Gratitude

Praise should always follow answered prayer; as the mist of earth's gratitude rises when the sun of heaven's love warms the ground. Hath the Lord been gracious to thee, and inclined his ear to the voice of thy supplication? Then praise him as long as thou livest. Let the ripe fruit drop upon the fertile soil from which it drew its life. Deny not a song to him who hath answered thy prayer and given thee the desire of thy heart.

To be silent over God's mercies is to incur the guilt of ingratitude; it is to act as basely as the nine lepers, who after they had been cured of their leprosy, returned not to give thanks unto the healing Lord. To forget to praise God is to refuse to benefit ourselves; for praise, like prayer, is one great means of promoting the growth of the spiritual life. It helps to remove our burdens, to excite our hope, to increase our faith. It is a healthful and invigorating exercise which quickens the pulse of the believer, and nerves him for fresh enterprises in his Master's service.

To bless God for mercies received is also the way to benefit our fellow-men; "the humble shall hear thereof and be glad." Others who have been in like circumstances shall take comfort if we can say, "Oh! magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together; this poor man cried, and the Lord heard him." Weak hearts will be strengthened, and drooping saints will be revived as they listen to our "songs of deliverance." Their doubts and fears will be rebuked, as we teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. They too shall "sing in the ways of the Lord," when they hear us magnify his holy name.

Praise is the most heavenly of Christian duties. The angels pray not, but they cease not to praise both day and night; and the redeemed, clothed in white robes, with palm-branches in their hands, are never weary of singing the new song, "Worthy is the Lamb."

From Charles Spurgeon's Morning and Evening: entry for 30th October. 

Gratitude

In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Letters and Papers from Prison

Temperance in appetite

God's intention and design for creation is that all should be well fed. In the brokenness of our world, this is not so; there is a broad gap between God's ideal and the reality of hunger in our world, owing in large part to the human resistance to sharing. The Old Testament insists on lavish generosity: "Open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land"" (Deut 15:11, KJV). When we eat redemptively, we honor God's desire for all to be fed by taking action to close that gap. This awareness does not diminish the reality of pleasure or the importance of gratitude. It can, however, encourage us toward temperance in our appetites.

Rachel Marie StoneEat with Joy

Remember

Verse 5. Remember. How others may be affected I do not ask. For myself, I confess, that there is no care or sorrow, by which I am so severely harassed, as when I feel myself guilty of ingratitude to my most kind Lord. It not seldom appears to be a fault so inexplicable, that I am alarmed when I read these words, inasmuch as I consider them addressed to myself, and others like me. Remember, O ye forgetful, thoughtless, and ungrateful, the works of God, which he hath done to us, with so many signs and proofs of his goodness. What more could he have done, which he hath not done?—Folengius.

From the additional notes to Psalm 105 in The Treasury of David, by Charles Spurgeon.  

The following entry about Folengius' life seems to have been translated from another language (his books were on the Index of books that Catholics were prohibited from reading for a time):


Jean Baptist F O L E N G I O 
entered into a Benedictine monastery in his native city, 

where his talents and industry obtained for him a high re

putation for proficiency in literature and sacred criticism, 

while the excellence of his disposition rendered him an 

object of general esteem. He was selected to fill the most 

important and distinguished stations in his order, and he 

was afterwards chosen by Pope Paul IV. as visitor of the 

Benedictine foundations in Spain. When he had per

formed this task, he returned to his native country, 

and devoted himself almost wholly to theological studies, 

in the course of which he conceived the hopeless project 

of uniting Catholics and Protestants in one communion. 

After a life spent in the service of his fellow creatures, he 

died in 1559, in his seventieth year. He left behind him 

many theological writings, of which the principal were "Com

mentaries upon the Epistles of St. James, St. Peter, and 

the first Epistle of St. John," published in 1551, in 8vo; 

also a "Commentary upon the Psalms." These works 

must have had more than common merit in respect to libe

rality of sentiment, as they were prohibited by his church. 

His "Commentary on the Psalms" indeed was reprinted 

in 1585, but revised and abridged. Dupin says that he 

"writes purely and nobly," and Thuanus had reason to say, 

"that no man will ever repent the reading of his Commentaries." 

Remembering

Verse 5. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done. Memory is never better employed than upon such topics. Alas, we are far more ready to recollect foolish and evil things than to retain in our minds the glorious deeds of Jehovah. If we would keep these in remembrance our faith would be stronger, our gratitude warmer, our devotion more fervent, and our love more intense. Shame upon us that we should let slip what it would seem impossible to forget. We ought to need no exhortation to remember such wonders, especially as he has wrought them all on the behalf of his people.

From The Treasury of David by Charles Spurgeon.  Spurgeon's own comments on Psalm 105 verse 5.

Remembering

Memory is very treacherous about the best things; by a strange perversity, engendered by the fall, it treasures up the refuse of the past and permits priceless treasures to lie neglected, it is tenacious of grievances and holds benefits all too loosely. It needs spurring to its duty, though that duty ought to be its delight. Observe that [David] calls all that is within him to remember all the Lord's benefits. For our task our energies should be suitably called out. God's all cannot be praised with less than our all. Reader, have we not cause enough at this time to bless him who blesses us? Come, let us read our diaries and see if there be not choice favours recorded there for which we have rendered no grateful return. Remember how the Persian king, when he could not sleep, read the chronicles of the empire, and discovered that one who had saved his life had never been rewarded. How quickly did he do him honour! The Lord has saved us with a great salvation, shall we render no recompense? The name of ingrate is one of the most shameful that a man can wear; surely we cannot be content to run the risk of such a brand. Let us awake then, and with intense enthusiasm bless Jehovah.

From Charles Spurgeon's Treasury of David, commentary on Psalm 103 verse 2.