Tomorrow we again celebrate Thanksgiving Day. This is a day for family gatherings to remember and celebrate our many blessings, and to thank God and others for those blessings. Many families have a Thanksgiving ritual of everybody stating for what they are most thankful before their thanksgiving feast in enjoyed.
For what are you thankful? I suggest that you take a few moments to read Psalm 103 sometime today or tomorrow and let the words awaken your memory of God’s goodness to you. In fact, I would suggest that we make the next several weeks a season of Thanksgiving by reading this Psalm repeatedly leading up to Christmas and New Year’s Day. And with each reading, let your memories reflect on God’s goodness to you in the year past as you look ahead to the new year of 2020.
At Christmas we gratefully say “Thank you” to those who give us gifts, and I think it just as important to say “Thank you” to God for what he has given us and done for us during the past twelve months.
Maybe the year didn’t go as you had hoped. Maybe you experienced a very difficult year or at least a less than desirable year. Even so, I believe, there is much for which we can be and should be thankful.
I’m reminded of the boy in elementary school who arrived late to school and was reprimanded for it. Later, he discovered that he had forgotten his homework, and was scolded again. Then he began to feel sick, and ran in from the playground to go home. And as he ran, he tripped and fell, breaking his arm. While he was on the ground, he found a quarter. Later, going home from the doctor’s office he told his parents, “This is the best day of my life! I have never found a quarter before.”
Each of us needs to cultivate that kind of grateful spirit so that we can remember the good things that happen to us and be more thankful, even when much has gone wrong for us.
Psalm 103 is a psalm of thanksgiving and praise in response to God’s goodness. It begins with, “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” The psalmist then remembers and stacks up the many things God is doing and will continuing doing for his soul. It is interesting to note that the psalmist first lists in verses 3-7 the things God does, and then he lists the things God is, all of them being reasons that God is deserving of our praise.
As we come to the ending of this year and face the known and unknown challenges of the next year, I would encourage us to find some quiet, alone time, to open our physical and spiritual eyes and look around us and within us to discover the many things for which we should be thanking and praising God.
I think the song writer, Johnson Oatman, Jr., captures the imperative of Psalm 103 in his hymn, “Count Your Blessings.” He wrote this hymn in response to Apostle Paul’s declaration in Ephesians 1:3-12, regarding God’s goodness to us. This is another portrait of God’s goodness that would be good to read during this season of Thanksgiving.
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 has done.
When you look at others with their lands and gold, Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold; Count your many blessings; money cannot buy, Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.
So amid the conflict, whether great or small, Do not be discouraged; God is over all. Count your many blessings; angels will attend, Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.
“Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.” (Psalm 103:1-2, NLT). AMEN!
“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 27, 2019
Ray M. Geigley
Healing Rays of Righteousness 
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