The reasons why I am giving the Lord thanks with all my heart

[Psalms 138]

                Last Sunday, I meditated on the slaves of sin and the slave of obedience (slaves of righteousness) centering on Romans 6:15-23.  In that meditation I learned to thank God (v. 17).  Why should we thank God?  It is because we are no longer slaves of sin.  Since we have been justified by the grace of God and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and now we have become slaves of righteousness, we must thank God.  When I thought about the fruit that the slaves of righteousness bears, I thought of two things.  It is none other than “thanksgiving” and “obedience”.

                If we look at Psalms 138:1, the psalmist David said: “I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You before the gods.”  Why did David say that he would give thanks and praise the Lord with all his heart?  The reason was because “Your lovingkindness and Your truth” (v. 2).  What was God's lovingkindness and truth that David experienced?  Look at verse 2: “I will bow down toward Your holy temple And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.”  The Lord's lovingkindness and truth that David experienced was that the Lord enlarged the Lord's word (Park).  The word that the Lord enlarged His word here means that the Lord had fulfilled what He promised David.  Therefore, because David experienced the Lord's lovingkindness and truth, he decided to give thanks and praise to the Lord with all his heart (v. 1).  More specifically, in Psalms 138, we can think of four reasons why David decided to give thanks and praise the Lord with all his heart, namely, the Lord’s lovingkindness and truth he experienced.

            The first reason is because the Lord made Daivd bold with strength in his soul when He answered his prayer.

                Look at Psalms 138:3 – “On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.”  Looking back on our past lives, we will be compelled to confess that the God of Ebenezer has helped and guided us to this point.  How did God really help us get here?  God answered our prayers and made us bold with strengthen in our souls so that we can come thus far.  As we look back on David's life, we see David praying to God like this: “Turn to me, and be gracious to me; Oh grant Your strength to Your servant, …” (86:16).  How much strength do we need from the Lord as we live in this world?  When David asked the Lord for strength, not only did the Lord give him strength, but the Lord became his strength.  That was why David confessed like this in Psalms 18:1 – “I love You, O LORD, my strength.”  Dr. Park said: ‘God wants to renew our hearts first, rather than renewing our environment.  Our hearts must receive grace first above all else (Phil. 4:23).  …  “(He) strengthened in my soul" means that God not only gave David a good thing, but also strengthened his soul so that he could take charge of it” (Park).  Our Lord is the God who gives us strength.  He is not the Lord who entrusts us with a mission and neglects us.  He provides us with the power we need to fulfill that mission.  Therefore, we must pray to God like David.  E. M. Bounds said in his book “Essences of Prayer,” “For as prayer brings the answer, so the answer brings forth gratitude and praise. As prayer sets God to work, so answered prayer sets thanksgiving to work” (Bounds).  I remember the lyrics of the Korean gospel song ‘Blessed man’: ‘You are God's blessed man who is strengthened by the Lord and has the highway of Zion in your heart.  The Lord is so pleased with you  ….”   Let’s pray to our Lord when we feel weak and helpless.  Surely our Lord will make us bold with strength in our souls, not only to David, but also to us who cry out to Him.  I hope and pray that all of us who praise and give thanks to the Lord with all our hearts as we are made bold with strengthen in our souls.

            The second reason is because all the kings of the earth gave thanks to the Lord.

Look at Psalms 138:4-5: “All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O LORD, When they have heard the words of Your mouth.  And they will sing of the ways of the LORD, For great is the glory of the LORD.”  Why did the kings of the earth give thanks to the Lord and praise Him like David did?  This was because the Lord’s glory is great.  God's glory was revealed not only to David, but also through David to the kings of the Gentile nations.  How did the glory of God reveal to the kings of the Gentile nations through David?  It revealed through the word of the Lord.  In other words, God gave the word of promise to David, whom He loved, and by fulfilling the promise, God revealed His glory to the nations.  This is what the prophet Isaiah said: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.  For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.  Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isa. 60:1-3).  Because the glory of God is revealed in the whole world, not only that we see His glory, but also the kings of the nations come to the light of the Lord.  The Lord revealed His glory through David, and the kings of the nations also saw that glory and gave thanks and praised the Lord.  I hope and pray that God reveals His great glory to this dark world though us so that all the people may see His great glory and will give thanks and praise God.  Then, like David, we will be compelled to thank and praise God.

            The third reason is because David believed that the Lord would save him who was humble.

                Look at Psalms 138:6-7: “For though the LORD is exalted, Yet He regards the lowly, But the haughty He knows from afar.  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, And Your right hand will save me.”  Even though our God is exalted, He regards the lowly.  Here, “He regards the lowly” means that the Lord is seeing the lowly with special love.  But the question is, are we lowly, that is, are we humble?  One thing is certain: God sees us with His special love because of our humble Jesus.  What a wonderful grace this is?  This grace of God was revealed more specially when the humble David was in trouble.  It is none other than God reviving David who was in trouble.  Look at Psalms 71:20 – “You who have shown me many troubles and distresses Will revive me again, And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.”  And with His powerful right hand, the Lord struck (judged) David’s enemies, the proud ones, and delivered (saved) David from the hand of his enemies (138:7).  We must believe in the lovingkindness and truth of God, who sees us with special love like David, especially when we are in trouble.  Our God is by no means a God who leaves us alone when we are in trouble.  Obviously, our God is the God who revives us with His promised word when we are in trouble.  And God strengthens our hearts with His word.  Therefore, He is the God who makes us endure even in the midst of trouble and persecution, and finally defeats our enemies, the proud ones, and saves us from their hands.  David thanked and praised God for believing and relying on this God.  In other words, he looked to the God of salvation with faith even though he was in trouble, and praised God with the assurance of salvation.  This should be what we are.  No matter what kind of trouble and difficulties we face, we must give thanks to God and praise Him in faith with the assurance of salvation.

            The fourth and last reason is because David believed that the Lord would fulfill His purpose for David.

                Look at Psalms 138:8 – “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O LORD, endures forever-- do not abandon the works of your hands.”  One thing we need to point out here is that in Hebrew, the original Bible, there is no word “His purpose”.  Therefore, if we translate this verse literally, it should be translated like this: “The Lord will complete for me”.  So what is it that the Lord would do for David here?  In other words, what is the Lord’s purpose toward David?  It was the promise of 2 Samuel 7, the word of God's promise to David.  In other words, God promised to make David ruler of His people Israel (v. 8), make him a great name (v. 9), would also appoint a place for His people Israel and would plant them (v. 10), would give him rest from all his enemies (v. 11), would build the house of God through David's descendants, and would build the house of David and the kingdom forever (vv. 12-13).  Therefore, David prayed: “Now therefore, O LORD God, the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house, confirm it forever, and do as You have spoken” (v. 25).  This promise of God is to send the Messiah who will come through David's descendants, and through that Messiah the kingdom of God, that is, the building of true Israel.  How, then, do these words of David's promise apply to us, the New Testament’s believers?  In other words, what will the Lord perfect for us?  It is our salvation.  Look at Romans 8:30 – “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”  That is why Paul says in Philippians 3:20-21: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”  This is the completion of our salvation.  In other words, it is the completion of salvation that our lowly bodies and we will become like the body of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, we must praise the Lord with thanksgiving with this hope of salvation.  Also, while living on this earth, we must rely on the faithful Lord who gave us this word of promise.  In addition, we must have the same conviction as Paul and lead a life of faith without doubt: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

                We must give thanks to God and praise Him with all our hearts for His lovingkindness and truth.  The more specific reason is because the Lord answers our prayers and makes us bold with strength in our souls.  Another specific reasons are because all the kings of the earth will give thanks to God and praise Him, believe that the Lord will save us who are lowly (vv. 6-7), and that He will fulfill His purpose for us. Therefore, let us give thanks to God and praise Him.

Wanting to give thanks to the Lord with all my heart,

James Kim

(As I live day by day because of the Lord’s lovingkindness and His faithfulness)