Thanksgiving Right in the middle of Paul s sentence about the will of God we find the admonition in everything give thanks.

Transcription

1 Thanksgiving 2018 We are entering the holiday season and we are already wondering where the year went. It seems the years go faster and faster. The fact that the stores have had Christmas decorations out for many weeks and seem to start earlier each year only add to the haste we feel. These days, Thanksgiving is basically a pre-season holiday. It is something that we do to get in shape or prepare for the real holiday-christmas. We eat, sleep, watch football, and we don t stop that repetition until January. The shame of it all is that we have almost forgotten how to give thanks. To receive a gift and say, Thank you, is one of the noblest things a person can do. There is nothing small or trivial about it. To say Thank you is to acknowledge that we have been given something we did not earn and do not deserve. I believe we are happiest when we realize and gratefully acknowledge that life is a gift from God. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God s will for you in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NASB) Right in the middle of Paul s sentence about the will of God we find the admonition in everything give thanks. 1

2 With that in mind, we will begin our Thanksgiving message from Psalm 131. As you know, David was a poet and a musician. If you read through the Psalms sometime, you ll notice that nearly half of them were written by David. Psalm 131 is one of the Pilgrim Psalms. The heading calls it A Song of Ascents. That means it was part of a group of Psalms which were sung as the Hebrew pilgrims made their way up the mountains toward the city of Jerusalem for one of the annual festivals. Fifteen of these Psalms are grouped together numbers All except one are fairly short, exactly the kind of songs you would expect a group of travelers to sing as they marched along. The Pilgrim Psalms are like the chorus- Gloria Patri we sing every week. Their purpose is the same to prepare the heart for worship. As we just mentioned, this psalm is a short one. It only has three verses. Charles Spurgeon said this psalm is: one of the shortest to read, but one of the longest to learn. Let s begin our Thanksgiving season by reading this short Psalm. O LORD, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty (or lofty); Nor do I involve myself (Lit. go after, walk) in great matters, Or in things too difficult (or marvelous) for me. Surely I have composed and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child rests against (or upon) his mother, 2

3 My soul is like a weaned child within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD From this time forth and forever. (Psalm 131:1-3 NASB) The Psalm begins with these words, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty Not many of us would begin a prayer this way. It sounds odd to our ears, as if perhaps David was bragging about his humility. It s always tricky to talk about humility. How do you know when you re truly humble? Come to think of it, if you are truly humble, will you even know it? It has been well said that humility is the virtue which, when you think you have it, you ve lost it. We live in a culture that puts a very low value on humility. They don t give out merit badges for humility. From the moment we enter the world we are urged to get ahead, to climb the ladder, to look out for numero uno, to win at all cost, and to prove our success by the car we drive, by the home we buy, by the clothes we wear, and by the friends we keep. We have seen those T-Shirts that say: The One Who Dies With the Most Toys Wins. While it may be true that the meek shall inherit the earth, for the most part, it doesn t seem to be happening. Have you ever thought that there is a curse associated with having too many options? 3

4 David went on to say that he considered his own limitations. Nor do I involve myself (Lit. go after, walk) in great matters, or in things too difficult (or marvelous) for me. David acknowledges that he does not have all of the answers. He s fine with that. The idea that we have limits is difficult for some to accept. It is not in line with the popular idea that we all have unlimited potential and the untapped resources within. The truth is, our potential is very limited and the only untapped resources are the ones we discover when we come to the end and admit that we are limited but God is not. I share a story. Some years ago, Dr. John Hannah, a professor of historical theology at Dallas Seminary, was invited to be a part of a lecture on contemporary issues. After one message a young man came up and asked his advice on what he should do with his life. The young man explained that he felt he had so many possibilities open to him that he couldn t decide which way to go. Dr. Hannah s answer was, That s the curse of having too many options. The man who thinks there are 15 things he could do with his life will probably do none of them very well. But the man who has only one option throws himself into it because that s the only choice he has. Dr. Hannah went on to say that for most of his life his options have been limited and that s why he is a happy man. I think David would agree 4

5 entirely. Happy is the man who knows his limits and within those limits does the very best he can. Next David writes: Surely, I have composed and quieted my soul; like a weaned child rests against (or upon) his mother, my soul is like a weaned child within me. This may be a picture only a mother can fully understand. A child is born and for a long time he looks to his mother s breast as the source of his nourishment. When he is hungry, he cries and Mom knows exactly what to do. But the day comes when he has to learn how to take a bottle. That s not a happy day. He cries, big tears roll down his face, his arms reach out but his mother pushes them away. He fights, he pouts, he screams, all to no avail. What has happened to Mom? She who used to be his friend has now become his enemy. And if Mom has a heart at all, she cries too because from now on things will be different. She will feed him but never again in the same way. When the bottle is over, when the tears have stopped, when he learns to eat solid food, then the child comes, lays his head on his mother s breast, not in order to be fed, but just because he loves her. He comes because he wants to be near her. To be weaned is to have something removed from your life which you thought you couldn t live without. David is saying, I ve come to the 5

6 place where the things I thought I had to have, I don t need anymore. Now my soul is quiet and content. Most of us live on the opposite principle. We figure our contentment on the basis of how many of our needs are met. Unfortunately, it s hard to reach a place where all our needs are constantly met. By that standard, it s hard to ever really be content. If contentment is measured by how much of the world s goods we possess, who can ever say, I have enough. That s the way most of us figure contentment. In our hearts we think, I would be happy if only I had a new car or a new job or a new dress or a new husband or a new wife. Since life is hardly ever that simple, we stay frustrated when we ought to be happy. We are like the young man that had too many options. No wonder Thanksgiving just whizzes on by. No wonder Christmas is a nightmare. No wonder we are never satisfied. Instead of being weaned from the world, we are married to it. Or maybe I should say, welded to it. In any case, our soul is anything but quiet, our countenance anything but peaceful. How does God go about weaning us from our dependence on the things of the world? I ran across a three-part answer from a Bible commentator writing over a century ago. First, he makes the things of the world bitter to us. Second, he removes one by one the things on which we depend. 6

7 Third, he gives us something better. In the end, we find that we no longer need the things we used to think we couldn t do without. And our walk with God is stronger than ever before. There is a third principle to be added to humility and simplicity. It is integrity. The third verse in Psalm 131 says: O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forever. In this verse, we find the word hope. The word used in this verse is the Hebrew word י ח ל yachal (yaw-chal'); a primitive root meaning to wait; by implication, to be patient, hope: (cause to, have, make to) hope, be pained, stay, tarry, trust, wait. (Strong s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible) An expanded definition would be to wait on something because you know the thing you are waiting for will happen because the person you are waiting on is trustworthy. David is telling us: You have a choice to make. Either you choose to live like everyone else or you choose to wait on the Lord. When a weaned child comes to rest in his mother s lap it is not because he wants something but because he wants to be near his mother. In the same way, God weans us from our dependence on the things of this world so that we will not be bribed into trusting him. What credit is it if you trust God because you have a mate, a house, a job, a happy home, a secure future, and good health? What will you do when you lose your 7

8 mate, your job, your home, your family, your security, your reputation, your connections, and your health? When life tumbles in, what then? That s what integrity is all about. It s choosing to put your confidence in God alone. It s believing that he has answers to questions you can barely understand. It s coming to the place where you don t measure your spirituality by your prosperity. It s finding rest in your soul because you discover that the things you used to crave aren t so important anymore. Humility, Simplicity, Integrity. We need those three qualities every day of the year, and especially as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday. It s traditional in Thanksgiving sermons to ask people to make a list of their blessings. I m going to ask you to make a list this week but not the traditional one. When we make a list of our blessings, we normally begin and end with our material blessings. That s good and proper but it doesn t exhaust the subject. In the spirit of Psalm 131, I m going to ask you to sit down sometime between now and Thursday and make a list a very personal and private list of the things from which you have been weaned in the past year. That is, make a list of the things which through suffering and hardship God has taken away from you in the last twelve months. And now your faith is stronger and deeper. And now your walk with God means more than it ever did before. 8

9 Thanksgiving is only four days away. We ought to be the most thankful people on the face of the earth. May our days be marked with humility, simplicity, and integrity. Let us be thankful not only for the things we have but also for the things we no longer have to have. And let the people of God hope in the Lord both now and forevermore. 9