Psalms of Thanksgiving


This is the fifth post in the “Types of Psalms” series where I will be highlighting the various types of Psalms that you will encounter in the book of Psalm. This is by no means the ultimate and final arrangement of the Psalms, but it is one that I have found to be very helpful.

*******************************************************

17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord. 18 I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, 19 in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 116: 17-19 

I want you to take a moment and, in a non-judgmental manner, think about the very first 5 words you start your prayers with. If you are like the majority it probably goes something like this, “Father God, thank you for…”. Again, and not necessarily focusing on the repetitive nature in which we approach God, but I want us to think more about what it is that we thank God for. Again, if you are in the majority then they are usually centered on physical blessings and provisions that God has richly given. But the truth is that there are so many other things that we could, and should, thank Him for. Additionally, there are so many ways to express our gratitude towards our Creator than to say “Thanks”. Enter the Individual songs of Thanksgiving.

For sure, this is one type of psalm that cannot be overlooked because we find them all throughout the book of Psalm. While they share many similarities to the first type of psalm we discussed, the hymns, they are distinct from them; one reason being that they are not meant for corporate settings. The individual songs of thanksgiving generally are songs from the heart of an individual who is praising God for some saving act He has done. These psalms express a deep appreciation and love for what God has done in the life of an individual, as opposed to a nation or people group. These psalms are ones that may be present on the mouth of each and every believer in all occasions in their lives.

And very quickly we will see the breadth of topics that we can convey our gratefulness to a God who truly owes us nothing. It goes beyond just the daily provisions or the “extra special” blessings God grants us. We also are stretched in our vocabulary as we read of how infrequently the word “thanks” is actually used in expressing thanks. While they usually alludes to a time when the individual was sick or in some other kind of trouble (Ps. 116), they also express hope and joy in God for His perfect plan and law (Psalm 40).

When approaching God in praise and thanksgiving, let us consider the psalms and learn how we may be able to sing to him a new song. How we may express our souls to Him in more diverse ways. Not because He is pleased by our various types of prayers, but because he is pleased when we go to Him in sincerity, humility, thoughtfulness, and worship.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Alex

Please subscribe and share this blog with all of your friends To subscribe, click on the "Subscribe" button at the top of the blog page (https://aogalvez.blogspot.com/)
****************************************************
You may follow Overflow Church @ https://faithlife.com/overflowtx/activity
or on Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/OverflowChurchTX/

If you would like to read the previous articles in the series, you may find them below: 
1. Psalms
2. Hymns
3. Community complaints
4. Individual complaints
5. Individual songs of thanksgiving
6. Royal psalms
7. Torah psalms
8. Oracle psalms
9. Blessing psalms
10. Taunt songs
11. Songs of trust

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Balance

Image
"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." 1 Timothy 4:8 (NIV) This past weekend (Month even) has been a very busy one. It often happens that when life ramps up, we cut the unimportant things out of our lives in order to accomplish the tasks we identify as most critical. To all my followers, I want to apologize for my having cutting this portion of my life out for a period of time and I will do my best to have more consistency. A years ago, the United States Army deployed a digital "fitness" test to its soldiers and certain respondents received a message that read, "Spiritual fitness may be an area of difficulty. You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and to others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your
Read more

Satisfaction

Image
“…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” Philippians 4:11b (NIV) This has been a very busy month for me in terms of traveling around. I returned home from Brazil after a long three weeks and, after two days, I now find myself back in a hotel in the great city of Duncan, Oklahoma. Although it is slightly inconvenient to me, in terms of my schedule for studying the word, prayer, and working out to live in a hotel for almost a full month, I have found great comfort in the words from the apostle Paul. A man who has murderous attempts on his life, been imprisoned on multiple occasions, beaten up, shipwrecked three times, and bitten by a snake was able to find a state of contentedness regardless of what situation he was in. Talk about finding complete joy. This is the same joy that the beloved disciple wrote of many times for other believers to embrace. And this is a joy that over the years I have learned to develop and enjoy. That no matter what situation I find
Read more

Light

Image
“And this is the message which we have heard from him and announce unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5 (ASV) Darkness is not a real thing. Cold is also not a real thing. They are just words that we have made up to define the conditions of an environment or state of existence at a specific period or periods of time. What do I mean then when I say that they are not real things? Well, what I mean is that the darkness that we see (or cannot see because of) is not because it is overwhelming, but because it lacks light. Darkness is the absence of light. When light comes into existence, because light is something real, darkness is expelled. That’s the same with cold. Cold is simply the absence of heat. It is not that it is cold and then at some point it shifts to being hot. It is simply that the heat that exists is too miniscule that it cannot bring warmth to anything. In verse five, we read that God is light, but not a weak source of light
Read more