Psalm 92:1-15

Gratitude towards God is one of the biggest keys to living a life that is joyful and pleasing to the Lord.  It is not because God needs us to praise Him or thank Him but because it helps us to live our lives with a proper perspective.  It is easy for us to be distracted by the world and influenced by the world in which we live.  As we look around us and consider the ways of the world we might begin to think that God has somehow lost control.  Bad things do happened and they tend to stick in our minds for much longer than the good things.  In fact there are many blessings and good things that happen to us that we simply do not notice unless we stop and intentionally take time to consider the reasons we have for being grateful.  Of course when we take time to consider our reasons for being grateful, that will naturally flow into praise and worship of the Lord.  That is what God created us to do and it is what we feel the most fulfilled in doing.  Thanking and praising the Lord fills our hearts with joy.  This Psalm gives us two very good reasons for thanking and praising the Lord.

THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED IS PASSING: This truth is not easily recognized; in fact the foolish will never be able to see this truth.  Too often we get stuck on the fact that the wicked prosper at all.  The idea of evil men flourishing on earth seems so wrong to us that when it happens we have a tendency to get all bent out of shape about it.  What we must constantly remind ourselves about is that this prosperity is short lived and always ends in destruction.  In our minds their good fortune may seem like it is not very passing.  In fact there are times when it will last for their entire lives.  However, it is important to remember that our lives on earth are passing very quickly.  When we consider eternity, and it is very important for us to consider eternity on a regular basis, it but our earthly lives in a proper perspective.  Though evil may flourish on this earth, it will all be burned away on the shores of eternity.


THE PRODUCTIVITY OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS PERMANENT: We must gain God’s perspective on the history of the world.  God’s faithfulness is everlasting and the rewards that He offers the righteous are of an eternal nature and not a temporary one.  It is important that we constantly remind ourselves of this truth because it is not readily observable in our day to day experience on the earth.  While the prosperity of the wicked is compared to grass that withers and burns quickly, the productivity of the righteous is compared to a palm tree that continues to bear fruit in their old age.  The truth is that that no matter how much we suffer under the evil that flourishes on earth; God is always faithful and our eternal life with Him is secure forever.  The more we meditate on this truth, the greater our contentment before Him will be.

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