21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
Written by Will Hickl
"I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart" is a great opening line for the psalm. How much of my heart do I give thanks to God? It may be easy to say I give all of my heart, but that is sadly not true. If it was true, then my life would look very different - and for the better. I try to maintain a posture of gratitude, but I am not grateful for all that I should be.
It has been interesting to see that Corrie ten Boom's remarks have made their way around a lot of Christian circles in the last few months, most especially the potent exclamation (and I paraphrase), "Lord, I am grateful even for the fleas." Now, if you've ever dealt with fleas, it is the last thing to be grateful for. When my wife and I were newly-weds, we didn't even have pets or carpet but somehow an infestation in our first apartment - and the only thing I was grateful for was that they miraculously spared my wife. Every day for more than three months was quite a torment, as the bites were unpleasant and itchy and abundant. I was very miserable, and definitely was not giving thanks to God for it - yet I didn't even have the added tragedy of being in a concentration camp. This makes me appreciate Corrie's gratitude all the more! I was giving thanks with all of my heart once we finally got rid of them, but I hardly took moments to thank God while enduring the affliction. But, how much more could I have done? How could I have lifted up others through my suffering? How could I have taken stock of the thousands of other blessings God gives us every day?
"I will give thanks to your name, because of your kindness and your truth." I have been very blessed to know God's kindness and truth, to know how much He cares for all of us, to know that He will provide. The psalm further proclaims "When I called, you answered me; you built up strength within me." In that suffering, I was definitely calling out to Him, but my lack of opening up my heart entirely did not allow for strength to build up as effectively as it could have!
The final verse of today's psalm contains insight into God's heart - "The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees." There is always hope to be found in every situation: from the trivial first-world problems to the unimaginable. Let us remain inspired by the Word of God as well as the saints that have gone before us as examples of joy and hope in Jesus Christ!
In what ways can you open up your heart fully? In what ways has God provided for you, even in suffering, that you may not have noticed before?
Will Hickl is the co-founder and President of NOVUM RECORDS, producer, worship leader, software designer, one half of the alt-rock duo NOVUM, and most importantly husband and father based out of Lewisville, TX. He is extremely passionate about seeing artists thrive, and desires to build good culture through art. You can find him on Instagram, check out his musings on his Substack, and check out his new worship music on Spotify or Apple Music.
Pray with today’s psalm.