May 10, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Songs of Grateful Praise

Please see the links to our EXTRA Bible Study notes at the bottom of the page.

Opening Prayer

Author of Grace, Giver of Peace, say a word and break through again into my life. I need You.

Read Psalm 116:1-117:2

[1] I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. [2] Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live. [3] The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came over me; I was overcome by distress and sorrow. [4] Then I called on the name of the LORD: “LORD, save me!” [5] The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. [6] The LORD protects the unwary; when I was brought low, he saved me. [7] Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has been good to you. [8] For you, LORD, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, [9] that I may walk before the LORD in the land of the living. [10] I trusted in the LORD when I said, “I am greatly afflicted”; [11] in my alarm I said, “Everyone is a liar.” [12] What shall I return to the LORD for all his goodness to me? [13] I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD. [14] I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. [15] Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his faithful servants. [16] Truly I am your servant, LORD; I serve you just as my mother did; you have freed me from my chains. [17] I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the LORD. [18] I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, [19] in the courts of the house of the LORD- in your midst, Jerusalem. Praise the LORD. [1] Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. [2] For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“The more we love God, the more we shall come to him with our praise and worship–and the less we shall reduce him to the level of an emergency backstop” (Richard Bewes).

As we read of David’s struggles and victories, we glimpse a passionate and brave man who could praise the Lord in inspired and lyrical joy. Many–though not all–of the Psalms are credited to him. Perhaps he founded a school of poets and composers to encourage his people to express the full range of human emotion together before their God. When I became a Christian in my teens, I turned up at my local Episcopal church. We chanted the Psalms, and I grew to love the way the heights and depths of human emotion and experience were expressed in them.

Taken together, these two psalms begin with deeply personal recollections of distressing and life-threatening situations, woven together with joyful gratitude for the Lord’s deliverance and goodness. That gratitude leads the singer to “the courts of the house of the Lord” (116:19) to praise his name in the presence of the people. Then in Psalm 117 his praise moves out to embrace the whole human race. We could read these psalms as a commentary on David’s life, his battles and victories, his distress and sorrow. Today, when we praise the Lord in psalms, we know him as our Savior, born in David’s town, of David’s line, to whom the Lord God gave the throne of his father David, “and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants for ever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32-33).

We can also read these two psalms as a reflection on our own lives: looking back on times when our feet stumbled and our eyes were full of tears, when we were unwary and brought low–and ending with the psalmist’s question “What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?” (116:12).

Apply

What thank offerings could you give to God (17)?

Closing prayer

Heavenly Father, I don’t want to be like an ungrateful child, always taking things for granted and not with gratitude. Accept my grateful thanks for all Your blessings to me.

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