Psalm Meditation 759
Second Sunday After Christmas
January 4, 2015

Psalm 138
1 I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have exalted your name and your word above everything.
3 On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my strength of soul.
4 All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O LORD, for they have heard the words of your mouth.
5 They shall sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD.
6 For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly; but the haughty he perceives from far away.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your right hand delivers me.
8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
(NRSV)

At our best, we are overwhelmed with thankfulness and it spills out of us. We may have a list of things for which we are grateful; all the ways we have noticed God being good to us. We may become aware that there is so much good going on in and around us that we can’t possibly list it all, so we lift up a ‘thank you’ knowing that it is does not come near to expressing the depth of our gratitude for all that God does and is for us.

In one of those ‘two kinds of people’ distinctions, there are folks who want to be thanked for what they do and folks who want to be thanked for who they are. If you thank them for something in the other category they feel less appreciated than if they are thanked in the area that touches them. God is equally touched by both types of thanks. It may be that God is especially glad when we can move beyond our own comfort zone and thank God for something in the other category.

However we go about it, it is good to make the time to give God thanks. We can present God with a list of things for which we are grateful, we can thank God for being present in our lives or we can mix the two together. Some folks say that God does not need anything from us. While that may be true, God does appreciate our thanks, our praise, our desire to spend time in the presence of God whether we are alone or carry God’s presence with us in every part of our day.

December 29, 2014
LCM