Thanking God for the Past, Present and Future

As a boy, David went out to face Goliath, a mighty Philistine. Goliath took one look at David and cursed him in the name of his “gods” (1 Samuel 17:43). At this moment, David may have remembered how the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant from God’s people years ago and set the Ark next to a statue of their god Dagon. But God caused Dagon to fall down twice overnight in a posture of defeat before the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 5:1-5).

David knew his God’s name was greater than that of any other gods, nations or kings (Psalm 138:1 and 4). So he told Goliath, “I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel” (1 Samuel 17:45). And in Psalm 138, David prayed his thanks to the Lord in the presence of all heavenly beings and any other so-called “gods” from other nations. Unlike the statue of Dagon, David willingly bowed to Yahweh in reverence and gratitude (Psalm 138:2).

In this prayer, David is thankful in the name of his God and for the name of his God. But it’s not the first time we glimpse his confidence in the power of God’s name above all others.

As we’ve seen throughout our study of Psalms, there were times in David’s life when he felt pretty low. In Psalm 138, we read David’s description of God: “Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar” (Psalm 138:6).

The Hebrew word for “lowly” is shaphal, meaning “low in station or humble in condition or spirit.” David asserted that Yaweh, the God more powerful than any other, sees and cares for those who we would say are too low in status for His attention. And He sees those whose circumstances have brought them low.

What does Jesus say about when we feel this way? In one of His most famous teachings, the Sermon on the Mount, “He began to teach them .... ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:2-3).

When you feel so lowly and poor in spirit that God seems far off, be reminded by Psalm 138 and Matthew 5 that He is near to the lowly.

Respond

Consider how faithful and true the Lord your God was to David, and how David’s prayers give us a firsthand account of relationship with God.

Craft your own prayer of thanksgiving to God whether you are feeling full or less than right now. Practice prayer of thanksgiving in spite of and because of your circumstances.

Conclusion

This week, as we’ve studied prayers of thanksgiving in the book of Psalm, we’ve learned …

• God loves us with a steadfast love. (Psalm 86)
• God protects us at all times, even when we’re under attack by those who’ve betrayed us. (Psalm 35)
• God holds us in the palm of His hand because we belong to Him. (Psalm 100)
• God delivers and redeems us no matter what we’re going through. (Psalm 107)
• God answers prayer and will always be faithful to us. (Psalm 138)

All of these are reasons to give thanks to God. But we’ve also learned that thanksgiving is not dependent on our circumstances; it’s an act of worship (remember this from Day 2?). We may be in the middle of a terrible situation — maybe even one caused by our own sin (as we discussed on Day 4) — but we can still give wholehearted thanks to God because of what He’s done in the past and what He’s currently doing now, even when we can’t see it. As we learned on Day 1: Thanksgiving is rooted in looking first at the past and then at the present. We can look at what God has done for us (and for others) while also deciphering His hand in our lives right now.

How can we not feel thankful when we dwell on who God is to us, who we are to God, and the beautifully astounding fact that we can have a personal relationship with our loving, merciful Creator?!

After all, as we learned on Day 3, a right perspective about our relationship with God helps to get our hearts in the right posture for thanksgiving. That kind of thanksgiving is offered with “my whole being,” as David says in Psalm 35:10. Even if the bad situation we’re walking through was caused by our own sin, we are never too far gone for God, and He is faithful.