Is there a feeling of thankfulness for all the blessings we have today? In most countries there is plenty of food and clothing, especially in the developed world where there is an abundance of everything we could desire. It is such a contrast to the war years of my childhood when there was only plenty of shortages! But now there is more than enough of everything. So, how thankful are we?

A truly thankful spirit is rarely seen. More evident is a spirit to seek more and more, especially money, or to blame others when things do not go well, usually the government. Psalm 69 was written at a difficult time of David’s life, despairing of “those who hate me without a cause” (verse 4). He saw many who lacked any love for God and says to God, “the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen on me” (verse 9). Parts of the Psalm become a prophecy of the experiences of the Lord 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). How important then for us to have a spirit of thankfulness, instead of taking everything as our right.

The Psalm comes to a 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). We saw a parallel to this in our Exodus 15 reading, 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).

As we read on in Exodus we see how the great majority failed to maintain their thankfulness and confidence in God. In verse 26 we read that the LORD said, “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 we can say, if we will diligently read the word God has caused to be preserved, and believe and live in a way that confirms our belief, then – yes, what a wonderful future ours will be.