It’s Not About Me
Lou Tiscione, Pastor, Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
“It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night” (Psalm 92:1-2 ESV).
“It is good to give thanks to the LORD. “What a radical thought! It is indeed a good thing to thank God. This is one of the extreme understatements in the Scriptures. Yet even though it is generally affirmed, it is rarely understood so that it can be acted upon. Oh, we say prayers of thanksgiving for various things, but to look to God and know that He is the giver of everything is rare. King David declared that everything we have is from God (1 Chronicles 29:14). James wrote, “Every good and every perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17a).
The superscription for Psalm 92 declares it to be a “Song for the Sabbath”. The Sabbath was the day set apart to God. The New Testament believers set the first day of the week apart to the Lord Jesus because He was raised from the dead on the first day of the week. The Old Testament Sabbath was and the Christian Sabbath continues to be an act of commitment by those who profess faith declaring that everything is about and for God not man.
The opening stanza of Psalm 92 is often used on the Lord’s Day to call God’s people to worship because it directs all attention to the LORD which is appropriate for Sunday Worship.
The hard teaching of Psalm 92 is that everything is for God. It was a humbling realization that I was not the center of life. This principle is not only humbling for individuals, but it commands all mankind to submit to the Creator. Life is not about us. All life, all that God created is about Him. “All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16b). Jesus is the subject of Colossians 1:16. Jesus is the focus of everything.
Therefore, the psalmist said, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” He affirmed that there is no other object to which thanks can or should be given both individually and corporately. We rightly thank others but forget that God is the ultimate source of everything good. He has chosen to work through secondary causes, that is, other men and women. God is the ultimate source of every good and every perfect gift.
We may all know this. Yet at the first sign of difficulty we tend to focus attention on ourselves. We become introspective and sometimes spiral into a sense of despair. As we wait for the Lord’s return, we will experience tribulation (John 16:33). Adversity will tend to challenge our security and hope in Christ. Our sinfulness will lead us to change our focus from God to us. Even during times of great prosperity, we will be tempted to look inward rather than outward toward God. The battle is constant. Our hope of victory is solely resting upon the sovereign Lord Jesus.
The Apostle Paul reminded the church in Ephesus that every Christian will be engaged in a spiritual battle. We will be regularly challenged to lose hope and doubt God’s word. Paul’s exhortation is for the believer to “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His power” (Ephesians 6:10).
So then, believer beware that you are not immune from worldliness and self-centeredness. There is a biblical remedy. It is God’s gift of repentance. God’s remedy is the only lasting one. God said, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Thanking God begins with acknowledging that we are self-centered. In other words, we are sinners in His sight. May your acknowledgment lead to a deep sorrow for your sin. May that deep sorrow, a godly sorrow, lead you to turn from your sin of self and then to exercise the other gift that God gives to His people, namely faith.
Just as saving faith is a continuing reliance upon the person and work of Christ, repentance is an ongoing turning from sin. Christians live penitently. We confess our sins and turn to Jesus with the assurance that God will forgive our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness. Therefore, for all those who possess genuine repentance and faith follow the psalmist’s exhortation. “Give thanks to the LORD.” Life is all about Him!
