Sub-Categorical Prayer
That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and declare all Your wonders. Psalm 26:7
Thanksgiving – Prayer is designed by God. Does that surprise you? Everything that works according to His purposes is designed by Him, so why should prayer be any different? Did you think that just because prayers come from your mouth that the structure and operation of prayer was your invention? David knows better. In this psalm, he uses a word to remind us that prayers are part of a categorical system that God alone put in place. Once we look at the Hebrew word, we discover something else about prayer. It’s part of a much bigger picture.
David uses the word todah. It’s the same word found in Leviticus 7:12, where we see it in its proper context. It is the word for a sacrifice offering under the category of the peace offerings. In other words, thanksgiving is a sub-category of shalom (peace).
Let that sink in. Thanksgiving belongs in the realm of shalom. That means it is part of the experience of well-being and right fellowship. It is expressly personal. Oh, I can be thankful for a good job, a great school, a neighborhood or security, but these are merely circumstantial occurrences. If my thanksgiving is based on only these sorts of things, then I will never be able to thank God when Job’s messengers come calling. That’s why the biblical perspective about thanksgiving is grounded in a relationship that does not falter or fail. Ultimately, my thanksgiving must be about the character of God. All the rest is subject to change, as life clearly demonstrates.
Read the verse again. Do you notice that David proclaims God’s wonders – not David’s benefits? David knew that life could take you from the cave to the throne and back. He knew that life twisted the greatest warriors for God into disobedient adulterers. He knew that no man governs his own destiny. So, he thanks God for Who God is. And he does it with a word that reminds his readers that God’s real wonder is always found in the divinely established, personal relationship that guarantees well-being no matter what the circumstances are. Thank God for God. Without Him, there is no hope of shalom.
When you offer thanksgiving in your prayers, are you thanking God for the benefits you have received? Are you able to thank Him for your trials and failures too? Do you thank Him with an eye toward the shalom He is willing to give?
