"Becoming Thankful"

"For the LORD your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, What man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it." (Deuteronomy 20:4 & 5) Above Psalms Thirty, in my Bible, is the title "A Prayer of Thanksgiving", and below that I have written in blue ink, * Deut. 20:5; I mention the blue ink because that would tell me that I wrote that in there at least twenty years ago; maybe after purchasing a new home, or maybe during a sermon at church. The introduction of Psalms Thirty says, "A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the house of David"; which, for several different reasons has it listed as both a Psalm and a Song, which have different meanings, although they both do mean songs. If I had to try and explain the difference between these two words, a quick and easy way to put this might be, that Psalms are songs written in the Old Testament, and are prayer and praises that were written by several different writers, and the word is only found associated with those writings; whereas Song, although also meaning song, is more about bursting forth in song, as in singing unto God because you are so thankful for what He has done. As we dive into this writing and song, we should understand something about the meaning of a house, in that, it means more than just a place where you lay your head at night, or a place where you raise a family; it also means 'within', as in within your heart. The title of my blog today might seem a little odd to some, but thankfulness is a lot like forgiveness, it is something that must be expressed from your heart; which means, that you cannot just say it, it must be demonstrated by your actions and in your life. In other words, you cannot say to someone that you forgive them for something, and then still hold that thing against them, because that is not true forgiveness; just as you cannot say to someone that you are thankful for something that they have given you, and then just discard that item as if it means nothing..."Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." (Matthew 13:44)