[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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