|
SOUNDING
OUT:
Our Response to God’s Giving
Last
week we saw that God gives out of love, and He wants us to acknowledge,
use, and enjoy what He has given us. We should respond “in
kind” out of love with thanksgiving, praise, and humility
and live for God. The Psalmist wondered what his response should
be to God in light of His many blessing on his life.
Psalm
116:12:
What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward
me?
In
light of all God has done for us, how should we respond? Psalms
68:18 declares, “Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us
with benefits…” People are loaded down and burdened
down with so many things. How blessed we are to enjoy a load of
blessings! As we keep reading, we will see just how the Psalmist
responded.
Psalm
116:13:
I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the
LORD.
Commentaries
disagree as to whether the “cup” alludes to offering
a “drink offering” or to lifting a cup in celebration
at a feast. Either way it denotes thanksgiving. “Take”
in the LXX is the Greek word lambano. The first thing
the Psalmist declares he will do in light of all God’s blessings
is to utilize or manifest his salvation with thanksgiving. He
will enjoy what God has provided. God has prepared a table before
us (Remember Psalm 23?), and He wants us to enjoy his provision
with thanksgiving.
Next he promises “to call upon the name of the Lord.”
This refers to the oriental custom of invoking the protection
of the one named. (Psalms 99:6; 105:1; Romans 10:13; I Corinthians
1:2)
Psalm
116:14:
I will pay my vows unto the LORD now in the presence of all his
people.
We
pay our vows now. By his freewill he made promises
to God which he kept without delay. Life is too short; we do have
time to waste. It is vital to keep the vows we make at sober and
reflective times. We cannot afford to let the business of life
deter us from keeping our vows. Paying vows is often linked with
praise and thanksgiving and done in response to God’s gracious
giving to us. (Psalms 22:25,26; 50:14,15; 61:8)
Psalm
116:15:
Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
One
cannot pay his vows when he is dead. We serve God now with praise
and thanksgiving. God has freed us to live for Him, and we serve
Him with humility and newness of life.
Psalm
116:16-18:
O LORD, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son
of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to thee the sacrifice
of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the LORD.
18 I will pay my vows unto the LORD
now in the presence of all his people,
It
is a thankful heart that acknowledges God’s manifold blessings,
and responds to God’s gracious giving by giving himself.
The doulos, or bond-slave referred to here was one who
had been freed from his servitude, but refused to leave the service
of his master. His love for the master and his family were so
great that he wanted to commit the rest of his life to serve him.
(Deuteronomy 15:12-17; Philippians 2:5-8; Romans 1:1)
This example is echoed throughout the church epistles.
Because of God’s love and mercy upon our lives, we, out
of love, give our lives to Him in service.
Romans
12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service.
II Corinthians 5:14,15:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,
that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but
unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Galatians 2:20:
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave
himself for me.
God
gives out of love, and he wants us to acknowledge, enjoy, and use
what he has given us. We respond to his gracious giving, in kind,
out of love with thanksgiving, praise, and humility and live our
lives in service to Him. Enjoy your personal “load of blessings,”
and let everyone know what a great God you have.
|
