What do you think about?

Our church just started a fortnightly luncheon for seniors. Barbara reacted by saying, "How nice that they remember the old folks like that. Wait a minute, that's me!" So we went, and it was nice. The lady who kindly started this program asked me to bring a little devotional following the meal. I read Psalm 92 and talked very briefly on what it means for God's people to bear fruit in old age (14). That verse also says they will be fat and luxuriant. Newer versions hide the "fat" with "full of sap" or something else. But the Hebrew simply says "fat". Okay, I'm trying to reduce that substance, but the Hebrews meant "fat" to be a favorable condition. Those who are so poor that they hardly have anything to eat cannot become fat.

Anyway, that was not part of my devotional. I thought about what it means to be fruitful in old age. Sometimes us old folks don't feel very fruitful. But the text seems to suggest that if we constantly remember God's goodness and thank Him, and if we make it a habit of repeating it to others, this is at least part of bearing fruit.

Then I noticed that this is really the theme of this Psalm. It begins with that note: "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, And to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High" (v. 1).

It's really hard to be a bitter, complaining person (as some old folks seem to get) when you are always seeing good things God has done and thanking Him for them. I know since my heart attack, and then when the lesson was repeated in my bout with pneumonia, I realize how dramatically I am living on borrowed time. Without contriving to do this, I find myself waking up to thank God for the new day.

Sometimes ugly memories pop into my mind. I usually remember some sin or some embarrassing situation of the past, and groan with remorse. But I have been taught that the best cure of that is to replace that thought with a better one as soon as possible. It seems we cannot help what pops into our minds. But we can help what we let our minds dwell upon (see Philippians 4:8). May God always enable me to dwell on his Goodness to me. There has certainly been enough of His goodness for me to praise Him now and forever.