With my Whole Heart

Introduction

I have been reading a book lately called Joy Over Circumstance. It is written by a preacher friend of mine named Drake Jenkins. I highly recommend looking up The Jenkins Institute and purchasing it. The book is a very timely read considering how difficult it is to be joyful right now.

The very first chapter lays it out there. Joy is always a decision we make. It is a choice no matter what our circumstance is. In other words, our circumstances should not impact or control our joy, but we overcome our circumstances by remaining joyful. This is the mindset of Christ. This is the mindset of a Christ follower.

I feel there are many qualities a disciple of Christ must have that ultimately boil down to being a choice over our circumstances. As we conclude our study series in the Psalms, we look today in Psalm 138. A Psalm of David which he gives to show his great thankfulness for Yahweh. Thankfulness is a choice we make. We have so much to be thankful for today even in our current situation. And as we approach the throne room of God over the next several weeks I just want us to study and show our praise and thankfulness to God.

Ongoing Gratitude Shows Spiritual Maturity

I believe one of the major signs of spiritual maturity; one of the greatest showings that we are walking in Christ is ongoing gratitude or thankfulness. It shows spiritual strength when we are continuing thankful and showing gratitude to the Lord.

GK Chesterton says that thankfulness is happiness doubled by wonder, and that it is the highest form of thought.

Do we still have that wonder in our life? The wonder of who God is, how much He has done, how awesome He is! Thankfulness is a foundation of a follower of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:15–21 ESV

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Colossians 2:6–7 ESV

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Colossians 3:17 ESV

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Thanksgiving is ongoing for who God is and what He has done!

So, let’s turn to Psalm 138. It seems this Psalm is the response of David to God answering His prayer. He is expressing gratitude and joy in the deliverance of Israel.

It is impossible to be entirely thankful and angry at the same time. It is entirely impossible to be grateful and anxious at the same time. Ultimately, thankfulness gives us joy and joy is absent of these things.

C.S. Lewis says “We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country.”

From this Psalm we learn that we ought to give thanks. Let’s Read.

We Are Thankful to God With Our Whole Heart

Verses 1 - How do we give thanks when we are ungrateful? We start by giving an undivided heart to the Lord. We ought to give thanks with an undivided heart.

Notice: I give you thanks, I sing your praise, I bow down…This is an act of the decision of David. He is choosing to think on what God has done, humbling his heart and give thanks. This is a choice that we make. This is not a feeling or something based on the environment. This is a choice. We don’t let our circumstances drive away our gratitude! No matter what our circumstances are we count our blessings and we choose to be thankful.

Choose gratitude, choose to reflect on God’s glory, choose to think about what God has given you, choose to think about what God has done for you, choose to think about who God is.

We give thanks with our whole heart: the totality of our whole self. This is the essence of who we are! This is deep and profound thankfulness.

It says to give thanks before the gods. This could mean one of three things

False gods

Angels

Earthly Rulers

Whichever you choose to interpret it does not matter. The message is still the same. God alone is deserving of thanks and praise. God alone is deserving of singing His praise. God is bigger, better, greater, over everything and everyone!

There is a blend of boldness and humility here. Boldness to confess the LORD even before the gods, Humility to bow down before Him!

We Are Thankful for God’s Steadfast Love and Faithfulness

Verse 2 - David bows toward the temple. Some find this odd since David was not around after the building of the temple. Don’t get caught up on this though. David is offering us an image of his heart in praise to God. The temple is a representation of the dwelling place of God among His people. It is a place of extreme purity and sanctity. It is a representation of the holiness of God. David is showing that when he gives thanks to God it is different than giving thanks to anything or anyone else!

First notice his posture of reverence and humility. He bows showing his lowly place, and then he positions hisself toward the dwelling presence of God. In his humble position David asks the question: Who Am I?

Then he gives thanks for God’s steadfast love and His faithfulness.

Think about God’s love! God’s love different than the love of anyone else. It is the greatest love that has ever been expressed. In it there is no shifting or changing, there is no failure to do right even when we do wrong, His love never lets up. God’s love is all knowing. It is always present, complete, perfect, eternal, never fades, always honest, vastly sacrificial. His love has the perfect plan and the power to carry out that plan for our lives. This is God’s steadfast love for you!

It is this love and faithfulness that allows David to give thanks acknowledging that God is exalted far above all things. For this he will continue to give thanks with his whole heart. But not only do we give thanks with our whole heart for His steadfast love and faithfulness, we also give thanks to God for answered prayer

We Are Thankful God Answers Prayer

Verse 3 - David gives thanks because on the day he prays God answers Him. God always answers the prayers of His people. When we pray with God’s word and name in our mind; when we pray to God with thankfulness we will have more clarity and acceptance in God’s answer of our prayers.

God’s will and glory are the power behind our prayer life! One preacher said,

Prayer is not to get our purpose accomplished through God, but to get God’s purpose accomplished through us.

When we get this figured out and make sure the motivation behind our prayer is right we will be more at peace and thankful. This does not mean we do not pray when we are in help. Of course we pray when we are in need, when we are in trouble, when we need help. But we pray with the motivation for God’s will and glory to be fulfilled, not ours. You see, sometimes it is not always the situation which needs to be changed, but the person involved in the situation which needs changing.

So we pray for character rather than comfort, wisdom rather than riches, satisfaction and joy from God rather than the world our strength of soul will increase.

But what does this mean? To have strength of soul just means to have boldness and courageous. Once again, David shows us that our strength, courage, boldness all come from God. So, we are thankful for answered prayers, but also in humility we give thanks.

We Are Thankful for God In Lowliness

Verses 4-6 - David is expressing a very personal experience he has with God through this Psalm of thankfulness, and here it begins to be put into perspective. He shows that Yahweh is universal, and all the kings of the earth will one day bow down to worship Him.

This is prophetic in a sense looking forward to a day when even Gentiles will give thanks to the LORD. This happens once they have heard what God has spoken.

Psalm 22:27–31 ESV

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

The true God, this wonderful God, cannot be hidden and only known to a few. Every tongue will confess and every knee will bow. All the earth will praise Him, giving thanks for what He has done. His words will spread throughout the whole earth!

This will drive them to sing in praise just as David has done for great is the glory of Yahweh!

David Kidner says, “David’s experience of grace clarifies his vision of glory, which he sees [in God’s power and generosity]”

God’s caring and power is His glory. And His glory reveals the two types of man:

Lowly or Humble

Haughty

David realizes his success is all owed to God.

2 Samuel 7:18–29 ESV

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! And what more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Lord God! Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. Therefore you are great, O Lord God. For there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”

David again makes this confession: Who Am I?! acknowledging his place before God. Every time David was humble he found success. And when he fell into pride he meets failure.

Learning this and knowing this we must examine ourselves and honestly ask whether we are humble or haughty? Do we think we are entitled to blessing from God or do we have an attitude of gratitude?

Paul in Romans, like an attorney, shows us our place:

Romans 3:10–12 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Romans 3:23 ESV

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 ESV

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is what we deserve! Death and separation from God. This is hard to hear, but it is the truth. Fortunately, this is not the end of the story!

Romans 5:8–9 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

Romans 8:31–39 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We have been rescued from what we have deserved! We are rescued by the blood of Christ! There is no room for pride. We have been given grace, a gift that we did not deserve. Like David, we have been delivered from our enemies because the Lord is high. He is the Overcomer and the Redeemer! He is the Victor and the Savior! He is the Way Maker, the Miracle Worker, the Promise Keeper, and Light in the Darkness.

So, we humble respond with the great confession of humility, “Who Am I?” And when we approach God in praise and thankfulness in humility He will regard us His people.

When we give thanks in humility, then we can give thanks in trials.

We Are Thankful to God In Trials

Verses 7-8 - David closes the Psalm thanking God and telling of His constant care for His faithful. It is difficult for all of us to be mindful of this care all the time. But when we are constantly singing praise and thanking God it helps remind us of the ways God preserves and protects us.

David is turning again to God’s very present help in times of trouble just as he did in verse 3. David’s past experiences of deliverance gives him confidence and hope. This confidence and hope can be present even in times of trial. This is why we can count joy all trials:

James 1:2 ESV

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,

Whether we are in the midst of trouble, overwhelmed, feeling broken, hurt, sorrowful, depressed, anxious, hopeless we can choose to be thankful. Right in the midst of these troubles we humble ourselves, lower the posture of our heart and choose joy and thankfulness in confidence and hope!

But how? It is so much easier said than done, right?! David shows us,

YOU, he says, pointing to God. Gratitude, joy, overcoming can be hard because our vision is often horizontal. I, Me, My....when we have a perspective like this we lose sight YOU, GOD! Listen to David.:

You preserve my life

You stretch out your hand against my enemies

You fulfill your purpose for me

You show your steadfast love forever

David has transitioned in this prayer from I will, I will, I will to You have, You have, You have! When we focus on self we lose sight of the Savior! When we gaze toward our destruction we miss seeing the Deliverer. Deep gratitude causes us to take our eyes off ourselves and place them on the Creator.

We stop looking at ourselves, our circumstance, our place in the world, our brokenness, our hurt, our despair, our hopelessness, our sin, and we begin looking to the Redeemer and the Savior! This is where we place our vision!

God has been faithful in our past, so we can trust Him with our future!

Only God can provide hope in this broken world!

Martin Rinkart was a preacher in Germany in the 1600s. He preached through a lot of suffering. He preached through the 30 years war and lived in the city of Edenburg which was a walled city which meant it was a haven for political and military fugitives. Because of this it was under seige often. It was a very difficult time of confinement and attack. During this time a plague swept through the city. It had gotten so bad that it got to the point where Rinkart was conducting 50 funerals a day. More than 4000 funerals in a year including his own wife.

It was during this time that Rinkart wrote this hymn called Now Thank We All Our God:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who wondrous things has done, in whom this world rejoices; who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us; and keep us still in grace, and guide us when perplexed; and free us from all ills, in this world and the next.

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given; the Son, and him who reigns with them in highest heaven; the one eternal God, whom earth and heaven adore; for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Because of who God is and has done we can trust Him with our future!

Consider our own Savior, Jesus before going to His own death. His darkest hours on earth. Just hours before His betrayal and arrest. Hours before He is in chains, before He is mocked, beaten, mistreated unjustly. Hours before He will be condemned. Hours before He will endure agonizing death. Hours before these events He memorializes the reality of HIs death. He takes the cup and the bread and it says in

Matthew 26:26–29 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Jesus give thanks. Not thanks for the opportunity to suffer and die, but thanking God because He does amazing and wonderful things through suffering!

Jesus was saying thank you because He was saying thank you for allowing me to give You glory and make sinners clean through my suffering.

In our suffering we can rejoice and give thanks because of His suffering. It’s not thank you that I suffered, but that He receives glory through our suffering and thank you that He does great things through our suffering. We say in any trial, thank you Jesus for making us clean.

The last line of David’s Psalm he says, “Do not forsake the work of your hands.” He says Keep Doing What You Are Doing! It is working! Trust God. Thank God. So over the next several weeks, in the midst of our trials, we will gather each week in the throne room of God and simply say

Thank You God