"Reasons to be Thankful"
[Psalm 100]
November 18, 2007 Second Reformed Church
Have you ever heard someone say that they have no reason to be thankful? I was talking with a woman who was complaining on and on about everything you could possibly think of, and I said to her, "Why don't you focus on the things you have to be thankful for?" And she said, "I don't have anything to be thankful for: no one has ever given me anything. I work hard for everything I get and no one has ever helped me." I suggested she could be thankful that she was able to work, that she was in good enough health to work, that she had a job, and so forth. And she cursed at me. I felt very sad for her.
Do you have anything to be thankful for? Before you say, "No!" Think about all of the things and people in your life -- about this church and what Christianity means for you. You might take time this next week -- as we celebrate Thanksgiving as a nation -- to list what you are thankful for -- to remind yourself. The list doesn't have to be only the most profound and life-changing things -- if you're thankful for cocktail hotdogs, then give thanks for them.
And when you give thanks, give thanks to all those involved in getting cocktail hotdogs to your plate, and especially God, without Whom there would be no cocktail hotdogs. As we saw last week -- everything was created by God, everything is God's, every good thing comes to us from God. So, if we are thankful for cocktail hotdogs, we ought to recognize and give God thanks that He chose to give us cocktail hotdogs. And, if we can learn to give thanks for cocktail hotdogs, perhaps our eyes will to open to the blessings upon blessings that God has given us, and we will understand how blessed a life we have and how many things we have to be thankful for.
Psalm 100 is a psalm of thanksgiving; it is a psalm in which the psalmist gives us reasons to be thankful. And let us notice immediately that the psalmist calls us to be thankful -- it is a command from God that we be thankful. Why? Because when we are filled with joy from God’s blessing and offer up thanks to God, He is magnified -- He is seen more clearly -- He is glorified for Who He is.
"Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth." Shout for joy to YHWH, all the earth.
We, and all of the Creation, ought to be thankful because God is. God's Very Existence should cause us to be thankful, because God lets us know that He is the Good and Unchangeable God. We and all of the Creation see God in nature -- we understand what kind of God God is just by looking around us, so we ought to respond to what we have seen in His Creation and Preservation with the thanks that are due Him.
And that thanks is no half-hearted "thanks." No, the psalmist says we ought to jump for joy, we ought to stand up -- give a standing ovation -- as though the King had entered the room -- and He has. We know something of the character of God through nature and we who believe know even more through the Bible. So we ought to be enthusiastic in our thanks to God.
"Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his presence with singing."
We ought to be thankful, because you and I have the unparallel grace that we are able to come into the very presence of God and live. You and I can come before the Only True God, He Who holds all things in His Hand, and He has not struck us dead for our sin. We ought be awe-struck that God not only allows, but invites, sinners to stand safely before His Holiness.
"Know that the Lord is God." Know that YHWH is Elohim.
We ought to be thankful that God interacts with us on all levels: we do not merely know God emotionally, but we also know Him intellectually. God is the Creator and Maintainer of logic, and He calls us to use our minds -- to rationally interact with God and His Word. Christianity is not an irrational religion -- we are called to think, and to give thanks that we are able to us our minds to better know God. And we ought to be thankful that we can use our minds in all the ways that we should use them.
"It is he that made us, and we are his, and we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture."
You and I we not created by accident! The other night I had dinner with someone who said, "I believe the Big Bang occurred, and all these atoms flew off, and I evolved out of them." If we are merely accidents, then there is no one to give thanks to, but if the One and Almighty God chose to created each one of us -- we have our very existence from God and ought to thank Him for it. We are creations of His Hands, not an accident that by chance accidentally by chance accidentally became us!
Before the Creation, God decided to created Barbara Bell and Maria Rivera and Peter Butler, Jr., and that is enough reason to give thanks, but God has also chosen, out of all of humanity, some to be His people, some to be His sheep, some He would especially care for and provide for -- and if you believe in Jesus Alone for your salvation -- you are one of those people. You are one of the people of God; you are a lamb of God. Knowing that our future without God is Hell, how great this salvation is and our thanksgiving ought be.
"Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise, give thanks to him, bless his name."
We ought to be thankful because God's Name is Holy -- He is Holy. Our God cannot be anything other than Perfect, Beauty, and Righteousness. It is not in His Nature to be less than the Greatest Possible Perfection and Pure Holiness. When we glimpse Him, we are filled with awe. Knowing that He is more -- the Absolute Ultimate of more -- we can respond in no better way that to praise His Name as Holy, to give thanks to Him for being Holy, for allowing us a glimpse of that wonder.
Have you ever stood before a natural wonder and been stopped -- that you had to utter "thank you" for the moment you were experiencing? How much more, when we are before the Holy ought to be transfixed and offer up thanks?
"For the Lord is good."
Can you imagine what would happen if God were only partially good -- or if He were evil? This why we ought not to put human beings on pedestals -- each of us has mixed motivations, not one of us is holy and completely good, as God is. Since God is Wholly Good, we can trust Him, believing that everything that occurs to us is ultimately for our good and the fulfillment of God's Holy Plan. Knowing that is also reason for us to give thanks.
"His steadfast love endures forever."
There is no good English translation for the Hebrew word hesid. We try with expressions like "steadfast love," "everlasting kindness," "loving-kindness," but they all fall short of what this great attribute of God is. Perhaps, the clearest example is to say that it is God's hesid that caused Him to give up His Son. It is that perfection in God that caused Him to be pleased to sacrifice His Son in the most horrific way, for our sins, that we would be saved from God’s Wrath, and God would receive the glory for this Work. And the psalmist tells us this hesid is forever -- it is eternal. God never takes it back. It was the right, good, and glorifying thing to do, and He continues in it. Is this not another reason to give thanks?
"And his faithfulness to all generations." Or, "and He perpetually dwells in steadfast truth."
God is the Eternal True Truth. Our God does not change. Everything He has said and promised is always forever exactly what will be in Him. Surely, this is another reason to give thanks: if God was good, but kept changing His Mind, we would be left in perpetual terror, not knowing from one moment to the next if the Promises would remain. We have surety in God because the Word in Genesis is the same as the Word in the Psalms and it is the same as the Word in Matthew, and it is the same as the Word in Romans -- from the Creation to today to the Second Coming and the New Jerusalem and the new earth -- every Word that we have been given is the same, unchanging, and True. We can be confident in that, and we ought to give thanks that it is true.
What are you thankful for?
I'm thankful for my cat, but I am also thankful that the One True God, My Savior, the Eternal and Holy Truth reveals Himself to all of the Creation through the Creation, and has revealed Himself to me in Salvation through Jesus Alone. I am thankful that this Same One God is forever Good, Holy, and Unchanging Truth, that I can turn to Him and trust Him and know that He will never fail me, nor leave me, because He chose me, for His Sake, to be one of His people, a lamb in His flock.
Shout for joy and give thanks if the same is true for you.
` Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for giving us Yourself. We thank You for making Yourself known in the Creation and savingly in Your Son, Jesus. We thank You that You have chosen us and are pleased to have us come before You in worship, with praise and thanksgiving. We thank You for making Your Character known to us that we would know we can trust You and believe You forever. Cause us to take these joyful thanksgivings and tell them to our friends and neighbors, that they might join together with us in offering everlasting thanks to You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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