THANKS LIVING. Psalm 138:1-8 November 23 rd, middle of his lush, green garden. Seeing the man and noticing the fine garden, a

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1 THANKS LIVING Psalm 138:1-8 November 23 rd, 2014 The story is told of a man who was standing one midsummer day in the middle of his lush, green garden. Seeing the man and noticing the fine garden, a passerby yells to him, Beautiful garden! You and the Lord have done a great job! To which the gardener replies, The Lord, my foot you should have seen this place last year when the Lord had it by himself! While this was meant to be humerous, of course, this story reveals all too seriously and clearly our tendency to take sole credit for our accomplishments, failing to recognize and acknowledge the web of relationships and dependencies in which we all exist. The gardener, for instance, took no account of the complex biological processes built into the life of seeds, no account of the sun s warmth or the sun s light and its necessity for photosynthesis, no account of the meteorological phenomena that produce necessary moisture, no account of the vast array of microbes that process soil to make it supportive of growth in short, no account of anything or anyone other than himself! Such self-absorption produces the rampant sense of entitlement that characterizes our society; and of course, what will be and is desperately lacking is any sense of gratitude. On this Thanksgiving Sunday we are called to be grateful by this psalm of thanksgiving and we will look at how that can translate for us into a Thanks Living. A way of life that is characterized by giving thanks each day for the many gifts in our lives, the many ways God has blessed us. In our psalm of thanksgiving today, the author has come through a rather tight scrape and composes this song of praise to the Lord in response to an experi- 1

2 ence of deliverance. The poet had experienced what the psalms call a day of Trouble (Psalms 20;2m 27:5,41:10), a day of disaster (Psalm 18:19), or a day of Distress (59:17) some really tough times. The term day of trouble is intentionally vague. It can refer to times of physical illness, spiritual struggle, financial peril, military threat, and the like. The psalms also call these times of crisis a day when I call (56:10), because times of crisis are also times of prayer moments when a suffering person or people cry out to the Lord in despair. In a commentary by Rolf Jacobson, he explains that this is the point that is made in this psalm. The singer says, On the day I called, you answered me. Having come through the time to trouble or more correctly, having been brought through the time of trouble by the grace of God the singer now thinks of the dark valley through which he walked no longer as the time of trouble, but as the time when he called out and when God answered. The time when you increased my strength of soul. The phrase that is translated my strength of soul in the NRSVB is likely to be misinterpreted by modern audiences. We often think of the soul as the spiritual part of our being. The Hebrew term that is usually translated as soul is nephesh. The term literally means throat and more figuratively means one s true self or inmost being. The NIV ( you made me bold and stouthearted ) and NJPS ( you inspired me with courage ) take the term to refer to a spiritual or moral strengthening. But the phrase more likely refers to a literal bodily recovery. The psalmist s point might be paraphrased: I once was weak, but now I m strong. 2

3 I give you thanks, O Lord The psalmist s passage through the time of crisis had quite literally, in the words of Psalm 40:3, put a new song in his mouth. Or in the words of Psalm 51: 15, the Lord had opened his lips so that his mouth could declare God s praise. And so the psalmist does so. He begins his song with what are classis words of praise: I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart. Giving thanks Old Testament Style has less to do with some internal feeling of gratitude and more about sending God a thank you note. And the thank you note that God desires is to tell others what God has done. To proclaim the good news of God s gracious actions to the assembly of believers, to the surrounding neighborhood, and to the world. The scope that the Lord has in mind for our confessing of the good news, for our making the Lord known, is the entire world, even the entire universe. The psalm says all the kings of the earth shall know and shall join in praise. And the psalm in verse 1 says before the gods I sing meaning that the psalmsit imagines the vaults of heaven themselves resounding with his confession about what God had done for him. The psalm confesses that the author experienced God s help in the midst of some crisis. The psalmist called out in the day of trouble,the day of calling,and the Lord answered. Or, as the psalmist describes it in verse 7, the Lord preserved him from the wrath of enemies: you stretched out your hand, and your right hand delivered me. In other words, the psalmist confesses a particular experience of God s grace. In a footnote in the NIV Life Application Study Bible, the point is made that 3

4 Thanksgiving should be an integral part of our praise to God. This theme is woven throughout the psalms. As we praise and thank him for material and spiritual blessings, we should also thank him for answered prayer. Remember when you asked God for protection, strength, comfort, patience, love, or other special needs, and he supplied them? We are reminded that we must not take God s provision and answered prayer for granted. Another reminder is the psalmist s experience of God s help has reminded her that she is not the captain of her own soul, that he is not the master of his own fate and that this is a good thing! Some people reject the offer of help from outside themselves, because they do not want to be weak, to need help, or to admit their limits. Biblical faith starts with admitting our own weakness, our own sin, our own limits and of accepting the gracious mercy and faithfulness of the Savior who comes among us to serve rather than to be served. The psalm ends with a request for continued help: Do not forsake the work of your hands. Each of us in the work of God s hands. And to be a follower of the Lord means to know that we cannot and need not do it all on our own. On Thursday people all across America will celebrate Thanksgiving. They will be particularly mindful of the harvest. We decorate our homes and churches with squash and pumpkins, multi-colored leaves, corn, grapevines and produce. Families will get together and sit down to bounteous feasts of turkey with all the trimmings, with apple cider and pumpkin pie. We will reward ourselves those of us who can-with the bounties and fruits of the harvest. We will even remember those less fortunate than ourselves. We will hold dinners at shelters and soup 4

5 kitchens and we will have given a little extra to the food banks. And we will be satisfied. Rev. Richard J. Fairchild in his Thanksgiving message demonstrates that this is good but it also might be bad! How can it be both good and bad? It s good because it is right that we should feast and thank God for what he has given us, it is right to celebrate and to share the bounty of the earth and sea, it s good to express appreciation and to rejoice over the goodness of God. But it also might be bad depending on our overall attitude and approach to life and to what God has done for us and continues doing for us. Some of you might remember the old Ma and Pa Kettle television series? In a classic scene that was to be found in many of the episodes, Ma Kettle would bang the triangle on the porch, and from every corner and crevice around the yard hordes of screaming, yelling children would pour into the house fighting for a place at the table. Then Ma, in her best earsplitting tones would holler, Hold it! And everyone would freeze in silence. Pa Kettle would roll his eyes heavenward, tip his hat, and say, Much obliged. And immediately the chaos would begin again as abruptly as it stopped. God calls us to much better, my friends, than a tip of the hat. God calls us not only to a day of thanksgiving as he has called his people from the time of Moses. He calls us to a life of thanks-living. It seems to me that the difference between thanksgiving and thanks-living is between giving thanks on one day and living thanks always. Thanksgiving is a terminal event one day of recognizing our blessings and who has provided them. Thanks living is a way of life! 5

6 Giving thanks is important. When we give thanks as a community, as a family, we are reminded of all the good things and all the good people that we have been given or gifted with in our lives. We remember that we have been bless- ed, we remember that there is a greater good than ourselves if only for a moment or a day. But the temptation is to then return to our self-sufficiency, to forget God, to say to ourselves my strength, and my ability have gotten me thus far in life --and then to yearn for more, and to expect it as if it were our right and our privilege. We see it in our children. They are ever so grateful, momentarily, when we have gifted them. But how quickly they forget their thankfulness. Are we so diff- erent than our children? Don t we always want more or better or newer or strong- er? That s the impression one can get watching the TV adds. In a recent article titled The Power of Gratitude in the November O magazine, I was anticipating some powerful reasons to be very grateful and optimistic. Unfortunately, the 25 Unexpected Things to Be Grateful for Right Now ranged from tips on ordering Chardonnay to losing weight while you sleep and how you can smell better for less and more of the same! We fill our lives with things only to find out that there is no filling. This is where thanks-living comes into the picture. We begin to live thanks when we open our lives up to God and give God the first place. As we do this as we humble ourselves before God and acknowledge that he is the source of good things, our awareness of our blessings increases, our joy becomes fuller, and we find ourselves in an attitude and state of grace. 6

7 Like Abraham and Sarah, we discover we have been blessed to be a blessing. Our continual thankfulness for our blessings will turn into a lifetime of living thanks, of living the blessings and sharing the blessings because we know in the deepest parts of our hearts that God is the giver of it all. We have been blessed to be a blessing, and we desire to live in thanks for the life we have received. As you give thanks this Thanksgiving Day, remember your calling to be joyful always, to pray continually, and to give thanks in all circumstances. It is what God wants of you and for you. In it you will find the fullness of what God has in store for you. Blessed be God s name, day by day. Amen 7