A Psalm for Thanksgiving. Shout
joyfully to the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness; come before
Him with joyful singing. Know that the LORD Himself is God; it is He who has
made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to
Him, bless His name. For the LORD is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and
His faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100:1-5
Thanksgiving Day is a distinctive holiday. It doesn't commemorate a battle or anyone's
birthday or anniversary. It is simply a
day set aside to express our nation's thanks to our nation's God. Today our nation pauses once again to give thanks.
One would assume that because of the
example of our forefathers and because we have so much today, that we would be
an extremely thankful people. But it is
often just the opposite, isn't it? The
more we get, the less thankful we become, the less mindful of God we become and
the more we want. I think that the 100th
Psalm was written to deal with that attitude; to remind us of our need to be
thankful and to maintain an attitude of gratitude.
The Basis of Our Thanksgiving
The 100th Psalm was written for the people of Israel. God
said to them, "When you come into
the Promised Land and settle down in your warm homes, and you have plenty to
eat, don't forget Me. I led you out of the wilderness and I brought you into a
land flowing with milk and honey."
But it doesn't take very long to realize that the people of Israel
needed a reminder and I am afraid we need it too. Psalm 100 gives five Thanksgiving commands. We
will look at the first two today.
The first command
is in vs.1: "Shout for
joy to the Lord, all the earth." It means to "shout with the force of a trumpet blast;" a shout of joy to
the Lord that comes from the very depths of your being. A shout represents all that is within us and lets
others know what we think or feel. Maybe
God solved your problem; maybe He has given you the direction to go; maybe He
has provided a blessing and you realize that it has come from God. So from the
depths of your being you proclaim your praise.
Roland Allen tells about a veteran missionary who came up to him one
day after he had delivered his sermon. The missionary introduced himself and
said, "I was a medical missionary for many years in India. And I served in
a region where there was progressive blindness. People were born with healthy
vision, but there was something in that area that caused people to lose their
sight as they matured." But this missionary had developed a process which
would arrest progressive blindness. People came to him and he performed his
operation. They would leave realizing
that they would have become blind but now they were going to be able to see for
the rest of their lives. He said that they never said, "Thank you,"
because that phrase was not in their dialect. Instead, they spoke a word that
meant, "I will tell your name." Wherever they went, they would tell
the name of the missionary who had cured their blindness. They had received
something so wonderful that they eagerly proclaimed it.
And that is what
the Psalmist is saying. "Suddenly you realize that God has been so good to
you that you can't keep it inside any more. From the depths of your being you
shout your joy unto the Lord.
The second command is: "Serve the
Lord with gladness." It doesn't say "serve the
church." It doesn't say "serve
the preacher, or serve the leaders, or serve the organization." It says, "serve the
Lord." The Bible
teaches that if we witness on behalf of the Lord - if we feed the hungry, if we
clothe the naked, if we do the work of the Lord whatever it might be - we are
serving the Lord. Jesus said, "Inasmuch
as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me." I'm not sure we grasp that. The Psalmist says, "In
whatever you do, serve the Lord with gladness."
Scripture to Claim: And let the peace of Christ rule in
your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Colossians 3:15
