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Give Thanks, with a Grateful Heart! - Psalm 117

 [A Thanksgiving devotional, SN]

Thanksgiving 2023 – Psalm 117

Ps 117… the goal of our mission is worship of the One true God. That involves praise for who He is — His  character and attributes, and also praise for what He has done, that is, Thanksgiving. Let’s read first the Thanksgiving Proclamation of Abraham Lincoln…

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these 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 the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens." 

We have abundant reason to give thanks! The God who is, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe, has reached into human history, and involved us in His story. Psalm 117 is the shortest Psalm, as I read it my eye went to Ps 118:1, and I thought that is a good summary of with this Psalm Is saying: “Oh, give thanks to the LORD for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!”  The US is not Israel, but notice how Ps 117 starts…

I. Praise God for His Grace (v.1): “Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!  For great is his steadfast love toward us…” Think about this, the Psalms are the songbook of Israel. Psalm 2 showed the nations raging against God and His Anointed. But here the call goes out to the nations, to the peoples of the earth, to gentiles like most of us, and calls us to worship Him!

Think that through. God had chosen Israel from out of all the nations of the world. To them he sent prophets who brought his word, he protected and preserved them as a nation and gave them the land. And then, in the fulness of time, he sent forth the Son… born to a young Jewish woman. But the psalmist is writing centuries before Jesus came into the world. Even then, God was concerned with the nations, and the call was for all to come and worship the one true God! The goal of our mission in the world is worship of the One true God.

       Notice how he is identified in verse 1… Praise the Lord… written in all caps, this is the divine name, YAHWEH… (3 times in 2 verses!). The God of the covenant, the God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush and eventually brought the nation into the promised land. The parallel phrase in verse one makes it even more emphatic: Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!  What grace! Pagans, idolators, heathens, are called to repent and believe, to come to the true God and to worship Him. Paul cites this verse in Rom 15:8-12 along with vss from the Law and the Prophets. Let me pick up in the middle of Rom 15:9…

… "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name."  10 And again it is said, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people."  11 And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him."  12 And… Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles; in him will the Gentiles hope."

That includes us! *Let’s give thanks to the LORD for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!

II. Praise God for His Love (2a) “for great is His steadfast love toward us…”

       The description here is beautiful, “great,” has the sense of “prevailing over someone or something because of its vast, superior qualities..” The song says, “Great the Father’s love toward us, love beyond all measure!” Great is thy faithfulness! Look at that little word, “us”. The Jewish psalmist is speaking, and including the nations with Israel as the objects of God’s steadfast love. The word there, chesed, is hard to translate, it is covenantal love, electing love, love connected to God’s faithfulness to his promises. Think of what Jesus showed in the cross: Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends… God demonstrated his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world, that we might live through Him! (I Jn 4:9). For some of us it has been a tough year… but consider God’s faithfulness, remember His amazing grace and unconditional love, and then *“…give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

III. Praise God for His faithfulness (v.2b). Love and faithfulness are two attributes of God that frequently are mentioned together. John was evoking that when he said  “For the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ…” (Jn 1:17). God’s Word is true, and God always acts faithfully in accordance with his Word of Truth. He is trustworthy. In a world that seems chaotic, Consider God’s faithfulness, remember His amazing grace and unconditional love, and then let’s take time to thank Him.” “Praise the Lord… Extol Him all peoples…”  

*Let’s give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!   AMEN.


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