By Jeffery M. Leonard, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Religion, Samford University
A Prayer of Thanksgiving
Psalm 138:1–8
My beloved grandfather, a man of deep faith who passed away a little more than a decade ago, was well known for finding humor in the truths of everyday life. One of his humorous nuggets of wisdom ran something like this: Don’t ask for the sausage recipe unless you plan to change it. What he meant by this was that however tasty sausage might be in the end, the truth is that you probably wouldn’t want to know what parts of the pig went into making it.
It strikes me that there are probably a great many aspects of daily life that work just the same way. My sanity is likely better preserved by not knowing when that airplane’s engines were last inspected or whether a mouse took a nibble of my cookie or whether that person’s cough was contagious. To dig too deeply into some subjects is only to invite worry and trouble.
Prayer may well fall into this same category. There is an inherent irrationality in thinking that words spoken by a person like me could ever impact the intentions of an all-knowing, all-powerful God. If God truly knows everything, and He surely does, what possible influence could my utterly limited thoughts add to the divine conversation.
Why then do we pray? To ask the question is to look behind the curtain of a very difficult dilemma.
I confess that I do not believe there is a fully satisfactory intellectual answer to this problem.
As with all of the other cardinal doctrines of Christianity — the Trinity, Jesus’ divinity and humanity, sovereignty and free will — prayer is a matter of faith. We pray as the ultimate act of trust that there is a God and that He is moved by compassion toward those who cry out to Him.
Thank God for His love and truth. (1–2)
Few psalms exemplify the act of trust involved in prayer as readily as does Psalm 138. In the opening verses of the psalm the psalmist gives thanks to God, sings His praise and bows in worship toward His temple because of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. The Hebrew term for this “steadfast love” is hesed, a word that refers primarily to a love marked by loyalty. It is the kind of love that remains true and devoted no matter what the circumstances of life might be. As an act of faith the psalmist determines that no matter what, he will trust in God to remain loyal in His love toward him.
Thank God that He provides all we need. (3–6)
In the next section of the psalm the songwriter illustrates the kind of steadfast love he knows God shows toward His people. He is the God who in love answers His people’s prayers. He is the God who protects the weak, chastening kings so that even they come to worship His greatness. He is a God who lives out His love toward His children.
Thank God that He keeps us and protects us. (7–8)
In verse 7 the psalmist echoes the words of the 23rd psalm. The fact that the psalmist is so confident in God’s loyal love makes the last line of the psalm all the more interesting. Though he trusts that God will work out His perfect will, he is still bold enough to believe that his urgent words will have an impact. His prayer, like all prayers, is an appeal from one heart to another, from his heart to God’s. It is a prayer born of a trust that God hears us when we call to Him.
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