The words “Thank You” are powerful.
Perhaps you have been praying the Psalms since I invited you to do that a few weeks ago during my message about “Opening Ourselves to God.” I can post the link again on our website, with the daily plan for praying the psalms. Just reading one Psalm each morning or one Psalm at night, it is a great way to kick start your prayer life. There are many, many psalms written with the theme of saying “thank you” to God. And I think this is why, the writers of the Psalms were people deeply connected to God, and they knew what Meister Eckhart knew: “Thank you” is a powerful prayer.
Let’s look more closely at today’s Psalm, number 67:
God, mark us with grace and blessing! Smile!
The whole country will see how you work,
all the godless nations see how you save.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
The people ask God for permission to give thanks
and to enjoy God.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Let all far-flung people become happy
Then they ask, can’t the people who are far flung be happy
and give thanks?
and shout their happiness because
You judge them fair and square,
you tend the far-flung peoples. You tend the far flung people.
That is the best part of this whole psalm. This is about US; we are
the people living on the edges. God tends to us and we have the privilege of saying
“thank you ” God.
God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Earth, display your exuberance!
You mark us with blessing, O God, our God. We are blessed!
You mark us with blessing, O God.
Earth's four corners—honor God!
God even tends to us, the far flung people, those of us living on the edge, also known as the members of the Village Church community.
Do you feel blessed? Do you wake up every day feeling blessed? Do you go to sleep every night counting your blessings? It seems really old fashioned to say “count your blessings.” But a few years ago some woman made all kinds of money with books on the best sellers list just telling us to live with gratitude. “Keep a gratitude journal,” she said. “Before you go to bed each night,” she said, “Get out a blank journal and list five good things that happened that day, or five things in your life for which you have to be thankful.” She even sold her own blank books called “Gratitude Journals” and made more money! What a deal!
She could have just told us to read the Psalms! She struck a chord with us. She understood that being grateful and saying “thank you” to ourselves, or to God, for our blessings will help keep us centered.
She could have just reminded us to do what our parents did with us when we were little children. Say your bed time prayers and say thank you God. I do this with Jamie every night. He says thank you for the same things: “Thank you God for mom, dad, Becca, Jamie.” (Yes for some reason, he thanks God for himself. I guess it’s good to have good self esteem.) Then somehow because he’s a practical child and he learned how to stream line his prayers he usually just says this: “Thank you for food, water, shelter, air and everything good, give us a good night’s sleep and a good day tomorrow.” That pretty much sums it up. He has been saying that same prayer every night for years. If, God forbid, Jamie were taken away from us, kidnapped or something awful like that, I believe he would feel the presence of God with him, and somehow he would find a way to be thankful for something, and to know that God is with him. He’s been praying that prayer for as long as he can remember. He knows what it means to be thankful.
Being thankful is a learned behavior. We can choose to be thankful. It’s a practice we can nurture within ourselves. I know this because people can learn to write thank you notes. Some people take the time, still, to write hand written thank you notes for things like graduation gifts and wedding gifts, and just when you do something that really makes a difference to them. And those notes of thanks mean something to the recipient.
My first year in ministry, a wise pastor friend told me to do this. I have saved in my office a file folder of thank you notes I have received over 22 years as a pastor. And when I get discouraged I pull out that file, to remind me of why I am doing this work. Here it is, 22 years worth. And every so often I pull it and remind myself on why I do this.
We can never say thank you enough. Today, I am inviting us to give thanks to God for our blessings. God is the source of every good gift in our lives, because God is the creator of the universe. God gives life to everyone of us. God is the source of all wisdom and creativity. God is the source of all love. God is the source of our giftedness and of our wealth. God blesses us, so that we can bless one another.
The psalmist says: God, let all the people thank you and enjoy you. So let’s do that. Say thank you to God today. Right now, take a piece of paper out, and write down five reasons why you are thankful, and then carry that piece of paper with you. And the next time you get discouraged take that paper out, and read it, and add five more things to the list.
Let us be thankful.
“God! Let people thank and enjoy you.
Let all people thank and enjoy you.
Earth, display your exuberance!
You mark us with blessing, O God, our God.”
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment