The Giving Of Thanks

With Thanksgiving upon us, I thought it would be a good time to turn to the Psalms, the thanksgiving Psalms, and appreciate the Lord for who He is and what He has done for His people. The Psalms I’m focusing on today are Psalms 105 through 107, each of which carry a tone of praise and gratitude. They are celebratory Psalms, marveling at the person and work of Yahweh, the God of Israel and Creator of Heaven and earth.

Psalm 105:1 begins thusly: “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples!” Psalm 145 accentuates this great confession, stating, “All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations,” Psalm 145:10-13.

Music was a vehicle of worship for Israel, and for Christians after them. Granted, music has long since been a religiously influenced medium for centuries, becoming more and more secularized as modernity encroached. It is worth noting, however, that musical instruments were created by Cain’s descendants; Lamech’s children created the first recorded musical instruments, and it seems rather unlikely that music was initially used to praise God from Cain’s progeny, Genesis 4:21.

Regardless, the Psalmist implores Israel to give thanks in an exclamatory command. Why? We are to converse about His works, Psalm 105:2. We are to glory in His name, which is holy, and rejoice because we seek God, Psalm 105:3. To that end, the Psalmist again commands Israel to seek the Lord and His strength; and to seek Him forevermore. This injunction is in memorial to who God is, and the lengths He went to in order to liberate Israel from the iron furnace of Egypt. Every generation is to seek the Lord, to rejoice in the search, to find comfort in His strength, to glory in (or honor) His name and bless His name. His name, in this instance Yahweh, is a revelation of some aspect of His character. Yahweh is the God who made a covenant with Israel at Sinai and promised to be their God. He is a provider, a King, the one who grants blessings to Israel and reproves them when they err. God’s glory and kingship was to be revealed to the world through Israel, who were to become an evangelistic nation, bringing the Gentiles to the temple of God, to worship Him in the beauty of holiness, being adopted into His household, see Zechariah 8:23. This will be ultimately fulfilled during the seven year Tribulation period when Jewish evangelists, on fire for the Lord, convert an untold number of people. But I digress.

Psalm 105, verses 7-15 recalls the Lord their God. His judgments cover the earth; in other words God’s presence and influence is felt everywhere, regardless of if we are Jew or Gentile. Verse 8 reminds Israel that Yahweh remembers His covenant, a covenant that will not be forgotten no matter how revisionists and kingdom theologians want to pervert the clear promise God made to earthly Israel. The church is not God’s chosen earthly people, Israel; Christians and Gentiles never stood at Sinai and received the Decalogue. To clarify this issue, the Psalmist says that God’s covenant was with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, establishing that geographical Israel is the heir of His promises, denoting the former land of Canaan as the boundary of their inheritance, Psalm 105:11.

The Jew has much to rejoice over. God has not, nor will He ever forget or forsake His people, or annul His words to Abraham about the earthly kingdom the Jews were promised. It is a promise that will be entirely and gloriously fulfilled with our Lord Jesus Christ’s return in glory to reign from David’s throne over the Jews in the geographical land of Israel. Jeremiah records an awesome testimony from the Lord regarding earthly Israel, saying, “Thus says the Lord: “If My covenant is not with the day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and I will have mercy on them,” Jeremiah 33:25, 26.

Psalm 106 and 107 begin identically. Both read, (with Psalm 106 adding, “Praise the Lord!”) “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.” The Psalmist, elated at the prospect of God’s glory and might, wrote, “Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people. Oh, visit me with Your salvation, that I may see the benefit of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your inheritance,” Psalm 106:4, 5. Psalm 107 adds, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of His enemy, and gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south,” Psalm 107:2. Later, the writer continues, “Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men! Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing,” Psalm 107:21, 22.

As the Psalmist walks through the hardships of Israel’s history, he is struck by the steadfast faithfulness of the covenant God who spoke to Abraham and called him out of Ur of the Chaldees. Israel’s existence as a nation is a stark witness of God’s enduring fidelity in His promises, and His sheer power to keep them, no matter how the moment or circumstance might appear. God is good. What He has done (and is doing, and will do) for Israel as a people He will do for us. He will redeem us; He will preserve us, He will bring us to be with Him where He is. No created thing (including us) can intervene with God’s love for us, Romans 8:38, 39. We deserve Hell, He has given us forgiveness, salvation, and the imputed righteousness of His Son. We are rebels by birth and nature. Yet it pleased God, while we were His enemies, to surrender His Son in a supreme act of love to die on our behalf and reconcile Adam’s estranged progeny back to the house of God. Israel’s Psalmist looked upon God with a reverence that strained human language to express.

Now it is our turn to express thanksgiving. Not necessarily for what we have. That is well; but what we have can be taken. Our possessions, health, family, even our lives can be taken in this capricious and uncertain world. But what cannot be taken from us is the love of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. His promises endure because God cannot lie and does not change, Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Numbers 23:19, Hebrews 13:8. Our confidence is not in what we attain in this life; it is in the person of God, and we may know Him and His faithfulness through the word of God, the Bible. We are warned that this life will have its share of tribulations. But we are consoled that through every step, through every peril, and through every triumph, God is with us. “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” should be our mantra, see Hebrews 13:6, Psalm 27:1. Our citizenship is in Heaven, where eternity and bliss unmarred by this world’s woes await. Now we practice gratitude; yes, for good things that we have been temporarily gifted with. But more than that, recall the God of Abraham who promises, and fulfills those promises despite all adversity, or even our own doubts and fears. Trust in the Lord with all your heart! The Psalmist wanted thanksgiving to God, even in the midst of adversity, to be a hallmark of His children. We do not need to celebrate the adversity itself, but to rejoice that we are not alone in any valley we find ourselves walking through. All glory be to God for His enduring love for all of us!

Happy Thanksgiving, one and all. I pray the Lord that your day is filled with peace and joy, and gratitude for the amazing God that we–all who call upon His name–serve.