Call to Personal Gratitude
by John Stevenson
"Bless Yahweh, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless Yahweh, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits." - Psalm 103:1-2
What a proof is here of the sincerity of the Psalmist's heart and of the reality and the fervor of his gratitude! The state of his soul formed the grand object of concern to David. He watched over its feelings. He diligently examined into its position as before God. He was jealous over himself with a godly jealousy, and he suffered not his spirit to continue in a listless and lukewarm condition. On the contrary, he pressed it forward to attain higher and still higher degrees of love, and thankfulness, and joy. He called in every faculty, he summoned every emotion of his soul, and he suffered not a word, nor a thought, nor a feeling to remain unemployed in praising his Redeemer. It is as if he would say, "Whatever may be my natural and my spiritual endowments, all that is within me shall love, and laud, and magnify the Author of my being, the Finisher of my salvation, and the Sanctifier of my nature."
Who is there among us that would refuse to follow this example of the Psalmist? Who does not feel his constant need to imitate it? Our hearts within us are dull and selfish by nature. They require to be continually roused to activity and zeal in the Lord's service, and to be effectually stirred up to grateful celebrations of the Divine goodness.
Alas, how prone are we to forget the mercies of our God! Day unto day utters speech of the liberality of the Lord. Night unto night shows forth knowledge of His long-suffering. Year after year proclaims aloud the vastness, the freeness, and the excellency of His love toward us. Oh, that day unto day uttered speech also of our devotedness, that night unto night showed forth knowledge of our gratitude, and that one year after another proclaimed aloud the sincerity, the intensity, and the continual increase of our love to our Redeemer! Surely the burden of every renewed heart is this -- that its praises are so cold and lifeless, and its gratitude so grievously inadequate!
Ingratitude is no light sin. Its guilt increases in a fourfold proportion, for it must be estimated by the greatness of the Giver, by the unworthiness of the receiver, and by the number, and by the excellency, of the benefits bestowed. Ingratitude from man to man is odious. Ingratitude from man to God is base and horrible in the extreme. To accept a benefit and to return no acknowledgment is altogether without the shadow of an excuse. In the sight of God and men, the ingrate is most justly despicable.
Some sins have a specious appearance in the eyes of the world, whereby men's minds are oft beguiled to call them virtues. But ingratitude possesses not a single redeeming quality. It has no specious appearance, no fair color, no bright side whatsoever. It is unmixed evil -- essential evil -- "only evil, and that continually." Historians have not recorded it in any single instance with approbation. Moralists have made no exceptional case in its favor to admit it among the virtues. Poets have not been heard to sing its praises in any nation or language under heaven. Philosophers may have pandered to almost every vice, but none have pandered to ingratitude. Merchants have made gains of innumerable sins, but no man has turned ingratitude to account. It is an unstamped coin of the kingdom of darkness. None acknowledge it in earth or hell. It is a vice so base that even the vilest of men will turn with indignation when denominated ingrates.
Ingratitude is robbery, for it deprives the benefactor of the acknowledgment that is his due. Ingratitude is rebellion, for the King of Heaven has commanded us in everything to give thanks. Ingratitude is cruel; how many a heart has it not broken? Ingratitude is a monster which, wherever it appears, obtains universal execration, standing unrivaled in its own peculiar turpitude, alike unexcused and inexcusable.
How revolting, therefore, how "exceeding sinful" is ingratitude towards God. It deepens the guilt of all our other sins against Him, and imparts to each of them its own hateful character.
But oh, how good, how pleasant, how comely is gratitude! How just is it, how reasonable! Next in blessedness to giving gifts, is the consciousness of giving thanks. Gratitude is a noble return. It is the highest which man can render either to his God or to his fellows. It is the response of the heart -- that very response which God requires, and in which His soul delights.
Why has the Lord made this world of ours so fair -- adorned the earth with flowers and crowned the year with goodness? To draw forth our gratitude! Why did he preserve our infancy, guard our youth, and sustain our manhood? To draw forth our gratitude! Any why, in addition to all these temporal mercies, has the Lord loaded us with spiritual benefits so great, so suitable, and so precious, that neither heart can conceive nor tongue can express them? Why, we ask, has the Lord poured forth upon us all the blessings of redemption? Surely, amid other gracious reasons, this is not the least -- that He might draw forth from our hearts a full and everlasting gratitude.
Oh gratitude, gratitude! What amount of thankfulness can ever equal infinite obligations? "Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? Who can show forth all His praise?" (Ps. 106:2). Surely "it is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High. To show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning and Thy faithfulness every night" (Ps. 92:1-2).
Gratitude adorns the believing soul. "Praise is comely for the upright." A thankful heart must needs be a happy heart. Let us, then, cultivate gratitude. It is one of the fairest and most useful flowers in the garden of the soul. It should be the first to blossom and the last to fade in every believer's breast. Its presence is always pleasant and its odor sweeter than the richest perfumes. Gratitude gladdens the heart in which it dwells, and imparts its gladness to the hearts of others. It dispels melancholy. It dissipates care. It begets cheerfulness, and it throws a charm over all the little incidents of life.
A grateful man is sure to be a contented man. No fretful thought, no murmuring disposition can remain long in the breast of a grateful Christian. Whatsoever his lot in life may be, he will neither envy the position of others nor repine against his own. He will look around him with a contented mind, because he looks upward with a thankful heart.
