Excuse me. I've only been studying the Bible, teaching it, and preaching it for the past thirty five years. So, I can't explain it other than it may gave slipped through the memory grid somewhere along the way. But, I don't remember spending one minute laboring over 2 Samuel 7:18-29, David's prayer of thanksgiving. I read it yesterday and it landed on me as if for the first time. David offered this eloquent prayer of thanksgiving without ever using the most frequently used terms translated thanks, thanksgiving, gratitude, thankful, thankfulness, or any of their derivatives.
We know David was no cheap-skate regarding words. He was, in fact, an ancient wordsmith, a master of the written and spoken word. He wasn't a novice in the thanksgiving department either, the author of hundreds of verses speaking the language of thanks. But, he is most known as a man after God's own heart, phrasing that moves his relationship with The Father much deeper than his verbal abilities. This thanksgiving prayer may exemplify that heart more than any other texts.
The prayer of 2 Samuel 7:18-29 is a precise confession of David's theology. And, of course, that's what thanksgiving really is, what we believe about Him. As the Tozer quote above affirms, the most important thing about us is what comes into our minds when we think about God. That's the essence of the prayer of David. He ascribes all things to God, acknowledges His providential rule over all things, the faithfulness of His promises, and the truth of His Word. In tracing the blessings of God on the house of David, and His choice of Israel in history, and the promise of His righteous rule over that house and nation in the future, the King is submitting to God's rulle over all things and His gracious provision of all things.
It's a subtle but profound truth. The use of seasonal catch phrases and terms is not so much an expression of genuine gratitude as is a right view of God. King David, one very acquainted with the liturgical expressions of thanks, went deeper than words in his prayer of thanks. He could have recited any number of litanies of temple praise and Levitical correctness. The musicians and priests could have supplied David with the niceties of Hebrew worship to flower His prayerful approach. But, the man after God's own heart avoided the conventions of the time to just recite His deep personal theology. What more is thanksgiving, anyway, but our acknowledgement of Him.
Years ago someone said we worship Him because of who He is, while we praise and thank Him for what He has done. Hmmm. Not sure that's it. I think we worship, praise, and thank Him for who He is. They're all responses to who He is.
And that may be the most important thing about us, what we think about Him.
Happy thanksgiving!
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Posted by: 陳立數學 | December 04, 2013 at 11:38 AM