Psalm 56:9-13
9 Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise—
11 in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?
12 I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. [1]
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This morning my thoughts were drawn to verse 12 and the thank offerings that David promised the Lord. As an act of thanksgiving and faith to the God who will push back his enemies and deliver him from death, David promises to present thank offerings.
In the Levitical worship practices of the time, a thank offering was something specific. There were certain prescribed offerings that one could make at the temple to express thanks to God for His acts of love and mercy.
The thank offering is also the only offering that endures for God’s New Testament people. All of the other offerings pointed to the cross of Christ on which He offered the complete guilt offering in his sacrifice for atonement. There will be no more offerings for sin because Jesus has accomplished it completely for us in this one act.
But we are still to offer thank offerings. Not cakes of unleavened bread at the tabernacle as prescribed in the Levitical Law, but to Jesus as the Risen Temple. We offer Him our devotion, our love, our acts of service. This is what Paul had in mind when he wrote in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” Our lives are to be a continual thank offering to the Lord who has died and risen for us.
So my prayer today is that the Spirit would keep me mindful that I am a living thank offering. And I pray that my thoughts, words and deeds this day would be a fit offering for my Lord, giving honor to Him above all.
What is the Word leading you to pray about today?
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[1] The New International Version. (2011). (Ps 56:9–13). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
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