November 3, 2013
Thanksliving
Psalm 116:12-19 NOT EDITED
SIS – Showing gratitude to God requires much more
than saying grace at a meal.
12 How can I repay the Lord for all the good He has done for
me? 13 I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of
Yahweh. 14 I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people. 15 The
death of His faithful ones is valuable in the Lord’s
sight. 16 Lord, I
am indeed Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your female servant. You
have loosened my bonds. 17 I will offer You a sacrifice of
thanksgiving and call on the name of Yahweh. 18 I will fulfill
my vows to the Lord in the
presence of all His people, 19 in the courts of the Lord’s house—within you, Jerusalem. •Hallelujah!
"repay"
(shuwb). Used over 1000 times in the
OT. Here it is in a form that describes "causation, and action." The word, "render, or repay
(NIV)" means to "cause something to return," in this case return
to God.
The word is also in
a form that denotes a continuous action.
In other words, "gratitude is
on an on-going lifestyle." Or
as I like to say, it is "thanksLIVING."
The word is a much
stronger form than the English, "repay, or give back." The word, "repay," is a weak
translation because it suggests that we can "pay God back in kind"
for what He has done for us through Christ.
Of course, we have nothing God needs, and nothing that could even
approach the worth of our salvation.
Giving thanks to
God literally means, "turning our lives completely back to him, -- as Jews
would say, "lox, stocks, and bagels."
It is an absolutely complete surrender of our will. Mere “lip service” will not accomplish
“thanksliving”—this requires, “on-going activity of holy living.”
So, what exactly do
we "turn back, or give back, to God?"
Certainly as I said, we have nothing God needs. But, we do have some things God wants.
1. ThanksLiving requires total TRUST (13)
13 I will take the cup of salvation
and
call on the name of Yahweh.
The Book of Psalms
was the "hymnbook" of Israel.
Each psalm has a specific event or situation in mind. In this particular time the occasion is a
"celebration of thanksgiving for deliverance from a major crisis."
The most representative
crisis in the OT (which typifies all the crises God's people may face) was the
"deliverance from bondage in Egypt."
This event is the pivotal event in the life of Israel. Israel's bondage in Egypt typifies, or
illustrates, every person's bondage to sin.
God’s deliverance from Egypt through Moses in the Exodus foreshadowed
Christ’s deliverance from sin on the cross.
The most important
principle uncovered in this verse is that "salvation," or deliverance
from sin and trouble, involves an act of the WILL. God provides the "cup of
salvation," but it takes an act of one's will to make that salvation
effective for saving one's soul. It
is not a matter of "knowing" in our head that God has provided a
"cup of salvation," it is a matter of the heart, to "receive the
free gift that is offered."
I could deposit a
million dollars in your bank account but if you never take action by making a
withdrawal you’ll live in poverty and want.
Salvation, or
deliverance, from sin and strife in our lives is a matter of
"trust." The most significant
gift we can give God in response to His great benefit of salvation, is our
complete and childlike trust in him.
One
day, a father and his young son
were out in the country, climbing around in some cliffs. Suddenly, the Dad heard a voice from above
him yell, "Hey Dad! Catch me!" I turned around to see his joyfully
jumping off a rock and hurdling straight towards him. The little boy jumped first and then yelled. The Dad became an instant circus act,
catching his young son at the last minute. They both fell to the ground. The
hurdling little boy briefly knocked the wind out of his Dad. When Dad found his voice again he gasped in
exasperation: "Son! Can you give me one good reason why you did
that???" The little boy smiled from ear to ear and responded with
remarkable calmness: "Sure...because you're my Dad." His whole
assurance was based in the fact that his father was trustworthy. Dad had at
first been a little "perturbed" at the son's impetuous actions, but
the little boy's unmitigated trust brought joy to Dad's heart and a smile to
Dad's face.
13 I will take the cup of salvation
and
call on the name of Yahweh.
When we act with
complete trust by willfully and enthusiastically accepting the free gift of
salvation that God has provided through the death of Jesus Christ, His Son, it
brings joy to God's heart.
Regardless of what
circumstance we might find ourselves engaged in or assaulted by, we can jump
into the arms of our Heavenly Father with complete trust, knowing He is both
able and willing to catch us.
Giving God our
childlike trust is one way to say, "Thank You!" for the gift of
salvation.
2. ThanksLiving requires absolute OBEDIENCE (v
14)
14 I will fulfill my vows to the
Lord
in
the presence of all His people.
Let me say
clearly: there is absolutely nothing you can
do to deserve or earn God's "cup of salvation." This is wholly an act of God's grace and
no works nor anything of human worth can achieve it or acquire it.
However, once a person has truly received God's miracle
of salvation by grace, then through faith, that person will work tirelessly and endlessly to fulfill our
vows to "love, cherish, and obey" God as the Bride of Christ, the
church.
There
is an eternity of difference between saying "I can do nothing to earn
God's love and salvation," and saying, "I need do nothing once I have
received God's gift of salvation.
Paul states the matter succinctly:
Phil
2:12 12 So
then, my dear friends, just as you have
always obeyed, not only in my presence,
but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling.
13 For
it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out
His good purpose.
Notice Paul's use of prepositions in these verses. A preposition is a small word used to amplify
or clarify the meaning of another word, such as the verb of a sentence. In this passage in Philippians, Paul distinquishes "working OUT"
our salvation, which is an act of human effort, from "working IN" our
salvation which is wholly an act of Divine Grace. The word
play between “out” and “in” do not occur as neatly in the Greek, but the
result is the same. The word, “work
out,” comes from the Greek meaning, to “bring to the ultimate conclusion.”
The issue of
"fulfilling one's vows" is simply a matter of being obedient to God's
Word, which will “bring our salvation to the ultimate conclusion” God intends. As we take in God's Word, by faith, we work
OUT our faith through obedient actions.
The Apostle James
adds to what Paul is saying:
Jam 2:18 18 But someone will say, “You have
faith, and I have works.” Show me your
faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works. d 19 You believe
that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe—and they shudder.
Both
Paul and James, along with the writer of this Psalm, indicate that someone who
says they "know God," but have no on-going Godly works to prove it
are no better than the "demons of hell."
That ought to get
our attention.
If we go back to
our Psalm (116) we will note that the word, "fulfill," is in a special stem in the Hebrew that indicates,
"intensity." It is called the piel
stem. Actually, though two words can
share the same root meaning, changing the stem creates a completely different
word for those that speak the language.
For example, in the regular stem one might say, "I broke the vase." By changing a few letters to make the piel
stem you would say, "I smashed the
vase." The meaning is much more
intense. Add to the special stem the
fact that it is in a special "tense" (imperfect) that denotes
"continuous" action. Thanking
God should be an "intense,
on-going" activity in our lives.
Fulfilling one's
vows to God as a believer should be a matter of "intense effort."
There is even more
to "shalēm" than the
intense action. This word is in a family
of words related to "peace and
well-being." Shalēm is the
basis for the common Jewish greeting, shalōm,
which means "to be well and
prosperous." Fulfilling one's
vows through ThanksLIVING is absolutely essential to gaining well-being in
life. No amount of head knowledge will
ever substitute for intense, enthusiastic, on-going steadfast obedience.
I read the most
incredible story of obedience not long ago. It involved a dog. How we admire the obedience a dog shows to
its master! Archibald Rutledge wrote that one day he met a man whose dog had
just been killed in a forest fire. Heartbroken, the man explained to Rutledge
how it happened. Because he worked out-of-doors, he often took his dog with
him. That morning, he left the animal in a clearing and gave him a command to
stay and watch his lunch bucket while he went into the forest. His faithful
friend understood, for that's exactly what he did. Then a fire started in the
woods, and soon the blaze spread to the spot where the dog had been left. But
he didn't move. He stayed right where he was, in perfect obedience to his
master's word. With tearful eyes, the dog's owner said, "I always had to
be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it."
When we give thanks
to God, one important aspect is absolute obedience
3. ThanksLiving requires
continuing SACRIFICE ( 17)
17 I will offer You a sacrifice of
thanksgiving
and
call on the name of Yahweh.
ThanksLIVING
involves complete and total trust.
ThanksLIVING involves complete and total obedience. It only follows that ThanksLIVING involves
complete and total "sacrifice."
The word
"sacrifice" was packed with meaning for those to whom this Psalm was
first written. For centuries the
sacrificial system had been the heartbeat of the nation. Rivers of blood had flowed from the altars of
the tabernacle, and later the temple.
The smell of blood was a pungent daily reminder to the Israelites of the
penalty of sin.
Death and blood are
common themes in the Word. "The
wages of sin is death. Without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Jesus said, this is my blood
shed for many for the remission of sin."
No one could have
imagined the "bloody mess" that would result from taking one small
bite from a forbidden fruit.
Unfortunately, the
word (and the idea) carries much less significance in our world today --
including in our churches. We don't want
a sacrificial religion, we want a comfortable religion. We want a Christianity
without a Crucified Christ.
Mahatma Gandhi said
that six things will destroy us. Notice that all of them have to do with social
and political conditions. Note also that the antidote of each of these
"deadly sins" is an explicit external standard or something that is
based on natural principles and laws, not on social values. Even a Hindu got
this part right.
Wealth
Without Work, Pleasure Without Conscience
Knowledge
Without Character, Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics), Science
Without Humanity
Politics
Without Principle
These six
"deadly social sins" are evident throughout our world, and especially
our nation. But, I believe it is this
last "deadly sin" that lies at the root of all other social maladies: "Religion
without Sacrifice."
Certainly, there is
no Christianity without a Crucified Christ.
There is not effective churchmanship without on-going sacrifice.
Deitrich Bonhoeffer
calls religion without sacrifice, "Cheap
Grace." Salvation is not free
because it is cheap, it is free because Jesus Christ paid for it with His own
blood. There can be no ThanksLIVING
without sacrifice.
While our
sacrifice--even should we pay the ultimate price of a martyr's death--could
never repay God for the sacrifice of HIS Son on the cross in our place. That
being said, however, it is a great gift to God when we joyfully embrace suffering
for the cause of Christ.
James says, James 1:2 Consider
it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because
you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Paul reminds us, Rom. 8:18
“For I consider our present sufferings
are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Paul and James both
speak matter of factly about suffering in the lives of believers. It is going to come. You cannot have Christianity with a Crucified
Christ.
Are you willing to
give God the gift of joyful sacrifice?
Peter T. Forsythe
was right when he said, “The first duty
of every soul is to find not its freedom but its Master”. Have you found the Master of Your Soul?
It is said that on
his retreat from Greece after his great military expedition there, King Xerxes
boarded a Phoenician ship along with a number of his Persian troops. But a
fearful storm came up, and the captain told Xerxes there was no hope unless the
ship’s load was substantially lightened. The king turned to his fellow Persians
on deck and said, “It is on you that my safety depends. Now let some of you
show your regard for your king.” A number of the men bowed to Xerxes and threw
themselves overboard! Lightened of its load, the ship made it safely to harbor.
Xerxes immediately ordered that a golden crown be given to the pilot for
preserving the king’s life – then ordered the man beheaded for causing the loss
of so many Persian lives!
Getting saved will
cost you noting. Staying saved will cost
you noting. But, “thanksLIVING,” will
cost you daily in your sacrifice to God.
17 I will offer You a sacrifice of
thanksgiving.
ThanksLiving means
we give our complete and total trust to God.
We give God our unqualified, enthusiastic obedience. ThanksLiving means we give God whatever
sacrifice of our time, treasure, and talent may be asked of us.
4. ThanksLiving requires our unreserved PRAISE! (19)
Psalm 116 (like so
many psalms) ends with the simple imperative:
Hallelujah!
This English phrase
translates two Hebrew words: hallelu (hal'lu) yah! These combine to give us one English
word, "hallelujah."
What does it mean
"to give God praise?" First
and foremost what the Psalmist is depicting is something "corporate and
public." Notice verses
14: "in
the presence of all His people."
18: "in
the presence of all His people."
19a: "in
the courts of the Lord's house."
19b: "in
the midst of Jerusalem."
Praise is a gift we
give God corporately and publicly. God
has many agents, but none of us are "secret agents." We cannot truly render, or pay back to God,
our praise by doing it privately.
The word,
"hal'lu," goes back to an ancient Middle Eastern root mean "to be clear" (as with a sound
or more often a color). In this sense
you might say "to praise means to show your true colors."
The word,
"hal'lu," also means to "shine or burst forth," sort of
like light and heat from an explosion.
In this sense, "praise,"
refers to something loud and unmistakable.
The word, "hal'lu," also means, "act foolishly," You could evening expand the word without
doing it injustice to mean, "act raving mad about something."
The closest way,
perhaps, to understand the Hebrew idea of praise in a modern vernacular is to
look at a typical NFL fan.
The paint their
faces, dress in crazy costumes and cheer for their team at the top of their
voices. They travel great distances,
brave inclement weather, and pay ridiculously high prices to watch a 2 hour contest.
I don't see
anything wrong with being a sports fanatic.
It is good to have a favorite team to root for. Some people go further than others, but as
long as it's done in good taste, there's no harm in showing a little enthusiasm
or even acting a little foolish.
So, why not be just
as "fanatic" about God in church as we are sports when we are in the
stadium. Praise should be
"explosive." Praise should
show our true colors as a believer.
Praise should even make us feel a little foolish from time to time,
perhaps--like raising our hands in complete surrender during a song.
ThanksLiving
requires we give God praise.
I don't think there
is a more appropriate holiday in our Western calendar than Thanksgiving
Day. But, we should not limit Thanksgiving
to a day, but should give God thanks everyday.
We should practice THANKSLIVING:
giving God our full trust, our absolute obedience, continuing sacrifice,
and unreserved praise. That's true
thanksgiving – that’s thanks LIVING!
Giving thanks to
God must be more than a one-day celebration of the "god of our
belly." Thanksgiving should really
"ThanksLIVING." We should mark
every day of our lives by "giving thanks to God."
The Psalmist poses
the question:
"What
shall I render (or repay) to the
Lord
for all His benefits?"
Our answer should
be: I will give God my complete and
total trust, my absolute obedience, and the continuing sacrifice of all I have
and all I am.
I will show my
gratitude through THANKSLIVING.
<<END>>
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