What We Can Learn From Children About Thanksgiving Series

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM CHILDREN ABOUT THANKSGIVING

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

1 My heart is not proud, Lord,

my eyes are not haughty;

I do not concern myself with great matters

or things too wonderful for me.

2 But I have calmed and quieted myself,

I am like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child I am content.

3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord

both now and forevermore.

INTRODUCTION:

Once again, we are on a very special holiday season called Thanksgiving.

And after thanksgiving, we will celebrate Christmas and after that, the New year.

Soon, it will be 2017.

It seems that time runs so fast.

People are saying, “Where did the year go?”

Already the stores are filled with Christmas decorations, and Christmas carols are being sung almost every day.

We all know that Thanksgiving is basically a pre-season holiday, something you do to get in shape for Christmas.

We usually set up the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving that will last after the new year.

We will be seeing and tasting lots of food until January when we will prepare for our yearly fasting.

So, whatever weight we have gained must be shredded out right away.

So, happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to all.

Do you know that the art of giving thanks is one thing that separates man from the animals?

Yes, indeed.

Only humans give thanks.

Animals don't.

For instance, when we receive a gift, we automatically say, “Thank you!”

This is one of the noblest things a man can do.

There is nothing small or trivial about it.

To say “Thank you” is to acknowledge that we have been given something very precious.

Something we did not earn and do not deserve.

Happy is the man who understands that all of life is a gift of God and that life itself is the ultimate gift from God.

That is why the Bible says, “In everything give thanks.” (I Thessalonians 5:18).

Or "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."

That means everything. No exception.

We express our gratitude to God for all the many things He had done.

When we can’t do anything else, we can always be grateful.

As someone has said, “If you can’t be thankful for what you have received, be thankful for what you have escaped.”

Either way, you are thankful.

With that in mind, I’d like to bring a special Thanksgiving message from Psalm 131.

As you know, David is the author. He was a poet and a musician—"The Sweet Singer of Israel.”

If you read through the Psalms sometime, you’ll notice that nearly half of them were written by David.

Psalm 131 is one of the Pilgrim Psalms.

The heading calls it “A Song of Ascents.”

That means it was part of a group of Psalms which were sung as the Hebrew pilgrims made their way up the mountains toward the city of Jerusalem for one of the annual festivals.

They were ascending as they go higher the mountain and building excitement and enthusiasm along the way.

Fifteen of these Psalms are grouped together—Psalms 120-134.

All except one are fairly short, exactly the kind of songs you would expect a group of travelers to sing as they marched along.

The Pilgrim Psalms are like the choruses of praise songs we usually sing in church.

Their purpose is the same—to prepare the heart for worship.

It’s possible that you’ve never noticed Psalm 131 before.

It only has three verses, so you might tend to overlook it as being not very important.

But that would be a mistake because this little hymn by David is really a little jewel.

Charles Spurgeon said that this Psalm is “one of the shortest to read, but one of the longest to learn.”

Because it has a lot of spiritual insights in it that we must dig deeper to study.

One time, Jesus called on a small child and asked him to stand in front of them.

And then, he declared: "Truly, I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

That is found in Matthew 18:3.

He said that we could learn a lot of things from the little children especially from their childlike character and their pure attitudes.

There are three verses in Psalm 131 and each one reveals an important quality for us to consider as we approach and celebrate the Thanksgiving season.

There are many more, but we can start with these three character traits that we could learn from these children.

I. HUMILITY AND PURITY

The Psalm begins with these words, “My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty. I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me."