The Reflex of Gratitude

This morning I was reading from Psalm 63, and the first 5 verses in particular held my attention:

Verse 1 - "O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

Verse 2 - "I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory."

Verse 3 - "Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you."

Verse 4 - "I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands."

Verse 5 - "My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you."

I noticed in this passage that David expressed a clear need that he was experiencing. The psalm title tells me that David was in "the Desert of Judah" at the time of the writing of this psalm, and he uses the imagery of the barren thirstiness of a desert to describe his own longing for God.

But David expresses his need only in verse 1. After verse 1 the whole emphasis of the psalm shifts from his need to God. The focus moves from himself to the Lord. I'm amazed by the fact that the entire rest of the psalm is not about David but about the Lord! Only verse 1 expresses the need; the attention of the rest of the psalm is firmly fixed on God.

I particularly love verse 5 (which is God's answer to verse 1). It says: "My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods..." David's soul, which had been thirsting after God "in a dry and weary land where there is no water," now experiences the total satisfaction likened to that which when one's hunger is satiated after a royal banquet!

Each verse in Psalm 63, from verse 2 onwards, shows that the reflex response of David's heart is to sing praises to God. And this reflex of gratitude is what I'd like share about this morning.

The body has certain physical reflex actions. If sudden movement is detected close to the eye, the eye will shut on reflex. If you tap the knee with a hammer, the reflex action will cause your leg to kick out automatically. In the same way, I believe, there are certain reflex actions we can develop spiritually. One of those reflex actions is gratitude in the midst of adverse circumstances.

On Wednesday, my friend Pak Ting sent me an email in which he quoted an old hymn, called "Count Your Blessings." The first verse goes like this:

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

Have you ever felt like there is no light at the end of the tunnel? I've been there. In fact, I been somewhat more cynical, remarking with tongue in cheek, "The light at the end of the tunnel is probably an oncoming train!"

You may remember from my post on "The Recipe of Joy" that one of the key ingredients for an all-conquering joy is hope. When hope is lost, it's like the perimeter of your world shrinks to about 2cm from your skin. The entire focus of your world is on you - your feelings, your problems, your very hopelessness. It's a condition I call "micro-perspectivitis."

A few years back, I went through a period where I really struggled with depression (you can probably tell from the way that I write that I know what I'm talking about here). I remember what a pit of darkness it was at the time. But in the midst of this dark time, the Lord began to speak. He challenged me on a number of fronts, but one area in particular was concerning the gratitude reflex.

As I began asking the Lord to rescue me "out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire" (Psalm 40:2), the Lord started to teach me about the value of a heart of gratitude. Remember, I was heavily depressed at the time. How can you possibly have gratitude when you're clinically depressed?

Well, this is not as impractical as it sounds. Clinical tests were at one time conducted on patients with severe depression, with instructions for them to stand in front of the mirror each morning and smile at themselves. Other instructions included laughing - actually forcing a deep "belly laugh". What they discovered was two things:

1. The body cannot tell the difference between genuine laughter and forced laughter, or a genuine smile and a forced smile - hormones and chemicals are released, even when the laughter is forced, having a positive effect on both the physiology and psychology of the person.

2. A significant majority of the patients overcame their depression through this regular regime of smiles and laughter.

If this is the case, is it so strange, then, to suggest that a deliberate change in how I express gratitude toward God might have an effect upon my long-term emotional state?

As I began to learn these principles, the Lord took me to Romans 1:21, which says:

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened."

In Romans 1:18-32, we find God's diagnosis of mankind's spiritual illness (later, in the following chapters, Paul gives God's prescription, which he calls "the gospel of Christ" - Romans 15:19). But notice that the starting point for mankind's downward spiral of degradation and godlessness is found in verse 21:

1. They did not acknowledge God as God
2. They did not show gratitude toward God

In 2 Timothy 3:2, Paul describes the condition of humanity in the "last days" and provides the following sordid list: "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful..." While it may seem innocuous, a lack of gratitude will result in a suppression of the truth (Romans 1:18-19), which in turn deteriorates into a condition where "their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1:21).

For me, the downward spiral had not resulted in gross wickedness or godlessness. It had, however, resulted in deep depression. But the Lord began to challenge me that even though the downward spiral may outwork itself in different ways, the initial trajectory of the downward spiral is always the same. I had ended in depression because 1) I was not acknowledging God as God, and 2) I had become ungrateful toward God. And in order to reverse this downward spiral, and introduce a new positive spiral into my life, I needed to address these fundamental issues in my attitude to God and to life.

Once God's diagnosis was revealed, his prescription also became clear. I determined that I would begin to show gratitude toward the Lord, whether I felt like it or not. When I woke in the morning, the first thing I did, even before my feet hit the floor, was to thank the Lord for as many things as I could: my family, my work, the home God had given me, the fact that I had enough money to eat, that I had clothes to wear...the list, once you begin, can get very extensive. I thanked the Lord for his love for me, the fact that Jesus had taken my place on the Cross, that I had eternal life, that God had forgiven my sins. I remember one time I felt such dark depression that I could barely thank the Lord for anything. I simply thanked the Lord that I was alive and that he loved me. Yet that was enough, at the time, to trigger the process of God's grace in my life.

But slowly, together with regular injections of worship, prayer and fellowship, the Lord brought me out of the dark pit of depression. Every now and again, I might still get a twinge of discouragement, but immediately I'm now able to counter it by acknowledging God as God and by being thankful.

The Bible has a lot to say about gratitude. Take a look at these examples:

• Ephesians 5:20 - "...always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

• Colossians 2:7 - "...rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

• Colossians 3:15 - "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

• Colossians 3:16 - "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God."

• Colossians 3:17 - "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

• Colossians 4:2 - "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful."

• 1 Thessalonians 5:18 - "...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

• Hebrews 12:28 - "Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe..."

• Psalm 100:4 - "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name."

According to The Message's version of Colossians 3:15, we need to "cultivate thankfulness." Likewise, The Message's rendition of Colossians 4:2 instructs us: "Stay alert, with your eyes wide open in gratitude." According to The Message's clever twist of words, Psalm 100:4 gives these "login" instructions for entering into the presence of God: "Enter with the password: 'Thank you!'" And I particularly like the way The Message paraphrases Colossians 3:17:

"Let every detail in your lives - words, actions, whatever - be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way."

This is not about feeling grateful. It's about being obedient. Gratefulness is not an emotion; it's a decision. When I get up in the morning, I can choose to be grateful to God - or not. As I face life's circumstances, I can choose to recognise God as God in my life and thank him for all he has given me, or I can choose to focus on my problem and assign blame for that problem to God.

This is actually serious business. While describing how the people of Israel fell in the wilderness due to their unbelief and ingratitude toward God (the two concepts are closely linked), Hebrews 3:13 warns us that such ingratitude and murmuring against God is a symptom of being "hardened by sin's deceitfulness." Hebrews 4:11 then cautions us to "make every effort to enter [God's] rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience." The same story is told in 1 Corinthians 10:5-13, with a similar warning in verse 10: "And do not grumble, as some of them did — and were killed by the destroying angel."

Each and every day, I have a choice to make. And I've learned to choose an attitude of gratitude toward the Lord. For example, I may begin the day by thanking the Lord in any of the following ways:

• Thank you, Lord, for this brand new day, and that each day is a new beginning with you!

• Thank you, Lord, for your mercies, which are new every morning!

• Thank you, Father, for your unfailing love toward me!

• Thank you, God, that you are always faithful!

• Thank you, Jesus, for giving up your life for me.

• Thank you, God, for the sacrifice of Jesus upon the Cross, through which I now have forgiveness and cleansing!

• Thank you, dear Lord, for my family - they are your wonderful gifts to me!

• Thank you, Father, for giving me Elena - my friend, companion and helpmeet!

• Thank you, Lord, for giving me life, a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and a reason for living!

And the list goes on and on, with infinite variations and combinations. Can I encourage you to "cultivate thankfulness" in the same way in your own life? No matter what circumstances you may be facing, you have a choice to make. Make the choice which not only pleases God, but also opens the door for him to turn your circumstances around for his plan and purpose in your life (Romans 8:28).

Flip back to Psalm 63:6-8, which goes on to say:

"On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me."

Don't just begin the day with the gratitude toward the Lord; end the day also with gratitude. One of the things the Lord has taught me, in my walk with him, is how to begin and end the day with thankfulness. At night, I rehearse what God has done in my day, and thank him for his grace and mercies revealed throughout the day.

My day then becomes a "sandwich of gratitude":

• Opening slice of gratitude (in the morning) - "Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you" (Psalm 64:3).

• The meat of the day - "My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me" (Psalm 63:8).

• Closing slice of gratitude (in the evening) - "On my bed I remember you...I sing in the shadow of your wings" (Psalm 63:6-7).