This Weeks Notes ~ November 21, 2021
Our Scripture this Sunday, Psalm 116:12-14, is a psalm of thanksgiving. It was probably one of the psalms that was sung by our Savior and His eleven disciples when He instituted His own supper, at the close of His last Passover with them; as we are told in the evangelic story, “When they had sung a hymn, they went out unto the Mount of Olives.”
When the Psalmist wrote this Psalm, he had apparently been delivered by God out of some mighty trouble. He was in trouble and he directed his thoughts heavenward, and looked for help where he had often found help before. He did not look in vain; for he says, “Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.” And in the text he communes with his own soul, and considers how he may prove his gratitude for this timely deliverance. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?”
The Psalmist was not thoughtless and indifferent, one who passes through life receiving all, enjoying all, expecting all, without ever bestowing a thought on the bountiful Giver. On the contrary, he seems to have been so overwhelmed by the many of God’s benefits that he scarcely knew how to express his gratitude. He is perplexed, bewildered, overcome, he doesn’t know what to say or how to act. “For all his benefits toward me”—benefits great, benefits small, benefits spiritual; but all benefits underserving and freely given. “For all his benefits;” as they rose before his view, a vast, countless host, they laid him under a debt of obligation which he could never hope to repay.
Few of us are adequately thankful for the commonplace blessings which surround us; we take them for granted. We do not know what it is to be without them; we see no prospect of ever being deprived of them. If the world has not gone very well with us, it has not gone very badly; because we might have more to complain of, we forget for how much we ought to be grateful. Let us bow in the presence of God. We have so many proofs that we have experienced of His mercy; the pure affection that He has inspired, our sins that have been forgiven, the snares which we have escaped, the protection we have received. Let our hearts be touched with the remembrance of all God’s goodness. Let gratitude for the past inspire us with confidence and hope for the future. Let us never distrust God. We can only fear only ourselves and remember that God is the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation. He sometimes takes away His consolations from us, but His mercy ever remains.
Prayer: O God, for my existence, my life, my reason for being. Thank you for nurture, protection, guidance, education, civil rights, religion. Thank you for Your gifts to me of grace, nature, worldly good; for redemption, regeneration, instruction in the truth; for my call, yes, for the many many calls all through my life. Thank you for long long-suffering, toward me, even to this day. Thank you for all good things received, for all successes granted to me, for all good deeds I have been enabled to do. Thank you for my parents honest and good, for teachers kind, for benefactors never to be forgotten, for religious leaders always willing to help. Thank you for thoughtful friends, true and sincere, servants faithful. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits?” Thank you Lord! Amen.
Dr. Nelda Barrett Murraine is pastor at First United Methodist Church – PO Box 146 – 229 W 4th St. – Kennedale, TX 76060
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