Thanksgiving Scripture - Nov 20

Introduction...

Day 20 Psalm 40:12-17 Faith Produces Thanks in Trials
（Memorization Scripture: vv. 16-17）

12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me;
My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up;
They are more than the hairs of my head;
Therefore my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me;
O Lord, make haste to help me!
14 Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion
Who seek to destroy my life;
Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor
Who wish me evil.
15 Let them be confounded because of their shame,
Who say to me, “Aha, aha!”
16 Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let such as love Your salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!”
17 But I am poor and needy;
Yet the Lord thinks upon me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
Do not delay, O my God.

Though God has answered an earlier prayer of the psalmist (vv.1-8), a new crises brings him back to before the Lord to seek deliverance. And this is where things are interesting - what’s ruining the writer’s life is both external (innumerable evils surround me) and internal (my iniquities have overtaken me). A great key to be a Psalm-shaped thanker of God is being humbled to recognize exactly just how feeble and sinful I am but how grand and holy is my Lord. I’m brought to great gratitude because though I am poor and needy the Lord thinks upon me, not withholding His tender mercies, lovingkindness and truth that preserves me! That, brother and sisters is nothing less than amazing - though I am but dust and overtaken by my own sins, God thinks about me and cares for me in that pitiful condition. Recognition then leads to response. So let us be thankful to our God who is our sole help and deliverer, hearing our cries and not delaying to come and rescues His children.