LIFE SKILLS VIII: LET US SHOUT ALOUD
Developing a Thankful Heart

Psalm 95 (NLT)

1 Come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us give a joyous shout to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving.
Let us sing him psalms of praise.
3 For the LORD is a great God,
the great King above all gods.
4 He owns the depths of the earth,
and even the mightiest mountains are his.
5 The sea belongs to him, for he made it.
His hands formed the dry land, too.
6 Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the LORD our maker,
7 for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over,
the sheep under his care.
Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!
8 The LORD says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah,
as they did at Massah in the wilderness.
9 For there your ancestors tried my patience;
they courted my wrath though they had seen my many miracles.
10 For forty years I was angry with them, and I said,
"They are a people whose hearts turn away from me.
They refuse to do what I tell them."
11 So in my anger I made a vow:
"They will never enter my place of rest."

I know I lack a thankful heart. How do I know? All I need to do is watch myself in traffic. I grew up in the Los Angeles area, notoriously known for its traffic. The freeways are constantly a parking lot, no matter what time of day it is (unless of course you’re driving at 1:00 in the morning). Even the weekends are jammed pack with motorists driving all over the place and going in all directions, sometimes using illegal means to do so.

I admit I hate sitting in traffic. I get impatient as my car inches by at less than five miles an hour. Cutting people off is a skill you need to develop. There is no time to signal before switching lanes; you either go for it and squeeze into a narrow space between two cars, or you have to wait 30 minutes before finding another open lane. And do not think that just because you signal people will let you into their lane: LA drivers value any space they can get on the freeway. Now add all this with smoggy weather, no AC in your car, a sore back and rear end, and constant braking, and you too can easily grumble and complain. I confess I can be unpleasant when I drive in these conditions.

I will also confess that in the midst of my complaining and bitterness I am not thankful I could actually drive and that I have a car to drive. Many people do not have their own personal automobiles to drive to work. They have to use public transportations to get around town. Many individuals also do not have the privilege to own a driver’s license. I can do both, but I seem to take these privileges for granted when I am caught in traffic. Because I feel like I am being inconvenienced I deserve to whine about the situation rather than being humble that I have the opportunity to drive in the first place.

Surely many of us can identify with this situation. It may not be traffic for you, but it could be busyness in life, relationship problems, family issues, etc. Whatever the situation is one thing is clear: it is easier for us to complain and grumble rather than to have a thankful heart. For some reason we believe we are entitled to the best things that life has to offer. Only then do we acquire a thankful heart. But, if life hands us a degrading situation, we protest to our heart’s content.

But, have you wondered that the reason why you are constantly bitter and angry is because you do not have a thankful heart? Maybe your lack of close friendships is due to your constant complaints towards others instead of appreciation of love and care for them. Maybe you take your loved ones for granted, which is a form of abuse rather than one of thanksgiving. Whatever the causes are, a deficiency of a thankful heart will always result in brokenness instead of healing.

Psalm 95 speaks about the importance of having a thankful heart. A thankful heart connects us in worship to the almighty God. It is in the presence of this God where we find strength and restoration. And it is from this restoration that we are called to convey God’s healing to those who live shattered existences.

Psalm 95 begins with the psalmist calling the people to enter the presence of the Lord with singing and psalms of praise. (verses 1-2) Scholars believe that the scene is one where people are summoned from all over the land to approach the Temple and dwell in God’s presence. Imagine the sight of thousands of people from every direction beginning to congregate, shouting out loud and proclaiming in one joyous voice towards the rock of their salvation. And specifically, the psalmist calls the people to come before God with thanksgiving. (verse 2a) Here is the first principle:

1. A thankful heart must be the basis of our lives. (verses 1-2)

Normally we are thankful when something good has been done to us. A thankful heart is the result of somebody extending kindness towards us. But, note in verse 2 that we approach God in thanksgiving, not necessarily because God did something good for us, but because a thankful heart is just the proper response to God. We must learn that a thankful heart must be the basis of our lives and character. It is possible to be thankful even when nothing good is being done to you.

· Do not always think a thankful heart is the result of a good deed done upon you.

We must break away from thinking that we are only thankful if somebody is nice to us or has treated us well. But, if we are always called to approach God in thanksgiving, whether or not God blesses us first, then surely we can also approach everything in life with thanksgiving, whether or not we experience blessing first. Having this attitude will prepare us to be always thankful in all circumstances.

· We must constantly be thankful even when life is painful.

Always having a thankful heart means we are also grateful during the most difficult times of life. Normally life’s complexities only invite our complaints and grumbling. When our parents abuse us, we complain. When our significant others exploit us, we criticize. When I face constant traffic on the freeways I fume and get upset over the perceived stupidity of other drivers who do not know how to drive and are getting in my way.

· A thankful heart projects a zealous passion for God.

But, when we cultivate a thankful heart that passionately seeks after God, we also embrace the varied intricacies of life in thanksgiving. How so? Our second principle is:

2. A thankful heart is anchored upon the God of reliability and permanence. (verses 1, 3-5)

Verse 1 states that we are to give a joyous shout to God, the rock of our salvation. Being the rock means God is reliable and trustworthy, unlike our emotions and moods, which many times fluctuate without any rhyme or reason.

· A thankful heart is not dependent upon our emotional moods.

Unfortunately, our emotions and moods are intricately tied to having a thankful heart. If somebody gets us upset, we are not thankful. If somebody said something bad about us, we are not grateful. We cold hold grudges against a person for the rest of our lives just because this person said we are not handsome or beautiful!

Yet, a thankful heart should not be based on how we feel. A thankful heart is developed within us because God is the rock of our salvation!

· We are always thankful because of God’s constancy, stability and protection over us!

We should be thankful because our foundation is always stable and constant. We can count on God to be the same yesterday, today, and forever. As human beings our beliefs and character are always in flux; we are one person one day and another person another day. No wonder we can easily be thankful to our friend today, but brand him as an enemy the next day.

But, the Lord God is different. He is the rock. He is the great king above all other (false) gods. All of creation belongs to him, from the depths of the earth, to the mightiest mountains, to the sea and the land as well. How secure are we to lay our thanksgiving upon this great rock!

· With God’s constancy as our foundation, we are able to restore our broken relationships with families and friends.

Since our thankful hearts are built upon a constant unmovable God, we can mend wrecked relationships with other people in thanksgiving! We are no longer dependent upon our emotions and moods to cultivate a thankful heart. Instead, we are solely reliant upon the God of all creation, in whom we now receive his strength and mercy. A thankful heart is solidly based on the rock of our salvation, not upon fluctuating feelings.

Thus, even if somebody has purposefully hurt you, you will respond to them with a thankful heart. No matter what slanderous words and hateful actions you had to endure from someone else, your thankful heart is securely fastened to the great God who is above all other gods. Restoration with our enemies can be accomplished because our hearts of thanksgiving are not dependent upon human emotions; instead, our hearts are dependent on the permanency and eternal hope found in God alone.

This is further elaborated in verses 6-7a, which leads us to third principle:

3. A thankful heart brings us face to face to God’s adoring care. (verses 6-7a)

Again, the psalmist calls the people to come into the presence of God in worship. But, whereas verses 1-2 invite people to the direction of the Temple, in verses 6-7a the people are now entering the Temple. This section becomes more personal, focusing not so much on the whole community, but on the individual worshiper. Each person is to worship God in reverence, bowing down and kneeling before the almighty God. Why such a humble posture? Because he is our God, the one who watches over us; we are his sheep and he is our shepherd, providing constant care to us.

· We approach God in humility; God approaches us with healing.

We have a thankful heart because of this face to face encounter with the loving God. When we approach God he does not reject us. Instead, he embraces us with nurture and healing.

· We find forgiveness and restoration through this personal encounter with the all-loving God.

It is in this most intimate moment with God that we find his mercy. God desires for his flock to live in freedom; he seeks to break the bondages that hold us back from experiencing true love in him. Our thankful heart is shaped by this divine encounter. We are grateful because we put our hope upon a God who tenderly heals us through his unconditional love and grace.

· Result: A transformed heart will reach out to broken lives.

But, this blessed restoration should not remain in us. A thankful heart allows us to restore other broken lives as well, especially to those who might have hurt us in the past. Though you might think you are justified in distancing yourself from those who have abused you and taken advantage of you, God has other ideas.

A thankful heart gives us the freedom to forgive those who have hurt us. How so? If God’s desire is to heal us in forgiveness, then it must be the case that his desire is also to forgive those who have wounded us. Maybe our fathers never showed their love towards us; they were always strict and demanding. Maybe our mothers never encouraged us; they always put us down and say that we are stupid. Maybe we had experienced some form of abuse from a loved one. The list here could go on and on. Yet, having a thankful heart breaks this chain of hopelessness in our lives. Since we have personally received the loving care of God, we can now accept our enemies back into our lives in forgiveness. This does not mean every hurtful issue needs to be swept under the rug. But, what it does mean is that the road to recovery begins when a broken person (you) can reach out to another broken person (your enemy) because of your thankful heart. God is as much concerned about your enemy as he is with you.

Our last point is this:

4. A thankful heart does not grumble and complain. (verses 7b-11)

· Background: Exodus 17:1-7

Psalm 95 interestingly ends with this story from Exodus 17. The people of Israel were in the desert as they made their way to the promised land. They began to test God by complaining of lack of water. They grumbled that they were better off in Egypt, ironically the place where they were kept as slaves. They did not appreciate what God had done for them by rescuing them from bondage and leading them to their own land. God commanded Moses to strike a rock to get water for the people. Moses named the place Massah and Meribah because Israel quarreled and tested the Lord.

The point here is that God does not want us to have a heart of complaint. Grumbling and complaining only leads to testing one another and quarreling against each other.

· A heart of complaint only produces bitterness.
· A heart of complaint cannot forgive and restore.

- We cannot forgive ourselves: leads to self-pity and self-destruction
- We cannot forgive those who have hurt us: leads to broken relationships

· Result: A heart of complaint suffocates the growth of a thankful heart.

Maybe the reason why you are full of bitterness is because you are failing to live with a thankful heart. Your attitude towards this world is one of hatred. Yet you must still come before God with thanksgiving. Come before him face to face and let him be your shepherd. Let him heal you; make yourself vulnerable to him. Let God transform you to be a person always thankful in all circumstances. Do not be fearful about this: remember, your foundation is the rock of your salvation and he is constant and permanent in keeping a watch over you. Finally, use your heart of thanksgiving to reach out to those who have mistreated you. They, too, need healing from God. Today, let us all shout aloud with one voice; let us be thankful because of the everlasting love of our Lord God.

© Arthur Hsu (2003)