Last week we began a six week series of sermons on prayer.  There have been a lot of studies on the benefits of prayer in one’s life.  Some studies have found that prayer can have a positive impact on things like high blood pressure, asthma, heart attacks, headaches and anxiety. Dr. Mitchell Krucoff, a professor of medicine and cardiology at Duke University Medical Centre said, “This is the most ancient, widely practiced therapy on earth.” So it seems appropriate that we should look into it.  But here is the rather strange thing about prayer.  It is most beneficial for me when I am not focused on its benefits for me.  Isn’t that the way it is with most relationships.  If I am focused on how my marriage, friendship, or relationship with my child can benefit me, I will miss out on so much of what the relationship can offer.  If my focus is rather on my wife, my friend, or my child and the good fortune to have that person in my life then is when I truly begin to benefit most.  The same thing is true about prayer.  If we pray for our own benefit we will experience some of its good.  If we focus on connecting relationally to God, then prayer has the potential to become all that it can be in our lives.

This whole prayer thing can be a complicated matter.  I am not sure how it works for you, but often for me prayer begins with an apology, “Sorry it has been so long since the last time we talked and that every time we talk I seem to say the same thing, like ‘sorry it has been so long since we have talked.’”  Prayer can be monotonous and boring for me, I can’t even begin to imagine what it must seem like to God. Years ago I picked up a book that has guided me in my prayer time.  It is the 2959 Prayer Plan by Peter Lord and has been revised recently.  This loose leaf notebook helped guide me through the healthy development of prayer.  Peter Lord mentioned five components to prayer that were labeled on a drawing of a hand – awe (about which Laurinda preached last week, gratitude (about which I will preach in just a moment), confession, intercession, and petition. Across the palm of the visual aid was written one word – listen – reminding us of the importance of quietness before God.  Today we move into the second aspect of prayer – gratitude.   Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.
 

All our being engages in prayer.

The first thing that caught my eye in this psalm is the frequent use of the word, “all”.  The psalmist begins with giving orders to all his soul.  The Hebrew word for soul is nephesh, which at its basest definition is the appetite, the hunger and cravings of who we are – the soul, all the soul is to bless the Lord, bow down in adoration.  Then to make sure the reader has the sense of the entire being, the psalmist calls for all that is in within him.  This is all this stuff in our abdominal and thoracic cavities, where we feel life, emotions, spirituality.  It is a call to engage our entire being in expressing overwhelming gratitude.

A couple of weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, I declared that few things make us feel more alive than being scared half to death.  That’s true. A moment of terror engages our entire being.  So too can gratitude.  The day after Easter I traveled to Florida with four other pastors for our annual sermon planning retreat.  I missed Spring Training this spring, so it was good to experience a little of the Sunshine State even if baseball was unavailable.  Wednesday night we drove the few miles to the beach.  The sun was scheduled to set at 7:47 p.m.  We got there about 20 minutes before that and watched the Naples Pier become filled to capacity.  We stood on the beach and looked to our right, there were people lined up as far as we could see.  We looked to our left and more people as far as we could see.  Pelicans were diving for fish, dolphins were surfacing occasionally, and children were weaving in and out of the crowds.  One of the preachers had a Bible available on his phone and read Psalm 29:3, “The voice of the Lord is over the waters.”  At 7:45 all that fishing, surfacing, running, and reading either stopped or was no longer noticed as the sun slowly slipped into the horizon as if it were going for a swim in the Gulf of Mexico.  When the last degree of the brilliant orb disappeared, everyone standing there burst into spontaneous applause.  Jerry House looked at me and said, “Did you feel that?  I got goose bumps all over me when everyone started clapping.”  Bruce Wood said it was comparable to the overwhelming feeling he got one morning years ago, when he got up before sunrise to run the rim of the Grand Canyon.  He remembered standing there as the sun made its ascent and singing to God alone, “Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee, How great thou art.”  He said that he couldn’t finish the song that day because he began to weep.  My fellow pastors reminded me what it is for our entire being to be engaged in gratitude.

Look around you today and realize all that God has given to you – sunrise, sunset, and everything in between and let all your soul bless God and all that is in you praise God’s holy name.
 

All God’s benefits meet all our needs.

Gratitude is a way for us to remember all that God has done for us.  I have a Sabbath habit of taking out my calendar and looking at what has happened in the last week.  As I remember the events, I am also reminded of the benefits of God that have been bestowed upon me.  One commentator wrote, “There is nothing the human soul is more prone to forget as to render thanks that are due.”  If someone wrongs us it is easy to remember that for our entire lives, but the goodness that we have received is often forgotten.  That seems to be our nature.  However, that makes it no more acceptable.  Charles Spurgeon wrote, “The name of ingrate is one of the most shameful that a person can wear.”  It is important to remember.  The psalmist tells us that the Lord forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases.  These are not just physical maladies, but diseases of the soul as well.  My mom has cancer of the esophagus and has been told that surgery is not an option.  Medically, it is impossible for her to be cured of this slow growing cancer.  Spiritually, a miracle could occur, but we know that this is God’s call, and if healing from this disease does come, another disease will eventually fell her as it will each of us.  So the psalmist must not be promising unending life on this earth when he speaks of God’s healing every disease.  I am not sure how Mom’s course will play out, but I am seeing God’s healing already in her life.  When she and one of my brothers visited for the first time in years, healing was at work.  When she decided to live each day to the fullest, her days became fuller than they had ever been.  I’m not sure exactly what the psalmist had in mind when he wrote, “Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,” but I have seen how this verse plays out again and again in my life and the lives of those whom I love.

            And like an unending infomercial we discover that there’s more.  The psalmist continued, “Who redeems your life from the Pit; who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.”  The Pit is the place of the dead, and the crown is a woven head garment made of God’s steadfast love and mercy.  The Hebrew word for steadfast love is hesed, which along with nephesh is one of the richest words in the Old Testament.  It describes the persistent love of God that simply cannot forget God’s children.  The word translated mercy is described in the Hebrew lexicon as, “a motherly feeling”.  Alexander Grossart wrote in the early-twentieth century, that this word reminded him of an event in his town of Stirling, Scotland.  There was a dynamite destruction going on and in those days it was different than imploding Texas Stadium in Irving.  In those days it involved lots of explosives and a really long fuse.  Grossart said the fuse was lit and all the townspeople were gathered to watch the explosion when they noticed a little girl come around the corner of the site skipping and playing.  The townspeople started yelling and telling her to get away, but this only stopped her in her tracks, paralyzed by confusion.  Then her mother stepped out of the crowd and called her name as she extended her arms.  The little girl raced into her mother’s arms in the nick of time as the mother wept with tears of relief.  I can think of no more beautiful picture of the motherly feeling of mercy than this one.  Thank God for crowning us with steadfast love and mercy.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.
 

All our lives God refreshes us.

The last verse of today’s scripture speaks of a continuous newness.  “Who satisfies you with good as long as you live so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”  Eagles, I am told, molt every year receiving new and fresh plumage.  This is what the psalmist is declaring about the continuous goodness of God.  I have only seen a few eagles in my life, but I am guessing that the psalmist had never seen an F5 key on a computer.  It was only recently that I discovered this amazing key.  It is the refresh key.  If you are trying to follow the Aggie baseball game on the computer and the events seem to be frozen in time, hit the F5 key and watch what happens.  Right there before your eyes everything is refreshed and updated.

How is one’s youth refreshed?  To find the answer to that you would need to visit some of our older Sunday School classes.  Walk into the Doers classroom and listen to the discussion about God’s word and daily life.  Visit the Golden Rule class on Sunday or pop in on their Tuesday morning breakfast – men at Denny’s, women at McDonalds, and ask them about their Christian walk.  Talk with our older saints about their faith and watch their eyes come alive with their stories.  I see God renewing youth every week in this great church. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

I have shared with some for you that the year before I came to this church I visited the prayer service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle.  The pastor welcomed us to the service and invited us to pray.  After about 5 minutes I was done praying and started looking around.  He then said, “Don’t even think about asking God for anything yet.  Just stand in awe of God and thank God for what he has done for you.”  I returned to prayer and this time was intentional about camping out in a state of gratitude.  It transformed my prayer life and my relationship with God. It is easy for us to forget to render thanks, but it is a powerful thing to remember.  Andre Crouch wrote a song about the message of this psalm and I have asked Sterling to sing it for us today.  As he does, I invite you to spend the time expressing gratitude to God.
 

CHORUS : Bless the Lord, Oh my soul 
And all that is within me 
Bless His holy name 

 

VERSE:         He has done great things 
He has done great things 
He has done great things 
Bless His holy name 

All our being engages in worship
            All God’s benefits meet all our needs
            All our lives God refreshes us
            Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Amen.