June 11

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is Good

            Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come before him. Worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth. The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The Lord is king!” Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

1 Chronicles 16:28-34

    

            Life was good for David at this point.  He had survived Saul’s jealousy and attempts to kill him.  He had been established as King of Israel.  He had defeated the Philistines and was transforming Jerusalem into his capitol city.  The Ark of the Covenant was coming to live in Jerusalem until a proper temple could be constructed.  There was peace.  There was prosperity.  The hand of God clearly rested on David the King and so David began to worship.

            David sings about God’s goodness and His power.  He thanks God for all the amazing things that He has done for David and his family and his people.  He holds up God as the Almighty who dwarfs all other idols or deities that He is compared to.  He encourages those listening to worship and adore and obey and celebrate the Lord and Creator of the Heavens.

            David looks at creation and sees not just a landscape, but a world of worshippers.  The oceans roar their praises.  The fields exult.  The forests sing for joy.  Every creature, every living thing lifts their voices to God in thanksgiving and celebration and adoration for who God is and what He has done.

            And then there is me.  I worship.  I am thankful…I am.  But most of my interactions with God include things like: “This situation could be better,” “That needs to change,” “We are getting by but it is not great.”  I live in a place of criticism and unfulfilled expectations.  I tend to believe that the only time that you rest or celebrate is when the work is completed.  And since the work of our lives is never completed, there is not a lot of space in my heart for worship.

            Was David’s life perfect?  Was the hard work of ruling a kingdom finished?  No, of course not.  But what David knew that I am beginning to learn is that our life is a process and that process must include patterns of rest and patterns of reflection and patterns of celebration and worship.  If we put those off until life is perfect, we will never have the space for them.  And if we never have the space for them, we miss out on the fullness of the life that God has given to us.

            One of the simple and silly ways that my wife and I grew into this involved my son.  We celebrated his birthday every six months for the first few years of his life.  We were just so amazed and grateful that we had survived another season without breaking him or seriously injuring ourselves and we felt that celebrating was in order.

            Our lives are challenging.  The rigors and demands of caring for our kids can be the only things that occupy our vision.  We need to embrace the discipline of gratitude and the discipline of celebration in order to have joy infused into our lives.  Find reasons to celebrate with your children.  Make up reasons to have a party.  Regularly list to God all the things that you are grateful for.  Allow gratitude and celebration and joy to be regular parts of your routine.  The hard work does not need to be permanently completed; all of life’s problems do not need to be fixed.  We can celebrate any time.  We can be thankful any time.  Creation is in a constant chorus of praise to the Creator.  We are free join in.

A moment to reflect:

What could you celebrate this week?