Give Thanks To The Lord!
Notes
Transcript
There are a myriad of benefits to those who show “Gratitude or Thankfulness” according to Harvard Health.
Thankfulness can reduce stress.
Improves sleep.
Lessens depression.
Helps with heart health.
It improves our overall well-being.
When we discuss gratitude, we're not only saying thanks for the big things in life.
We’re also appreciating the small moments that bring happiness to our day.
Being grateful may seem simple, but even though it’s easy, its effects can be quite powerful.
Adding more gratitude to your daily routine helps create a happier and healthier life.
And the best part? It’s free and available to everyone, everywhere, at any time.
Unfortunately, many of us don’t know how to be truly thankful and try to conjure up some form of thankfulness once a year for Thanksgiving.
Today, my hope and desire is to help us develop a pattern of behavior we can follow to be truly thankful. David shares some insight on how we can achieve this in Psalm 9:1-2.
I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders.
I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.
Theological side note: Anytime you see the word "LORD" spelled in all caps, it refers to Yahweh.
Remember Moses at the burning bush? God called Himself 'I Am'… it means to be. He always was, always is, and always will be. He is self-existent and eternal.
Yahweh and I Am are the same word; I Am is the verbal form of Yahweh, which is God’s personal name for Himself.
Why is this important?
Too often, we simply say thank you to God but forget who He is. Jesus is “I Am” seven times in the book of John. Jesus calls Himself “I Am.” He is God.
So when David penned this psalm, he is not telling us to be thankful for a God who is distant, but for one who is intimately aware of each of your needs. The one who cares for you in ways we cannot even begin to express.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”
Let’s look at the How!
David gives us four ways we can express our thankfulness to Jesus in these verses.
The first is to give thanks!
Thank
Thank
Verse, one tells us to “give thanks to the Lord with all my heart;”
By nature, we are selfish individuals.
It’s about what you can do for me, society.
We are all about taking, not giving.
But the psalmist says to “give thanks.”
Have you ever caught yourself praying, and when you are done, it is just a list of wants and desires?
casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
But too often we forget to thank Him for everything He's already done and all that He will do.
How are we to give thanks? “with all our hearts”
In other words, an internal process must take place. Thankfulness comes from a grateful heart.
I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever.
The heart is something we give away, isn’t it?
When we tell someone, "I love you," it’s nice, but when we say, "I love you with all my heart," it signifies complete love.
In other words, we’re letting that person know they come first; they are the one we think about and are passionate about.
Jesus is no different; He doesn’t want just part of us, He desires all of us. Therefore, we should thank Him with all our heart!
Do you want to find happiness and gratitude this morning? It begins with the heart, thanking God sincerely from the heart.
The first thing we do is have a heart of thankfulness, and the second is to count your blessings.
Recount
Recount
Verse one continues with the words “I will tell of all Your wonders.”
Have you ever taken a moment to reflect on all of God’s miracles in your life?
The average human heart pumps about 2,000 gallons of blood daily. This is equal to filling an 8-by-10-foot swimming pool, and it does so by beating roughly 100,000 times each day.
You take about 8 million breaths a year, based on 15-16 breaths per minute. Your feet can carry you up a mountain; your arms can hold someone you love. This is a reality because Jesus, the one who created you and holds all things together, exists.
You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your strength among the peoples.
God is the God of miracles…
He provided a van for our church.
He has grown our church in numbers.
As a church, with everything we have done, we are debt-free.
We have seen Him heal the sick.
We have seen others welcomed home.
All of these are miracles of His goodness and kindness toward us.
The fact that He can take a sinner and transform his or her life into His likeness is a miracle.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
What wonders and miracles has Christ done in your life?
These are the things we need to be talking about.
The first thing we do is have a heart of thankfulness, and the second is to count your blessings.
The third is to rejoice in Jesus!
Rejoice
Rejoice
Let’s analyze the first part of verse 2, “I will be glad and exult in You!”
Many athletes show gratitude to God when they do something good, like hit a home run, score a touchdown, or win a race. Former Indianapolis Colts kicker Matt Stover had learned to give God the glory even in defeat. During the first quarter of Super Bowl XLIV, Stover made a 38-yard field goal and promptly pointed to the heavens, giving God glory for his achievement.
Of course many players do that. However, in the fourth quarter, with the game on the line, Stover missed a 51-yarder. Once again, he pointed to the heavens. That action didn’t escape notice: “CBS announcer Jim Nantz made note of the action, lauding Stover as a ‘spiritual man,’ grateful for divine blessing in success and failure, victory and defeat.”
The Bible teaches us to give glory to God in all we do, not just if it is successful. God receives much glory when we praise him and remain faithful, even when things do not go the way we would like them to.
Why? Because we know whom we serve. The Bible says He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Jesus knows your every need, and He will never leave us nor forsake us.
“I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”
He knows us intimately…
“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
His love lasts forever, and nothing can separate us from His love…
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Last but certainly not least, He loved you and died for you before you ever loved Him…
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
If that isn't enough to make you want to stand up and shout, or to raise your hands in praise, then you're dead inside.
When the Bible talks about exalting His name, it is similar to and even greater than the reaction we have when we go to a ball game and see our team make a huge play. What do we do? We jump out of our seats and cheer at the top of our lungs.
That is exultation! That is what Jesus deserves from you and me.
Will you exult His name today? Even if things don’t seem to be going your way, will you trust Him enough to give Him the praise He is due?
The first thing we do is have a heart of thankfulness, and the second is to count your blessings. The third is to rejoice in Jesus, and the fourth is to worship Him.
Praise
Praise
Let’s examine the second part of verse 2, “I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High."
Worship is the culmination of the previous three points.
True worship begins in the heart.
It then gets verbalized by sharing with others.
Thirdly, it becomes part of our joy and demeanor.
Worship is recognizing Jesus for who He is!
Singing praise is simply reflecting on God’s goodness. We do this with both contemporary and traditional hymns.
Too often, we get so used to singing songs that we just mouth the words, but we don’t sing them from our heart, do we?
Maybe we don’t like the song or have other things on our minds... and yet, doesn't He deserve our very breath of praise?
We love to sing “I Surrender All,” meanwhile we are mad at our spouse, or “How Great Thou Art,” but upset and mad at God over a life circumstance.
Folks, this should not be; He deserves every part of us, our hearts, our minds, and our voices.
Notice who we are praising in this verse: “The Most High”.
We had a brief theological lesson on LORD earlier… Let’s examine “The Most High”.
The phrase “The Most High” in Hebrew is the word El Elyon, which emphasizes His supreme power, sovereignty, and transcendence.
The name is used to stress that God is above all earthly and spiritual powers and has the absolute right to rule.
This title highlights God's position as the highest authority, with His strength, supremacy, and ownership of both heaven and earth.
What does all this mean?
That Yahweh, also known as El Elyon, or in English, Jesus, who reigns as God supreme over all, loves you, cares for you, knows you, and died for you.
“He stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on nothing.
Wow!
It amazes me that the creator of the universe, the one who spoke all things into existence and sustains everything, knows me, loves me, and died for me so that I might live with Him forever is something beyond what I can understand.
The great theologian Charles Spurgeon once said, “That Thou can love me as I am and be the God that Thou art is darkness to my intellect and sunshine to my heart.”
What a wonderful and glorious thought, and one that should lead us to complete praise and adoration as we reflect on our Savior.
Let’s pray.
