Gratitude- Psalm 107

Psalm 107:1-9, 43; Colossians 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21

The Bible is filled with calls for gratitude. Our Psalm reading from Psalm 107 instructs us: 

“give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever”.

 This kind of call is all through the Bible. It is so common it is easy to ignore as being uninterestingly common.

Just to give a few examples, Psalm 100 says, 

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, / And into His courts with praise. / Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.”

 In the New Testament, Paul instructs Christians, 

“In every thing give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

 In the letter to the Ephesians we read, 

“Be filled with the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God” (Ephesians 5:18-20).

 And again in the letter to the Philippians 

“Don’t be anxious about anything; rather, bring up all of your requests to God in your prayers and petitions, along with giving thanks. Then the peace of God that exceeds all understanding will keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

 There are thank offerings outlined in Leviticus (7:11-15). And the celebration we are in the middle of is the Eucharist, which comes from a Greek word for “thanks”.

The instruction to be thankful is so common, it is sometimes easy to ignore. It is like the paper the words are printed on. The paper is so common as the background you don’t notice it. We skim over those pieces looking for more unusual and interesting pieces.

Sometimes, though, we ignore those pieces because we don’t feel particularly thankful. For many of us, when we are instructed to be thankful, our minds are filled with the memory of difficult experiences. We think about the death of someone close to us. We think about a chronic illness. We think about a painful relationship, or abuse we have suffered. … Or maybe it is something less personal that we think about. Maybe we think about all the awful things that happen all over the world- in distant countries- floods, famines, diseases, war…. How can we be thankful when all these awful things these seem to mark our lives? Even if our own personal lives go well, it can feel like a betrayal of our solidarity with the suffering of others to be thankful when so many others are suffering. ….

Against the harsh reality of life, whispers the constant instruction of the Bible “give thanks”. And the Bible is not naïve about suffering. … Who dares think that Jesus or Paul are naïve about suffering? In Acts 16 Paul and Silas are in prison and still they are singing hymns and praising God. Paul knew suffering. In his second letter to the Corinthians he outlines what he has suffered, 

“Five times I received at the hands of [my people] the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. (2 Cor 11:24-28).

 That is not a man who is naïve about suffering. And yet, he is constant in his Instruction concerning giving thanks. How does Paul have this ability to be thankful in the midst of suffering? It is because Paul sought "the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [He] Set [his] mind[] on things that are above, not on things that are on earth" (Col 3:1-2). His focus was on the eternal.  The Bible takes suffering very seriously, and yet suffering doesn’t stop the thanksgiving of the saints.     

We are tempted to focus on the pain. And I don’t want to minimize that pain at all, but consider how much good there is. The suffering is an interruption in a constant flow of blessing. Walk outside and look at the beauty of sky, the clouds, and the birds in the trees. Consider the gift of the air filling your lungs- and if you aren’t thankful for that try holding your breath for a few minutes. Consider the intricate beauty of a flower. Consider the food you eat, and where it came from, and how many people have organized themselves to provide it for you. Consider the people you have in your life who speak kind words to you. Consider the parts of your body that function well- your sight, your hearing, the movement of your hands, your voice. … Consider how many accidents you have avoided- How many sicknesses you have recovered from. … Suffering has a way of grabbing our attention with such force that we become blinded to everything else around us. All the good that has been given us is muted.

Musician and author David Crowder has said, 

“When good is found and we embrace it with abandon, we embrace the Giver of it. … Every second is an opportunity to praise. There is a choosing to be made. A choosing at each moment. This is the Praise Habit. Finding God moment by revelatory moment, in the sacred and the mundane, in the valley and on the hill, in triumph and tragedy, and living praise erupting because of it. That is what we were made for.”

Crowder calls it the “Praise Habit”- it is the choice to be thankful for the good in one’s life. … There is even research concerning this. Those researching in the field of Positive Psychology have “shown that people who are habitually grateful are happier than those who are habitually ungrateful; they are less depressed, more satisfied with their lives, have more self-acceptance and have a greater sense of purpose in life. They are also more generous.” (Rupert Sheldrake, “Science and Spiritual Practices”).

(That part about generosity might say something about the fear in the rich man in our Gospel reading, who felt the need to build bigger barns to protect himself from the future.)

Psalm 107 reminds us to be thankful for what God has done for us and who God is. God is steadfast in His love. We might not understand why we are dealing with the circumstances we are, but we can trust that God is good. After all is said and done, God means good for us in the end. As Paul says, 

“we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him” (Rom 8:28).

 Through faith, we hang onto that. God will bring about good. Just as God used the cross to bring about resurrection and salvation, so our suffering can be redeemed. The darkness can become the soil out of which grows hope for the future. … Whatever the end is, it will out-do whatever we have suffered- It has to, or God is not good. Our suffering must be healed. Our sin is forgiven, as we call out to God. For all this, we "give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever."