Thanksgiving Psalm

It's been a rough time lately here in the household. An old injury acted up and as I was preparing for school on Friday, it felt as if a grenade went off in my back. The spasms on my right side sent me to the floor and I lay groaning in pain. No school for me on Friday. I'm not sure if it is a severe sprain or what it might be ... but other than catching up on some of my novels and watching some old episodes of Twilight Zone, I have been flat on my back.

God is telling me it's time to slow down. As a matter of fact, I have been taking blocks of time throughout the past days and am simply reading through the Bible. It's great fun, and if you don't agree, then you need to set some time aside and start with Genesis 1. I mean it.

(Note: In my opinion, few shows in the history of TV match the consistent quality of the scripts written for the old Twilight Zone series of the 60s.)

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Here's something to think about as we come upon the Thanksgiving holiday... let's start with a piece of Psalm 116:

1 I love the LORD, because He hears My voice {and} my supplications. 2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I shall call {upon Him} as long as I live.

It's a Thanksgiving Psalm, and in the Hebrew tongue the word is todah. This powerful type of psalm is an exclamation of praise as well as a confession of gratitude.

Psalm 18: 17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, And from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity, But the LORD was my stay. 19 He brought me forth also into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me.

In a Todah Psalm, you praise God for something He has done for you, and then you to offer thanksgiving in the form of worship.

In a Todah Psalm the wild and cheerful celebration in worship is based on some immediate experience of God’s goodness and grace. It's kind of hard to explain, but the word "todah" that we find in these psalms (and other Psalms like 21, 32, 65, and 100) is in Hebrew much fuller than the English word "thanks." It summarizes the singer's explanation of the direct response to prayers of need ("God, please heal my baby", "Father, please help me to finish this work by the deadline", "Lord, please help me to confront the wrongdoer and show love", etc.) It's kind of like an explanation not only of WHAT God has done but WHY He did it and WHAT AUTHORITY He has to do it. Todah pinpoints the fact that God is the source of all the great stuff in life. This is a "billboard ad' of who He is, and it comes from personal experience as in "I WAS THERE AND I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES."

Todah Psalms! Psalm 124: 2 "Had it not been the LORD who was on our side When men rose up against us, 3 Then they would have swallowed us alive..."

In other words, your thanks and testimony should not only be for what He has done for you but Who He is in the first place, overall in your life and what He means to you! Will you share that with people today? Direct the thanks and praise to God and let others hear your gratitude and worship.


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A refelction: American Express shows me a TV commercial of an actor who spent most of his life filming in New York and concludes the ad with a line that says something like "My city: New York. My card: American Express.

Let me think this out: Am I supposed to take this credit card because I want to emulate a citizen of New York? Or am I supposed to apply because I admire the actor, whose whole career is not of being himself but of portraying other people? Let me get this straight then...I am to make a business transaction based on the admiration I have for the integrity of an actor?

I look up the etymology of the word actor through through its original presentation in the Greek language and I find it's from hypokrisis "acting on the stage, pretense," and from hypokrinesthai "play a part, pretend."

So if I follow this correctly, I am to be persuaded to get a credit card based upon the reputation of a hypocrite?