Happy Thanksgiving Day! (October 12 is Thanksgiving Day in Canada) Have you ever thought as I have, that it is rather unfortunate we concentrate on Thanksgiving only once a year? Don't we have enough to praise, and thank God for all year long? Sometimes we even complain, and criticize, when we should be giving thanks. We are something like the farmer I recently read about. He was an chronic grumbler who couldn't find anything about which to give thanks or praise. Although financially he was very successful, because of a very sour attitude, no one enjoyed his company. Nothing seemed to please him. His pastor tried to help brighten the outlook, all to no avail.
At the time of the potato harvest, the disgruntled farmer enjoyed a bumper crop. Wanting to strike a more cheerful note, the minister suggested, "Brother I understand you've had a tremendous season with potatoes this year. That certainly must be cause for rejoicing!" The chronic complainer never even smiled, but sourly responded, "Yes, it's true. The harvest was good enough. But my problem is, I don't have any bad potatoes to feed my pigs."
Listen now to words that present a totally different attitude about Thanksgiving. "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self- sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." These words are from a proclamation made by the American President Abraham Lincoln, on April 30, 1863, for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer. The author of Psalm 103 made a proclamation of a kind as well. He tells us we should praise God and be thankful. Why? Because of the mercy of God.
In order to feel the full impact of this Psalm, we must first do something that is not easy. We must first accept the fact that too often we are something like the disgruntled farmer, or that we fit the description given by President Lincoln. Until we do that, this Psalm has little to offer us. So let us look at this Psalm with thankful, but also penitent hearts. And let us then discover the great and full mercy of God.
Dr. Donald M. Williams has a marvelous preface to this Psalm in his commentary. He tells about a friend who was battling a serious drug problem, and whom he had helped find a job. It wasn't long before this friend had a relapse, stayed up all night doing drugs, and was unable to go to work the next morning. Dr. Williams ended up driving him to his place of work that morning, and all the way there his friend asked, "What shall I say when I get there?" He simply urged him to tell the truth.
As they went into the building, they were greeted by the friend's supervisor. She took one look at him and naturally asked what was wrong. The friend replied, "I blew it. I got stoned last night." Well, ordinarily I suppose this would be grounds for dismissal, but this supervisor had a different approach. Her response was simply, "We are a family here, and I too am a recovering alcoholic. Just go home, and sleep it off. Then come back tomorrow." This man had expressed fear on the way to the plant, expecting judgement from his supervisor, while all he received was mercy. He thought he would be fired, instead he is gently told to go home, and come back in the morning. Dr. Williams writes about the supervisor, "Her response was simple, direct, and from God's heart." (Williams Donald M. The Communicator's Commentary The Psalms Volume 2, Texas, Word Books, !989, p.233)
"Praise the Lord O my soul! All my being praise his name. . .and do not forget how kind he is." (Vs 1-2). Remember the Psalm we spoke about last week; how it spoke about God filling our innermost needs? This Palm tells us that David, its author praises God from his innermost self. This tells me that belief in God can never be an aside in ones life. Belief in God is something that has to do with our innermost being. It is something that goes beyond just saying we believe that God exists, as do the majority of Canadians. It has depth. It has meaning. It is something personal. It comes from the heart, and soul, or as the reformer John Calvin has it, from "all my inward parts." There is a sense of totality here. We must be totally involved with God. Paul describes it, "as a living sacrifice" of ourself. (Rom 12:1). Only then can we reap the full benefits of our faith. Only then can we thank him completely, for only then are we completely involved. Only then can true thankfulness take place.
"He forgives all my sins and heals my diseases. He keeps me from the grave and blesses me with love and mercy" (vs 3-4). The Psalmist now turns to giving some concrete reason why he should praise God, and give thanks. The first thing he is thankful for is forgiveness. This makes good sense, for without forgiveness, there could never be a relationship. Now the situation may be quite different when we think of human relationships, but the principle is the same. With God, it is always we who have wronged him, but he is always willing to forgive. We too should be willing to forgive others. In fact, strong human relationships are filled with forgiving each other. Peter once came to Jesus and asked him, "Lord, if my brother keeps sinning against me, how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven times?" Seven times might have seemed like a lot to Peter, but Jesus said, "No, not seven times, but seventy time seven." (See Matt 18:21-22) The point is, forgiveness is basic to relationships.
Did you know that there is a direct link between forgiveness and healing? An angry person is not a emotionally healthy person. A person who is made to feel guilty all the time is not a healthy person either. So there is a connection here, physically, and emotionally. We all know that diseases these days have a better hope of being healed than ever before, something for which we may be thankful to be sure. I believe however, that this statement made by the psalmist has a deeper meaning. The very next sentence gives us a clue. "He keeps me from the grave, and blesses me with love and mercy" (vs 4). If we were to take this literally of course, there would be no need for cemeteries anywhere. But the Psalmist is not talking about physical death. He is prophetically talking about a spiritual healing through Jesus Christ our Lord. This does not keep us from the entering the grave, but it does keeps us from being there for eternity, signifying eternal separation from God. Instead, we live with Christ, and because he overcame the grave, so shall we. This is a result of God's healing! He "redeems your life from the Pit" it says in the RSV. Redemption from eternal death. "Whoever lives, and believes in me shall never die," said Jesus. (John 11:26).
He blesses us with love and mercy, and just fills our lives with good things. Do you feel it? Have you experienced it? In some parts of Mexico hot springs and cold springs are found side by side -- and because of the convenience of this natural phenomenon the women often bring their laundry and boil their clothes in the hot springs and then rinse them in the cold ones. A tourist, who was watching this procedure commented to his Mexican friend and guide: "I imagine that they think old Mother Nature is pretty generous to supply clean hot and cold water here side by side for their free use?" The guide replied, "No senor, there is much grumbling because she supplies no soap." We receive so much, and yet we are often not satisfied. Yet the Psalmist is convinced that God fills his entire life.
We may have a bit of a problem with the sentence, "So that I stay young and strong like an eagle" (vs 5b). It has often been said that age is only a state of mind. You are only as old as you feel. Well, maybe you feel like the elderly person who said,
I like my new bifocals
My dentures fit just fine
I have my hearing aid turned up
But Lord, how I miss my mind.
Obviously the author of the psalm has something else in mind here right? Yes! He means that when we acknowledge, and recognize the goodness with which, God has filled our lives, we will feel so good about that, it is as if we have received a totally new life. And do you know what? We have received a new life; a complete new life in Jesus Christ. When we recognize this, confess it, if you like, then there is complete satisfaction. Then we have a childlike faith in the one who is able and willing to provide us with everything good.
The first five verses of this Psalm are quite personal, with the word "I" being used constantly. This is a personal confession, or recognition by the author, David knows just how good God is, and so he must give thanks. The rest of the Psalm deals with God's blessing to others and we read a list of blessings of which one may take advantage.Truly God is good to all, and the Psalmist urges all God's creatures to "praise the Lord," from the angels to his "servants who do his will" (vs 21)
Why should we give thanks? There was once a little boy who on his return from a birthday party, was asked by his mother, "Bobby, did you thank the lady for the party?" "Well, I was going to, but a girl ahead of me said, 'Thank you,' and the lady told her not to mention it. So I didn't." Often that is the case with us. . .we don't. But God expects it of us, and that is why we should do it. Not because it a nice and proper thing to do, but because we feel deep down in our inward parts that we must. Let us not be like the man who owned a small estate he wished to sell. Sending for a real estate agent, he asked him to write an advertisement describing the house and land. When the ad was ready, the agent took it to the owner and asked him to read it. The owner read the description of his estate, and then remarked, "I don't think I will sell after all. I have been looking for a place like that all my life, and I did not know that I owned it!"
Be thankful. Indeed count your blessings, but first recognize them! Count your blessings. Start by asking God to open your eyes to see your possessions, especially your possessions in Christ. Begin by recognizing all that you have in Christ. That will change your entire perspective and enable you to praise God for what you have. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!"
Happy Thanksgiving Day. What are you thankful for today?
