A Song of Thanksgiving
“Tell…what
great things the Lord has done for you.” ~ Mark
Through the Psalms, the saint of God finds utterance for the praise and thanksgiving of a gratitude-filled heart. Thus has the Lord wisely provided means of expression for the pent-up emotions within.
Among
all the beautiful expressions of praise and thanksgiving, we have chosen for
consideration the 30th Psalm, perhaps composed after the Psalmist’s
recovery from a sickness that had nearly proved fatal. Who can consider these words of warm
gratitude without his heart burning within him at the thought of his own “many
benefits” received from the “Giver of every good and perfect gift?”
“I will extol You, O Lord; for You have lifted me up, and not made my foes to rejoice over
me. O Lord my God, I cried unto You, and
You have healed me. O Lord, You have
brought up my soul from the grave …kept me alive, that I should not go down to
the pit” (vs. 1-3)
Is
this not descriptive of our own experience?
Do we not remember “the hole of the pit whence we were dug?” We, “who were dead in trespasses and sins;
wherein in time past we walked according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children
of disobedience among whom also we all had our conduct in times past in the
lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Eph. 2:1-3). And what of our many foes that so frequently
triumphed over us; those “works of the
flesh,” the enemies within the fortress so graphically presented in Gal.
5:19-21? “What fruit had you then in
those things which you are now ashamed? For the end of those
things is death” (Rom. 6:21). We looked for some to take pity,
but there was none; and for comforters, but found none” (Psalm 69:20).
Then
“this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his
troubles.” He “looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven
did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose
those that are appointed to death.”…For “God, who is rich in mercy, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened
us together with Christ (by grace you are saved), and
has raised us up
together,
and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-7).
Therefore, let us, “Sing unto the Lord,
O you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. For His
anger endures but a moment; in His favor is life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes
in the morning” (vss. 4, 5).
In its highest and truest significance, Praise is the instinctive outburst of
adoring worship that rises from a pure spirit at the knowledge and vision of an
Infinite, Self-existent, Sovereign-ruling God of Holiness, Justice, Goodness,
and Truth. It occupies a higher
vantage ground than Thanksgiving, since it represents reverent homage and
appreciative adoration for God in Himself, as He is in His eternal, glorious,
perfect, and blessed Being, utterly without thought of the good He bestows upon
the worshiping, recipient creature.
The offering of Praise, therefore, is the one spontaneous act of the
true saint, unaffected by promise of good and uninfluenced by expectation of
return for service. Thus unmixed with
any thought of self, Praise is the highest expression of honor to God, and
brings the purest and loftiest element into the Christian’s communion with
Him. In both Testaments it is
characterized as an “offering” or “sacrifice” by which God is glorified
(Psalm 50:14, 23; 107:22; Heb. 13:15). Joined with the sweeter note of
Thanksgiving for unlimited “goodness and mercy,” praise is the one
revealed employment of the sinless, redeemed hosts in the Heavenly Presence
(Rev. 5:7-14). “Praise waits for You, O God, in
The “remembrance
of His holiness” means literally “His holy memorial” (“celebrate His
holy memorial” ~ Darby) and refers probably to the passage in Ex. 3:15: “This
is My name forever, and this is My memorial unto all
generations.” God’s Name is His revelation of Himself, in all His various
attributes of Love, Wisdom, Power, Holiness, Truth, and Righteousness. God’s memorial is that great history of
redemption which was, so to speak, the setting up of a monument to His glory on
which all these attributes were inscribed.
The Revised Version brings out the precise thought in translating: “Give
thanks to His holy memorial name.”
The
things of this Psalm are of continual interest.
They do not belong to any one time or any one type of experience. Some of the notes in it are suitable to home,
family and individuals throughout all the years of their history. Eminently so is the 5th verse,
which tells us
of the
bitter and the sweet, the dark and the light, which run in various distributions
along human lives. The underlying
doctrine is the great fact that “God is
Love,” and that Love runs through all, rules over all, explains all.
Here is a reason why God is to be praised,
because He manifests Himself in love, not in wrath; or if in wrath, but for a
moment. Love directs all.
“And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be
moved. Lord, by your favor you have made
my mountain to stand strong: You did hide your face and I was troubled. I cried to you, O Lord; and…made
supplication. What profit is there in my
blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall
the dust praise you? Shall it declare your
truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon
me: Lord, be my helper:
(vss.6-10).
In
their time of trial God’s people in all ages have been brought to feel their
entire dependence on Him. In days of
flowing prosperity, we have little sense of that dependence. As the Psalmist expresses it here: “In my
prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.”
We are very apt to dream, when
things are well with us, that they will always be so and never otherwise, “Tomorrow
shall be as this day.” Yet prosperity
is more pleasant than profitable to us.
Though in show it looks like a fair summer, it is indeed a wasting
winter, and spends all the fruit we have reaped in the harvest of sanctified
affliction. We are never in greater
danger than in the sunshine of prosperity. It is
rare to receive much of this world and not, as the prodigal, go afar off. ‘Tis hard to keep close to God in prosperity, when we
have much of this world to live on and content ourselves with; to live upon God
and make Him our contentment, as if we had no other life nor livelihood but in
Him. We are very apt in such a case to
let go our hold of God and the exercise of faith…and estrange our affections
from Him.
It
is more common to pray for strength to endure through times of adversity and
suffering than for strength to endure through times of prosperity and
gladness. Yet, it is these latter times
of buoyant self-reliance that are most full of peril. It is not in those perilous ways when every
step gives fresh evidence that without our Leader we are
lost, that we are most likely to
turn away from Him. That supreme peril
comes rather when we walk in the open plain, and have forgotten the serpents
that lurk among the flowers. For
every soul that is harmed by adversity, ten are harmed by prosperity. Yet you will find a hundred persons who pray
against that adversity which so often brings men closer to God, where you will
find one who prays against that pleasant prosperity which too often lures men
away from God and from their own best future.
And how deceiving is that prosperity! When the days run smoothly, all seems certain
to continue. Then suddenly ill health
fastens on us; death invades our circle; relatives bring us into deep waters;
our means of living fail; we are plunged into a very wilderness of woe. How falsely we judged when we thought that it
was by its own inherent stability our mountain stood strong! No! It was solely the result of God’s favor,
for “all our springs are in Him;” the moment He hides His face we are
most grievously troubled.
What soul can be deserted and not be
afflicted? All the world does no good
without the favor of God. As all the
stars, though they shine together, do not dispel the darkness of night, so no
creatures can comfort us sufficiently when God hides His face. His absence cannot but be lamented with
greatest grief, whose presence the soul prizes above all earthly joys. “Oh,
may no earth-born cloud arise to hide You from Your
servant’s eyes!”
How moving is the Psalmist’s pleas to his God in vs. 8 and 9! Yet his prayer for prolonged life was not offered with the view of any earthly possession or enjoyment, but only with a view to the honor of God. He dreaded death as being an end of Praise to God. His plea: if I may live I shall Praise God and witness to His truth before the living, and this will avail to the glory and honor of God.
As
we ponder our own brief span, our “fleeting breath,” well may we repeat
the poet’s words: “What need has God of this poor clay?” We, therefore, with the Psalmist, ask aright
for life when we have in view that we may live to Praise Him.
“You have turned my mourning into
dancing: You have put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness; to the end
that my glory may sing praise to you, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto you
forever!”
W.J.
Siekman
Cause for Gratitude
Joseph
Addison (1672-1719)
(There were 24 verses to the original hymn!)
When all Thy mercies, O my God, my
rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view I’m lost
in wonder, love and praise.
O how shall words with equal warmth
the gratitude declare,
That glows within my inmost heart,
but Thou can read it there.
Thy bounteous Hand with worldly
bliss has made my cup run o’er;
And, in a kind and faithful Friend,
has doubled all my store.
Ten thousand, thousand precious
gifts my daily thanks employ;
Nor is the last a cheerful heart
that tastes those gifts with joy.
When worn with sickness, often Thou
with health renewed my face;
And, when in sins and sorrows sunk,
revived my soul with grace.
Through all eternity to Thee, a joyful
song I’ll raise;
For, oh, eternity’s too short to
utter all Thy praise!
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of
life. It turns what we have into enough,
and more. It turns denial into
acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…problems into gifts,
failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into
important events. Gratitude makes sense
of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Melodie
Beattie