Create in Me a Clean Heart: The 40-Day Challenge (Psalms)Sample

Give Thanks to God with a Song

Psalm 147

From my childhood, I can still remember the songs we learned in Sunday school. Among others, one spoke about giving thanks: ‘Thank you for every new good morning, thank you for every fresh new day, thank you that I may cast my burdens, wholly on You…’ So simple, but so fundamentally important.

Psalm 147 invites us to give thanks. That invitation to give thanks is not optional, but rather an explicit instruction: Praise the Lord! In our everyday life, we should recognize the finger of God in our lives. Maybe it’s something quite ‘normal’ for someone: health, work, or family. For someone else it is a new morning, beauty in nature, or the joy of salvation.

Still, there is a lot of suffering, injustice and disease in our surroundings. The question often arises: “How to give thanks in all this ‘chaos’?” A partial answer lies in this Psalm.

When the circumstances are not as we wish, it is necessary to take on the ATTITUDE of a worshiper and make a DECISION that despite everything, we will praise God for what He, in His sovereignty, is.

Then SONGS can help us in giving thanks - compositions that were experienced, and written, and left for the blessing and edification of all believers. In verse 11 it says that God takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

Psalms 147-150 begin and end with a clear instruction: Praise the Lord! Let us not remain silent. Let’s use songs so we can glorify Him who alone is worthy of praise.