Thank you cards were one of the requirements of my growing up years. Mom was sort of militant about it. I so vividly remember that each of us (four siblings) would receive a birthday card from our great Aunt Hilda – with one crisp dollar bill inside! What joy that envelope sparked when it arrived in our mailbox, often a few days early. So there was the waiting and finally the opening. And there it was! Every year until I was probably 18 or 19. I do not remember where or how that dollar was saved or spent. But I remember the envelope and Aunt Hilda’s beautiful script (she was proud to have been a professional executive secretary for all of her adult life and had beautiful handwriting).
What I also remember was Mom’s quick reminder that a thank you note must be written to Aunt Hilda before I was free to consider that dollar bill as my own. My mom helped me to appreciate that the receiving of a gift is not truly complete until the giver has been properly thanked.
I’m finding I cannot continue reading in the Psalms without thinking about saying thank you. The author/songwriter David, while often blunt and beseeching of the Lord, is also consistently grateful in his praise of his God and Rescuer, his Refuge in the storms of life. Am I? Are we?
Consider that perhaps our receiving God’s blessings – His faithful mercy, protection, rescue, and redemption; the security of knowing our eternity is with Him – our receipt of these blessings is not fully ours until we express our gratitude to Him and share the reason for such gratitude with others!
As I read Psalm 40 I had to get out a colored pen and mark the sections where David expresses his praise of God in public … so that others will know:
Psalm 40.3
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40.9-10
I have told the glad news of deliverance
in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
as you know; O LORD.
I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
from the congregation.
Psalm 40.16
But may all who see you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the LORD!”
David’s expressions of the Lord’s rescue and protection were first private – just a shepherd boy with His Father God. But also public – an influential yet sometimes weary and wary leader proclaiming his hope in and reliance on God’s mercies and His equipping for whatever was happening.
May you and I both proclaim our praise to the Lord for His mercies which are new every morning and then proclaim the same in our spheres of influence. Even in our weary moments. Even on the days when it is hard to wait. Trusting because of who He is.
We sang last Sunday … I sought the Lord and He heard and He answered1 … May this be the song of our hearts privately and publicly.
Love, Colleen
1 Trust in God lyrics © Essential Music Publishing, Integrity Music