Gratitude for the day, gratitude during the day, gratitude at the closing of the day is true worship.
When we look to the Psalms which is a doorway into the heart of David, we are entering into our own hearts. The Psalms illustrate the human condition in dealing with the good and the evil in this world. The heart of David is a candid heart, a broken heart, a sinful heart and sorrowful heart, a fearful heart, a joyful heart, a heart of new song, a heart of regret and a heart of repentance, a heart of confusion and a heart of resolve, a heart of temptation, a heart of wisdom, a heart of tears, and a listening heart, a scriptural heart, but above all: a grateful heart of praise.
David was born with the anointing of praise. David danced unencumbered his utter and complete praise of God. David sang his praise of gratitude to God in the morning, in the night, on his bed, in captivity; David sang his own song of praise in all things. David is making a declaration regarding life found in the Word. David is offering gratitude for what he has found in it by using the contrast of what gravity looks like and what praise looks like. When we meditate on the Word by day and by night, we are blessed.
Gratitude is a place that changes the atmosphere; gratitude brings the light into anything dark, dim, distorted, demeaning, into demise, or delusions, into the diluted, into the deafening silence, into the depths of being. David begins the Psalms in Psalm 1 by defining the human condition in terms of our dealings with good and with evil.
Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
The soul prospers when it meditates on the Word day and night because the Word gives illumination to the trials and tribulations of this world by the Spirit of the living God in any and all things. David said it all in verse 1: “in step, stand in the way, and sit in the company of” depicts the idea of the blind leading the blind into darkness. I would say that evil follows evil. I would say that the enemy loves to get people to follow each other into a dry desert highway of repetition of the same ordinary or dreadful circles, rather than looking to God for His rivers of Spirit watering the soul with inspiration and hope.
The verbs in the first verse, “step, stand, and sit,” are verbs of moving through life. Evil has a walk and it looks like a limp that is ever off balance; evil departs from ones true destiny by seeking people, places, and things for meaning. The ego is an insidious partner with evil, the two go hand in hand reaping attachment, aversion and fear. Step, stand, and sit represent the ways we partner with evil in life as we move without the light of Jesus guiding our way. The Word is “a lamp unto our path” and the Holy Spirit gives light in circumstances: the Word and the Spirit bares witness of the truth.
I knew about gratitude just like anyone else but it was not until I “stepped, stood, and sat” one entire fasting day in gratitude that I found the power–gratitude changes the atmosphere of this world and literally brings the Kingdom of Heaven into my life. Gratitude is like tilling the ground of my day in Praise for the essence of Life–there is revelation in gratitude, there is a path that is not seen until I am praising God. Gratitude is true worship–singing worship songs are meaningless unless gratitude is in my heart.
I would go as far as to say that gratitude is the Balm of Gilead to the soul. I am convinced that gratitude and depression cannot co-exist. Gratitude and hate cannot exist, the fruits of the flesh cannot partner with gratitude. Gratitude invites all the fruits of the spirit–without gratitude in my heart first when I pray I cannot hear God.
Today I choose gratitude for the fountain of life found in the Word.
Gratitude How I have Hidden From You
Psalm 107: 1-3
Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble[a]3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
Oh Gratitude
Oh Gratitude
How I hide from you
Ever satiating my quench
Holding my empty on bottomless
Pretending the gluttony of decadence is not a stench
Next to your imbued perfume
Oh Gratitude.
Oh Gratitude
How I hide from you
When I wallow in arrogant abundance
A competitor of more
My consumption obscuring any view
Toward your quintessential resolve
Oh Gratitude.
Oh Gratitude
How I hide from you
A prisoner of want
Trapped in tunnel visions
My obsession colliding
With insanity
The food of fools
Ignoring your laden table of concession
Oh Gratitude.
Oh Gratitude
How I have hidden from you
Lost in endogenous
Rescue me from
Entitlement
Alienate me from indulge
Absolve me from assuage
Crucify my gratify
Oh Gratitude.
Oh Gratitude
May I worship at the feet of simplicity
Pause in the moments of pain
While walking with confidence
On the sonorous sands of uncertainty.
May I ever inhale the breath the depth and width of LIFE
Noticing the brimming of loss
The opportunity in failure
Night engorged with light.
May I know this overladen day as my last
The diffused replete of destiny
The eternal symphony of love amassed
You, on my right shoulder overflowing sunbeams
Oh Gratitude.