The Cure for Bitterness

Psalms 95:1-11 ESV
(1) Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
(2) Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
(3) For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
(4) In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
(5) The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
(6) Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
(7) For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice,
(8) do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
(9) when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
(10) For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways."
(11) Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest."

When I read this I was thinking that the first two verses would make a great invocation for a worship service. I suspect that they will be used in a few places today. As I finished this Psalm I was reminded of Paul's admonition:

Ephesians 5:18-21 ESV
(18) And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,
(19) addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart,
(20) giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
(21) submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Note verse 20. We are not just to give thanks when things are going well. We are not just to give thanks for the pleasant things. We are to give thanks always and for everything. In case you're wondering, in the Greek this would be literally "in a continual state of giving thanks at every time on account of every thing".

Contrast the first half of the Psalm with the second. God is telling us to give thanks and then He gives an example of a time when the people didn't give thanks. It didn't work out too well for that generation, did it?

I want to enter His rest. Knowing that I am going to do that is a great source of thanksgiving, amen?