Mensa Otabil - Give Thanks to God
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1 Chronicles chapter 16, verses 8 and 9: Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples. Sing to Him; sing psalms to Him; talk of His wondrous works. This psalm was a psalm that was composed on the day that David brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. Thus, this psalm has different psalms put together.
So, it’s almost like a rearrangement of existing psalms to celebrate this great day in the life of Israel. If you remember, it was a day of high praises. David was in praise mode; he danced and worshiped. There were Levites who were singing, and there were instrumentalists playing. It was just a massive celebration of God’s grace and goodness as they brought the ark of the covenant back to Jerusalem. If you recall, it was in one of those dances—David was dancing like the shepherd boy he once was before he became a king—when his own wife saw him and felt extremely embarrassed by his dance. But the psalm is celebrated here; the day is celebrated in this psalm, and it tells us that our singing should be about, first, giving thanks to the Lord. It’s a very simple instruction but very easy to overlook because many times, when we’re going through the intensity of a situation, we forget to thank God for what He has done in the past.
You know, each one of us has a testimony of God’s goodness. There was a time you were in trouble; you cried to the Lord, and the Lord delivered you. The fact that you are alive now today is a testimony. But I understand that when we’re going through difficulties, we forget to thank the Lord. So, if we’re going to come before the Lord, we have to learn to be thankful, even when we are not in the best shape. We have to be thankful to the Lord for what He has done for us.
The second thing that the psalm tells us to do is to call upon the name of the Lord. When we call upon the name of the Lord, we are announcing Him. We are proclaiming Him to the world, and we tell the nations of the world that the Lord is our God. We belong to Him, and we make our boast in Him. Christian songs, Christian hymns, and choruses should announce the Lord and express the presence of God among His people.
I don’t know whether it’s ever happened to you—when you are probably away from your familiar place, maybe you’re not in church, you’re in another country, and you are just all alone. Suddenly, out of nowhere, you hear some people singing a Christian song, maybe a hymn or a chorus. Just by hearing them sing, you feel as if you are in the presence of the Lord. You know what the singers are doing? They are announcing God in a strange land, in a quiet place. Or you may be somewhere out in the bush, and then you hear somebody singing and worshiping God. It just tells you—it announces God’s presence. So, the psalmist says we give thanks to the Lord, and when we sing, we are also announcing His name; we’re calling upon His name.
The third thing that our singing does is that it makes known His deeds. It announces God’s works. Our singing focuses on what God is doing, not on what the enemy is doing, not on what the devil is doing, nor on what Satan is doing. I know sometimes we get so obsessed with Satan that we make him the object of all our singing and prayers. But our prayers should focus on God, and we should look at what He is doing: His works, His power, His glory, and His beauty. When we do that, we announce the works of the Lord in the midst of our circumstances. We announce that the same God who did it for us yesterday is going to do it for us today. So, we give thanks to the Lord, we call on His name, and we announce Him. We make His works known—not the works of the enemy, but the works of the Lord must be made known. Let your singing be Christ-centered and Christ-focused.
Let’s pray. Say with me: Heavenly Father, I see You at work in every area of my life. I declare Your wonderful works to all generations. In Jesus' name, Amen and amen.