The Christian Heart of Thanksgiving

Introduction

When I was a little kid, my church that I grew up in had what they called the Beacon Club. I don’t know particularly why it was named that. I can only assume that it had something to do with being a beacon of light as a Christian. One of the things that was common to that program and many similar programs, like CADETS, was the earning of badges that we could put on our sash. I remember in particular the badge of gratitude. Many of the other badges that I have on this sash seemed to come easily, but the one I remember the most was gratefulness. Of all the badges I got, this one took the longest. One of the things I remember my mom working with me the most was the simple things, like saying, “Thank You”. This was a program where the parents had to work with the church in determining how the child demonstrated the various character traits of the badges. There was Bible verse memorization and other things, which I have forgotten about in the last 40 years or so.

Gratefulness. This national holiday of Thanksgiving was instituted as a time where the people of this nation are to thank God for the nation in which we live. We are to thank God for the freedoms we enjoy, the opportunities we have, and the modern blessings we enjoy. One of the biggest problems with the human heart is that the situation in which we live we get used to and becomes the norm. And the more it becomes the norm, the less aware of it we are and the less thankful we remain. It’s not just a problem with us as members of this society, but it can also be a problem as members of the church. On Sunday, the message was out of Acts 3. When we truly realize the problems of our sin and the wonderful grace that we have received in Jesus Christ, we should be filled with thanksgiving.

In the 3rddivision of the Heidelberg Catechism we read in Q/A

Question 86: Since then we are delivered from our misery, merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works?

Answer: Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit, after his own image; that so we may testify, by the whole of our conduct, our gratitude to God for his blessings, and that he may be praised by us; also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith, b y the fruits thereof; and that, by our godly conversation others may be gained to Christ.

Gratitude….Thanksgiving…this is a really key heart motivation for why we do what we do as Christians. Our Psalm this morning both proclaims our motivations for thanksgiving but also issues a warning to us as well.

The Call to Thanksgiving (vs. 1-2)

What should be noticed about the beginning of this Psalm is that it is a call to all of us as a community of God’s people to gather together in worship. And as we gather together we are called to come with singing for joy to the Lord, shouting aloud to the Rock of our salvation. It would be accurate to say that a true understanding of the marvelous grace of our God to us sinful people includes the corporate singing together in celebration of the Rock of our salvation. Those who don’t worship God together with His people when they are able to do so lack a proper understanding of all that God has done for them. Some of the greatest songs in Western culture have been produced by the Church. The song Amazing Grace for one or Handel’s Messiah. Songs that have lasted for centuries. Many of the hymns and psalm tunes in our Psalter Hymnal we sing in common with our brothers and sisters across the world now, in countries and denominations in the past, and will be sung for many, many years into the future.

The Psalmist encourages God’s people to be a people of music…musical instruments, choirs, congregational singing…we are to be a people of praise for we have many and various reasons to give unto God thanksgiving.

The Reason for Thanksgiving (vs. 3-7a)

And what are the reasons that the Psalmist gives for thanksgiving? In verse 3-7 he goes from God as Creater to God as Shepherd.

The Lord is the great God…in his hand are the depths of the earth and the peaks…dry land and the seas. Being reformed, our tradition speaks much about the sovereignty of God. We usually apply it to matters of salvation, but his rule is over all things both good and bad. Often times, American Christianity has a hard problem with God’s sovereignty. Lamentations 3:37-40 says,

37 Who can speak and have it happen

if the Lord has not decreed it?

38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High

that both calamities and good things come?

39 Why should the living complain

when punished for their sins?

40 Let us examine our ways and test them,

and let us return to the Lord.

When prosperity comes our way, it is because the Lord has decreed it. When difficulty comes, the Lord is in the midst of it, directing, controlling, and limiting it. The changing of presidential administrations is in the hands of the Lord. It may all seem like chance to us, but to the Lord it is all in His hands.

It is because of this absolute sovereignty that God’s people are called to bow down in worship and kneel before the Lord our Maker. We are not in control – God is. Therefore we are called to worship the One who is…to worship the Sovereign One. We rejoice because the One in control is the Rock of our salvation and so we worship, not merely creatures before the Creator, but, as verse 7 says, we worship the Rock of our salvation knowing that we are the people of His pasture.

And what a wonderful picture this is… we are the object of His care. God is our Shepherd, and what a Good Shepherd he is. Jesus says in John 14:14-18,

14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

The reason for being a grateful and a thankful people is that we have been called out of the world, we are the special object of his love. He died for us. What greater care and love can be shown than what Jesus did for us? A truly grateful people will be a humble people. A people who with joy and thanksgiving bow down in worship and kneel before the Lord, who of His own will is the Rock of our salvation and has placed us under His care.

The Warning Against Ingratitude (vs. 7b-11)

The end of verse 7 and the following is a warning to us. It is a story out of Israel’s release from slavery in Egypt and how serious ingratitude can be. We read earlier about the story in Exodus 17 of how God’s people started to grumble and complain at Rephidim. What exactly was there problem? We find the people’s question and what their grumbling was in Exodus 17:7. “Is the Lord among us or not?”

To give a little context to this story, remember with me the story of the Exodus from Egypt. God sent the 10 plagues over Egypt by the hand of Moses. Each one of the 10 plagues was significant in that each attack was against an Egyptian deity. God showed overwhelmingly his supremacy over the so-called Egyptian “gods” – that they are nothing compared to the one true God. God shows His people His mighty power in overcoming the armies of the Pharaoh. He parted the Red Sea and enabled them to pass through on dry ground, just as Psalm 95:5 says, “The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry ground.”

As the story of the Exodus continues in Chapter 16 with the people starting to grumble and complain, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat…” Isn’t such a human thing to do! Deliver me from slavery with wondrous works and when my belly starts to grumble, freedom becomes too costly, the sacrifice too great. God was patient and gracious, though, wasn’t he. In Exodus 16 we read of how he gave the people manna in the morning and quail at night, so that every morning they had bread and every evening they had meat. That continued for the entire 40 years in the wilderness. God was gracious in spite of their grumbling and complaining.

As the story moves on into Exodus 17, the people need water. Instead of bowing down in worship and kneeling before the Lord their Maker, they grumbled and complained, “Is the Lord among us or not?” What did God do? He told Moses to go to the rock at Horeb and strike it. Water came out of the rock so that the people’s thirst could be satisfied.

With that picture, is it not a beautiful picture of Jesus Christ, the rock of our salvation from whom flows Living Water. Jesus said in John 4:10 to the Samaritan women,

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water…whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst, Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Later on in the story of the Exodus, we read of the people at the Mount…in sight of the thunderous presence of God…the one who had conquered the Egyptians for them…who provided daily manna and quail…who provided water out of a split rock…they decided to make the golden calf idol and worship it. A year later they stand on the precipice of entering into their home in Canaan. It was a land promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was a land that was weaker than Egypt whom God had defeated already for them. What do we read in Numbers 13-14? They sent spies into the land, and the report of the majority of the spies was that the land was to difficult to conquer. In Numbers 14, we read the words of Psalm 95:11, “They shall never enter my rest.”

Conclusion

Dearly Beloved of the Lord, What is the importance of being a thankful people? Thanksgiving is something very important to God! Has not God done marvelous things for each one of us? We have the privilege of being here at this time and place. How does gratitude show itself? It shows itself in praise and prayer.

Gratitude shows itself in trusting God’s sovereignty and His goodness regardless of the politics of the nation around us. We are not to be like the people of the world whose sense of stability, joy, or happiness is founded upon the instability of political parties and the results of this election or that election. Regardless of who is in power, we are in His hands! He is the great King! We find our stability in His goodness and His sovereignty. We find our joy in experiencing the comfort of the Holy Spirit and walking in the light of God.

A thankful heart shows itself in humility with full recognition of God’s grace to each and every one of us. We are sinners and not deserving of grace and mercy, yet we are the people of his pasture and the flock under his care. Regardless of our struggles in life, sing for joy to the Lord! He is the Rock of your salvation!

The writer of Hebrews in addressing this Psalm and the story of the Exodus writes in Hebrews 3-4,

“12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end… 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, f just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Brothers and sisters, we have a Sabbath-rest awaiting us. That is our hope. A grateful heart learns from the Word of God about the great works of God. It trusts in Him during the present day when surrounded by difficulties and struggles. We have a hope in the eternal rest that Jesus Christ has purchased for us, the flock under His care.

Saints of the Most High - Sing for joy to the Lord! Come before Him with thanksgiving! Blessed be the Rock of Our Salvation and glory to Him for ever and ever. AMEN.