“…..singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Colossians.” 3:16
We were no doubt taught that it is only right and proper to express thanks to whoever, when the occasion calls for it. Parents, over many years, endeavor to instill in their children the courtesy of expressing thanks when they receive something or even when someone asks after their welfare. After all, how shameful and ill mannered it is, when that simple expression, “thank you” fails to come from someone’s lips when it should!
Expressing thanks on an individual basis is a verbal engagement that should be as natural as breathing by all who are beneficiaries. But how much more as believers should we be tagged as those who are thankful? Firstly, thankful because of God’s unmerited grace and favour He has blessed us with but also, that thankful heart should be such a hallmark of our lives that it flows over to others. Now, what about the body of Christ - the church? How do we as a collective group express our thankfulness to the Lord? There are numbers of ways this can be done - it is so closely linked with our worship of God. But there is one way that Scripture clearly directs us. We are to sing! The text above is a well-known one but there are other occasions where God’s people in thankfulness to Him collectively - they sang. In Nehemiah’s time after the wall around Jerusalem was rebuilt, they had a dedication ceremony, where thanks to God was their primary aim. (Neh.12:27)
My point is, that when we gather together our singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs should be sung to the Lord in unison of heart that arises to Him as an aroma of thanksgiving. So, lets sing together with that in mind. A.W. Tozer once wrote, Gratitude is an offering precious in the sight of God, and it is one that the poorest of us can make and be not poorer but richer for having made it. [Grace Quotes]