Give Thanks to the Lord for His Love!

 Psalm 33:
1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
    Praise befits the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
    make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3 Sing to him a new song;
    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
    and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

In this psalm we find some of the other reasons to give thanks to the Lord: His righteousness and justice, but we also find a deeper reason - the love from which those qualities arise.  The psalmist goes all the way back to creation to trace this thread of steadfast love, reminding himself, his people, and all nations that the eye of the Lord is upon us, and His love set upon His people who love Him. Let us give thanks for such amazing, steadfast love!

Give Thanks to the Lord for His Joy!

Psalm 30
 4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
    and give thanks to his holy name.
5 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.

Once again, David shares with us the struggles of his soul as he called out to God in anguish, wrestling with Him throughout the night in prayer.  After doing so, he remembers his state: he is forgiven.  Yes, at times God does have to discipline us as His children, but when our faith is in Him, and we have experienced the consequences of our sin and found forgiveness, there is a refreshing joy that sings in our hearts.  This all leads to David's conclusion:

11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

    you have loosed my sackcloth

    and clothed me with gladness,

12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.

    O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Give Thanks to the Lord for His Strength!

 Psalm 28: 6 Blessed be the Lord!

    For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.
7 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.
8 The Lord is the strength of his people;
    he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
9 Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!
    Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

Like many of David's psalms, this one begins with him crying out to God, his Rock, for help. His enemies are out to get him, and his strength is fading fast. In his calling out to Him, he remembers all the times that God has answered him before.  And God is doing it again. Unlike what many of us often do, David does not just forget and walk away; he sings to God in thanksgiving for the saving strength He provides. When we cannot do it on our own, God picks us up like a shepherd does a lamb, carrying us in our weakness, and putting us on His rock hard strength. May we give Him thanks. 

Give Thanks to the Lord for His Justice

 

Psalm 9: 

1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
    I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you;
    I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

Closely related to the righteousness of God, which we talked about yesterday, is His justice.  David goes on in the psalm to recall situations where both personally and nationally God had shown his justice: protecting David from enemies, foiling the plans of wicked nations set on destroying His people, demonstrating His mercy towards the oppressed, afflicted, and needy.  What begins as praise then blends into prayer, with David asking God to continue to do it - to do it again. David concludes with this call:

9 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;

    let the nations be judged before you!

20 Put them in fear, O Lord!

    Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah

Give Thanks to the Lord of Righteousness

 

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.

This is the concluding verse of this psalm of thanksgiving. As we consider over the next three weeks this call to Thanksgiving, we want to look at Why the writers of these psalms were thankful, which in turn will help us realize how much we have to be thankful for.  In this case, we do not have to look far back into the psalm:

8 The Lord judges the peoples;

    judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness

    and according to the integrity that is in me.

9 Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

    and may you establish the righteous—

you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God!

10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.

11 God is a righteous judge,

    and a God who feels indignation every day.

Every day God looks down and sees unrighteousness, while He Himself is holy and righteous. The Lord is Judge - he has the authority and righteousness within Himself to do so.  The psalmist (in this case David) had found in God a just judge.  David did not consider himself perfect but made righteous by God. When we know that - that our righteousness is not our own, but comes from the righteous judge, we feel safe, protected by His shield. That is a cause for a thankful heart. 

Promises to Keep You Going

 

Malachi 4:1 For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. 2 But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. 3 And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 6 And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

These are the closing words of the Old Testament, which kept the people going for a few centuries. Three promises kept them sane: justice against arrogant evildoers, joy at the coming of the Lord, and restoring of relationships who had so long been broken. In a sense, these are the same things people look for today: things to be made right, truly knowing the presence of God, and healing of broken hearts which have been ripped apart. Which one keeps you going and draws you forward?

Test Me... Trust Me...

Malachi 3:6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. 7 From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ 8 Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. 9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. 

As we have seen in the opening chapters of Malachi, the people of Israel were being half-hearted in their worship and their lifestyle.  The priests were not living up to the standards of the covenant and did not seem to care. One tell-tale sign of their insincerity and apathy was seen in their lack of generosity. They were not even giving a tithe to the temple.  It was not that God "needed" their gifts, but what it meant that they were not giving: they were not trusting Him to provide as He always had.  It was not just a matter of faithfulness, but even of faith itself. God was saying: "Test Me. Just take this basic step of faith. Give and see that I will provide more than you need.