"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103:1-5
Thanksgiving is the intentional mental commitment to graciously remember the benefits that have been abundantly bestowed upon us by the living Father.
The key to thanksgiving is:
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” John Newton
In Psalm 103, the psalmist rejoices in numerous benefits that the Lord has poured into his life:
1. Forgives all your sins.
"So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” Luke 17:10
"For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." Psalm 116:8-9
“A child of God always keeps two books by him, one in which to write his sins so that he may be humbled; another in which to write his mercies so he may be thankful.” Thomas Watson, The Godly Man’s Picture, p. 132
2. Heals all your diseases.
3. Redeems your life from the pit while crowning you with steadfast love and tender mercies.
The remembering of the abundant mercies of the Lord “primes the pump” of the Christian life and produces much fruit.
4. Satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles.
“The church, when it’s not seduced by consumerist spirituality, is in the business of cultivating ordinary Christians, people who are united to Christ by faith and are in it for the long haul, like people in a good marriage. It transforms people, not by giving them (only) life-changing experiences but by repetition, continually telling the story of Christ so that people may hear and take hold of him by faith. For we do not just receive Christ by faith once at the beginning of our Christian lives and then go on to do the real work of transformation through our good works. We keep needing Christ the way hungry people need bread, and we keep receiving him whenever we hear the gospel preached and believe it. So what transforms us over the long haul is not one or two great life-changing sermons (although these can be helpful from time to time) but the repeated teaching and preaching of Christ, Sunday after Sunday, so that we never cease receiving him into our hearts.” Phillip Cary, Good News for Anxious Christians, p.133
APPLICATION:
1. Labor to know the depth of God's love and the depth of your need by consistently and prayerfully reading the Scripture.
2. Understand that thanksgiving “primes the pump” of godliness and produces the fruits of righteousness.
3. Understand that ingratitude is a monstrous evil.
4. Keep a periodic record of the blessings of God from day to day.
5. Exercise the grace of thanking people around you with a word that sustains and nourishes.
"The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught." Isaiah 50:4
"The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence." Proverbs 10:11
6. Understand that praise and thanksgiving are usually intermingled. Praise is rejoicing in who the Lord is and thanksgiving is rejoicing in what the Lord has done.