GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD AND PRAISE HIM

Proclamation:

“To Him who alone does great wonders … who by His understanding made the heavens … who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever.”   Psalm 136:4-6 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God and given to the Levites to sing every day. (1 Chronicles 16:40-42)  The song was designed to show every kind of blessing which The Lord God had given them.  It begins with the work of creation (Psalm 136:5-9) and ends with the provision of food for every creature. (Psalm 136:25)  Each of the twenty-six verses in this psalm ends with the phrase, “…His love endures forever.”

Application:

As the children of Israel were reminded to remember all of the blessings that The Lord God had bestowed upon them, we need to remember all of our blessings.  We need to thank and praise The Lord God for all that He has done for us, for all that He has brought us through, for all that He has kept us from, and for all that He has provided for us.  His love and mercy endures forever.  We take so much for granted, let us not be ungrateful.

AT MIDNIGHT I WILL RISE UP AND GIVE YOU THANKS

Proclamation:

“At midnight I rise to give You thanks for Your righteous laws.  I am a friend to all who fear You, to all who follow Your precepts.”  Psalm 119:62-63 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David.  This is the eighth part, Heth, of this twenty-two part psalm.  Here David is continuing his conversation with The Lord God and telling Him that he has committed to obeying His words. (Psalm 119:57-60)  Here he states that not only will he offer a prayer of thanksgiving before going to bed but he will wake up at midnight and pray again.  When men of God are undergoing difficulties, they rise us and pray at midnight as Paul and Silas did. (Acts 16:25)

Application:

It is up to each one of us to dedicate our lives to The Lord God.  We each must decide for ourselves to follow His Holy Word and to obey His laws.  Offering prayer and praise to The Lord God is appropriate at any time and at all times.  However, sometimes a sacrificial prayer at a personally difficult time is in order.  Giving up an hour of sleep in order to pray and thank God may be more beneficial to us than the sleep would have been.  We give up our sleep for worldly and sinful pleasures, why can’t we lose a little sleep for The Lord.  And when we are awake during the day, let us spend a little more time hanging out with and encouraging other believers.

THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS LOVE AND HIS LOVING-KINDNESS

Proclamation:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.  He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”  Psalm 103:8-10 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  The psalm begins by stating and repeating the phrase, “Bless The Lord, O my soul …” (Psalm 103:1 & 2) and ends by repeating “Bless The Lord ...” (Psalm 103:20, 21, and 22)  David told the people of God to praise and glorify The Lord.  They were not just to offer and repeat rituals during worship, giving Him lip service, but to praise Him with pure and honest feelings from the depths of their hearts.  They should be grateful that He does not treat them as they treat Him.

Application:

We should not only praise and worship The Lord, but we should be thankful for His love for us.  Because of His goodness and mercy, God does not treat us as we deserve to be treated based upon our behavior, our willful disobedience, and our sins, but He does so out of His abounding love.   

SHOUT FOR JOY AND PRAISE THE LORD ALL DAY LONG

Proclamation:

“May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, ‘The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of His servant.’  My tongue will proclaim Your righteousness, and Your praises all day long.”  Psalm 35:27-28 (NIV)

Explanation:

The words of this psalm were written by King David under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God.  In this psalm, David ask The Lord God to fight his battle against his enemies. (Psalm 35:1-6)  They had made plans and preparations to harm David (Psalm 35:7-8) and he wanted The Lord to deal with them.  If The Lord would do this, David said that he would thank Him publicly in front of the congregation of believers. (Psalm 35:18)  He also prayed that the people of God who were on his side would always exalt the name of The Lord. (Psalm 35:27)  He said that he would also tell others of God’s righteousness and he would praise Him all day long. (Psalm 35:28)

Application:

Not only are there people in this world who wish us harm, there are those who provide false witness against us, (Psalm 35:11) and those who actually plan and plot to harm us. (Psalm 35:7-8)  We are encouraged to love and pray for our enemies. (Matthew 5:44)  This is not always easy.  It is much easier to pray like David did for God to punish them and to let the evil that they had planned for other fall upon themselves. (Psalm 35:8)  We need to pray and publicly give The Lord God thanks for protecting us from all hurt, harm and danger, and for protecting us from the people who wish to harm us. (Psalm 35:18)  We should shout for joy and be glad that we enjoy God’s favor. (Psalm 35:27)  We should tell others of His goodness to us and we should continuously praise The Lord.  In fact, we should praise Him all day long. (Psalm 35:28)

BE THANKFUL PRAY AND SHARE

Proclamation:

"You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."  2 Corinthians 9:11 (NIV)

Explanation:

The Apostle Paul wrote these words, under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God, to the believers in The Church at Corinth to encourage them to be generous with those who were less fortunate.  He told them that they had been blessed, and would be blessed even more so that they could be a blessing to others. 
He also said that their generosity would result in them giving thanksgiving to God.

Application:

O, give thanks unto The Lord. (Psalms 105:1, 106:1, 107:1, 118:1, and 136:1)  We should begin our thanksgiving celebration with prayer, as Nehemiah was first to do. (Nehemiah 11:17)  We are encouraged to always come before the presence of The Lord with thanksgiving. (Psalms 95:2)  When we enter into our place of worship, we should do so with thanksgiving. (Psalms 100:4)  We should sing unto The Lord with thanksgiving. (Psalms 147:7)  This should not be something that we do one day of the year, every day is a day of thanksgiving.  We have been blessed in more ways than we can count, and we should be thankful. (Psalms 100:4 and Colossians 3:15)  We have been blessed so that we can be a blessing to others. (Proverbs 11:25)  Let us thank God for the blessings which we have already received, and let us share with those who are less fortunate.  Let us not worry about anything, and pray about everything with thanksgiving to God. (Philippians 4:6)  Let us do this every day, and not just on this day of celebration, but continually. (Colossians 4:2)  Have a blessed day of thanksgiving.  O, give thanks unto The Lord. 

WHAT SHALL WE GIVE GOD

Proclamation:

“What shall I return to The Lord for all His goodness to me?  I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of The Lord.  I will fulfill my vows to The Lord in the presence of all His people.” Psalm 116:12-14 (NIV)

Explanation:

This psalm was written under the influence of The Holy Spirit of God by King David when he was fleeing from King Saul.  David was thankful that The Lord had saved him. (Psalm 116:6-8)  Here he asks a rhetorical question and then proceeds to answer it.  The question is: “What can he give to God in return for all of the blessings he has received?”  The answer is that in order to express his gratitude he will offer praise to God for his temporal salvation, and for his spiritual and eternal salvation.  In addition, he would do this publicly in front of God’s people.

Application:

God is the maker and creator of everything.  “The earth is The Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” (Psalm 24:1)  Everything belongs to Him including all the cattle on a thousand hills and the hills also. (Psalms 50:10-11)  All that we can give to Him which He does not already have is our praise and thankful worship.  This we can give Him publicly and privately, with our external behavior and our internal thoughts, and through our praise and prayers.  We can make vows to The Lord publicly before the assembled people of God and then keep them. (Psalm 66:13-14)  Because He gave us the free will to choose when we were created that is all that we have to give Him.  We can choose to praise Him, worship Him, and serve Him.  We should do these things both privately and publicly to the glory of God.

GOD IS MERCIFUL AND KIND TO US

Proclamation:

"Praise The LORD, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.  For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of The LORD endures forever.  Praise The LORD."  Psalms 117:1-2 (NIV)  

"O praise The LORD, all ye nations: praise Him, all ye people.  For His merciful kindness is great toward us; and the truth of The LORD endureth for ever.  Praise ye The LORD." Psalms 117:1-2 (KJV)

Explanation:

The unknown author of this psalm packed a lot of power into this, the shortest of all the psalms.  This global invitation to praise The Lord is followed by a truthful explanation and justification for doing so.  He says that God is merciful and kind to His people and that His Truth and His Word are both eternal.

Application:

The Lord, our God, is worthy of all praise, honor, and glory.  He is so great, so good, and so awesome that we ought to praise Him continuously. (Psalms 34:1)  The only time that we should not be praising Him is when we are thanking Him.  In more than 42 verses, the Bible encourages us to thank God, and the most frequent justification for giving God thanks is that He is good, and His love endures forever. (Psalms 136:1-3)  God shows His loving merciful kindness to us everyday, multiple times each day. (Psalm 68:19)  We ought to praise Him and thank Him multiple times each day.