“Bless the LORD, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits…”
Psalm 103:1-2
Good morning! If you have your Bible with you, turn with me to Psalm 107; that’s on page 505 if you’re using a house Bible. We are in the second week of a 4-week series we’re calling “Remember: Finding Gratitude in Hard Times.”
All month long, we’ll be exploring Psalm 107 as a kind of guided reflection, or framework for how to approach the idea of gratitude.
Because, as Barry indicated last week, there are lots of different ways of approaching gratitude. There are even different kinds of gratitude!
There’s a kind of generalized gratitude: you know, when someone says “I’m just grateful to be here” or “I’m grateful for everything I have.” That’s a generalized gratitude.
Then there’s the one we’re most familiar with “itemized gratitude,” where we name specific people or things that we’re grateful for: “I’m grateful for “my husband/wife,” “my kids,” “my friends,” or “my job,” “my house,” or “my car…’” We make lists, and we keep a mental inventory of the things we’re grateful for, or we jot them down in gratitude journals if we have the time.
There’s even a third kind of gratitude that Positive Psychology calls “benefit appraisal.” In psychology, gratitude has been widely understood to involve a benefactor, a beneficiary, a benefit, and a benefit appraisal—when we say things like:
“Look on the bright side…” or “hey, at least we’re not (fill in the blank) anymore,” or my favorite: “It could’ve been much worse…”
-That’s benefit appraisal. It’s gratitude as comparison. It’s where we look at our current situation on one hand, and we hold that up against a worst-case-scenario alternative, and suddenly our current situation doesn’t seem as bad. This kind of gratitude helps us endure hard times, and fosters resilience within!
For example, last week, a tornado tore through my hometown. Houses were destroyed, power lines were down everywhere, news reporters were interviewing the townspeople, and just about every person interviewed said something along the lines of “At least no one was seriously hurt.”
That’s benefit appraisal—a tornado struck down, things are a mess, but thank God we’re still here! It could’ve been much worse! Thank God!
Now, last week, at the close of service, we handed out note cards and invited you to write something – anything that you’re grateful for! We even read a few of them out loud at the end of service. And it was a powerful moment of corporate gratitude. Powerful to hear you articulate what you’re grateful for!
And I was so moved that I decided to read through every one of the cards you submitted! I read through all of them! And I began to see, reflected in your stories, the 3 types of gratitude we just talked about:
There was generalized gratitude:
“Today I’m grateful for… waking up! I woke up today…”
So many of y’all are just grateful to be waking up in the morning—and some of y’all honest folks are grateful to be waking up just a little bit later on Sunday mornings:
“Today I’m grateful for… church services going back to 11!”
Some of y’all went the itemized gratitude route:
This is a drawing of a house. “Today I’m grateful for… house!”
How many of you are grateful for where you live?
I like what this person said:
“Today I’m grateful for… cars that start and mechanical ppl that can fix them when they don’t! … AND EYEGLASSES!
I can see that. I’m grateful for my growing collection of readers scattered around my home.
Then there’s this person, who’s grateful for their work community, sounds like they’re in education, and despite some challenges, the team is coming together to start the school year strong – that’s the first thing they’re grateful for.
But what really got my attention is down here in the corner, in the fine print; it says
“AND POST-CHURCH LUNCH!”
Amen! Be honest, how many of y’all are thinking about that post-church lunch right now?! It’s ok, I am too.
I even saw that 3rd kind of gratitude, benefit appraisal, in some of your writings. And although it’s not as obvious as generalized or itemized gratitude, it’s still there in statements like this one:
“Today, I’m grateful to be tired from work I once prayed to do.”
That’s profound gratitude! I may be tired, but at least I have work to do! I prayed for this!” That’s the “look on the bright side” language of benefit appraisal; it’s the “at least I’m not (fill in the blank) language of gratitude as comparison. It’s saying:
I’m grateful for where I am, compared to where I was!
And that’s what we’re talking about today!
I’m grateful for where I am, compared to where I was!
This kind of gratitude, this ‘benefit appraisal,’ is a major theme throughout Psalm 107.
We saw it in the passage Barry read last week, in the opening verses of Psalm 107. If you’ve got your Bible open, let’s go ahead and read the first 2 verses together:
Psalm 107:1 says
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out!
Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies.”
Right out of the gate, Psalm 107 immediately identifies the Benefactor, the benefit, and the beneficiary!
The Lord is the Benefactor! He is the one providing the help! The Lord confers the benefit—and that word Lord is important here! Because in the Hebrew text, it’s the name YHWH, God’s personal name, the name that identifies Him as the covenant-making, promise-keeping God of Israel! YHWH is the Divine Benefactor, and redemption is His benefit! And who receives His benefit? Who is the beneficiary, the one receiving God’s redemption?
The short answer is ‘you.’ It’s you:
“Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out!
Tell others he has redeemed you…” Psalm 107:2
You, the psalmist declares. Whomever God has redeemed! And then, the psalmist makes an itemized list of beneficiaries:
You exiles who’ve been gathered from the far corners of the world: God has redeemed you! You were far away, but God has brought you home! Look at where you are—compared to where you’ve been—and be grateful!
And you, wanderers whom God has led through the wilderness! You were lost, homeless, hungry and thirsty. You nearly died, he says in verse 5, but God has rescued you! Look at where you are—compared to where you’ve been—and be grateful!
Somebody say,
I’m grateful for where I am, compared to where I was!
Can anybody say ‘Amen’ to that?
Has the Lord redeemed you? Then speak out! Or to quote a different translation: LET THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD SAY SO!
Say it out loud! Let the world know that God is the Benefactor, redemption His benefit, and that YOU, the beneficiary, have been rescued by His saving grace!
Elsewhere in the Psalms, King David writes:
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits…”
Psalm 103:1-2
So many Psalms were written to keep God’s people from forgetting His goodness. His faithfulness. His ‘khesed,’ His steadfast love!
Forget not all His benefits! Don’t forget what He’s done for you! Remember… Remember…
GRATITUDE IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO REMEMBRANCE
Remember how YHWH, the Lord, never left your side! Remember how He was faithful, even when we were unfaithful!
The second vignette of Psalm 107 is all about God’s ‘khesed,’ His steadfast love. It tells the story of His faithfulness, even despite our own rebellion and unfaithfulness! In verse 10, the psalmist continues his list of beneficiaries: who have been redeemed? Exiles, wanderers in the wilderness, and now we add to the list:
prisoners wrapped in chains of their own making!
Let’s read it together: Psalm 107, starting at verse 10:
“Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom,
imprisoned in iron chains of misery.
11 They rebelled against the words of God,
scorning the counsel of the Most High.
12 That is why he broke them with hard labor;
they fell, and no one was there to help them.
13 “LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
14 He led them from the darkness and deepest gloom;
he snapped their chains.
15 Let them praise the LORD for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
16 For he broke down their prison gates of bronze;
he cut apart their bars of iron.
Psalm 107:10-22
These beneficiaries were the rebellious ones, bound in a prison of their own making.
Now I know that some of y’all know what that feels like, to be bound in a prison of your own making. I’m sad to say, I do! I remember what that kind of darkness feels like! When you’ve knowingly rebelled against God, when you’ve chosen to follow your heart instead of His, chasing after your own disordered desires instead of surrendering your will and your wants to Him. I remember what that darkness felt like.
I remember when I chose to deliberately disobey God, just like the prisoners in Psalm 107, and ultimately found myself in a prison of my own making. Am I speaking to anyone in this room?
I remember when I felt trapped by my own mess, the mess I had made of my life—I knew I had rebelled against God! And I felt far from Him. And that feeling, the psalmist says in verse 10 and again in verse 14, is the deepest kind of gloom!
The Hebrew writer actually uses the word “Tsalmaveth,” {tsal – MAH – veth}, and it’s much darker than gloom: it literally translates to “the shadow of death,” the deepest kind of darkness known to the human experience.
It’s the same word used in Psalm 23
“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Psalm 23:4
• A shepherd’s rod was used as a weapon to defend the flock against predators. To protect the sheep from the dangers without!
o Aren’t you grateful for his protection? Somebody say, “Thank you, Lord!”
• But the shepherd’s staff, with the hook, was used to steer the flock in the right direction and keep them on the path!
o Aren’t you grateful for his guidance? Somebody say, “Thank you, Lord!”
• But the hook of that shepherd’s staff was for reaching strays, like me! It would pull a wandering animal back to the group, back to safety!
o Aren’t you grateful for his reach? Somebody say, “Thank you, Lord.”
Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me!” (John 10:14).
Jesus, my good shepherd, has kept me from dangers seen and unseen. I know he has protected me in ways I’ll never know!
But sometimes, when I’ve gone astray, just like with that shepherd’s hook, he allows me to feel it! Psalm 107:12 says:
12 …He broke them with hard labor;
they fell, and no one was there to help them.
13 “LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
Because of their own rebellious choices, they had to go through some stuff. Difficult stuff, hard labor. But when they cried for help, the Lord heard them and saved them from their distress!
Continuing in verses 17 and 18:
17 Some were fools; they rebelled
and suffered for their sins.
18 They couldn’t stand the thought of food,
and they were knocking on death’s door.
The prisoners in verse 10 sat in the valley of the shadow of death. But the fools in verse 17 were actively knocking on death’s door! Their rebellion caused so much suffering; it made them physically sick! Verse 19:
19 “LORD, help!” they cried in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.
20 He sent out his word and healed them,
snatching them from the door of death.
He snatched them from the door of death! They had gone astray! In their own rebellion, they suffered, but the Lord, the Good Shepherd, heard their cries for help and came running with his shepherd’s hook to snatch them away from the door of death, the very door they’d been knocking on!
Aren’t you grateful for the good shepherd? Somebody say, “Thank You, Lord!”
That shepherd’s hook saved my life when I went astray! Oh, I had to go through some things in my rebellion, hard things that I wouldn’t wish on anybody! But God allowed me to feel it! The pain of my own rebellion, the anguish I had caused myself and others! I had to get to the place where I recognized my own depravity and my desperate need for a Savior!
I was powerless, and my life had become unmanageable! “Lord, help!” I cried! And he saved me from my mess.
Therefore, I will bless the Lord at all times! Bless the Lord and forget not his benefits, for he heard my cry of repentance; he sent out his word, and He healed me! I am so grateful for where I am, compared to where I was! If I’m talking to you today, somebody say, “Thank You, Lord!”
GRATITUDE IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO REPENTANCE
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!
Psalm 107:21 says:
21 Let them praise the LORD for his great love
and for the wonderful things he has done for them.
22 Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving
and sing joyfully about his glorious acts.
Why do God’s people all over the world sing songs about Him and to Him? Why do we worship with singing? Well, for one thing, it’s part of how we express our gratitude for who He is! For His unfailing love! It’s part of how we actively remember the wonderful things He has done for us!
And I know not all of us are confident singers! That’s ok. But just as Psalm 107 commands every one of us to ‘give thanks to the Lord,’ no matter where we may find ourselves in life, Psalm 96 commands us to sing a new song to the Lord. It literally says, “let the whole earth sing to the Lord!”
That means if you’re alive on this earth, you ought to be singing praises to God. Songs of thanksgiving and gratitude!
And so, to help you with this endeavor, I’ve left you a little gift in the app notes. Now, I love to sing! But there are times when I prefer to let others do the singing for me, while my heart sings along! So I made a gratitude playlist a long time ago, and I’ve linked that playlist in the app. It started as a ‘Thanksgiving’ playlist for the annual road trip my family and I would make to my Grandma’s house every Thanksgiving, but I found myself going back to that holiday playlist throughout the year whenever I needed a reminder of God’s goodness! Of what He’s done for me! Of who He is and why I have reason to be grateful!
But I must warn you. This is not a playlist for the gym… Unless you don’t mind looking a little ‘unhinged’ in public. I had it in my headphones at the gym last week, and a spirit of gratitude came over me, and I didn’t care who saw me weeping, who saw me clapping, who saw me raising my hands on the incline treadmill! Some of you go to my gym; you might have seen it. And I don’t care. If you catch me in a moment of praise at the gym, just walk on by and say, “Thank you, Lord!” Because you know I’m remembering! And in my moment of remembrance, for all that He has done for this sinner right here, how can I be anything but grateful?!
Because :
• GRATITUDE IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO REMEMBRANCE!
How can a sinner like me be anything but grateful?!
And
• GRATITUDE IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO REPENTANCE!
How can a sinner like me be anything but grateful?!
And
• GRATITUDE IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO REDEMPTION!
How can a sinner like me be anything but grateful?!
And
• GRATITUDE IS STRONGLY CONNECTED TO RESILIENCE!
How can a sinner like me be anything but grateful?!
And in that case, maybe the gym is the perfect place to be practicing gratitude! If you Google “How to build resilience” this is what pops up:
It says:
Building resilience means learning how to adapt to hard times and bounce back from stress. You can grow this skill like a muscle by taking care of your body, staying connected with others, and changing how you think about problems.
Last week, Barry reminded us again and again of the power of gratitude to change the way we think!!
Gratitude helps build our resilience as we remember what God has done in the past and we look ahead and trust Him for what He will do in the future! Gratitude builds hope as we wait for the ‘not yet,’ and fosters emotional resilience in the ‘now.’
It’s why we spent time “working out” our gratitude muscle at the end of service last week, when we wrote out the things we’re grateful for!
So many of you have a testimony like mine, like the prisoners and fools in Psalm 107! So many of you were bold enough to declare, in your own words, that you are grateful for where you are compared to where you once were!
I read:
“Today I’m grateful [that] Jesus delivered me from the wasteland of addiction and set me on a path of following Him more closely. His redemption has helped me to renew my mind and to live out being His workmanship!”
Somebody say, “Thank You, Lord!”
“Today I’m grateful for God walking with me through difficulties, brought on by my own behaviors, and never leaving and eventually pulling me from darkness to light!”
Somebody say, “Thank You, Lord!”
I don’t know who wrote this, but it sounds like that shepherd’s hook, in the hands of Jesus, our loving Good Shepherd, snatched you, from the shadow of death, and pulled you into His marvelous light! Somebody better praise the Lord!!
“Today I’m grateful [that] the Lord never left me in my wilderness, even when I was there by my own choices!”
Somebody say, “Thank You, Lord!”
“Today I’m grateful for His unconditional presence, even when I stray – He is the constant that never fails me. My peace, my rock, and my center!”
Somebody say, “Thank You, Lord!”
“God’s grace, forgiveness, and unconditional love after all my mistakes”
Somebody say, “Thank you, Lord.”
“Dios es mi padre y mi Ama. Gracias porque me hizo su hija. ¡Gracias a su hijo, que me dio libertad y rompió las cadenas que me ataban! ¡Me salvó a mí y a mi casa! Gracias por usarme, por llenarme de su Espíritu Santo. Gracias por ayudarme a crecer y por darme un propósito.”
“God is my Father and my Lord. Thank you for making me your daughter, and thank You to Your Son, who brought me freedom and broke the chains that bound me! You saved me and my household! Thank You for using me and for filling me with Your Holy Spirit. Thank You for helping me grow and for giving me a purpose!”
Hallelujah! Somebody better say, “Gracias, Señor!”
Thank you, God!”
“God’s perseverance in my life. Even when I distanced myself far from Him, he was still working in my life and leading me back to Him!” --- Yes, He was, and yes, He always will! Because He loves us with an unfailing love. A faithful love!
Somebody say, “Thank you, Lord.”
“Today I am SO THANKFUL for God remaining present in my life, even when I held intense hatred for Him. He continued to remain in my life and send me lifelines so that I could make my way back to Him. I am SO thankful that he never gave up on me even when I had given up on myself. I am thankful for His persistent love! Thank you, God, for loving me!”
Oh aren’t you grateful? Aren’t you grateful for His love! Aren’t you grateful for Him? God is love!
Somebody say, “Thank you, Lord.”
And I’ll close with this one:
Today, I’m grateful for other people who are brave enough to share their stories of God’s love so that others can have hope in their lowest times!
Let the redeemed of the Lord SAY SO!
SAY IT OUT LOUD!
Share your stories of God’s love and faithfulness, so that others can have hope in their lowest times! Hope! In the waiting. And resilience in the here and now!
“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.
2 Has the LORD redeemed you? Then speak out!
Tell others he has redeemed you…
Tell of His goodness!
Tell of His mercy!
Tell of how He brought you from a mighty long way!
Tell of how He snatched you from the doorway of death!
Tell of how he led you through the wilderness!
Tell of His forgiveness!
Tell of His power to save!
Tell of how He comforted you in dark times.
Tell of his faithfulness!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits…”
Psalm 103:1-2
Lord, I’m grateful for where I am, compared to where I was! And I’m grateful that you will never leave me or forsake me! And I’m grateful that you are the Good Shepherd, who guides me by day and by night, in good times and bad. Your rod to protect me, your staff to guide and correct me. I am grateful that you know me and have called me your own. As I look back over my life, and I think things over, I can truly say that I’ve been blessed! Blessed beyond measure, because I am the beneficiary of God’s benefit: his unfailing love, his steadfast love, his loyal, merciful love!
Somebody say, “Thank You, Lord!”