Do we have an attitude of thankfulness for all the blessings of today? In most countries there is ample food and clothing, especially in the developed world where there is an abundance of everything we could possibly need – and many things we do not need! It is such a contrast to the time we were young during the war years, but how thankful are we?

A thankful spirit is rarely seen; instead the human spirit is to seek more, especially money, or to blame someone (usually the government) when it is lacking. This occurred to us as we read David’s 69 Psalm, written at a difficult time of his life, despairing of “those who hate me without a cause” (verse 4). He saw many who lacked any love for God and says, “the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me” (verse 9). Parts of the Psalm become a prophecy of the experiences of his greater son Jesus, “I looked for pity, but there was none … for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink” (verses 20,21). Of those who showed no pity, David wrote, “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living” (verse 28) and sadly that will also be the lot of all those who do not have the spirit of thankfulness, but instead take everything, as their right.

The Psalm reaches its climax as David writes, “let your salvation, O God set me on high! I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving” (verses 29,30). There is a parallel to this in Exodus 15 when “Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD” (verse 1). It was a song of thanksgiving, “I will sing to the LORD … he has become my salvation … I will praise him … I will exalt him” (verse 2).

Sadly, as we read on in Exodus, we see the majority failed to maintain their thankfulness and confidence in God. In verse 26 we read that the LORD said to them, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God and do that which is right in his eyes …” (verse 26). Today, if we diligently read the word God has preserved – and believe and live in a way that shows we believe, then yes, a wonderful future will be ours.