A Song of Thanksgiving
Text: Psalm 136
Core Idea: We are commanded to give thanks to the LORD for He is good, and His love endures forever. In all circumstances, we can cultivate a heart of gratitude by looking at the works of God and our lowliness, which are constantly affirming His love for us.
INTRODUCTION
Good afternoon, Lighthouse family! Happy Thanksgiving! Good to see all of you. If you’re new with us today, and especially if you’re new to Christianity, we’re really glad to have you with us. I pray that you’ll come to see how beautiful and wonderful our God is – and that you’ll experience this incredible love that He has for you. Last week, we asked the church to write out something that you’re thankful for this season so that we could put it on the wall as an act of worship to God. Thank you to those of you who have taken your time to do that. I hope that this activity wasn’t a burden, but a meaningful, delightful, and refreshing experience, because that’s what thankfulness does to our hearts. Thanksgiving is delightfully healthy for our souls. Then let me ask you, “What are you thankful for today?”
For some of you, you have endless things to be thankful for. But for some of you, this might have been more difficult than you thought. Life feels complicated, hard, challenging. You may have been discouraged, depressed, disgusted, and desperate for a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. If this is you, I pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to you, comfort you today through the Word of God but also through this community. I invite you to share your story with us so that we can find ways to help you, love you, and pray for you. But at the same time, I want to help you see that even in our darkest moments, there is always a reason for us, Christians, to be thankful. Then I pray that this psalm will make that reason clear for you so that you may be filled with gratitude once again as the Spirit leads you to redirect your attention from focusing on life-draining and faith-robbing worries of this world to focusing on Christ, who is our life. So, if you have your Bibles, please turn to Psalm 136. I won’t read it again since we read it together. But here are three things that I want to point out from this passage:
THE COMMAND
THE MODEL
THE REPETITION
1) THE COMMAND
Let’s turn to verse 1. “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His love endures forever.” Here, the psalmist doesn’t invite us to give thanks; he doesn’t encourage us to give thanks; he doesn’t even plead with us to give thanks; he commands us to give thanks. Now, this feels strange because the way we think of thankfulness is that it’s an emotion, which means that you can’t just force it out of you. But that’s exactly what the Bible tells us: be thankful. Then before we get into the how, let’s ask the why question – why is the psalmist commanding us to give thanks? If we think through this for a bit, it’s very likely that it’s because we’re not giving thanks as we should. And we know that this is true for a lot of us – we are not naturally grateful. We “naturally” lack the feelings of gratitude and often forget to be thankful. Then why are we so prone to being thankless in our hearts?
Pastor Joseph Rhea insightfully points out two reasons why gratitude can be so hard to find in our lives. First, we have a hard time being thankful because it’s harder to pay more attention to the good we have than the good we don’t. Let’s be honest, many of us tend to dwell on what we would like to have than to be content with what we have. Of course, wishing isn’t necessarily wrong; but by definition, we can’t be thankful for something we don’t have, which means that if wishing is all we’re doing, we will never be grateful. Being thankful requires moving our eyes from the things we don’t have to the things we do have – and it teaches us to celebrate the blessings we have received. But there’s a second reason why gratitude is so hard to find: it’s because our society cultivates ingratitude. We see this just by looking at the media. The media is constantly feeding us this culture of ingratitude through endless advertisements of the things we can’t afford or the things we don’t need. But this is also visible in the way many people are thinking today. Think of your friends or coworkers. Let’s say that you decide to talk about an area of your life, whether it’d be your grade, job, salary, body shape, and so on. What if you said to them, “You know what? I’m really happy with my salary at this job” or “I actually love the way my body looks right now” – how would they respond? Many of them would look at you funny – with this look of “why?” The point is that our culture assumes that normal people operate with a consistent level of discontentment, which means that our society’s gravitational pull is already toward ingratitude.
Now, I want to add one more reason to this. The third reason why we have a difficult time being thankful is because our eyes are often off from God. We’re often thankless because we’re focused on what we’re afraid of, disappointments we’ve experienced, ways we’ve been hurt, people we envy, self-centered desires, and on and on. In contrast, the psalmist calls us to give thanks to God. We see this through the phrases like “to Him, to the LORD, to the God of gods” that appear numerous times throughout this psalm. The psalmist intentionally does this to show us that true thanksgiving cannot take place unless we take our eyes off ourselves and place them on God. Or to put it differently, our thankfulness shouldn’t depend on our circumstances or how we feel that day, but it must ultimately be rooted in the truth of God and the truths about God. This is why Jerry Bridges was right when he said, “Thanksgiving is a normal result of a vital union with Christ, and a direct measure of the extent to which we are experiencing the reality of that union in our daily lives.” In other words, cultivating a heart of thanksgiving is directly connected to the health of our relationship with God. So, if you’re having a difficult time thanking God today, ask yourself, “How is my relationship with God?”
These are the reasons that explain our thankless hearts: our distorted appetite, our misleading culture, and our broken relationship with God. Now, this is extremely detrimental to our souls because the less thankful we are, the more vulnerable we will be to sin. Think of it this way: a thankless heart creates discontentment, which then produces complaints toward God. A thankless heart creates bitterness, which then produces resentment toward God. A thankless heart creates anxiety, which then produces distrust toward God. But a thankful heart creates humility because you understand that everything you have is a gift from God. A thankful heart creates joy because you’re learning to be content with all that you have. A thankful heart creates faith because you’re learning to trust that God is going to take care of you. Pastor Jon Bloom writes, “Thanksgiving is not merely a ‘nice’ Christian character trait. It is a sin-conquering force. Gratitude is both a vital indicator of our soul’s health and a powerful defender of our soul’s happiness. Which means we should intentionally cultivate the healthy, happy habit of thanksgiving.” No wonder the psalmist is commanding us to give thanks to God. Friends, as is for all the other commands of God, this command to give thanks is a life-giving prescription for our spiritual health, for our happiness in God. When God commands us to give thanks, not only is He instructing us to do what is right; He is also directing our attention away from things that are draining our hope and joy to what will fill us with hope and joy.
The Bible commands us to be thankful – and this command is good for us.
Now, this still doesn’t change the fact that it’s really hard to be thankful just because we’re told to do so. Parents, have you ever commanded a child to be thankful? It’s almost impossible. Sure, you could squeeze out a “thank you” from them but that doesn’t actually create gratitude in their hearts. Then how do you help someone to genuinely give thanks with all of their hearts? This leads to our next point.
2) THE MODEL
This psalm is special in that it doesn’t just tell us that we ought to be thankful, it models for us how we can cultivate this gratitude in our hearts. And he does this by teaching us to see two things. First, God’s wonder in this world. Let’s look at verse 4. “To Him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.” Think about the word “wonders.” It describes anything that inspires awe, amazement, and astonishment. And here’s the psalmist declaring that God alone does great wonders as he begins to recount all the things that He has done. Then what the psalmist is trying to communicate is that everything God did, does, and will do displays His wonder – it creates this reverence and admiration. Let me show you what I mean. In verses 5-9, he looks at God’s creation. As he sees the vastness of the ocean, the beauty of the sun, moon, and stars, as he hears the rolling thunder, the birds singing in the trees, as he feels the gentle breeze, the psalmist is drawn to see the wonderment of God the Creator. But it’s not that God has created all these things and distanced Himself from it; no, He also acts in that world, He intervenes, He gets involved in that world. That’s what we see through the history of Israel recorded in verses 10-24. The psalmist remembers that God has been faithful to Israel – He freed them from their slavery in Egypt, He divided the Red Sea when it seemed like there was no way, He led them through the wanderings in the wilderness, He struck down their enemies, gave them a land, an inheritance that they never deserved – and all of these things are meant to cause us to be in awe of God. But the psalmist wasn’t done yet. In verse 25, he tells us that God provides food to every creature. The same God that created the sun, moon, and stars, the same God that divided the Red Sea, rescued the Israelites from their oppressors is the same God that is preparing your table. This means that the food we eat everyday, the snack that we’re all eyeing right now, the Thanksgiving dinner that we’re dreaming about is meant to bring the same kind of astonishment and humility we would’ve felt reading incredible works of God in the Bible. God’s creation. God’s redemption. God’s provision. The psalmist is asking all of us, “Do you see the wonder of God being displayed not just in nature but also in your lives? Do you see that God is working, acting, intervening, leading, rescuing, providing for you every single moment in your life? Do you see that this world is bursting with the wonder of God?”
But there’s a second thing that we must see in order to cultivate this heart of thanksgiving: our lowliness. Let’s turn to verse 23. “He remembered us in our low estate, His love endures forever.” Proud people don’t say thanks because they don’t think they need grace; they don’t think their hearts are empty without God. When they see the wonders of God in this world, they credit themselves, claiming that it was their own power, strength, and wisdom that accomplished it all. But the humble recognize that God shows His wonder to them not because they deserve any of them but simply because He loves them. In other words, the glory goes to Him, not to us. Pastor John Piper captures this point well, “At the root of all ingratitude is the love of one’s own greatness. For genuine gratitude admits that we are beneficiaries of an unearned gift. We are cripples leaning on the cross-shaped crutch of Jesus Christ. We are paralytics living minute by minute in the iron lung of God’s mercy. We are children asleep in heaven’s stroller.”
Now, when you see both of these things – God’s wonder and our lowliness – it will powerfully create this outburst of thanksgiving in our hearts because you are learning to take your eyes off yourself and fix them on the Giver of all that you have. This is how we cultivate thankfulness in our hearts.
3) THE REPETITION
It’s obvious – the most distinct feature of this psalm is that there’s this repeated phrase in every verse: “His love endures forever.” It acts almost like a response to all the wonders spoken about God in each verse. The word “love” is the Hebrew word for “Hesed” which really is the kind of love that’s unchanging, love that’s faithful, love that never fails – it’s the love of commitment. Then the structure of each verse contains a declaration of God’s wonder and a response, an affirmation of God’s love. And regardless of which work of God is being recounted, the reply is the same: His love endures forever. Then this echo really is the most important point that the psalmist wants to drill into our hearts. But let’s be completely honest here: as we were reading this psalm, did you say this phrase 26 times with the same vigor and conviction as you did in the beginning or were you getting tired of saying the same thing over and over again after like 5 times? The trouble for us is that even though this is the most important truth in this psalm, the impact, the power of this truth gets lost in what seems to be, at least to us, this tedious repetition. But it’s precisely through, again what seems to us, this monotonous, endless regurgitation that the psalmist is trying to communicate a critical point to us – namely, that every single thing that happens in this world and in our lives is a reminder that His love will endure forever. The psalmist wants us to see that everything that takes place in and around our lives, every step we take, every turn we take in our lives is a demonstration, a sign of His love that never fails.
I love my sons. I’m incredibly thankful for them because they are gifts from God. And everything I do is literally an outburst of my love for them. Julian is 23 days old. All he does is cry, eat, poop, and sleep. But my heart is exploding with my love for him, which is why it brings me this incredible joy to wake up in the middle of the night multiple times to clean him, change his diapers, and rock him back to sleep. I never said I’m not tired. I am. But at the same time, I can’t stop smiling. Eli started JK – and Alicia and I had to face our greatest fear, packing him lunches. I wanted to pack him something amazing; so, I watched a number of YouTube videos of what to pack, how to pack, so that it looks really nice and pretty – and I quickly realized that I don’t have the skills or the energy to do all that. So, Eli has been enjoying his strawberry jam sandwiches every day. Hopefully, I’ll make him something nicer in the future. Now, for both of my sons, everything I do, everything I say, everything I give are an expression of my love for them. When I bathe them, when I cook for them, when I take Eli to school, when I pick him up, when I play with them, when I hug them, when I watch them sleep, when I pray for them… every small and big thing I do is a sign of my love for them, telling them that I will forever love them. You know this if you have someone you love. No matter how monotonous, mundane, repetitive it may feel, everything we do and say is a sign of our promised love for them.
Brothers and sisters, the psalmist is trying to help us recognize that every wonder, every goodness, everything that happens in our lives is God’s way of telling us, reminding us, “I love you. My love for you will endure.” Then this repetition isn’t boring or dull; it’s powerfully life-giving, encouraging to our souls.
Then let’s take a moment to think about our own lives. At every turn and every step, are you declaring, “His love endures forever”? “I made a new friend; His love endures forever. I got into the school of my choice; His love endures forever. Things all worked out with my co-worker; His love endures forever. I met with my friends to eat together; His love endures forever. I took a day off to rest or play with my kids; His love endures forever. I got to worship at church today; His love endures forever.” Now, some of you may say, “Honestly, there’s nothing good happening in my life. In fact, it’s been filled with suffering, pain, and sorrow. I’m not sure if I can affirm His love for me when I look at my life.” If you’re thinking like that, can I invite you to look at the psalm again? In verses 10-24, the psalmist is remembering what God did over many years, which is why every wonder he recounts is in the past tense. The psalmist wasn’t talking about right now – he was talking about what God did for them in the past. But he does mention one thing that God is doing right now that is creating this wonder and awe – verse 25, He gives food – it’s in the present tense. In other words, it may be true that there are many things that can create heaviness in your hearts. It may feel like there’s nothing to be thankful for. But the psalmist is saying that just by looking at the food we eat, we can be sure that His love endures forever in our lives. I’m not saying this to minimize what you’re going through. But what I want you to know is that cultivating a heart of thanksgiving, affirming God’s love for you isn’t circumstantial. It can definitely help; but we can learn to be thankful, we can know that God loves us even in your sickness, loneliness, even in your season of waiting, anxiety, confusion, and darkness, by looking at the simple provision that God is giving us every moment of our lives. God’s love endures forever in your life no matter what you see right now, no matter what you experience and feel. We must remember that past grace is evidence of future grace.
Now, how do we know that God’s love will really endure forever? Of course, everything we see screams His love for us – but there’s the ultimate proof that His love for us is forever. Let me read from 1 John 4:9-10. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” We know that His love will endure forever by looking at the person of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus humbled Himself and went to the cross. And yet every step that He took, no matter how painful it was, even if everything about His circumstance screamed out God is not to be trusted, He responded with faithfulness because He believed that God’s love endures forever. Even as He hung up on that cross, in darkness and abandonment, dying in our place for our sin, paying the penalty for our sin, He was choosing to sing, “His love endures forever.” How do I know this? Because Hebrews 12:2 says, “For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” God’s love will endure because Jesus endured the cross for us. Brothers and sisters, we are invited to fall at the foot of the cross, look up at Jesus, and see the wonder of God being crucified for us who really didn’t deserve this kind of love. Then how can this not humble us and cultivate thankfulness in our hearts? Friends, let’s thank Him today. And let us encourage each other to be thankful.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, are you thankful today? We are called to give thanks to the LORD for He is good, and His love endures forever. No matter what kind of situation you may be in, we can cultivate this heart of gratitude by looking at the wonders of God and our lowliness, which are constantly affirming His love for us. Let me end by quoting something one Christian author said, “To give thanks is an action and rejoice is a verb and these are not mere pulsing emotions. While I may not always feel joy, God asks me to give thanks in all things because He knows that the feeling of joy begins in the action of thanksgiving.” Then today, may you experience the greatest joy as you begin to give thanks to our wondrous, awe-inspiring, generous, loving God.