The Joy of Thanksgiving

Introduction

Read Psalm 100

Psalm 100 (ESV)

A Psalm for giving thanks.

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

Thanksgiving is an act of worship. It is a response to who God is and what He has done. Thanksgiving is a submission to that which we owe our lives and allegiance to and without whom we would not exist.

And thanksgiving is a command that God gives to us. But it is a command that is for our joy and delight.

We see this command both in verse 1 and verse 4, but it is in verse 4 where we see that worship is called thanksgiving. A failure to give thanks is a failure to worship.

Which means thanksgiving is not just a once a year holiday we participate in. This is also not simply a once a week obligation. This is a constant and daily responsibility we are called to.

So as we approach thanksgiving, I pray we might be reminded of whom, how, and why we worship and give our thanks and that God will help us develop a lifestyle of joyful thanksgiving rather than just an occasional observance.

Who We Give Thanks

The LORD - Yahweh

This might seem obvious, but it’s not as obvious as one might think.

Notice throughout this Psalm, the psalmist writes that it is to the LORD (all in caps) that we are to worship and give our thanks to.

It does not simply say God.

God is not a name. It is what He is.

It is like calling me a man or a pastor.

Those are things that I am, but those are not my name.

And in the case of man or pastor, there are many people who can claim that designation.

The term God refers to the supreme being and creator of the universe.

But this term is generic and depending on who you talk to, can refer to any number of professed deities.

The large majority of people who have ever lived claim to believe in God.

That’s great. But the question we have to ask is what god do they believe in?

Allah, of Islam, claims to be god.

Hinduism believes in multiple gods.

Pantheism believes that god resides in all created things, such as “the force” in Star Wars.

But the psalmist reminds us that the LORD, Yahweh, is God.

He is worthy of our worship and our gratitude.

The LORD alone is God

Yahweh is God.

But He is not one of many gods.

There is not many truths and we get to pick which one appeals to us.

There is only one God and Yahweh alone is God.

This Yahweh is the One who revealed Himself to Abram in Ur of the Chaldeans.

He is the One who revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush.

He is the One who revealed Himself to Samuel in the middle of the night when Samuel was a boy.

He is the One who revealed Himself to David as he kept watch over his sheep.

He is the One who revealed Himself to Isaiah through the vision of His throne room.

The One who revealed Himself to Nebuchadnezzar when he lost his sanity due to God’s discipline for his prideful arrogance.

And now, this Yahweh, who alone is God has revealed Himself in Christ.

Colossians 1:15 (ESV)

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Hebrews 1:1–3 (ESV)

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

John 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

If we are to truly know and believe in God, we must worship Him as He truly is. And He has revealed Himself to us in Christ.

We can say we believe in God, but if we do not trust in Christ, we do not truly know God.

If we put our trust in anything else or in addition to Christ, then we do not truly know God.

To give thanks means that we acknowledge that Jesus alone is God and is worthy of our worship and gratitude.

We Must Know the Lord Rightly

This means that we must know Christ as He truly is.

Just as many people claim to believe in God, there are many who claim to believe in Jesus.

But we are not just called to believe in Jesus. We are called to know Him as He truly is, not as we want Him to be.

Far too often, instead of submitting ourselves to God and being made in His image, we want to be god and transform Him into our image.

We want to believe the things about Jesus that makes me feel good about myself rather than know and trust in Him as He truly is.

Which means, to truly worship and give thanks to Him, we must truly know Him.

Psalm 100:3 (ESV)

Know that the Lord, he is God!

To truly love and honor your spouse, you want to get to know them as they truly are.

This means it takes time to talk with them, get to know what their likes, dislikes, personality, dreams, past, strengths, weaknesses, etc. are. You can only truly love them as you get to know them as they are, not how you want them or think them to be.

In the same way, we are called, not to simply have emotions about God, but to have right knowledge that brings about proper emotions and affections for the Lord.

We must study His Word and allow God to speak to us and tell us what He is like, rather than us picking and choosing what God is like.

We cannot truly love and worship God if we do not know God as He truly is, regardless of how sincere our feelings are.

Jen Wilkin - “The Heart cannot love what the mind does not know.” If we want to truly love and worship God, we must engage our minds to know Him as accurately as we can through His Word.

but if we really endeavor to know the Lord, to study and pursue after Him, there is a joy that comes as we know Him better. There is an intellectual pursuit that kills joy. it is primarily fueled by pride that puffs ourselves up. But true pursuit of knowledge that leads to love actually produces a joy as we get to know God as He truly is. Let us not neglect this pursuit of God.

How We Give Thanks

So how are we called to worship and give thanks to God?

Psalm 100:1–2 (ESV)

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Psalm 100:4 (ESV)

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

We Shout for Joy

We first worship God by making a joyful noise to the Lord.

The Hebrew word originally meant a glad shout, such as loyal subjects might utter when the king appears among them, the emphasis being on the gladness.

The people demonstrates their love for the king by the gladness they have when he comes.

We see this same expression when a celebrity, musician, or political leader that we love and follow comes into our presence.

A week ago we got to take our kids, along with some other families in our church, to a concert up in Rio Rancho. While we were not able to stay for the entire thing, you could tell the audience loved the musical artists that came on stage because of their joyful exuberance when they came out on stage. There were shouts of joy and excitement to see the people we hear on the radio come into our physical presence to speak and present the songs they are so well known for. We demonstrate our love and gratitude for what they do for us through their artistry by our joyful shouts.

In the same way, every day we ought to be joyfully shouting knowing that God has come to be with us in Christ. If we truly love and worship Christ, there should be a sense of joy and excitement as we come to meet with Him on a daily basis.

This Includes Joyfully Singing His Praises

Spurgeon said, “Our happy God should be worshipped by a happy people; a cheerful spirit is in keeping with his nature, his acts, and the gratitude which we should cherish for his mercies.”

We sing because we are joyful about who God is. Our songs should be filled with joy and excitement as we sing our praises to God.

Of course, because of sin, we do not always have the joy we wish we had. But we choose to continue to spend time with Him asking Him to give us the joy that may be lacking. But here’s the good news, the more time we spend with Him, the more our joy actually increases because we are getting to see more and more of Christ in our time spent in prayer and study of His Word.

This includes telling others about His love and goodness

When we get excited and joyful about something, we do not just sing our praises in front of the person we are praising, we praise them in front of others too!

We can’t help but talk about our favorite teams, celebrities, works of art, even picturesque scenes in creation. We have to share the joy we have in the person or thing we love with those around us. Our joy in these things will not be contained.

So it is with our joy in God. If we have seen God’s glory and goodness in our lives, we cannot keep it to ourselves. We want to share it with others so they too can see and experience the greatness and the beauty and the joy we experience in Him. Our joy in God is the fuel and motivation to share the good news of Christ with those around us!

We Serve the Lord

Next, we worship and show our gratitude by serving the Lord.

Now, we have to remember, that we cannot give to God anything He does not already have. But we can take what He has given to us and use those things to bring Him honor and glory as we develop a spirit of gratitude.

How do we serve the One who already has everything?

By taking what He has given to us to serve and give to others.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells us that on the day of judgment, the righteous will be praised because when the Lord was hungry, they gave Him something to eat, when he was thirsty, they gave him something to drink, when he was naked, they clothed him, and when he was in prison, they visited him.

He goes on to explain that when they did these things to the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

So how do we serve Christ? We serve Him by taking what He has given to us to serve others by seeking to meet their needs.

But it is not simply the physical act of giving and serving. It is also the heart with which we do so, joyfully.

2 Corinthians 9:7 (ESV)

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God is honored and worshipped as we joyfully give what God has graciously given to us.

We are joyful because we know all we have has been given to us by God.

And we are demonstrating our gratitude as we joyfully give to and serve others with what God has provided.

The early church in Acts 4 demonstrated their gratitude for God’s grace and provision as they gave to others any who had need.

We Acknowledge His Sovereign Provision

Finally, we enter into His presence with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

This means we acknowledge His gracious and sovereign provision in our lives.

When we begin to think that what I have is because of me and my wisdom and strength, then I will quit being thankful.

My failure to be thankful is a result of me seeing myself as god rather than as a man in need of all that God has given and provided.

True worship acknowledges that everything I am and have is due to the grace of God and that I am completely at his mercy.

The rejection to worship God is closely related to refusing to give thanks to Him.

Romans 1:21 (ESV)

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Lack of gratitude is a result of self-worship and self-reliance.

True gratitude and praise leads to true worship because we see that the LORD alone is God and without Him we would be lost and helpless.

Why We Give Thanks

Psalm 100:3

Psalm 100:3 (ESV)

Know that the Lord, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 100:5 (ESV)

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

We give thanks because as this Psalm ends, it reminds us that the Lord is good and that His faithful love endures forever.

How do we know God is good and that He loves us?

God Has Made Us

First, it reminds us that God has made us.

We exist, not because we chose to be here, but because God made us.

We are here also not because our parents chose to have us.

OK, maybe they had some intention in having children.

But humans have very little control over whether or not they will produce offspring.

There have been families, both in ancient times and in modern that wanted children and were unable to, or were surprised by a child when they were trying not to have children.

And even in those cases where our parents were intending to have a child, they did not know what kind of child they would have. They did not know if their child would be a boy or girl, what their appearance would be, their personality, their likes and dislikes, what they would grow up wanting to do with their lives, etc.

Each of us individually are here because God chose to create us specifically, just as we are.

Psalm 139:13–14 (ESV)

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

We know God is good because He has made us. And He made us even knowing the rebellion, the sin, and the mistakes we would make. He made us loving us in spite of all that. Now it doesn’t excuse our sin and rebellion, but it does highlight His love and goodness towards us that He would make us in spite of all He knew would come from us.

If you have nothing else to thank Him and worship Him for, thank Him simply for who He is and for creating you. He chose you for you and as His creation, we owe Him our worship and thanks.

God Has Saved Us

But that is not all that we have to thank Him and worship Him for, especially for those of us who belong to Christ.

Psalm 100:3 ESV

Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Not only has God made us, the Psalmist reminds us that we are His that we are His people the sheep of His pasture.

The Psalmist is reminding us of God’s redeeming work for His people.

While we are all His creatures, and we belong to Him simply because we are made by Him, we do not automatically start as being His people in the intimate way that is being described here.

Actually, Scripture makes clear that we actually start off as God’s enemies because of our sin. Our sin needs to be dealt with if we are to be more than just His creatures, but to also be His people.

It is this work that we have seen God accomplishing through the work of Genesis.

It is this work that God promised Adam and Eve when He promised a seed to come and crush the head of the serpent.

It is the work God promised when He put the rainbow in the sky to promise that He would not destroy the earth by a flood again.

When He promised Abram and Sarai that he would make his name great and bless the world through them.

It is the work God carried on when He promised David that there would be someone to sit on his throne forever.

Or when he promised Samuel and Eli that He would raise up a priest who would perfectly do all he said.

It is the work of redemption when God promised through the prophet Isaiah that the virgin would conceive and give birth to a son and that His name would be Immanuel, “God with us.”

When Isaiah would also declare that

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And also when Isaiah prophesied that this child would be despised and reject by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, the one who would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities.

And because all we like sheep have gone astray, the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

This God is worthy of our worship and our thanks, simply because of who He is. But also because He accomplished the great work of redemption that none of us deserved, but that He graciously and mercifully gave because of His faithful and never ending love for us through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Because of Jesus, all those who place their faith in Him can be counted as part of God’s people and the sheep of His pasture and for that we owe Him all our worship and thanks and ultimately our very lives.

Let us daily, humble ourselves to truly know Christ as He is, to joyfully shout our praise and serve Him, and to recognize His great love for each of us!