ETERNAL GRATITUDE
A Journey of Thankfulness • Sermon • Submitted
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Pride is an ugly thing which seems to pop up at the most inopportune time. You’ve heard me say before that I believe most all sin boils down to pride in one way or another. Opposite pride is true humility, and that is what Jesus requires of His followers. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven … Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”
Even the most spiritual person in the world has to deal with moments of pride. It is so easy to look at all that God has done for and through a person and take the credit for ourselves. But in doing so we rob God of the glory that is due Him.
The song I just sang refers to an event in the life of King David. In we read about how, in his pride, David ordered Joab and the captains of Israel’s army to go around the nation and take a census. This was not done for the purpose of taxation — it was done simply to puff up David’s pride in his kingdom. Eventually David realized that he had sinned and he repented of his sin. Though he was forgiven from an eternal standpoint, still there were consequences to his sin that had to be paid. God sent a plague on the nation which wiped out 70,000 people. As David and the leadership of Israel saw the death angel approaching Jerusalem the king was instructed by God, through a prophet, to build an altar at the threshing floor of a foreigner named Araunah, where the death angel was presently at. David went to this man seeking to purchase the property from him, but the man wanted to give it to the king. However the king said: “I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God which costs me nothing.” David purchased the property. Built an altar. Offered a sacrifice. And the plague was ended. This very plot of land became the site in which Solomon built the Temple. Many believe, as do I, that this is the background for the Psalm which we are looking at today.
Many believe, as do I, that this is the background for the Psalm which we are looking at today.
This morning on our Journey of Thankfulness we come to which is a Psalm of David. Please turn there in your Bible. The superscription, which is part of the inspired Word, refers to it as A Song at the dedication of the house of David. The Hebrew term translated “house” in the NKJV and other other translations is also used for “Temple” or “Tabernacle.” Thus, some translations have stated in the superscription that it is a SONG AT THE DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. However, David did not build the Temple in Jerusalem. His son Solomon did. I take it that just had David had made preparations for the building of the Temple and gave them to Solomon to fulfill, he also wrote a Psalm with the intention of it being used at the dedication of the Temple. That, or perhaps it was the dedication of the temple site that was in mind. With that in mind, I believe that the background for this Psalm is found in 2 Samuel 24.
A Psalm. A Song At the Dedication of the House of David.
I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O Lord my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me.
O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Now in my prosperity I said, “I shall never be moved.”
Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
I cried out to You, O Lord; And to the Lord I made supplication:
“What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper!”
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
So the king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.”
And Joab said to the king, “Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times more than there are, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king desire this thing?”
Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the captains of the army. Therefore Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.
David learned an extremely costly lesson on that day. And it’s that same lesson which we all need to learn:
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And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”
Though God forgave David for his sin from the eternal perspective, from the human perspective there was a heavy price to be paid.
So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel from the morning till the appointed time. From Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men of the people died.
Now therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. And your maidservant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his maidservant.
To stop the plague David was instructed to build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of a man by the name of Araunah. When David went to this man, he asked Araunah to sell him this plot of land so he could build the altar. Araunah, being a gracious man, wanted to give it to his king, along with the wood and animals for the sacrifice.
Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
This very plot of land became the site in which Solomon built the Temple.
Several years ago a songwriter wrote a song based on this story. The refrain goes like this:
And I will not offer anything that cost me nothing
I'll place before Him nothing less than my very best
And if I'm called into sacrifice
It will be worthy of my Christ,
I will not offer anything that cost me nothing.
David learned an extremely costly lesson on that day. And it’s that same lesson which we all need to learn:
Rather than making much of ourselves, we should should make much of Jesus; rather than robbing God of the glory that is due His name, we should give Him the glory that is His rightful due. Why? Because He has saved us, His favor is for a lifetime, and He has clothed us with His righteousness which is the source of true joy and gladness.
Rather than making much of ourselves, we should should make much of Jesus because He has saved us, His favor is for a lifetime, and He has clothed us with His righteousness which is the source of true joy and gladness.
because He has saved us, His favor is for a lifetime, and He has clothed us with His righteousness which is the source of true joy and gladness.
Let’s read together.
We should make much of Jesus because He has saved us!
Look with me again at verses 1.
I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
To extol is to magnify, to lift up on high, or to make much of something or someone
Because God has lifted David up, David is lifting God up
The Hebrew term for “lifted up” is used of drawing a bucket of water out of a well
David himself thought that he was as good as dead because of the plague that his sinful actions had brought upon Israel
David’s foes were gloating over His demise
But the LORD, ever faithful to His covenant, saved David from the grave
Look with me again at verse 1-3 as we consider why David is exalting the LORD.
I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my foes rejoice over me.
I will extol You, O Lord, for You have lifted me up, And have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me. O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
O Lord my God, I cried out to You, And You healed me. O Lord, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
Here we see the further reasons why David was making much of THE LORD:
David cried to the Lord
The LORD answered his prayer
Believing he was as good as dead, David could say that God brought my soul up from the grave
We too have been brought up from the grave:
buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
You were also circumcised in him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh, in the circumcision of Christ,
when you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him and forgave us all our trespasses.
He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.
Our resurrection with Christ has a lasting impact on the way we are to live our lives in the here and now:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Next I’d like you to note that:
We should join with others in praising God because of His eternal favor
Look at verses 4.
Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.
Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
First David calls for the saints to join him in praising the LORD
There is something very special about the people of God coming together to worship Him
When something good happens to us we want to share the good news with others — we want them to join us in our celebration
I have re-written a song that I wrote for our children to share with ya’ll when our adoption of Luke finally is finalized — and I’ll share it again when our adoption of Bella is finalized as well
She’ll probably get a little more out of the song at this point than Luke will … just sayin’!
Sharing our good news with others is exactly what it means to be a witness for Christ! Christ has saved us from the pit of destruction and we want others to join us in the celebration! That is part of the celebration that goes along with the ordinance of baptism!
Look at verse 5.
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.
Notice the comparison between the transitory and the eternal:
God’s anger toward the believers sin is transitory — it is but for a moment
Weeping and sorrow will come and lodge for the night (that is the idea behind the Hebrew term translated endure)
I like the way the CSB puts it: “Weeping may stay overnight”
God’s favor is for life — it is eternal — never ending
Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
Because of the never ending nature of God’s favor, our weeping is replaced by joy
Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
So far we have looked at how we should make much of Jesus and invite others to join us in our celebration because of His favor toward us.
Note next that:
We should acknowledge our stubborn pride and return to God the glory we have stolen from Him
Look with me at verse 6.
As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”
David is not speaking about his security in the Lord
He is speaking about his own security brought on by his own prosperity
In other words, he is stating that he had claimed the glory that belongs to God alone, for himself
Nebuchadnezzar had a similar experience, but things did not fare too well for him
All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of the twelve months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you!
Jesus told a parable about one who was satisfied with his own achievements
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Look at verse 7.
Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.
The CSB puts it a little clearer
Lord, when you showed your favor, you made me stand like a strong mountain; when you hid your face, I was terrified.
Though David had a momentary and costly lapse of judgment, ultimately he recognized that every good thing he had, every accomplishment he achieved was from God — The LORD deserved the honor and glory and not David himself
After David recognized his sin, he called upon the Lord — look at verses 8-10
Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled. I cried out to You, O Lord; And to the Lord I made supplication: “What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper!”
I cried out to You, O Lord; And to the Lord I made supplication: “What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me; Lord, be my helper!”
There will be times in our own personal lives when we too take credit for what God has done. When we do so, we must be like David, and not like the foolish rich man that we read about a while ago.
We should make much of Jesus because He has clothed us in His righteousness which is the true source of gladness and joy
Look at verse 11.
You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
Do you see the exchange?
Grief exchanged for celebration
Sackcloth exchanged for gladness
Then David lifted his eyes and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven, having in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. So David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
When we recognize our sin against God and seek His forgiveness, He will give us a new attitude and new apparel
Finally look at verse 12.
To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
The term “glory” is often used in reference to the soul — Hence the NASB translation
That my soul may sing praise to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to You forever.
Rather than making much of ourselves, we should should make much of Jesus; rather than robbing God of the glory that is due His name, we should give Him the glory that is His rightful due. Why? Because He has saved us, His favor is for a lifetime, and He has clothed us with His righteousness which is the source of true joy and gladness.
Perhaps you recognize this morning that you have been robbing God of the glory due His name. We can do this by focusing on our own success in life. We can do this by ministering in our own power and strength rather than in the strength of the Lord. We can do this by not recognizing the source of our gifts, talents, riches and so many other things.
The worst way possible to rob God is to believe that your way is as good, if not better, than His way. By trying to earn a place in heaven because of the things you do rather than because of the person and work of Christ. If this describes you then I invite you to repent and believe the gospel. And then, and only then, you can begin your true journey of thankfulness.
Let’s pray.
Closing Song: #305
Jesus Paid it All