Remember and be Happily Grateful
Scripture Reading: Psalm105:1-6
Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds among the people!
Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of all His wondrous works!
Glory in His holy name;
Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!
Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,
O seed of Abraham His servant,
You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!
The ability to remember is a blessing.
In this Psalm, the act of remembering is linked to the act of giving thanks. The people of God are called on to “Remember His marvelous works…” It is that act of remembering what God has done that will create within them the desire and ability to “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the people, sing to Him, talk of all His wondrous works, and glory in His holy name.”
Even in the English language, there is an etymological connection between remembering and being thankful. The words “think” and “thank” not only have similar sounds, but they come from the same Indo-European root word, “tong.”
The phrase “thank you” grew out of remembering. When someone did something kind for another person, the one receiving the kindness would say something like, “I will remember what you did for me.” They would “think about them.” We still say similar things. We might tell someone “I will be thinking about you.” But in this case, it was directly connected to remembering a kindness done.
So, gratitude naturally flows from thinking or remembering the kindness of others. Now, putting that together in relationship to our gratitude towards God, we can see how important it is that we actively remind ourselves of the good things the Lord has done for us. A person characterized by gratitude is a happy, joyful, content, peaceful person. But a grateful spirit isn’t likely to sneak up on us and take over our hearts by accident. There are too many things in this world that would fight against that. The world is too full of negative, unhappy, miserable people for us to be happily grateful without some effort. If we aren’t proactively cultivating a grateful spirit the weeds of bitter unhappiness will overtake the garden of our heart.
The way we till the soil and plant the seeds that will produce the fruit of happy gratitude is by thinking – thinking of all the good things that God has done. That is why we see this come up so often in places like Psalm 105. This Psalm is a litany of remembrance of God’s mercy, kindness, and grace towards His people.
We should practice remembering all the good God has done. We should do what the hymn suggests and “Count our many blessings and see what God has done.”
It is out of that kind of thinking that thanking fruit grows. The person who remembers gives thanks, makes God’s deeds known, sings praises, tells of His wondrous deeds, and glories in His holy name.
