

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 108:2-4

Awake, O harp and lyre!

    I will awake the dawn!

    I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;

    I will sing praises to you among the nations.

For your steadfast love is great above the heavens;

    your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 109:30-31

With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
    I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
    to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

Psalm 111:1-3

Praise the Lord!

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

    in the company of the upright, in the congregation.

Great are the works of the Lord,

    studied by all who delight in them.

Full of splendor and majesty is his work,

    and his righteousness endures forever. (also 118:1-3, 29; 135:1-3)

His goodness?

My gratefulness?

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

• Psalm 106... God’s goodness is committed to saving and gathering his people into a relationship with him and each other. When we pray, do we ask for help so that we will have one more reason to give thanks?

• Psalm 107... Some things are worth repeating because they are important, and sometimes because we are so quick to forget the important stuff. This is one I am thankful is repeated at least 45 times in the Old Testament!

• Psalm 108... God’s goodness permeates all of creation, and when we see it, we can’t keep it to ourselves. Sometimes, expressing gratitude with our words and deeds even gets us out of bed in the morning!

• Psalm 109… God’s goodness is not far away—he stands next to the needy to save them from those who condemn. So, we stand together to worship the Lord, for our gratitude is too great not to be spoken publicly!

• Psalm 111… The more we study the works of the Lord, the more we see the splendor and majesty with which they are infused. He leaves behind an enduring DNA of uprightness. Great work deserves our wholehearted gratitude, not just a “golf clap”.

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... We should be thankful that God is righteous and not corrupt like worldly powers.
• Psalm 9... Grateful people take 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.