How to Cultivate a Heart of Gratitude
Psalm 103:1-5
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
11-29-2020
Grumpstaking?
I recently came across an article written by Allison Hope. After I share her thoughts, you will see the irony of her name.
She makes the case that 2020 is not worthy of thanksgiving. After recognizing that she does have much to theoretically to be thankful for, she writes:
“And yet. I am incapable of feeling the joy that has, for every Thanksgiving prior to 2020, accompanied me to the homes of friends and family. There will be no road trips, no extended family hugs, no old friends in town visiting and reminiscing over a tall cold one, no spontaneous moments featuring new characters. This year is all plot twists without the comic relief.
I have landed in a new place this year, one where it's perfectly acceptable to want people to take their gratitude and shove it up this year's pathetically small turkey cavity.
Yes, I retain the right to feel full-on Scrooge this year, and I invite you to join me.”
She ends her sad rant with these words:
“In the spirit of Festivus for the rest of us, and celebrating the anti-holiday to air grievances rather than pleasantries, I hereby rename Thanksgiving 2020 "Grumpstaking," whereby we allow ourselves to feel whatever range of negative emotions we feel like feeling without the pressure to proclaim all that we're grateful for. Don’t worry, you can eat all the pie.”
Her last name might be hope but she sure doesn’t seem to have much hope this Thanksgiving, does she?
If you want to know the truth, I understand her cynicism completely. I recently heard a pastor describe himself as an “extraverted Eeyore.”
Some people are optimists. They see the glass as half full.
Some people are pessimists. They see the glass as half empty.
Then there are those of us who are cynics. We think, knowing 2020, the glass is probably going fall, break, and cut an artery causing us to bleed to death.
I have to fight my cynicism. Maxine helps me with that. And spending time in God’s Word helps me as well.
Is Allison Hope correct? Should we just grumble instead of giving thanks for a year that seems to be the gift that keeps on giving?
This morning, I want to make the case that we have a LOT to be thankful for, even in this ridiculous year. And it is good for our souls to express our gratitude to a God that is the fount of every blessing.
How do we cultivate a heart of gratitude?
Turn with me to Psalm 103.
Prayer
Psalm 103 in context
Psalm 103 is one of David’s praise poems. There is no requests, no prayers, no danger, and no enemies. There is no historical event associated with this psalm.
It is a part of of a group of four psalms of praise that end Book 4 of the Psalter.
One writer has called it David’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”
Charles Spurgeon wrote that Psalm 103 was a “Bible within itself” and it contains “too much for a thousand pens to write.”
I would like to read these verses to you and have you stand, if you are able, to honor God’s Word.
[slide] “Praise the Lord, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” (Psalm 103:1-5)
Within these verses, I want us to discover 6 different reasons for which we can express our gratitude to God this weekend.
A Conversation with Myself
Maxine and I are now empty nesters. It’s been an interesting adjustment. There are times we when have to ask each other, “Are you talking to me or yourself…or the dog?”
We all talk to ourselves. In fact, we talk to ourselves more than we talk to any else.
Many of us are harder on ourselves and talk to ourselves in ways we would never talk to others.
We need to make sure that when we are feeling cynical that we remind ourselves of all the things we have to be thankful for.
That’s our David starts out this psalm. By talking truth to himself:
“Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name.” (v. 1)
We are not sure what was going on in David’s life, but he felt the need to remind himself to praise the Lord.
The word praise means to “bless,” or “kneel,” and it carries with a strong affection coupled with gratitude.
He commands himself to praise the “Lord.” This is the covenant name of God and means the “existing One,” or “the I Am.”
He speaks directly to the deepest part of who he is, his “soul,” which in the Bible is considered the seat of all emotions and passions.
David never has been shy about worship and he praises God with everything he is.
When he brought the ark back into Jerusalem, he danced before the Lord in nothing but his underwear.
His wife came out to meet him and said:
“How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” (2 Sam 6:20)
David responded:
“It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.” (2 Sam 6:21-22)
He directs that deepest inward part of his heart to praise God’s holy name.
Many of his songs have this theme:
“I will extol the Lord at all times, his praise will always be on my lips. I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.” (Psalm 34:1-2)
He desires that God’s reputation, fame, and glory be lifted up with all that is within himself.
Forget Me Not
We know that his desire is earnest and intense because he repeats the same directive again but then adds a reminder:
“Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits-“ (v. 2)
David reminds himself, “Don’t forget ALL His benefits.”
There is a theme of remembering and forgetting that runs through the whole Bible. In times of stress and chaos, we are prone to forget what God has done and cling to fear and get cynical.
In Deuteronomy, Moses gives the Israelites this warning:
“Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.” (Duet 8:11)
If they did not remember the Lord, their hearts would grow proud and forget that it was the Lord who brought them out of Egypt and provided for them in the wilderness.
Ray Pritchard writes:
“We must think before we thank. We must ponder before we praise. We must must remember before we rejoice.”
Many of learned a song as children that comes directly from this verse:
When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,?
When you are discouraged,
thinking all is lost,
?Count your many blessings,
name them one by one,?
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
?
What are these “benefits?” Let’s quickly walk through six different reasons why David, and all of us, can be thankful. There are six different verbs to consider:
[Slide] We can be thankful because God forgives ALL our sins
The first reason to praise God is because He is the One who forgives ALL his sins!
David knew a thing or two about being forgiven of sins. Although he was a “man after God’s own heart,” he also committed adultery with a married woman named Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered.
David knew the agony of understanding the weight of his sins and he experienced the deep joy of being forgiven:
"Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them and in whose spirit is no deceit.” (Psalm 32:1-2)
The word sin is actually an archery term. It means to miss the mark.
How many of us miss the mark?
“For ALL have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory…” (Romans 3:23)
God’s standard is perfection and we can never hop high enough for His holiness.
God is perfectly holy. Our sins separate us from God.
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
We were separated from God because of our sins and there was absolutely nothing we could do about it.
We simply can’t be good enough. We never hit the bullseye. We were helpless, hopeless, and hell bound.
But God is just. Sin must be paid for and God doesn’t take Mastercard.
He demands prefect blood because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
That’s what the whole Old Testament sacrificial system is all about. When the people would sin, they would take an animal to the Temple where it would be slaughtered in their place.
The prophets told the people time and time again that there was coming One who would be the “perfect spotless lamb” that would take away the sins once and for all.
Sin has to be paid for and we are spiritually bankrupt. God has every right to sentence us to hell because of our rebellion against Him.
But God would rather die than live without you!
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly… But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6,8)
Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity came to earth and lived a perfect life. He hit the bullseye of God’s rules every single time. And because of that, Jesus could be our representative.
He traded His perfect righteousness for our sin:
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (I Cor 5:21)
When He looks at you, He see you covered in the righteousness of His Son.
How many sins did He forgive? All of them! Past, present, and future.
Jesus died in our place, to pay the sin penalty we couldn’t pay, to satisfy the wrath of God against our sins!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
A couple of verses down from this one David writes these incredibly encouraging words:
He is not always accuse, nor will be harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalm 103: 9-12)
Michael Card has a song that contain these beautiful words:
“To be so completely guilty / and given over to despair / to look into your judges face / and see a Savior there.”
Are you able to thank God for forgiving all your sins today?
2. [Slide] “And heals ALL your diseases.”
God is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. We know He can and does heal.
But David says that God heals ALL our diseases? But wait, we have all prayed for someone who didn’t get healed.
James Montgomery Boice writes this:
“This verse has played an important but unwarranted role in some systems of theology that stress what is called ‘healing in the atonement,’ meaning that if we have been saved from sin by Christ, we have been healed or have a right to be healed of any physical affliction too. This is bad theology, because it is simply not true that those who have been forgiven for sin are spared or have a right to be spared all diseases. Believers do get sick, and many passages teach that God has his purposes in the sicknesses.”
God can and often does heal in answer to our prayers. Last year, when Mark Johnson was in the hospital, we started talking about his funeral. From all indications, he was getting ready to go to heaven.
Fast forward to this week. Mark’s CT scan shows that the tumor is necrotic. It’s dead! Praise God!
But even if we are healed, we still will ultimately die.
When Maxine’s mother was dying of cancer, we prayed that she would be healed. She had a heart to heart with me not long before she went to heaven. She said:
“Never forget - If He heals me physically, I will praise Him from the rooftop. If He heals me completely, I get to be with Him face to face. Either way, I win!”
So what is David saying? What is he thanking God for?
Remember that we always take the text within its context.
David says God forgives ALL our sins and then couples that with the fact that He heals ALL our diseases so this must have to do more with diseases of the soul than our bodies.
When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:3-5)
God heals something more important that physical healing - our pride, lust, hatred, bitterness, and especially guilt over our sin!
The apostle John wrote that “if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9)
God not only declares you not guilty but He cleanses you from the inside out! ?
"Come now, let us settle the matter," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
When’s the last time you thanked God for healing you?
Worship Set:
This is Amazing Grace
Is He Worthy?
3. [slide] Who redeems your life from the pit
The death rate is still 100%. We are all slowing dying. This is the land of the dying. We are all headed toward the pit or the grave.
A few verses down in Psalm 103, David wrote this:
“…for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.” (Psalm 103:14-16)
The writer of Psalm 47 understood this well.
No one can redeem the life of another or give to God a ransom for them—the ransom for a life is costly, no payment is ever enough— so that they should live on forever and not see decay. (Psalm 47:7-9)
Just a few verses later, the writer looks into the future with hope:
“But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead; he will surely take me to himself.” (Psalm 47:15)
74 year old Richard Wilbanks was in his backyard in Florida with his new three month old puppy when an alligator came out of the pond like a missile and dragged the puppy underwater.
Richard jumped into the pond and pried that puppy out of the gators mouth and the video of this has gone viral.
The puppy was absolutely helpless to save itself. It was a goner. But Richard Wilbanks redeemed its life from the grave and didn’t even drop his cigar!
Jesus redeems our life from the grave. Death was once a black hole of hopelessness and now it is a door of destiny:
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Cor 15:55-57)
Jesus told Mary concerning her brother Lazarus who had died:
“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)
This is a part of our forgiveness and healing. Our bodies my die but our souls are eternal and for Christians the grave is not the end of the journey but just the beginning.
There’s another way of looking at the idea of a pit. I remember being in the pit. I was in my early 20s and I was depressed and living in the pit of sex, and drugs and rock and roll.
On December 31, 1990, Jesus pulled me out of that pit. Do you remember the feeling on being so lost and Jesus finding you and redeeming you from the pit of your past and sin?
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.” (Psalm 40:1-3)
When’s the last time you thanked God for pulling you out of the pit?
4. [Slide] “And crowns you with love and compassion”
When we are pulled out of that pit, it’s easy to feel self conscious and want to say thank you but hang our head and keep our distance from Jesus.
But God stands with open arms and pulls you close to His heart.
But not only are you saved from the pit of sin and death, we are crowned with love and compassion.
David, echoing Exodus 34, wrote a few verses later:
“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” (Psalm 103:8)
One writer put it this way:
“We deserve rejection, we get acceptance.
We deserve wrath, and we get mercy
We deserve hell, and he get heaven”
This is mediated all by the grace that is found in Jesus.
That why we don’t define ourselves as sinners. We are not sinners. We are saints, crowned with God’s love and mercy, who occasionally sin.
We are children of the most high King. The Goose understands this instinctively. She will tell you that she’s a princess.
When’s the last time you thanked God for crowning you with love and compassion?
Worship Set 2
Forever
King of Kings
5. [Slide] “Who satisfies your desires with good things.”
[Slide] Yesterday, to celebrate our anniversary, we had crab legs. A LOT of crab legs! It certainly satisfied me. But I woke up hungry. Why?
Without Christ, our hearts are forever hungry, thirsty, restless, and lonely.
The rock and roll theologian Mick Jagger sang, “I Can’t get no Satisfaction.”
Augustine famously wrote that our hearts are restless until they rest in God.
When we were in the pit, we chased after everything we thought would satisfy our hearts but, in the end, it was like trying to hold on to sand.
It never satisfied our souls. In fact, the more we drank from that well the more thirsty we became.
But God promises to heal our hearts and give us rest from our striving.
Eugene Peterson paraphrases this verse:
“He wraps you in goodness - beauty eternal.”
When’s the last time you thanked God for satisfying the deepest needs of your soul?
6. [Slide] “So that you youth is renewed like the eagles.”
Many commentators believe that David wrote this Psalm is his old age.
[Slide] He looks to the eagle. As an eagle grows older, its wings lose their shine and effectiveness. Eventually though, the eagle will molt off and new strong feathers will appear.
As we grow older, we realize how much God has brought us through. We have a bigger perspective that the young-uns have.
Paul put it this way to the Corinthians:
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” ( 2 Cor 4:16-17)
We can simply abide in Him and rest in His purposes for our lives.
Isaiah echoes this in chapter 40:
"He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:29-31)
When’s the last time you thanked God for renewing you day by day?
Forget not all his benefits.
I want to publicly thank God for saving me, healing me, redeeming me, crowning me with love and compassion, satisfying me, and renewing me. And not just renewing me but my family.
Not Today Locusts
Let me share one of my favorite Bible verses and then tell you what I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving.
The prophet Joel gives us this picture of judgement and destruction using locusts:
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm—my great army that I sent among you.You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.” (Joel 2:25-26)
Three years ago, we moved back to Pontiac after an absolutely disastrous eight weeks in Florida.
Maxine and I were not in a good place. Neither one of the boys were speaking to us. Our family was in shambles. We spent many nights crying and praying and wondering how God was was going to do a miracle and somehow put our family back together again.
But God is a God who renews. Maxine and I just celebrated our 28 wedding anniversary this weekend and our family is closer than it’s ever been.
God has restored what the locust had eaten. I don’t care what Allison Hope says. I am so thankful.
Worship Set:
Everlasting God
Interview with Kim Resler
Closing Song: Amazing Grace (My Chains are gone)
Let’s make Paul’s words our mission this season:
“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thes 5:18)
