Thanksgiving Eve Message

The Thanksgiving Psalm – Psalm 100

What place would be better to find a text for Thanksgiving than in the Jewish hymn book?

Our own hymnal? Perhaps, but I’m not sure of that.

What better Psalm for Thanksgiving than this one?

Notice the title to Psalm 100 – “A Psalm of Praise.”

Would it surprise you to learn that this is the only one in the Psalter with this title?The Hebrew word “towdah” (to-daw’) is rendered “praise” six times in the Bible.

But it is translated “thanksgiving,” “thanks” or “thank offering” twenty-four times.

This could have been inscribed “A Psalm of Thanksgiving.”

And who was it’s penman? The ancient scholars generally agree that it was David.

Notice too that it speaks as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Does it ask us to glorify the Lord? No, it commands us.

And the person who disobeys this command….

The man who isn’t thankful for what he possesses…..That man is going to woefully regret what he is going to get.

Are we are commanded to glorify the Lord because Jehovah needs our recognition and our praise?

Is the Lord a child who needs our encouragement and assurance?People need praise like they need small doses of certain vitamins.

In a work place, like a money-making factory or a four-burner kitchen, praise can be as important as a good supply of electricity.

But like the misuse of vitamins, some people can overdose very easily on praise.

Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”

But unlike people, God doesn’t need our praise to keep going, or doing what He does.

Does the billionaire need change back from his dollar?Does the sun in the sky ever need flashlight?

We need the blessing of praising, just as we need the discipline of tithing.

Who are the characters of this Psalm?Who is it that is commanded to praise the Lord?

I see that it is people of all lands – all the earth.

Praise and thanksgiving is the responsibility of absolutely everyone.

It is a “catholic” command – not Roman Catholic – but catholic in the sense of universal.The idea of a Universal Church is not Protestant – it is Catholic.

Is there a universal worship of the Lord?

The answer is the same as to the question: Is there a universal church?Obviously, “No.”

One day, we will come closer to a “universal church,” when Christ returns to this earth.

And that will also be the day when there is a more universal worship of the Lord.

So this Psalm begins on a Millennial note; this is a kind of Messianic Psalm.

Before the King of kings, one day, “every knee shall bow and every shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.”

And there will be a more universal recognition that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.”

I believe that it is obvious that all the world should rejoice in the Lord, but only the redeemed will actually do it.

So although we know that the psalm is directed universally, it be respected by only a few.

There may be a hundred million people who bow and utter a few words of thanksgiving tomorrow, but their thoughts will be on the turkey and all their possessions, but not on the one called “Jehovah” here in this Psalm.

The command given to us here is not based on anything we have physically received.

This is not for only those whose bank accounts are in the six figures and who have three-car garages.

The man in the poorest poverty has been commanded to rejoice in the Lord.

The man possessing the strength of Samson as well as the sickly man, are both commanded to make a joyful noise unto the Lord.The wicked man has just as much responsibility to worship Jehovah as the one redeemed by the grace of Christ.

But which of those two is really going to care to offer thanks? Which will love this Psalm?

And for that reason I should probably stop calling this a command and an obligation to give thanks.

The only thing which makes this Psalm an executive order is our sinful depravity.By nature there is none that doeth good (like praising God properly).

And there is none that seeketh after God (in order to lift up His name).

That person who must be cajoled or commanded into praising God isn’t a Christian.

That person who is thankful on only one day a year, knows next to nothing about God or even about life.When that person is eventually judged, the books shall be opened, and he shall be judged out of those things written in the books.

And one of the books to be opened shall be Psalm 100.

“Why haven’t you obeyed my just and indispensable edict?

No answer? Cast him into outer darkness where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

In the light of this verse, even many saints prove that they have been saved, yet so as by fire.

What can this Psalm teach us about the praise itself?Well, we are commanded to make a joyful noise.

More specifically, that means, make a glad shout.

It’s like the fans at some sporting event, when finally the star player does something outstanding.

The orchestra had been warming up and the audience was anticipating a great symphony.Then at the appropriate moment, the world’s more famous conductor steps out and all at once a shout rises to the sky .

Or when Handel’s Messiah reaches the Hallelujah Chorus, the earthly king followed by the entire audience jumps to their feet shouting the well-known words..

The only thing different about this verse is that it is not limited to special time or moment.

We are commanded to do so continually.

Then we are ordered to serve the Lord with gladness.

What a mixed up world we live in.

There thousands of religious people, who wouldn’t think of serving anyone – even God.

And then there thousands people who think that serving is the core of their religion.

“Don’t talk to me about vicarious sacrifices, grace and substitutionary atonement.I don’t need them, because I am a servant of God.”

I’ve met hundreds of acutely devout people who were nothing but religious slaves.

And there isn’t a shred of a smile on their lips as carry out their meaningless chorse.

But how is God’s praise to be rendered? With joy and gladness.

Have ever gone to restaurant where the waitress was so sour that she your coke into lemonade just by setting it on the table?

It costs us nothing to look past that last surly customer to previous pleasant one.It costs us nothing to carry a smile on our faces.

And if that waitress doesn’t have one, give her one of yours.

This is the way that the Lord wants us to worship and serve Him – with joy and gladness.

We should appear to be joyfully obedient, but perhaps we shouldn’t call it obedience at all.Is it obedience, when the servant’s heart loves the Master so much that he would serve whether there was a command or not?

God loves a cheerful giver, not a grumpy one, even though the latter may be more wealthy and give more.

Is thanksgiving without joyfulness, thanksgiving at all?Is worship without heart – without a joyful heart – worship?

I read the story of a king that wanted new churches to be built all over his kingdom.

As encouragement he offered a prize to the man who designed and built the most beautiful church building.

Lots of builders and architects entered the competition, and they all hurried to meet the deadline.

Some drove their workers as slaves; some enticed them with huge wages, working them in twenty-four hour shifts.

But the church that eventually won the prize was built by the architect who hired musicians who sang and played the great songs of praise.

It just put the workers into the right mood for beautiful service to God.

The best work is done by those who work in joyfulness.

Next we are told to come before the Lord with singing.

Do you recall the song: “Let those refuse to sin who never knew our God…”

Have you ever thought what our song services would be like if the only hymns we sang were fully meant by the singers?

I’m not sure that we all enjoy our song services as much as we could or should.

It tells our visitors something and it certainly carries a message towards the Lord.

We are told in verse 3 to worship the Lord with our thinking caps on.

A wise man, years ago said, “Knowledge is the mother of devotion.”

And one of our hymns says something like: “To know Him is to love him.”

David says, “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

“Know ye that Jehovah he is God.”

He is the Saviour from sin, the only true and perfect Comforter.He is our Shepherd, our Pillar of Fire.

He is Judge, Creator, Giver of Life, on and one we could go.

“Know ye the Lord,” and as you do you will fill more and more with praise.

Make sure that you understand the nature of worship.

Be sure that your worship is brought unto His gates with thanksgiving.

That we enter those gates at all is due to his mercy and grace.

We are all a bunch of spiritual lepers, without any right to enter the city of the king.

The Lord is in the leper healing business, inviting us to feast on His grace.

Once in Jesus’ day there were ten lepers, all cured of their fatal disease.

When the dust cleared, only one came back to the Saviour full of thanksgiving.Christ Himself asked, “Where are the nine, were there not ten lepers cleansed?”

The kind of praise that the Lord wants is joyful, songful, logical and respectful.

And finally we come to the one who is to be worshiped.He is the Creator as we see in verse 3.

“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

Have you ever met an evolutionist who worshiped the Lord as the Word of God teaches?

Imagine sculptor who fashioned a lump of clay into shape of man and gave life to his work.

Didn’t even stupid Pinocchio loved Geppetto and the one who gave him life?Only in Hollywood would the creation be a monster and eat its creator.

And yet that is the history of humanity.

“It is the Lord who hath made us, and not we ourselves.”

Not our parents, our schools, our scientists, our economic advisors or our federal government.Though I may have been created to look a bit funny, it is for some purpose of the Lord.

Secondly, the Lord is my shepherd.

“Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

As my Shepherd, the Lord is my guide, protector and sustainer.

Everything that mother and father are to a baby; Jehovah is to me.

How can I not love and praise Him, coming into His presence with thanksgiving?

Verse 5 reminds us that the Lord is good.

This is the sum of all that the Lord is, does and possesses.

“Why callest thou me good, there is none good but God.”True, Jesus, and we know that thou art God.

Verse 5 reminds us that the Lord is merciful.

There is an inexhaustible fount of the Lord’s goodness.There is a fathomless ocean of truth, and an ever-flowing stream of mercy.

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plentious in mercy.”

Then finally, Jehovah is eternally true.

He has made no promises that He is unable or unwilling to fulfill.

Heaven and earth shall pass away before God’s word shall become null and void.

And even when Heaven and earth are gone, God and His promises shall stand.

Don’t we have reason to love the Lord with all our hearts and minds and strength?

Yes, and we have a call for worship, as well.

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. ”