A Psalm Of Thanksgiving
Psalm 138:1 begins “I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing Your praises before the gods.” Let’s stop right here, for there is so much we can say about this verse. Let’s start by asking this question, “Do you thank God with all your heart”? In Matthew 22:36-38 one who was a scholar in the law asked Yeshua this question. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? And He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.”’ If every part of us is to love the Lord, then every part of us must also thank Him. But we fall short because we have so many of the world’s goods that we depend on God less and less. This is the second part of that verse. If we are singing praises of our God, the Creator of heaven and earth, then we can not sing the praises of all the worldly gods that are before us. You see, God’s people have become divided. We give God a little time here and there, but we spend most of our time in the world, looking like the world and speaking like the world and it has taken hold of our hearts. 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God continues to live forever.” James 4:1-4 says, “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” 1 John 3:16-18 says this, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Again in James 2:14-17 it says, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Also Matthew 25:31-40, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me, I was in prison and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and visit You?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you did it to me.’”
Let’s continue with verse 2, “I will bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your mercy and Your truth, for You have made Your Word great according to all Your name.” Today in most congregations our music and worship seems to resemble a rock band playing for its fans. The sanctuary is dark and the music is loud and we think that this is pleasing to God, but it is not! Because it looks and sounds like the world. God is a holy God and we must also be holy. We should be bowing down before our God. You see, our sanctuary must resemble the sanctuary in heaven, where all the angels cry, “Holy, holy holy!” God told Moses to make the sanctuary exactly how he was shown on the mountain because it was to resemble the sanctuary in heaven and plus, it had to also be a holy place. God is merciful, but He also is holy and we can not assume or take advantage of His mercy, but we must walk in truth.
Only when we walk in truth then as verse 3 tells us, “On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.”
So now we can be a witness to the world as verse 4-8 says, “All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, Lord, when they have heard the words of Your mouth, and they will sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord. For the Lord is exalted, yet He looks after the lowly, but He knows the haughty from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will reach out with Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your faithfulness, Lord, is everlasting; do not abandon the works of Your hands.” We have so much we could be thankful for that it’s hard not to do it from the heart.
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