Read Psalm 21
Thanksgiving lifts our eyes to God in a new way.
Many of the psalms cry out to God, asking Him to grant us favor or to save us from our distress. This one says: Thank You, God. Following a psalm requesting from God to Bless the King, we see in in this 21st psalm that He has done that, and David writes a psalm of thanksgiving and worship.
For strength, for life, for glory. For the crown of pure gold, David writes: ‘Thank you.’ God has blessed King David and thereby blessed the people of the land who will prosper from following a prosperous King.
At times, I’ve seen that we beg God for relief when we’re in distress, but we forget about Him when circumstances are right and pain is relieved and we are blessed. We’ll ask “Why would God allow this to happen to me?”, but when He takes care of us, the credit often times ends up elsewhere. This psalm says “You” or “Your” 16 times referring to the One true God and all he had done. What if we considered deliverance from pain or an answer to prayer as only an act of God Himself? Because that’s what it truly is- Not coincidence, good fortune or smart decisions. Rather, the everlasting, never-changing God taking care of His people.
Thanksgiving often times pours out into Worship and deeps our Faith.
Verses 8-12 say all that He will do. It says: We asked You to provide, You provided. We’ll worship with ongoing expectant hearts, full of faith.
In my personal experience there is nothing as simple as Thankfulness that impacts my perspective and deepens my understanding of Jesus. Thankfulness pouring into worship pouring into deeper faith asks us to make much of the Holy King. When I zoom out of my day and the stresses before me and the frustrations and hurt I experience, even today, it helps to anchor myself around a psalm of thanksgiving so that I can see beyond me and worship God and deepen my faith.
Practical practice today: Choose 3 things you’re thankful for. Spend time thanking God (again, not coincidence, fortune or your own doing) for giving you those things. Ask Him to use the thankfulness as an act of worship to deepen your faith in Jesus and your understanding of Him.
Through the unfailing love of the Most High, [we] will not be shaken. (v. 7)
-- Keila Dawson