Thankful
Sometimes I read the bible and feel a mixture of encouragement and intimidation. I feel nudged to live a life of quality and faithfulness, but feel almost overwhelmed by the challenge of actually following through. Today is one of those days. I hear David’s affirmation that he is going to praise God at all times - but then I realise that this psalm, like Psalm 56, comes from the time when he was forced to live in enemy territory. And as we’ve seen, his troubles didn’t stop there, because in order to survive he’d engaged in an extended time of playacting, using the most bizarre behaviour to fool the people of Gath into thinking that he was insane, and posed no threat. Think of the difficulties of keeping up the act - looking into the eyes of people who mocked, jeered, or just saw him as pathetic - there wasn’t any sympathy available for people with mental health issues in that day and culture. But David is praising the Lord, not only as he leaves Gath, but in this entire season.
A few decades ago a rather odd teaching circulated in the church, suggesting that we should praise God for everything that happens. If your child dies in a tragic accident, or your best friend is made redundant, praise the Lord for it, or so the teaching went. But that’s not at all what is happening here. We are not called to thank God for evil or even the consequences of living in a fallen, broken world of disease and uncertainty. But we are called to thank God in difficulty. If we find ourselves in shadowy circumstances today, may God’s grace enable us to praise Him in the midst of it.