THE FOCUS OF THANKFULNESS
from Psalm 108:1-5
In 1863, in the midst of the ravages of Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a federal holiday. He declared the last Thursday of each November to be a day set aside by all Americans to give thanks. He said:
It has seemed to me fit and proper that [our blessings] should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
Reading the declaration from President Lincoln you realize that gratitude was not intended to be vague and ambiguous, with merely a day off work to focus on watching TV and eating too much food. It was meant to give us undistracted time to reflect upon all that we have been blessed with and purposefully enjoy those blessings that came by God’s generous hand.
We have to pause and ask ourselves 161 years later: How much do we actually give thanks on the day of Thanksgiving? This Thanksgiving will we set aside thinking about our wants and instead take account of what we have? Let me urge you to put the Black Friday flier down this Thanksgiving and pick up a paper and pen with your loved ones to start a “blessings list”. You’ll get more spiritually out of what you do have than you will from buying anything on sale.
This past Wednesday night was Prayer Night and we focused all our prayer on giving thanks. We listed numerous things for us to be thankful for: God’s salvation, the Holy Spirit, God’s Word, God’s comfort in trials, Hope in Christ in trials, God is in control, our EFC church family, beautiful creation, provision & needs met, answered prayer, family, health, safety, freedom to worship, life, good music, election outcome, a good turnout for last Sunday nights service. I will add to all this: the nation we live in, the time we live in, our trials and hardships, babies born in our church, newcomers, long-timers, in-betweeners, kids & grandkids unity, peace and love in our church,
This morning I want to turn to Psalm 108:1-5. Here in Psalm 108:1-5 we see 5 ways thankfulness focuses us.
#1: THANKFULNESS BRINGS STEADFASTNESS (1)
First, we see thankfulness brings steadfastness. Notice verse 1, …. A steadfast HEART. Thankfulness makes a heart steadfast.
The word steadfast is something we looked at in Proverbs several weeks ago when we looked at God’s Sovereignty. We saw God “establishes” our plans, our steps, or kingdoms, etc. The same word is used here and it means to make something secure, to firmly fix in place, to make firm. I want my heart to be firmly fixed. I don’t want my heart to be blown about by the winds of my circumstances. I don’t want my heart to be wobbly in doubt. I don’t want my heart to be unstable and weak because I’m afraid of the future, or life, or loss, or hostility, or anything. I don’t want my heart to be clothed in despair, in doubt, in fear. I want my heart to be fixed, resolute, firm, settled, unwavering, strong and bold. First Chronicles 16:30 says, “Tremble before Him all the earth! The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.” Same word, same idea: just like the earth is firmly established by God, so too God firmly establishes our hearts. Just as the world is firmly established no matter what happens on the earth, our hearts can also be established no matter what’s going on in our world.
The key is thankfulness. Thankfulness will make my heart steadfast.
APPLICATION: Focus on God’s goodness and blessings to you. Doing so will cause you to be more thankful.
#2: THANKFULNESS MAKES MUSIC (2)
Secondly, Thankfulness makes music. Notice verse 2…. Christmas is known for its music. But is our Thanksgiving holiday known for music? Shouldn’t it be? Gratitude and music go hand in hand. Shouldn’t our holiday that emphasizes gratitude be blessed with the most music? The best music? Colossians 3:16 says “singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” Ephesians 5:19 says, “Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything…” Psalm 92 says, “It is good to praise you Lord, and to make music to your name, O Most High.” Was not Moses’ song in Exodus 15, that was written to record their passing through the Red Sea meant not only to glorify God’s great power and deliverance, but also is it not written from great thankfulness to God? Moses proclaims “He is my God, and I will praise Him.”
Let me just pastorally warn you again: do not listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. You’re mixing your holidays. God told the Israelites not to have two materials woven into their clothing and not to plant two kinds of seed. See the principle? It’s unbiblical, maybe even sin, to mix holidays together.
Back to the text: I love how David writes, “I will awaken the dawn.” I think of it as he’s not being woken up by the dawn, but he’s waking up while its still dark, and he is stirring up the dawn from its own slumber by the music he has in his heart. In one sense, joyful thankfulness gets us up for the day, gives us purpose, and is our raison d’etre. Is there a better way to begin each day than with gratitude, with a joyful, musical heart? Now, maybe you need a cup of coffee first, fine. And I have seven kids so I know some people wake up “harder” than others. No harm there. But do you see the principle – that gratitude is first in our day, and forms our outlook on the day? David starts his day with gratitude to God and music in his heart. He has the joy of the Lord with him from the moment he opens his eyes.
APPLICATION: Let music be a barometer for your heart. Now some people are less musically interested more because of personality. But music is so prevalent in Scripture and its role in praising God and expressing gratitude is so clear, that we should all practice “singing to God with gratitude in our hearts.” We should all cultivate music as an outlet for expressing how thankful to God we are. And if we don’t have a heart that wants to, perhaps we need to prayerfully examine our heart. Perhaps we need to
APPLICATION: Make music part of your home. Keith Getty, whose songs we sing, asked John MacArthur what advice he had for him as a dad with young kids. John’s one piece of advice was, “Fill your home with music. Sing at home, listen to music.” I took that advice. Annie and I fill our home with music. We have numerous playlists we listen to in the house and in the car. We sing with the kids when we put them down at night. We have roaring karaoke nights. We listen to music, sing to music, dance to music. Their exposed to all sorts of music. At dinner we have background music playing. When our kids are older and they hear one of the many songs they grew up with it will take them back to those childhood days hopefully in a fond way.
It fills our home with joy, with gladness, with a lightness of heart. Many songs are fun, others are serious, many direct our thoughts to the Lord. But make music and make music an expression of thankfulness to the Lord.
#3: THANKFULNESS TELLS OTHERS (3)
Notice third that Thankfulness tells others. Verse 3 says, “…” Psalm 96:10 says, “Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns.’” Psalm 117:1 says, “Praise the LORD all you nations.” Here’s the basic point: God is worth telling people about. Here are a couple thoughts on this:
First, my faith is real if He’s worth telling others about. If I don’t have a personal sense of gratitude towards God that is worth telling people about, is God even personal to me?
Second, gratitude drives missions in this sense. The praises of God motivates us to evangelize the world. “I will praise you among the nations.” Isaiah 26:18 has Israel lamenting its failure to evangelize the nations, “We have not brought salvation to the world.” But here, David has the heart of a true Israelite, as God intended, meaning David desires to bring the name of God to the nations. “I will praise you among the nations, I will sing of you among the peoples.” Let your thankfulness to God for all He has done for you drive you to share the Gospel with people.
Third, Thankfulness is a repudiation of idols. It’s “implied” here. Why does David want to praise God “among the nations?” Because the nations worship idols. Psalm 96:5 says, “For all the gods of the nations are idols.” The joy of knowing God, the gratitude he has for all His goodness, drives him to go and praise God among the idolatrous nations, and lead them to worship the one, true, living God of Israel. Thankfulness to God is a repudiation of idols – we credit the Lord for our blessings.
APPLICATION: Let your thankfulness to God, and your joy in God, be the force in your evangelism of those who worship idols.
#4: THANKFUL FOR GOD’S LOVE (4)
Let us be thankful for God’s love. A life of thankfulness is one that continuously comes back to the love of God. Verse 4, “For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.”
It seems whenever the biblical writers wanted to communicate how to understand the love of God they did so by impressing us with its “bigness.” “Higher than the heavens,” and “reaches to the skies.” Paul did the same thing in Ephesians 3:18, when he said he wants the believers to “have power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” The Spirit of God, through the biblical writers, wanted the immensity and enormity of God’s love to overcome us. Our thankfulness should be as big as the heavens!
The love of God is connected here with his faithfulness. Notice verse 4, “For great is your LOVE,” then the next parallel line, “your FAITHFULNESS.” This is the Hebrew style of parallelism where two lines correspond and complement each other. Here in the first line is God’s love, and in the second, God’s faithfulness. The point is that His love is expressed in His faithfulness. Faithfulness is the commitment to love. Isaiah 54:10 God says, “‘Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,’ says the LORD, who has compassion on you.” Our thankfulness should be born of this knowledge that God loves us, that He is faithful to us, that despite our failure in commitment to Him, He is committed in love to us, “If we are faithless” 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “He remains faithful.”
#5: THANKFULNESS SEEKS GOD’S GLORY (5)
Lastly, Thankfulness Seeks God’s Glory. Notice verse 5, “….”
He says “Be exalted….let your glory….” The way David says it here it seems, at least in English, as though we give God “permission” to be exalted, or permission to be over the earth. “Let your…” But that’s certainly not the meaning. It’s just the way the Bible expresses things at times. Instead of David giving God permission David is expressing his desire to see it – his desire to see God exalted above the heavens and to see God’s glory fill the earth. David knows God is exalted and knows God’s glory fills the earth, and he is intensely expressing his desire to see it. David is like Moses, who said, “Now show me your glory!” Or “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty” the Seraphim cried in Isaiah 6, “the whole earth is full of His glory.”
When we are thankful to God our thoughts are lifted up to the heights of God in all of His exalted glory.
I would suggest there is a future aspect to this here as well. We don’t see God in all his glory and exaltation right now, because we don’t live by sight right now but by faith. But someday we will see Him, exalted and lifted High, glorified and magnified, above the heavens and in all the earth. Someday we will see all that. And we are so thankful for that. Because it means our ultimate future is not following Elon Musk to Mars. It’s not starvation and depravation from overpopulation. Our eternity is not some transhumanism where we forever cheat death by blending our humanity with technology.
CONCLUSION: A Blessings List
In 1995 the Hubble Space Telescope spent 10 days pointed at a tiny spot in space. It was a dark spot where no stars or anything were visible. Of the literally billions of different directions to point the telescope there were endless choices of stars and galaxies visible to us in which we could discover more. But, some genius said “Lets point it at the empty dark spot.” After 10 days the Hubble had found the most important image of space ever to that time. In that seemingly empty, dark part of the universe were thousands of galaxies with billions of stars. A closer look revealed much more was there than people thought.
How many blessings from God would we be able to see if we just slowed down and looked more closely at our lives? When we’re so obsessed with what we don’t have, and what we want, and it makes us anxious, frustrated, and discontent, what if we just pointed our minds at our lives and just looked. Maybe slowing down will help us see all that is really there that we weren’t seeing before.
There’s one I hope you see more clearly than anything else in your life: it is the blessing of God’s mercy and forgiveness at the cross of Jesus Christ. This Thanksgiving, come to Jesus Christ and receive salvation, and become part of all those who now live a life of thankfulness to God for the salvation He has given. We give thanks for gifts, “And the free gift of God,” Romans 6:23 says, “is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”