Thankful for Salvation

Scripture

Psalm 118 NLT

1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. 2 Let all Israel repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” 3 Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” 4 Let all who fear the Lord repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” 5 In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. 6 The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? 7 Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people. 9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. 10 Though hostile nations surrounded me, I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. 11 Yes, they surrounded and attacked me, but I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. 12 They swarmed around me like bees; they blazed against me like a crackling fire. But I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. 13 My enemies did their best to kill me, but the Lord rescued me. 14 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. 15 Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly. The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things! 16 The strong right arm of the Lord is raised in triumph. The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things! 17 I will not die; instead, I will live to tell what the Lord has done. 18 The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not let me die. 19 Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the Lord. 20 These gates lead to the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. 21 I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory! 22 The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. 24 This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. 25 Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us success. 26 Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. 27 The Lord is God, shining upon us. Take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar. 28 You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you! 29 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Structure of a Song

Music, as we know and love it, is a fairly new invention compared to the long history of our world.

The first recorded music was made just before the Civil War, just over 150 years ago.

Concert music was written and performed another 200 years before that, but usually for much smaller audiences than we are accustomed to. Without electric amplification, they had to build the concert halls in such a way that you could hear all the instruments playing without microphones.

In the middle ages, most songs were solo acts or perhaps a group of 3 or 4 instruments with the focus often being on showing off vocal talent or getting the audience to sing along with a familiar tune that told a story In poetic verse.

In the days of the early church, music was either created for everyone to sing in worship, or it was performed as the intermission between play acts, most often as a solo or small ensemble.

Big music, with big sound, and hundreds of people listening, dancing, and singing together is a creation of the 20th century, and the style of almost all music written in the last 100 years changed to a pretty standard formula across every style of music.

Memorable Chorus

Verse(s) that fill in the story

3rd Section (Bridge, Development, Solo, Part 3)

Psalm 118 was written ahead of its time

It was written with this similar kind of pop music structure

Perhaps because it was meant to be shared with as big a group as possible

In fact, the main theme of this psalm, being rescued by God and giving Him thanks lends itself to a song that is made to be shared.

Why?

Because a person who wants to thank God and has a gift of music will probably write a song about it.

And this is not just for musicians and lyric writers...

Thesis: Our relationship with God starts when He rescues us and we give him thanks.

The Chorus We Remember

Psalm 118:1–4 NLT

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. Let all Israel repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.” Let all who fear the Lord repeat: “His faithful love endures forever.”

Let all Israel repeat

Let Aaron’s descendants, the priests, repeat

Let all who fear the Lord repeat

“His faithful love endures forever.”

Three little words

God’s Hesed or loving kindness, or loyal love, or faithful love is the theme of this whole song and the repeated phrase in the chorus.

Just reading the psalm ourselves, some 3000 years later invites us to repeat that phrase “God’s faithful love endures forever...” We don’t know if it was King David who wrote this or something that came to us as far back as Moses, but a leader of God’s people is taking his personal relationship with God and sharing it with God’s people with gratitude.

What does he want people to remember?

God’s faithful love endures forever!

That’s the chorus. That’s the catchy tune. That’s what he wants us to catch ourselves humming while we cook dinner, take out the garbage, or sit down to a hot cup of coffee.

God Rescues Us: Our Verses

So that’s the chorus: Everybody sing - “God’s faithful love endures forever!”

What are the verses of this song?

It starts off with the lead singer sharing about looking to God for help in a time of trouble...

In Trouble

Psalm 118:5–18 NLT

5 In my distress I prayed to the Lord, and the Lord answered me and set me free. 6 The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? 7 Yes, the Lord is for me; he will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me. 8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people. 9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. 10 Though hostile nations surrounded me, I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. 11 Yes, they surrounded and attacked me, but I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. 12 They swarmed around me like bees; they blazed against me like a crackling fire. But I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. 13 My enemies did their best to kill me, but the Lord rescued me. 14 The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. 15 Songs of joy and victory are sung in the camp of the godly. The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things! 16 The strong right arm of the Lord is raised in triumph. The strong right arm of the Lord has done glorious things! 17 I will not die; instead, I will live to tell what the Lord has done. 18 The Lord has punished me severely, but he did not let me die.

Honesty

One of the powerful things I notice in the Psalms is that they are often more honest than they have to be.

This could be a pity party for the writer, telling us about how badly he has been treated.

He sings of enemies surrounding him

Not just people, but entire nations treating him with hostility

But, he gives God the credit for his hope in the midst of that strife

and in his last line, he notes that it is God who has punished him

He does not claim to be innocent.

My Troubled Attitude

When I get into trouble, I usually don’t give God the credit of getting me in trouble

I blame myself

I blame the devil

I blame other people

In the few times I actually give God the credit for the trouble I’m going through, I tend to think that He is giving me what I deserve (because I blame myself)

it is not often that I think God is disciplining me and doing it with mercy and kindness.

I usually don’t tell myself and certainly not others that I’m getting a lot less trouble than I deserve.

But it is true.

Gratitude helps us see straight

When we live to fight another day, it is because of God’s mercy.

The negative person complains all the time about their lot in life.

The optimist always says “It could be worse.”

The honest realist though recognizes that we have no guarantees in life. We just get used to things being a certain way until yesterday’s blessings become the demanded expectations of today.

And sometimes God has to come in, take it all away, and give us an attitude adjustment.

As the song goes… “You can’t always get what you want...”

So we are grateful when we get what we truly need.

Psalm 118:19–21 NLT

19 Open for me the gates where the righteous enter, and I will go in and thank the Lord. 20 These gates lead to the presence of the Lord, and the godly enter there. 21 I thank you for answering my prayer and giving me victory!

That verse tells us what the lead singer was rescued from and leads us right back into giving thanks as a response of being in relationship with God.

And then he takes us somewhere new.

Part of a Bigger Song

Psalm 118:22–29 NLT

The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see. This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Please, Lord, please save us. Please, Lord, please give us success. Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God, shining upon us. Take the sacrifice and bind it with cords on the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you! You are my God, and I will exalt you! Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Rejection by the World

This phrase about the stone the builder’s rejected was used by Jesus when he told some of his parables to the Pharisees as He referred back to this Psalm and Himself as the one who was attacked by everyone and yet gave thanks to God for the rescue (and resurrection) from death.

Peter picked up on this later and used it in his own preaching in Acts as well as in his letters where he referred to us all as “living stones” of God’s Temple.

But the twist that this third part of the song brings out is that God is choosing one who was rejected by the world.

He rescues the rejected one and lifts Him up in honor.

So we, as Christians understand this as being prophetic about Jesus, in the sense that God lifts up those who are humble and He defends those who are cast out - the orphan, the widow, the immigrant and refugee.

We can find that theme all through the Bible, and Jesus exemplified it.

And He calls us to be like Him.

Not just a reject.

One who faces rejection of this world because they put their trust in God and show it with their Gratitude.

God rescues us all, often from things we never even realized at the time.

Because Jesus died for us, we never have to experience the full punishment for sin.

We merely deal with the merciful discipline of God.

Because His Faithful Love Endures Forever

CTA - How does your song go?

If you were to write a song in Gratitude to God today, what would your chorus be?

What stories would you tell in the verses of that song?

Maybe you are not a musician. Could you tell your story in a drawing? In a dance? Could you write something or maybe just tell it out loud?

God’s part of the relationship is rescuing us.

Our part is giving Him thanks.