Sermon Tone Analysis

How to Have a Thankful Heart

Psalm 105:1-5

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - Nov. 19, 2017

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Psalm 105, as we explore how to have a thankful heart.

King David possibly wrote this whole Psalm, and he certainly wrote the first 15 verses.

David did that in a time of great thanksgiving for the Kingdom of Israel.

For the first time in history, God's holy Ark of the Covenant was bought to stay in the City of Jerusalem.

*The Ark was built at God's command during the days of Moses.

By David's time, the Ark was about 400 years old.

It was a gold-covered box about 4 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet high.

The Ark contained a golden pot of the miraculous food called manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the Ten Commandments written in stone by the finger of God.

*The Ark was so holy that if you improperly touched it, God would strike you dead.

For 400 years, the Lord had manifested His glory over the Ark.

But it had never been brought into Jerusalem.

And now it was!

*Listen to part of the story from 1 Chronicles 15-16:

15:3.

David gathered all Israel together at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it.

15:15.

And the children of the Levites bore the ark of God on their shoulders, by its poles, as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord.

15:16.

Then David spoke to the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers accompanied by instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and cymbals, by raising the voice with resounding joy.

16:1.

So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it.

Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God.

16:2.

And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord.

16:3.

Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins.

16:4.

And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel:

16:7.

And on that day David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaph and his brethren, to thank the Lord.

*With this background in mind, please stand in honor of God's Word, as we read the first 5 verses of David's Song of Thanksgiving from Psalm 105.

And as we read, think about how to have a thankful heart.

INTRODUCTION:

*It's amazing how many times we see the words "thank," "thanks" and "thanksgiving" in the Bible.

In the KJV, these three words are found 128 times.

Jesus certainly gave thanks to the Father, and Paul often gave thanks to God.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 15:57, Paul said, "Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

And in Philippians 1:3, Paul said: "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you."

*God wants us to be thankful, and God commands us to give thanks.

Philippians 4:6-7 tells us to:

6. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;

7. and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

*1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 tells us to:

16.

Rejoice always,

17. pray without ceasing,

18. in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

*In every season and in every situation, God wants us to have thankful hearts.

But how often are we truly thankful?

I've got to say I am not nearly as thankful as I should be.

*Sometimes I'm really, really thankful.

But other times I'm pretty ungrateful for all God has done in my life.

And a lot of the time, I just sort of coast along in neutral.

I know I'm not the only one.

So, how can we be thankful?

How can we be more thankful to the Lord?

1. Today's Scripture can help us, and first, it's by speaking.

*This is God's message for us in vs. 1-2, where David said:

1. Oh, give thanks to the Lord!

Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.

2. Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works.

[1] At the beginning of vs. 1, David urges us to speak to God.

*"Oh, give thanks to the Lord!

Call upon His name. .

."

God wants us to tell Him thanks.

But also notice that He wants us to call on Him even when we're not thankful.

God knows we get sad and mad.

God knows we have setbacks and disappointments.

He knows that we sin, and fall short of the glory of God.

He knows that we have terrible tragedies in life.

And God wants us to take all of our troubles to Him.

*I have often steered troubled people to Psalm 13.

There David took his troubles to the Lord, but he also confirmed His trust in the Lord.

And David said:

1.

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?

How long will You hide Your face from me?

2. How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having sorrow in my heart daily?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me?

3. Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;

4. Lest my enemy say, "I have prevailed against him''; Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

5.

But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.

6.

I will sing to the Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me.

*Take your troubles to the Lord, and somehow, some way, He will help you.

He can even give you the peace that passes understanding He promised in Philippians 4:7.

And God's help will make you more thankful.

[2] David urges us to speak to God. -- He also urges us to speak to other people about God.

*At the end of vs. 1, David said: "Make known His deeds among the peoples."

And at the end of vs. 2, David urges us to: "Talk of all His wondrous works."

You see, the more we think about and speak about how much God has blessed us, the more thankful we will be.

*And our thankfulness can be multiplied in other people who hear.

Thanksgiving is a contagious thing.

And God wants us to give it to each other.

Here in the rest of Psalm 105, David looked back to the blessings of God on His people, the Children of Israel.

David spoke of the covenant the Lord made with Abraham.

Then David went into detail about how God rescued His people from slavery in Egypt.

*The Lord has rescued His people many times, and we can see this truth in the history of our nation.

In 1620, 102 devout Christians sailed for America headed to the Virginia Colony.

But instead of landing in Virginia, their battered ship first sighted land far north in what is now Massachusetts.

And the Pilgrims decided that rather than risk a journey to Virginia, they would set up their own government where God had blown their ship.

*Before landing at Plymouth, they signed the Mayflower Compact.

Melvin Newland explained that "The hardy souls who sailed on the Mayflower in 1620 fled from tyranny and oppression.

And in the Mayflower Compact which they signed beneath the swinging lantern in the cabin of their ship, they proclaimed that they had come to the new world for 'the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith.'"

They were trusting in the Lord.

*Then on July 4th, 1776, our Declaration of Independence stated: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. .