Psalm 111:1-9 (ESV)
Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his
righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; for the
Lord is gracious and merciful.
He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his
covenant forever.
He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them
the inheritance of the nations.
The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his
precepts are trustworthy; they are established forever and ever to be performed
with faithfulness and uprightness.
He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his
covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name!
Several
years ago I had to travel by plane somewhere; I don’t remember where I was going or why. But I do remember
that the weather was stormy and that the flight was pretty rough. Now I don’t have a fear of flying but I do
have a bit of a fear of landing. Landings make me nervous.
As
the plane approached the landing it got really rough; shaking and bouncing; you
could just imagine the pilot struggling to keep the wings level and the plane
on course. We hit the runway hard, bounced a couple of times, and finally,
after what seemed like an eternity, rolled to a stop. The passengers erupted in
spontaneous applause, something you don’t see at the end of every plane flight.
As
we filed off the plane the pilot had opened the cockpit door and was standing
in front. As I got to him I did something I usually would not do. I
spontaneously said, “That was a good landing! You
did a great job getting us down, thanks!”
He
looked up at me kind of surprised and said “Thank
you.” Something in his face and tone told me that he had
been worried too, and that it had probably been a long time since he heard
anyone say, “Thank you.”
We
live in an extremely critical and thankless culture. We live in a culture of
rights. We know our rights and we demand our rights. We live in a land of
service. We pay for good service and we expect to get it.
The
result is we do not live in a culture of gratitude; rather, we live in a
culture of discontent and complaining. In fact, I might go so far as to say we
live in a culture of “habitual ingratitude.”
I
look at my car and instead of being grateful for having reliable
transportation, I can feel ungrateful because others have nicer cars.
You
can look at your house, and instead of being grateful for having a warm home
during a cold winter, you might feel ungrateful because the water pressure in
your shower is a little weak.
Read again the words of the psalm
writer:
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the
company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight
in them.
It wasn’t until the third or fourth time reading the psalm
that I noticed the connection between the words studied and delight.
The writer is saying that the
works of the Lord are great to those who study them; and those who study
them are those who delight in them.
It make me ask, “What do I take delight in?” Do I delight in the kindness and generosity of God? Or
do I delight in complaining about that which I do not have?
When I delight in something I tend
to think about that thing more; I tend to study that thing more so I can, in
turn, enjoy it more.
So it seems to me we all have a
choice. We can learn to delight in the great works of the Lord, which leads to
studying them and therefore discovering greater and greater delight; or we can
settle for delighting in our complaining and envying of those who have more, continue
to study the perceived inequity and therefore achieve greater and greater
ingratitude.
Where is your delight?
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment