This sermon needs a disclaimer and it doesn’t need to be one of those bits of legalese that we see in 6 point type in a print ad, appears briefly in barely legible type at the bottom of a television screen, or is read as rapidly as possible by a radio announcer: “Offer listed is manufacturer’s suggested retail price and may not reflect delivery or preparation fees, dealer surcharges and local restrictions may apply.” My disclaimer needs to be right out front. This sermon is not an attempt to Judaize and create a new ritual within the church nor is it an attempt to sanctify the official United States’ holiday of Thanksgiving. It is intended to use both the ancient Festival of Booths (not to be confused with modern festivals of booze) and the holiday we know as Thanksgiving as an illustration of our proper response to God.
Our text today comes from one of the Hallels, one of the songs of praise associated with the harvest feast that we know as the Feast of Booths. Exodus 23:16 and 34:22 call it the Feast of Ingathering (Harvest). This special altar we’re going to use as a focal point for offering thanksgiving isn’t intended to be a substitute for anything missing in our worship experience or as an idol (a golden branch instead of a golden calf?) to add to some new worship liturgy. It is a visual illustration to help us remember that God once commanded a harvest festival and that harvest festival (like all of God’s early covenants) pointed toward the new covenant.
Israel’s harvest festival took place in the seventh month of their calendar year, not the eleventh month. It lasted for seven days. Each morning for the first six days, the priests would circle the altar with lulavs (symbolic arrangements of palm, willow, myrtle, and citron banded together—see Leviticus 23:40) in their right hands and reciting Psalms (especially 118:25). On the seventh day, they circled the altar seven times. Now, if you’ve heard me preach very often, you probably see some significance in that. Seven is a very special number in the Bible. I believe it is composed of the number 3 (God who caused, God who is, and God who always will be) plus the number 4 (the creation is divided into four cardinal directions, four rivers coming out of the Garden of Eden, and four types of living creatures around the throne of God). So, seven represents God and the created order in its right relationship. What better symbolism could there be for a harvest festival? Without God, there is no harvest—nothing for which Israel could be thankful.
Israel’s harvest festival involved booths. Originally, these booths related to temporary shelters that would be assembled during the harvest so that the landowners could stand guard and be certain that no thieves “rustled” their harvest. This may be why the Mishnah forbids an Israelite to sleep under a bed (under the covers) during that period. It is intended to be a watchful period of being alert. For Israel, they were also commanded to live in these booths for seven days (Leviticus 23:42). Such temporary quarters reminded them that God’s people are intended to be people on the move, going wherever God would command them. In fact, the booths had to be free-standing so that they couldn’t lean on an existing building and they couldn’t have a permanent roof lest the Israelites be tempted to make them permanent constructions. Of course, since they represent Israel on the move as well as Israel bringing in the harvest, it was perfectly acceptable to build them on carts or ships. Of course, modern Jews aren’t quite as careful, leading to urban Sukkoths and mere party venues.
Still, one rabbi has described going into a Succoth or “booth” as being a way of entering into a mitzvah, entering into that sacred space of obedience to God. Ironically, we as participants in the New Covenant, God’s New Contract with humankind, are privileged to have the mitzvah enter into us through the power of the Holy Spirit. The use of booths served both to remind Israel to expect blessing from God and to be prepared to move on whenever God led in a different direction.
On the first day of the feast (remember that the Hebrew day begins while it is still dark), the priests would go to the Pool of Siloam and gather enough water to use in water libations (pouring out water on the altar) during all seven days of the feast (actually, the feast lasted eight days in total, but the festivities were broken off for the Sabbath). We’ll consider the symbolism of the water later.
Also, during the period we know as night, the younger priests would light four huge menorah with the wicks made from the old, cast-off garments of the priests and the entire temple courtyard was said to be illuminated with light—light that symbolized the LIGHT of God. The Mishnah tells us “There was not a court in Jerusalem that was not made bright by the light of the water-drawing.”
In this lighted court of the temple, the priests would do what was known as the Torah dance, accompanied by the playing of the flute and would recite one of the Psalms from 120-134 at each of the 15 steps between the Court of the Israelites and the Court of the Women. The Mishnah tells us that pious men danced and sang during this time and one rabbi elaborates that there was a rabbi who could juggle eight lit torches at a time while the Levites accompanied the dancing with harps, lyres, cymbals, and trumpets. So, we’re certainly supposed to know that harvest time was intended to be a time of celebration. It combines a unique combination of rededication and celebration. It wasn’t a quiet time of reflection. It was a raucous time of making noise in honor of God.
Before sunrise, all of the priests would line up facing the East. But AT sunrise, the trumpets would blow and they would all turn to the west to face the Temple proper, reciting this saying, “Our Fathers, who were in this place, turned their backs to the Temple and their faces to the east, and they prostrated themselves to the sun toward the east; but we lift up our eyes toward God.” (Sukkoh 5:4).” This may well be a repentant response to the accusation in Ezekiel 8:16 (“Then He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.” NASB)
In short, all of this ceremony and rejoicing during the Feast of Booths was to remind Israel of the differences between her worship and that of other religions. Other religions saw their deities as being tied to the rising of the sun. They bowed and prostrated themselves toward the east. Israel was reminded by this pre-dawn ritual that God was in their midst, not at the sunrise. Today, we need to remember that God is perpetually in our midst. God lives in us through the presence of the Holy Spirit inside us, our bodies as God’s temple. We aren’t tied to a sacred place or holy space. We are commanded to be open to the presence of God at all times.
Speaking of the Holy Spirit, let’s take another look at this idea of the water libation. Early in the morning, a priest would take a bowl or cup of water and a bowl or cup of wine and pour it over the altar. Most authorities perceived this as a fulfillment of Isaiah 12:3-6 (“Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. And in that day you will say, ‘Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; Make them remember that His name is exalted.’ Praise the LORD in song, for He has done excellent things; Let this be known throughout the earth. Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion. For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.” NASB).
Of course, other civilizations believed that their gods of thunder, lightning, and agriculture provided blessings. The Feast of Booths was intended to remind all Israel that the life-giving, food-supporting rain came from God and not from elsewhere. Witness the prophet Zechariah’s interpretation of the feast in Zechariah 14:16-19 (“Then it will come about than any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the LORD smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.”). Pretty clear, huh?
And, of course, the main event of each day of the feast was the offering of sacrifices. The people brought together grain offerings and burnt meat offerings. Leviticus 23:36 tells us, “For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD.” (NASB) Numbers 29:12ff gives us the same image. Israel was to bring a portion of their harvest and their bounty to God. And throughout this celebration, they recited Psalms like 118. So, to speak about the importance of Thanksgiving, I think we should examine the text.
The Psalm begins and ends with the admonition to give a thank offering to Yahweh—God Who caused, Who is, and Who always will be. We are to thank God because of God’s goodness and we are to recognize that we experience God’s goodness in an ongoing relationship with God. That relationship is called a “covenant.” As we recently saw in Genesis 15, it is God’s unilateral promise to us, the contract where God provides His Own Being as the collateral.
Once there was a covenant with Noah, with Abram, with Moses, and with David, but now there is a NEW covenant written in the blood of Jesus. That promise, that contract, never expires. It is guaranteed by God’s action, not our actions. The word often translated as “steadfast love” in English translations is usually reserved to describe “covenant love” or “relational love.” So, in my translation, I’ve taken the liberty of inserting the word “contract” (I could have used loving commitment) to describe God’s steady dependable love. And, the word often translated as “forever” I’ve indicated as “never expiring.”
We all hate it when we have coupons which expire just before we get to use them (worse when we find ourselves at the restaurant or the counter before we realize they have expired). I saw part of the old television show, Everybody Hates Chris, a couple of weeks ago. The whole plot was built around the fact that the Dad had bought great tickets for a Mets-Dodgers game at a bargain price. When they get to the game, the usher won’t let them in. The dad points to the date and says that it’s the right date. The usher says, “Right day, wrong year!” What a letdown! Well, we don’t have to worry about this with God’s promise of eternal life. The great news is that God’s most incredible deal for our salvation and eternal life never expires. So, when we thank God because He is good and remember that His contracts never expire, we have an advantage over those patriarchs with whom God made other covenants.
So, we are supposed to give thanks. But why are we supposed to give thanks? Why does God need us to do this? The answer is that God doesn’t need us to do this. God doesn’t have anything to prove. We need to give thanks because that’s how we demonstrate to ourselves that something is of value. It offers us another perspective from which to view God’s great gifts (or in human terms, any gift) and helps us to savor it more. Thanksgiving is where the recipient acknowledges that something of value has been added to life.
Verses 2-4 tell all God’s people that we need to assert God’s promises in public. To be grateful doesn’t mean to sit there smugly in silence. To be grateful means to verbally acknowledge the usefulness and positive value of a gift. Is there anything more useful than eternal life? Is there anything more positive than being completely forgiven of all sins and given the gift of the Holy Spirit? And then, to know that God really wants what is best for us, just look at the next verse.
Verse 5 is usually translated with the idea that the psalmist called to God in his distress. That’s correct, but the root idea of the word we translate as “distress” is to be confined or restricted. I believe that’s important to know when we get to the next phrase and read that God answered the cry of distress, the desperate situation of being trapped, with a “spacious” or “roomy” response. To use an old Southern expression, the Psalmist says he was “fit to be tied” and God “sprung him loose.”
How different this testimony is from those people in the world who believe that Christians are being deprived, that we’re missing out on fun and fulfillment! The Bible speaks differently of the life of faith. The Bible indicates that faith opens up all of eternal possibility in front of us. We get the most out of life now and forever. That’s something to be thankful for! And it’s going to get better. But before we go on, let’s look briefly at the end of the Psalm.
ow, balancing those verses like bookends at the end of the Psalm are some similar ideas. Just like we have three lines in verses 2-4 indicating that God’s people need to make some noise in thanksgiving and be upfront about God’s goodness, we have three lines beginning with the same Hebrew letter (aleph) in verses 27-28. The first and third lines begin with the generic word for God, but the phrasing in verse 27 is that Yahweh, God we know personally, is God. Verse 28 affirms that God is MY God and that leads me to thanksgiving. In between these two affirmations of God’s Lordship over the Psalmist’s life is the admonition to bind the festival sacrifice to the horns of the altar.
Now, that’s pretty vivid to me. For humans, the horns of the altar represent God’s strength and salvation. Except for when one of David’s generals decided to execute a traitor hanging onto the horns of the altar, there was supposed to be sanctuary for someone holding onto the horns of the altar. It was the real-life equivalent of a “Get Out of Jail Free” card when you’re playing Monopoly. You don’t have to be afraid. But there is a price to our “Get Out of Jail Free” card (or perhaps, as a friend of mine once gave me an evangelistic tract disguised as a Monopoly card, “Get Out of Hell Free” card. For the sacrificial animals, being tied to the horns of the altar was preparatory to being sanctified and then, being slaughtered. Yet, even though we have the idea of sacrifice sandwiched in between these two lines about God’s dependability and salvation, the emphasis of thanksgiving is on what God has done for us and how God should be shouted up and lifted high.
Now, we saw the assertion in verse 5, there is a balancing assertion in verse 26. The Psalmist gave personal testimony in verse 5, but the assertion is that those who come into God’s Presence using the authority of God’s name are blessed, well-off, tangibly affected for the positive. Note the rest of the line, though. We are to bless God (and each other). Such love as God shows us demands a response. We cannot passively be thankful. To be truly thankful means that we actively thank God and want to do whatever will bless God.
Notice the final part of that assertion, though. God is Light for us. Not only does this passage (both here and with the reference to the cornerstone in verse 22) foreshadow or prefigure the coming of Jesus as the Light of the world in the New Testament but also it looks back to the Feast of Booths when the four great menorahs are lit for the celebration of God’s goodness in the harvest festival.
Back up earlier in the Psalm, we see Verse 6 tells us that since God is for us, we have absolutely no reason to fear what humankind can do to us. In fact, verse 7 goes on to say that since God is for us, we clearly see our enemies for what they are. As I look at this verse, I don’t know if it means that I don’t have to pay them much attention because God is on my side or that, to borrow another cliché from modern use, “I can look right through them.” Regardless, it is clear that my enemies—be they human worms sabotaging me with words and actions or Satan accusing me to myself and others—don’t stand a chance. And that’s something to be thankful for.
Both verses 6 and 7 have God’s personal name as being in relationship to the Psalmist as their opening two words. In a similar manner, both verses 8 and 9 begin with the same three words in Hebrew meaning “It is good to take refuge in God we know personally.” God as a place of security, a fortified base from which we can live our lives victoriously, is preferable to trusting either humanity or human leaders. The truth is, when we trust in human authorities, we’re going to get burned. Pastors, teachers, businessmen, and politicians all make mistakes and those mistakes are compounded by their previous influence. But God won’t ever let us down.
At the other bookend of the Psalm, we find two verses that play off the idea of “THIS.” The first phrase of verse 23 indicates that something (THIS) has happened from Yahweh. THIS is absolutely wonderful in our eyes. THIS probably refers to a bountiful harvest, but it can refer to anything marvelous that God does for His people. The first phrase (and even the first word) in verse 24 says THIS is the day that God accomplished. The proper response to God’s activity is to respond with joy and celebration.
Then, we have two phrases in verse 25 that really put the Psalm in perspective. As verses 8-9 emphasized the goodness of being able to enjoy security in God, these two phrases indicate that God’s deliverance is NOW. Salvation and prosperity (or blessing) is available NOW. And the reason this puts us in perspective is because this is where the Hosanna of Palm Sunday comes from. As the celebrants in the Feast of Booths waved their lulavs of palm, willow, and citron in praise of God and recited Psalm 118, so did those at the triumphal entry expect that Jesus was going to bring immediate salvation from the Romans and prosperity as a free nation. But the contract that Jesus was to rewrite with His blood has proved to be a different kind of salvation and a different kind of prosperity. And this victory doesn’t expire, this prosperity doesn’t have a “Best sold by” date.
Back toward the beginning, there is a theme of being surrounded. Verses 10-12 all three use the verb “surrounded” in the first phrase each time. But in each case, the assurance of God’s name, God’s authority makes the Psalmist believe that he will annihilate his enemies. The Psalmist knows that there is no final defeat with God.
Balancing that assurance of victory are the related themes of the “gate of righteousness” and the “gate belonging to Yahweh” that gives believers access to God (verses 19-20). And guess how one gains access to this gate belonging to Yahweh? They gain access in the name of Yahweh. Sometimes, the right name will accomplish something for you that you can’t accomplish yourself. I’m reminded of the time I was Editor-in-Chief of Computer Gaming World and we were attending a big convention. Sony’s Psygnosis division was having a big party at a nightclub and my technical editor (who was rooming with me) knew that I wasn’t going. So, he grabbed some of my business cards and asked my executive editor if he wanted to go to the party. Ken said that there was no way they could get in. Mike waved my card in his face and said, “Johnny could.”
When they arrived at the party, Mike gave my card to the girl at the receptionist table and, since I wasn’t actually on the invitation list, she went in to check with Jerry Wolosenko, a friend of mine who was running the Psygnosis division. Jerry came out to see me and quickly recognized Mike and Ken. He said they looked like homeless waifs. He laughed and waved them in. To this day, Mike would say that my name got them in the party. Well, I wouldn’t try it now that I’m not in the business, but it worked back then. Well, guess what? We can get into God’s presence with the right name. It’s no longer the name that Israel knew, but there is a hint right here in the Psalm.
This idea of access to God leads the Psalmist to additional praise and testimony of salvation (v. 21). Then, guess what we find? We find that oft-quoted verse (in the New Testament) about the stone which the builders rejected becoming the most important stone of the structure. Salvation, again, depends upon God’s doing.
Since we can rewind the film, we know that Jesus is the fulfillment of this verse, but all the Psalmist knew was that God’s work, God’s purpose, God’s goals, and God’s expectations aren’t always accepted by humankind. Yet, he knows that God’s work, God’s purpose, God’s goals, and God’s expectations are vital and will certainly win out.
So, all through this passage I’ve been showing you the bookends, the slices of the sandwich for the Psalm. Usually, the most defining portion of a sandwich is in between those slices of bread and lettuce and tomatoes. So, where is the “beef” for this particular sandwich? I believe it starts in verse 13. The enemies of the Psalmist tried to get him for God, but God plus one changes the odds. As a result, the Psalmist can sing a song of victory—LOUDLY (according to verse 15). Verse 14 claims that God saved the Psalmist and verse 18 says that even though God disciplined him, he was going to live because God didn’t give him over to death.
Ah, there’s the message. We are to be thankful because God has accomplished all that is necessary to rescue us from the world’s and our own limitations. We are to be thankful because God has done all that it takes to grant us the gift of life eternal. There may be times when we are opposed, even persecuted, and times when God has to discipline us, but life is always before us.
When I was younger, I was mesmerized by the pulp science fantasy of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter of Mars series. Carter, his protagonist, was a Civil War veteran who was miraculously transported to a fictional version of Mars. The thinner atmosphere and lesser gravity enabled Carter to leap higher and be more agile than the average Martian warrior and this enabled Burroughs to pen the most improbable swashbuckling sword fights imaginable. Carter would be backed into a corner, facing surefire death and defeat, when he would suddenly leap out of trouble and shout his fighting slogan, “I still live!”
For believers, the slogan isn’t merely that “I still live” as the Psalmist essentially declares in verse 18, but that God still lives and is invested in our lives. That is what we should be thanking God about! God is our backer and benefactor, our mentor and coach, our creator and redeemer—all of it. And so, as the celebrants at that ancient feast brought bulls, goats, lambs, rams, and grain to that ancient altar—joyously and confidently—I’m going to ask some of you to bring something else to the altar. I’m going to ask you to bring the firstfruits of your time and talents—volunteering to participate in some extra ministry opportunities during this upcoming Christmas season. I’m going to ask some of you to bring the firstfruits of your prayer time – lifting up your church in general, but asking God whom you should invite to church. I’m going to ask some of you to bring the firstfruits of your money and dedication – encouraging you to be there for the church and God’s Kingdom with both your wallet and your presence. By RESPONDING thankfully to God, you have the chance to know even more the kind of light, joy, and victory that the ancient Hebrews experienced.
