Thanking God When It Hurts
Have you offered God the sacrifice of thanksgiving today? I recently read Psalm 50 in my morning devotions and that phrase popped up twice in my reading, once in verse 14 and again in the last verse (23). Now I have often reflected on the essential nature of thanksgiving in the life of a believer, but this phrase struck me and prompted further study. The ESV translates verse 14 this way, “ Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving .” They also provide a footnote with the alternate rendering, “ Make thanksgiving your sacrifice to God.” The New Living Translation adopts that alternate rendering and translates the phrase, “ Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God .” Verse 23 maintains that understanding and the ESV translates verse 23, “ The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me .” So how do you offer thanksgiving as a sacrifice? Isn’t a sacrifice supposed to cost you something? If someone gives me $100 for my birthday, I don’t feel like I have to struggle to say, “...