Faith and Thankfulness

For several months, I’ve been thinking on a portion of Psalm 48. Every so often, I’ll go back and look at it. It’s a curious perspective, and I’ve been wondering about how it fits in my life. There’s a strong correlation to Psalm 78, so I’ve been particularly interested in how it fits me as a mother teaching my children about God.

The writer is talking about Zion, or Jerusalem, and what it tells us about our great God. I’ve been fascinated with the physical evidence of God’s blessing and how it can be a tool for showing children that God’s provision in the past (“as we have heard”) also carries into the present (“so we have seen”). Watch:

As we have heard,
So we have seen
In the city of the LORD of hosts,
In the city of our God:
God will establish it forever.  Selah

⁹ We have thought, O God, on Your lovingkindness,
In the midst of Your temple.
¹⁰ According to Your name, O God,
So is Your praise to the ends of the earth;
Your right hand is full of righteousness.
¹¹ Let Mount Zion rejoice,
Let the daughters of Judah be glad,
Because of Your judgments.

¹² Walk about Zion,
And go all around her.
Count her towers;
¹³ Mark well her bulwarks;
Consider her palaces;
That you may tell it to the generation following.
¹⁴ For this is God,
Our God forever and ever;
He will be our guide
Even to death.^[a]

For the writer of this Psalm, Jerusalem was evidence of God’s faithful leading. The writer tells us parents to pay attention so that we can show our children what God has done for us.

For me this week, I’ve been attempting to put this idea into practice by verbalizing my thankfulness for God’s physical provisions. I’ve been asking our children what they are thankful for on a regular basis. I’ve been showing them how much God has given us. And even when God doesn’t give us what we want, we can still thank him for what he has given us.

Yesterday, Bethel wanted a parking place close to the front. Laurel wanted a parking place in the shade. David suggested that God might give us both things. But in fact, we had a sunny parking spot not very close to the front. Sometimes God does this. It’s a good thing we didn’t have to walk, though. And it’s a wonderful thing that the commissary is air-conditioned! When we are grieved with what we don’t have, we can’t see what we do have. In a sense, being thankful for everything is an act of faith.  It’s an amazing thing when God takes something unpleasant and makes it good. The challenge is to be thankful when it still looks unpleasant.

When we finally move into our house, you can be sure that we’ll be walking around and counting the windows and doors. For now, we’re counting other things.

How is Scripture changing you this week?