Psalm 56:12 I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you.
This verse made me dig a little to find out more about the history behind the psalm and the meaning of this verse itself. It is a psalm that was written by David during his capture by the Philistines and in it he acknowledges the fear he has but counters it with a deep, heartfelt trust in God, not in his own strength.
Because of this trust in God, he made a vow to Him to present his thank offerings to the Lord and he was determined to do so. He showed his absolute trust in God’s power to save him from the situation, hard as it was at the time. He had complete faith in God to step in and bring him out of the current trial so that he could then present his thank offerings. He was promising in advance to offer up thanks for the things he had gone through and what God had done, both in the past and during this time of capture.
Do you make vows to the Lord to give thanks for things you are going through or things you have not yet experienced? It is easy for us to give thanks to God after the fact, after things are good and all has been resolved. But when we are going through a hard time it is usually not the top of our list of things to pray about. We don’t typically make vows to offer thanks during those times of struggle. But seeing what David wrote, maybe we should change that and start including vows of thanks for all circumstances, including during those trials where we are praying for resolution instead of vowing to thank Him for bringing us through it.
How can you make changes in your own prayer life? It is time to start including a bit of gratitude for the current struggles we are facing, hard as they may be. Make that vow today and give thanks to God for when He brings you through it to something better.
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