Psalm 100

It's a Matter of Faith---How to Give Thanks

            Two years and one week ago, Chaney and I were on our way home from church, when the song Feliz Navidad came on the radio. I love that song. It is so joyful and full of good cheer that I almost always sing along. I tried to get Chaney to sing with me, but she refused. “Why?” I asked her and she replied “it is not even Thanksgiving yet.” Nothing I did could get her to change her mind.

            As I reflected on that encounter, I began to realize that what she was telling me that I was getting things out of order. To really enjoy the gift of Christmas, the greatest gift we as a human race have ever received, God come in the flesh, I need to put it in context of all that I have to be thankful for.

            As I look forward to this afternoon and then Thursday, I think of the meal and the variety of foods, including Brussel sprouts. I will spend time with my family and enjoy football games, and the throwing there of. I will look forward to spending time with my granddaughter, and my daughter-in-law and my sons of course. And I will come back, hopefully rested, for the busyness of the next month.

            What is missing from my list of things to do? Giving thanks. So much so, that I could be accused of looking at this holiday as just the beginning of the Christmas season. It seems, especially this year, that the purpose of the day has been overlooked. Black Friday sales starting early, Christmas music on the radio already, I guess we just have given up on giving thanks.

            As I have thought about why that is, one of the reasons that comes to mind is that we are often told to give thanks, but have not been instructed as to how to give thanks.  Like Mark Twain’s lament about the weather “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.”  We are told to give thanks, but many of us are left wondering how to go about it.  That is where today’s Psalm offers us guidance.  In Psalm 100 we have a brief instruction manual that told the people of Israel how to offer their thanks to God.

            In this Psalm we have a picture of the people arriving at the temple.  As they arrive, they do not move right into the temple.  They are instructed to turn toward the world and invite all of the people of the world to join them in entering God’s presence.  This was to remind them of the greatness of God.  God was larger than their little land and that while God loved them, he loved all of the people of the world.  In fact the reason that God had blessed them so richly was so that they would invite all of the nations of the world to come into God’s presence.  This word that is translated presence here is very significant.  It is derived from the word for “face” in Hebrew.  They are invited come before God’s face.  So, not only are they to invite the people of the world to sing God’s praises, they are to invite them to know God personally.

            As they see God’s face and come to know Him personally, this is both the Israelites and the people who have answered their invitation, then they led to declare, as people down through the ages have declared, “The Lord is God, the Lord is God.”  Yahweh is the God above all gods, the creator of the world in which they lived.  Even as they begin to comprehend the greatness of God, they are struck by another thought.  It is this God who made them and not only did God make them, God continues to care for them as a shepherd cares for the sheep.  It is the shepherd who provides the green pastures and the still waters.  It is the shepherd that protects them with the rod and the staff, it is the shepherd who anoints them with the salves that bring healing and restores their souls when hard times surround them.

             With this realization echoing in their minds, their hearts fill to overflowing with thanksgiving because God has chosen to make them the people of the almighty God.  It is then that they enter the gates of the temple, singing God’s praise.  As they walk from one court to the other in the temple, the singing and shouts of praise and thanksgiving fill the air.  When it is finally time for them to leave, they come to the gates again, reminded that God’s lovingkindness (the Hebrew word Hesced), God’s unconditional love, goes with them.  That love will never forsake them and it will follow them and their children and their children’s children through eternity.

            As we look at this Psalm, the key to experiencing that joyful attitude of thanksgiving is in the recognition of two things.  The first is that the Lord is God.  Before we can understand the enormity of the next thing, we need to get the right perspective.  David raised the question, who are we as mortals that you pay any attention to us.  The greatness of God is beyond our comprehension.  Think of all the stars and solar systems that go with them, why should God care about us?  Compared to God, we are less than specs of dust on the scales, Isaiah declared.  It is this God that we worship and what is so special about us that God should even be aware that we exist.  It is this realization that makes the next realization so amazing.

            That realization is that God cares about us like a shepherd cares for his sheep.  Even though God is so vast and so powerful and compared to the vastness of the universe and the amazing beauty and the interesting variety that must exist, the fact that God is aware of us is amazing.  After all, we are only aware of the mosquitoes that dare to land on us and begin to drill.  Then, what do we do, we swat them.  But this amazing God, not only knows that we exist, but cares about us and our well being.  We are not a nuisance or a play thing for this God, we are the object of God’s unconditional, everlasting love.  This God cares for us and provides for us like a gentle shepherd cares for the overly anxious, self absorbed sheep.  When we wrap our minds around all that God has and continues to do for us, all of the sudden, the thanksgiving wells up and overflows from us.

            I have shared with some of you in conversation, the story of the person who saved seminary for me, Robert Hubbard. He did it by giving thanks. (Veterans Day)

            So, this day when we stop with the intention of giving thanks to God, let us take the time we need to gain the perspective that we need, so that we can truly give thanks to God and let us invite the world to join with us in singing God’s praise.

 This sermon was given Nov. 17 and Nov. 18 at St. Mark Presbyterian Church.  The audio version can be found here.