Author: ObtainingMercy

Psalm 107:1 – O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

The Psalmist of this chapter beautifully enumerates the works of God for His people, Israel. As we read his words, it brings to our minds God’s work of salvation in our own lives:

“They wandered in the wilderness…found no city to dwell in…hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted…THEN THEY CRIED unto the LORD in their trouble…”

“Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death…because they rebelled against the words of God…he brought down their heart…they fell down, and there was none to help. THEN THEY CRIED unto the LORD in their trouble…”

“Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they drew near unto the gates of death. THEN THEY CRY unto the LORD in their trouble…”

Do you remember a day when you cried out to the Lord?

I don’t mean did you cry for rescue from a bad situation, or to get a job, or even “Heal me!” when you got a bad diagnosis.

But do you recall the day you realized you were a sinner, and that you were lost, wandering with no direction? Remember when your soul was hungry and thirsty, but nothing filled the gnawing chasm in your soul? Were you in darkness and felt Death’s shadow hovering? Was your rebellious heart brought low? Did you feel utterly alone, with no one to help?

That’s the day I’m referring to.

Did you cry out to the Lord that day? Did you surrender your heart to Him? Did you accept that His death and resurrection were for you?

Are you sure that Heaven is your home because you cried out for salvation?

If so, you understand our verse today! I pray that your life exemplifies it. Pray for me, that mine will too!

If you do not remember a time when Jesus saved your soul, please get in contact with me. You can send me a message on FB or IG, or you can contact me via this link: m.me/157557811021626 You can also leave a comment on the blog: http://www.obtainingmercy.com

I would be so happy to help you meet the One Who can save you. Please don’t stay in darkness for one second longer. Come to Jesus today!

Psalm 106:47 – Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.

You’ve got to hand it to the songwriters of Psalms: they knew what it would take to bring their people back into favor with God.

The Psalmist here begins and ends this chapter with the exhortation to the children of Israel that they needed to praise and give thanks to their God.

If they’d maintained the attitude of gratitude, they would’ve never started the slow slide away from Him.

The litany of sinful behavior in chapter 106 begins with their forgetting the mercies (verse 7) and works of God (verse 13); and they forgot that He was their Saviour (verse 21). The rest of the chapter chronicles their increasingly wicked acts against God.

I truly believe that a thankful heart keeps us away from sin. Gratitude is a deterrent to a myriad of sinful behavior and it protects our mind from patterns that are self-destructive.

Whenever you find yourself allowing thoughts that are sinful, unkind, wicked, frightening, worrisome, etc., you need to STOP THOSE THOUGHTS.

Find something that you can genuinely praise and thank God for. Maybe we should be thankful that nobody else can read our minds!

Begin to undo years of stinkin’ thinkin’ by filling your heart and mind with gratitude to your God. It will transform you from the inside out.

Psalm 106:1 – Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

God is good. Webster’s 1828 dictionary has over 40 definitions of the word “good.” Basically, God is perfect, and will act perfectly every single time.

Even in His judgment, we can see His goodness. That’s what Chapter 106 is about.

Repeatedly, God’s people forgot His goodness and works, and disobeyed God. They even learned the ways of the heathen around them, began to worship idols and ultimately began sacrificing their children to the idols.

Verse 40 says that God’s wrath (violent anger) was kindled against them so much that He abhorred (to hate extremely; to despise) His own people.

That’s when He let the heathen capture them, kill and torture them, raze their cities and destroy their temples.

But verse 44 tells us that He always heard their cry!

In verse 45 we find: “And he remembered FOR THEM his covenant, and REPENTED according to the multitude of HIS mercies.”

He literally had to remember His covenant FOR THEM, and feel sorrow and remorse FOR THEM when they were too far gone in their sin to remember or care!

It’s important to note that the covenant God made with Israel wasn’t sworn to Abraham. God put Abraham into a deep sleep while the covenant was being made. Hebrews 6:13 tells us “For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,”

It wasn’t up to Abraham and his seed to keep their side of the covenant. It was up to God to keep the covenant with God. He swore to Himself to keep the covenant.

What a precious thought!

When I am so absorbed with my sin that I don’t even remember that I’m His, and when I forget the pit that He dug me out of, He will remember FOR ME and hear me when I cry out for help. He will be sorrowful FOR ME. He will save me according to the multitude of HIS mercies.

There will be sowing to do for my sin, but over and over again God provides the means of forgiveness and reconciliation for me.

That alone is enough to follow the instructions in verse 1 and give thanks and praise to God for His goodness and enduring mercies!

Psalm 105:1 – O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.

God’s calling on the life of a Christian is always multifaceted; but He does make our purpose quite clear:  we are to make known His deeds among the people.

The most important of those deeds is, of course, His sacrificial death on Calvary for the forgiveness of our sins.

But since the Psalmist wrote this before Christ’s coming to earth, he was led by the Spirit of God to write of practical steps the children of God can follow to be a witness to those around them, and ways to encourage themselves in the Lord.

Verse 1 – The more we thank the Lord out loud, the more people will hear about His work in our life.

Verse 2 – The more we sing about Him and talk of His wondrous works, the more people become curious about our God.

Verse 3 – The more we “glory” in God’s name, the more we “exult with joy” and “rejoice” in His character, the more those around us learn about Who God is.

Verse 4 – The more we seek the Lord and His strength and His face, the more our lives reflect the mind of God.

Verse 5 – The more we reminisce on God’s marvelous works, His wonders and His judgment, the more we see that He is a God worthy of our thanksgiving.

It is an amazing upward spiral of thanksgiving leading to salvation of others and more thanksgiving in our own lives!

Start your journey today of thanking God for Who He is and for all He has done in your life. It not only helps your heart, but it will draw the hearts of others to your great God!

Psalm 100:4 – Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

I remember Psalm 100 being the very first chapter of Scripture that I ever memorized in full. It is as indelibly written on my heart as is the song “Jesus Loves Me.”

I have an incredible legacy of love for the Lord and love for His Word. Not of my own choosing, but due to the wisdom of those who taught me – my parents, Pastor, Sunday School teachers, school teachers, junior church workers and youth pastors.

So many people poured into me the Word of God, the appreciation of God’s goodness and salvation, and the importance of obedience and thanksgiving.

But if I’m honest, thanksgiving has not always been a way of life for me. There are too many years that were marked by selfishness, anger, bitterness and resentment. Those emotions do not cohabitate with gratitude. They tend to push it aside and actually erase it from the heart and mind.

But as soon as we choose to begin being thankful, God starts erasing those other emotions and starts to show us even more reasons to thank Him.

Today marks 59 years of life on this earth for me. I believe that I can say that thankfulness and gratitude play a much larger role in my heart than they used to. I trust that thanksgiving has become my way of life.

I try to make my first and last thoughts each day those of thanks to the Lord. He has been SO good to me! I can never repay that. I can never serve Him enough to make it up to Him. I could never have deserved His grace and mercy.

But I can come before Him every day with thanksgiving, praise, thankfulness and blessing.

Psalm 100:5 – “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

Psalm 97:12 – Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Holiness – the state of being holy; perfect purity; integrity of moral character; freedom from sin.

Every time the idea of God’s perfect purity, integrity and lack of sin comes to us, we should give thanks for it.

I know – that isn’t an easy thing, is it? When I remember God’s holiness, gratitude isn’t usually my first emotion. I usually feel guilt. Or sorrow. Or remorse.

I tend to spontaneously think of God’s holiness when I have violated that holiness, when I have acted directly the opposite of holy and pure, or without integrity.

But God’s holiness should not be remembered with sadness or shame. It should be remembered with thankfulness!

Scripture uses words like “glorious” and “beautiful” to describe holiness (Exodus 15:1; II Chronicles 20:21)

We must remember that if God the Father was not holy, if Jesus His son was not perfectly pure, we would have no forgiveness for our sin. Only a spotless sacrifice could make atonement for our sin. Hebrews 9:11, 14 remind us that Jesus was the perfect tabernacle and he offered Himself “without spot to God” to be the sacrifice for our sin.

Rather than trembling before God’s holiness, or rebelling against it, we should give thanks for it!

You will notice that this verse is a direct address to the “righteous”. And how do we become righteous? Through the shedding of the holy blood of Jesus Christ!

Thank God for His holiness every time it comes to your mind. It is the only way to salvation for us.

Psalm 95:2 – Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Verse 1 of this chapter extends to us an invitation: Come praise the Lord with me! And verse 2 adds a little more explanation: Let’s go right into God’s presence and say “Thank you!”

Presence – In company before the face of another; approach face to face.

The Psalmist gives the idea that our singing, joyful noise and thanksgiving usher us right into the throne room of Heaven! And there is no doubt about it that our thanks gives us the ear of our God.

I love that the Psalmist asks us to make some noise!

Noise is described as “a sound of any kind.” Further explanation is “a loud sound of clamor or outcry.” Then the definition is continued as “frequent talk, much public conversation.”

Sometimes, when we give God our thanks, it’s a loud and noisy: “Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!!!” Those times are so exuberant and joyous and memorable. We love it when God shows up in a big way and we can just shout “Thank you so much, Lord!” from the rooftops.

Then there are times of rich conversation, when we’re with one or more people and our words of thanks just go back and forth. We share an experience of God’s goodness, then our neighbor shares one of his own. Before you know it, there’s a wonderful session of thanksgiving going on in the middle of the store, on the sidewalk, in the salon or in the church house.

I think of our church’s Wednesday night service before Thanksgiving, when the pastor opens the floor to anyone who wants to share what the Lord has been doing for them. It’s always a powerful time of giving thanks to our Lord God.

But there are also times, when we’re so moved by the goodness of God that our words nearly fail us. Our spirits and minds are so overwhelmed by His mercy and love that we can’t find the right words to say. Maybe we can’t find even one little word of thanks. But from the depths of our soul breathes up an exhale of utter delight and thanks and adoration, and we literally just make “a sound of any kind.” This is thanksgiving too.

Whatever way our thanks comes out today, let’s just go on into His presence with it! Don’t worry that it’s not the right kind, or that the words are not churchy-sounding. Simply offer Him a “thank You”, sincerely from your heart, in words that you understand.

I guarantee you that you will be heard, you will be ushered into His presence, and the Lord will meet with you in that moment of thanksgiving.