God, It Is Good to Give Thanks to You
Psalm 92 reminds us of the foundation for all prayer – offering thanksgiving to God. Only with the eyes of gratitude can we see God’s presence in our lives 24/7. This is the only psalm the Hebrew Psalter designates as a Sabbath psalm. Communal thanksgiving deepens our bonds with one another and with God. In Israel, the palm trees were considered symbols of God’s providence, trees that give both food and shelter from the burning desert sun and fierce storms. The palm tree can live two hundred years and grows like the cedar of Lebanon, which lives even longer. This is the length of life promised to those in right relationship with God. We might also pray this psalm alone as an antidote to worries that rouse us at dawn or keep us awake through the night. Personalizing this psalm, we can create our own litany of praise for God’s goodness, starting with the things for which we wish to give thanks. We may recall the good people we have known who have shown us what it means that the just are pillars of strength. We sing this prayer in grateful faith because we have seen enough goodness to know that there is much more in store. Praying today’s psalm encourages us, if we are “planted in the house of God,” to grow and flourish.
It is good to give thanks to God
to make music to your name, O Most High,
to proclaim your loving mercy in the morning,
and your truth in the watches of the night.
The just will flourish like the palm tree,
and grow like a Lebanon cedar.
Planted in the house of the Most High,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.
Still bearing fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green,
to proclaim that God is upright. In God, my rock, there is no wrong.
[Verses, The Revised Grail Psalms, © 2010 Conception Abbey and The Grail, admin. By GIA Publications, Inc.]