psalm 100 - savoring thankfulness - 24th week tuesday 2016

Today we continue our reflection on our responsorial psalm, this time psalm 100. It is entitled a psalm of praise or a psalm of thanksgiving.  I noticed for the past 2 weeks that I have been here Americans are especially thankful.  They get up the bus they say thank you as they pay the driver.  They go down the bus, they say thank you again.  Filipinos are not like that.  Probably if the driver says, its ok you don’t have to pay, then most probably we will say thank you.  Here you open the door and hold it a while so that another can enter without touching the door, he says thank you.  You allow him to go first he says thank you.  You step aside so that he can pass through, he says thank you.  Everywhere you go people are polite, politeness seems to be the rule.

I am reminded of this because Psalm 100 is also telling us to always say thank you to God, but not just as a matter of politeness but to be conscious, to be aware, to know what we are thanking God for.  If you notice the stanzas of the psalm alternate.  The first stanza commands to thank, then the second stanza tells us to know why we thank. Then again the next stanza tells us to thank, then the next stanza tells us to know the reason why we thank.

“Sing joyfully, serve with gladness; come before him with joyful song.”

Why? Because “the LORD is God; he made us, we are his; the flock he tends.”

Then it says: “Enter with thanksgiving, with praise; Give thanks to him; bless his name.”  Why?  “For the Lord is good, his kindness, his faithfulness, is forever.”

A polite thank you can be automatic.  But to savor that thankfulness because of a particular quality of God, to savor that praise because of a particular deed of God, to sincerely thank because of a goodness which we personally experience, can bring difference in our worship of God.  Know why.

So why are you coming here everyday to church?  What for?  It might be good to revisit our purpose and motives from time to time.  What are you thanking God for?  Revisit that source of thankfulness.