May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you.
Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us. God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him.
An attitude of gratitude, that’s what David’s asking of us. We get it by reminding God of all the blessings He’s given us (not because He needs reminding but because we do), giving Him credit for even the smallest things. When we demonstrate an attitude of gratitude, we show Him we’re aware of the constant stream of blessing that flows out of a relationship with Him. In the bargain we also strengthen our defenses against attacks of fear, anger, disappointment or self-pity because we know all the good things He has in store, no matter how uncertain the times.
Start by looking a little more deeply into all those events you normally chalk up to luck or chance or being in the right place at the right time and you’ll discover it’s the Lord, blessing you. Once you train yourself to notice, you’ll begin seeing Him everywhere in everything, and you’ll find it’s true. He really is working everything together for the good of those who love Him. (Rom. 8:28)
Since we receive so many blessings from God, this attitude of gratitude will soon become our normal demeanor. We’ll find we spend more time being grateful than almost anything else. And according to the Psalm this will bring even greater blessings, more things to be grateful for.
This was always the idea behind tithing, by the way. When the Lord admonished the Israelites to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, He said the effect of their obedience would be blessing so great that they wouldn’t have room to store it all. (Malachi 3:10) He knew that by measuring their harvest to calculate their tithe, they would realize just how much He had given them, and that this would produce an attitude of gratitude among them. The gratitude would in turn trigger even greater blessings. Things would keep spiraling up until they literally wouldn’t have room to store it all.
It’s one of God’s laws of cause and effect. As long as it’s from an attitude of gratitude, giving begets blessing which begets more giving, then greater blessing and so on. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”(Luke 6:38)
And it’s not just a financial law. It works in all areas. Someone once compared the world around us to a mirror, in that it reflects back the image we project into it. For example, approach the world like the Grinch who Stole Christmas and you’ll find that it’s a sorry, surly place. But light up the world around you with a smile, and you’ll soon see smiles coming back at you. Don’t worry about having to fake it, after just a few days of training yourself to notice and document your blessings, you’ll find you can’t help but smile.