In our Thanksgiving series this month, we have been studying from the book of Psalms, chapter 116. We heard about the foundation of thanks which is the grace of God and about the overflow of thankfulness, which comes from receiving all that God has for you. Last week Rob spoke about the enemies of thankfulness - the 4 habits that kill thankfulness: comparison, self-pity & complaining, entitlement, & busyness. In our life group last week, we thought of a few more bad habits that kill thankfulness!
What can we see as some takeaways that the Psalmist learned in Psalm 116?
First, he was looking for help in many different places. But because there was no person or thing, he could find rest and deliverance in, he found himself returning to God. Second, this psalmist must have trusted friends, companions, and family but realized that he placed too much trust in people and this left him disillusioned and disappointed in others.
How could anyone but God really understand the depth of what was going on inside his heart? In his suffering he realized just how powerless he and all his friends were to change the circumstances. In fact no person had the power to deliver him from his close call with death.
How often do we put more hope and faith in our relationships with people rather than in our relationship with a perfect, all-powerful God? How often do we place unrealistic or unspoken expectations on others only to be disappointed when they don’t deliver? It was a hard lesson but the psalmist was thankful for what he learned.
Third, the psalmist realized that when he put his faith in God, it wouldn’t mean he’d be spared from trouble. He experienced contempt, mocking, belittling, hurt, and literally almost died. Like the three men in the book of Daniel, who were thrown into the fiery furnace because of their faith, the faith that put them in the fire, was the same faith that delivered them in the end. When I speak of faith, it is such a faith that affects our words, our witness, and our walk.
This type of faith in God sustained him in suffering and brought him through life threatening situations. This faith taught the psalmist to trust God even in prolonged periods of darkness. Out of this incredible season in his journey with the Lord his perspective and priorities concerning life had changed. He matured, he learned to face the future with greater calm and confidence because he had placed more and more trust in God, he loved the Lord more and more. After reflecting on and processing what he had gone through, he was truly thankful for what God taught him through the school of hard knocks. He had the sentence of death but God gave him a new lease on life. God had set him free from death. And what did the psalmist do in return to the Lord for all His benefits, what did he do with his new found freedom? Let’s look at:
Psalm 116:17-19 (SL 2)
17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving, And will call on the name of the LORD. 18 I will pay my vows to the LORD, Yes, in the presence of all His people, 19 In the courts of the LORD’S house (temple) In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD! (Hallelujah!)
His sacrifice, which was the expression of love to the One who delivered him from sorrow and death, was a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Taking the cup of salvation meant that he wanted his new life to be an expression of thanks for all the Lord had done for him. He was willing to be poured out for Him because living for the Lord is not a waste
In v. 18, he said he would pay his vows, keep his promises, his commitment to the Lord - not privately but openly. The psalmist wasn’t afraid or ashamed to invite others to join in with him, to rejoice with him, to sharing in the reason for his thanks. It was not about him, it was about God. His faith was not a private matter, he wanted to declare the Lord's deliverance so others would get to experience God and to live for Him. The psalmist was eager to worship God openly and he was eager to worship Him along with others. His thanks was expressed within the fellowship of a community of worshippers.
Where was this community of fellowship and worship? In the courts of the Lord, in God’s house. Why was this place so significant? Because this is where the eternal God met the nation of Israel, this is where he met those who worshiped Him. In the temple, the house of God, worshipers would experience the majesty, glory, the holiness, the grace and mercy of the Lord. The temple of God was beautiful, so colorful making ones relationship with the Lord more concrete and real. God, of course, is everywhere present and can meet you and I wherever He wants but the temple was the actualization of the presence of God. Why is Psalm 116 so important?
Because it was one of the psalms that the Jews would sing or recite at the end of the Passover meal. It was part of the Palms of thanks for God’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Most likely when the Lord Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, they sang this Hallel hymn (Mark 14:26). At the Last Supper, Jesus took the Passover meal and infused it with new meaning. That night Jesus would drink the cup of God’s wrath so that we could drink the cup of salvation. The salvation that Jesus promised was not deliverance from physical danger or slavery but a salvation from the power of and slavery to sin and its ultimate penalty - death and eternal separation from God.
Like the psalmist realized, there is no religious system, no amount of good works, no person that could ever deliver us from the power and penalty of sin. When I speak about sin, John Walvoord said there are 33 aspects or characteristics of sin which in every case describes how we fall short in the way we were created by God to live, love, think, act, believe. The whole world has been overcome, entangled, enslaved and defeated by it. We were caught up in its flow towards destruction and unable to change or save ourselves. But God made a way to set us free by sending His son Jesus to pull us out of the miry clay, out of this hopeless entanglement. Jesus paid for every aspect of sin that Walvoord talked about, for every sin in the history of mankind so that anyone, no matter who you are or what you have done, anyone who calls upon His name would be delivered from the power and penalty of sin. Anyone can be set free, delivered from death and hell forever. Lewis Sperry Chafer had pointed out that there are thirty-three aspects to the riches of God's grace! The more we understand what we were delivered from and how it happened the more we realize how great our salvation really is! Just over three weeks ago I had a heart attack and at one point while I was on the operating table (I was awake for the whole procedure), the doctors called in the cardiac arrest unit. They told me afterwards, it was a close call.
I am thankful that the Lord delivered me from death but more so from an eternity apart from Him, an almighty all powerful, all good God. Little did I know when we started this Thanksgiving series in Psalm 116, like the psalmist I would potentially be facing death. But that was not in God’s plan. Now for the rest of my days, I have to make some lifestyle changes, I have to think differently about what I eat, how I manage stress, and what I do with my newfound freedom (from dunking doughnut and zimtschnecken)?
We probably could all tell stories of God’s deliverance from dire situations, stories of physical and emotional healing, deliverance from sin and bondages where God changed our perceptions and perspective on life. We have choices to make from this day forward. What will we do with our newfound freedom that God has given us? What is God saying to you about your calling? What is hindering you from fulfilling that calling and using your gifts and building up the body of Christ? Will we take the cup of salvation and be poured out as a thanksgiving offering to the Lord? There are plenty of opportunities to show our thanks. I think that is the case for those who have given of their time, energy and personal resources to make this day happen and every Sunday happen. That is the case for those who have chosen to live for Him where-ever the Lord has placed you.
Warren Wiersbe said: Life is your most precious possession, don’t take it for granted. Right now you are either wasting your life, spending your life, or investing your life. It is you who determines which course to follow…It would be a tragedy to go through life really not living.
