Dennis Tuuri

# THE PRIMACY OF THANKSGIVING

Our sermon text is kind of long. So let me explain why I’m going to read it. I’ll get to this in the context of the sermon itself. But it’s important to understand what we do in worship and its relationship particularly today to thanksgiving. And this chapter, 1st Chronicles 16, describes the coming of the ark to Jerusalem. And then it describes the beginning establishment of the tabernacle of David worship which Hebrews says we enter into.

Every Lord’s day we come to Mount Zion where the tabernacle of David stood. So this was a little precursor of New Testament worship in the Old Testament before the temple was constructed. And so this is the psalm of Zion essentially in 1 Chronicles 16. And it sort of is then emblematic for what Zion worship was, what the psalter is all about. And as a result, what our worship is all about. The ark came to Jerusalem.

The presence of God came to be with his people. Jesus comes, his advent is related to this psalm of Zion, this song of Zion. And as we’ll see, it is focused on thanksgiving. Please stand for reading of 1st Chronicles 16, and I’ll read through verse 36.

1st Chronicles 16 beginning at verse 1. So they brought the ark of God and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it. Then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins.

And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel. Asaf the chief and next to him Zechariah, then Jiel, Shemiramoth, Jiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah and Obed-Edom. Jeiel with stringed instruments and harps. But Asaf made music with cymbals. Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests regularly blew the trumpets before the ark of the covenant of God.

On that day, David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaf and his brethren to thank the Lord. Oh, give thanks to the Lord. Call upon his name. Make known his deeds among the peoples. Sing to him. Sing psalms to him. Talk of all his wondrous works. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. Seek the Lord in his strength. Seek his face evermore.

Remember his marvelous works which he has done. His wonders and the judgments of his mouth. Oh seed of Israel, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. Remember his covenant forever, the word which he commanded for a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham and his oath to Isaac and confirmed it to Jacob for a statute to Israel for an everlasting covenant saying to you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance.

When you were few in number, indeed very few and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another and from one kingdom to another people, he permitted no man to do them wrong. Yes, he rebuked kings for their sakes, saying, “Do not touch my anointed ones and do my prophets no harm. Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples.

For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is also to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and gladness are in his place. Give to the Lord, oh families of the peoples. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering and come before him. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth.

The world also is firmly established. It shall not be moved. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad. And let them say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Let the sea roar and all its fullness. Let the field rejoice and all that is in it. Then the trees of the woods shall rejoice before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever. And say, “Save us, oh God of our salvation. Gather us together and deliver us from the nations to give thanks to your holy name to triumph in your praise.” Blessed be the Lord, God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And all the people said, “Amen. and praise the Lord.”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your scriptures. We thank you for your Holy Spirit that indwells us. We pray that you would write this word upon our hearts, transform our lives by it, illuminate our minds to understand it so that we can apprehend it and walk in conformity to it and thus delight in you. In Jesus’ name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

There are handouts in the foyer. If you haven’t gotten one, you might want to get one. It won’t be required, but to understand what I’m going to say, I hope it would help. They’re a little longer this time. What you’ll see on pages three and four of the handout—I’ve laid out this psalm in 1 Chronicles 16 and shown its relationship to several other psalms: 95, 105, and 106. And there are portions of it that are nearly identical with small changes.

So if you don’t have one yet and want one, you can go get one. If you don’t want to get it now, it might be useful for you later to see these parallel columns of how this Psalm of Zion ends up in the book of the Psalms in the fourth book. And we’ll talk more about that in a couple of minutes. It’s significant, as everything in the scriptures is.

So today we’ll do a simple thing at this meal, and we’ll start here at this meal. Then Thursday we have this wonderful American Christian holiday, Thanksgiving, and it is a wonderful start to the season of Advent. And I think it’s related, as we see in 1st Chronicles 16. It’s the advent of the ark that then is the basis for giving the psalm which is explicitly given to thank God. And of course what we do at most of our meals as Christians is to thank God for our food.

Our Savior did this. We know of course he thanked God for the food at the Last Supper. But we also read, for instance, that in Matthew 15 he took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So our Savior’s practice was to give thanks for the food that he was going to eat.

John 6:23—other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. So the emphasis there is on eating the bread after the Lord, as head of that household so to speak, the host of that feast, gave thanks. Paul did the same thing. In Acts 27:35 we read that when he had said these things he took bread, gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he began to eat.

So Paul, like our Savior, gave thanks for food that he was about to partake—not just sacramental food, but all food.

Romans 14:6 says, “He who observes the day observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day to the Lord, he does not observe it. He who eats eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks, and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.”

So again, in this instruction about the relationship of Jew and Gentile at the church in Romans, that’s what’s going on. It has application for Christian liberty, but in the context of that, we notice in passing that to eat was preceded by giving thanks and connected to it.

In 1 Timothy 4, verses 3 and 4, we read that some will come forbidding people to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. So food is given to us to be received with thanksgiving. God created this food and it is to be received by thanksgiving and eaten. So don’t listen to prohibitions on food. You know, it’s okay to eat candy bars. I could go on, but I’m not going to.

But the point is that all food is given by God and it’s to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. Every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving.

So thanksgiving is this common ritual. We have this great day of celebration on the fourth Thursday of November, but it’s what we do in our homes all the time—to give thanks. It’s a common activity. On the other hand, the scriptures say it’s a very common, ordinary ritual, and important as we’ll see in today’s sermon. But it’s also not to be restricted to the giving of thanks for food.

Of course, we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.” So there’s a comprehensive giving of thanks that is part of our lives as Christians. To be a Christian is to give thanks in everything. It says, “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the spirit.”

So the spirit is encouraged and quenched by unthankfulness. And as a Christian, the will of God is for us to give thanks in everything. Quite simple. And so when David says that he delivers the psalm for the purpose of giving thanks, you see again that our summation of our whole lives is to give thanks to God.

Ephesians 5:19 and 20—”speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

And so we are to give thanks. It says always, not just certain times. We have an attitude of thanksgiving to God for all things—comprehensive thanksgiving for everything that comes into our lives. The good and the bad, difficult times as well as good times. We’re to give thanks in all things.

I notice that this is connected to singing and making melody. And in 1 Chronicles 16, that’s what they did. They had musical thanksgiving. This is the pattern of Zion worship. This is what it is to come into the New Testament church and worship on the Lord’s day. If we wanted to comprehend it in one word, I think 1 Chronicles 16 says it’s thanksgiving. It’s thanksgiving. That’s significant. It forms the pattern for the rest of our lives. Thanksgiving is at the essence, at the heart of Christianity.

Notice by the way, in passing, that we’re to give thanks in song. So the point is that this comprises musical psalms that David gives us. And whether you like it or not, when you sing these hymns and praises, you’re giving thanks to God. And so we’re conformed in the liturgical worship of the church by singing these songs together. We are made into thankful people. Whether we feel thankful when we come in the door or not, we obey the liturgy and the liturgy transforms us by reminding us of the need to be thankful in everything. And we do that in singing.

Notice as well, by the way—not in passing—today is going to be the third Sunday fellowship at Reformation Covenant Church. Some people call them forced fellowships. That’s okay. We have forced thanksgiving in the Lord’s day worship. We’re changed from the outside in more often than not. Baptism is a picture of that. Our rituals and habits that we’re forced to do change us for the better.

Now, you don’t really have to go to the fellowship. It’s a joke—forced fellowship. But it’s what we’re going to do. And I think we’d have a real good day today to spend just a couple of minutes perhaps with your group. Maybe the group leaders have other things planned, but if not, you know, maybe one of the things you want to do is just have people give thanks for something particular and then to pray briefly your prayers of thanksgiving.

But notice that these prayers of thanksgiving, this thanksgiving is to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we’re thankful to Jesus. We’re thankful to the Holy Spirit, but we’re explicitly told to give thanks to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. So our prayers should be that way. That’s the normative prayer. And thanksgiving again at the heart of the Christian church tells us about what prayer is. It’s praying, giving thanks to God the Father in the name of Jesus.

Philippians 4:6—beautifully sung I think by our choir earlier—”Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Colossians 3:17, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Again, a repetition of the form. We give thanks to the Father through Christ in the name of Christ, but our thanksgiving is ultimately to the Father. We’re praying in the spirit, but the spirit would cause us to pray to the Father and very specifically to give thanks to God the Father. That’s what prayer is.

And this is comprehensive. Whatever we do, do all in the name of God—Jesus Christ, rather, the Lord—giving thanks in everything that we do.

And then Hebrews 13:15, “therefore by him, by Jesus, let us continue to offer the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. So we’re to continually give God thanks. We do it in a ritual way. We do it in a normal sort of way. But the whole point is that if the Christian life can be summed up in anything, it’s a continual giving thanks to the Father. That’s significant. That’s important for us.

I think Daniel, in the midst and in the face of the sentence of death, gave thanks. Jonah in the belly of the whale gives thanks to God. Unnatural thanksgiving. Thanksgiving in all things. Thanksgiving for all things. Because we know that the scriptures tell us, the spirit confirms this to us, that all things work together for good to those who are called by God.

Thanksgiving is a test of our faith and belief in that statement of God—that our heavenly Father, he’s controlling everything, and all things work together for good for your good, for the glory of God. If we believe that, how can we help but be thankful? And if we’re not thankful, can we really say we believe that? That convicts me. I know how often I’m unthankful. And I know at the heart of that unthankfulness is a lack of belief—basically an ingratitude for the sovereign God giving us what we need, not what we necessarily want.

So thanksgiving is this comprehensive action in the New Testament. This is a high holy day—Thanksgiving, I suppose we could say, if we had them. This is really important. It’s not just which is kind of an American tradition. It is the—it somehow the providence of God in planting us in this land. He has sovereignly worked to give us a day of the year every year in this country to focus on this basic truth: that Christians are the people that are thankful.

Romans 1 says that’s the why in the road. Are you going to go off and do all kinds of nasty things? You be judged by God—sexual sin and license, homosexuality, lesbianism, judgment of God upon an unthankful people. The why in the road is a decision to either conform and give thanks to God or not. And when we give thanks to God, that shows we’re Christians. And when we don’t give thanks to God, that shows, you know, that we’re not believing God at that particular point in time.

And when our lives are characterized by unthankfulness, well, you know, now the Lord God sets us off on the left hand side of the page and his judgments come upon us.

All right. So this is a wonderful season in the providence of God. It happens in the context of the beginning of Advent. Advent starts in two weeks. Advent’s a preparation for the coming of Yahweh. And as I said in 1st Chronicles 16, we have this wonderful story that the ark is brought up to Jerusalem.

You know, Thursday is followed by Black Friday, so-called. Not sure why it’s black. I guess so many credit cards are being processed that the system fails and lights go off and stuff. I don’t know. But Thanksgiving is the beginning of the Christmas buying season, which I also don’t mind too much, as long as we’re, you know, careful and don’t indebt ourselves. It’s good to think about other people.

I’ve made this point before, but Advent—the Advent of Christ—is what Thanksgiving is set in the context of. And here in this text before us and in the Old Testament, it was this advent of the ark to Zion, Mount Zion, that created this psalm of thanksgiving and this musical worship.

So what’s the story? Well, the backstory is this.

The tabernacle—you know, prior to what we think of the tabernacle—Moses had a tent of meeting and that was the first tabernacle. So Moses met with God and the people would meet with God there. But that wasn’t the tabernacle. The tabernacle then was constructed as a worship center, a portable worship center as they went through the wandering and as they went into the promised land. And eventually the tabernacle would be replaced by the temple, of course.

So we’ve got Moses’ tent of meeting, then we’ve got the tabernacle, and then we have the temple that we’re all familiar with. Well, the tabernacle had an ark of the covenant. It had a veil in front of it. It had places to do the sacrifice of the animals and burning them up. And in the time of Israel’s rebellion, in the times of Samuel, God goes into captivity for his people. The Philistines conquer Israel.

Israel tries to go out and, even though they’re disobedient to God, they want to bring the talisman of the ark in front of them to bring blessing. The ark is taken into captivity. And the right way to think about that is that God goes into captivity for his people. The ark is the presence of God. And God sits in the house of Dagon and knocks him over. They want God to be ruled over by Dagon, and God makes it quite clear to everybody who’s reading the Bible or who lived through those times that he is not subservient to anyone.

And God goes into captivity to conquer all the enemies of his people. He’s conquering the Philistines. So the Philistines eventually say we can’t have this—curse is coming upon them—and they send the ark back. But Israel’s a little frightened of the ark too, and so the ark ends up for years and years and years in someone’s house. And then when they do want to bring it up to Jerusalem, a man gets killed. And then it ends up in the house of a Gentile, Obed-Edom, the Gittite or Gathite, a man from Gath.

So the ark—now the rest of the covenant pieces, the altars and stuff—they’re around, but the ark is housed separately. Well, finally David gets the ark and says it’s got to come to Jerusalem. The presence of God will be with us. The ark represents the king, the presence of the king. And so David gets the ark and he brings it to Jerusalem, and there’s much dancing. The order of worship, you know, shows this wonderful musical celebration of the presence of God being with his people.

1st Chronicles 16—this psalm of Zion—you’ll see that it is identical to portions of Psalm 96, 105, and 106. Those psalms are in the fourth book of the psalter. And the fourth book of the psalter, the center is 98—that great Christmas song, Advent, the coming of the king. God is coming. He’s almost here. 96 says he’s coming, 97 he’s coming, 98 he arrives and the whole world changes, and Jew and Gentile are brought together in the coming of the king. That’s what Psalm 98 is about. That’s what the fourth book is about. That’s the center of the book.

The whole book is structured around the coming of the king. And so these psalms are taken and eventually find their way into that fourth book because this is what’s happening here. The king is coming. He’s coming closer. He’s going to be in the midst of his people. That means tremendous blessings. It’s a reminder that this is the king who saved us in the past. He’s created us. He redeemed us. It’s a reminder that he’s going to save us in the future.

And not only that, it’s a call to proclaim the great news of the king to the Gentiles. And even the Gentiles will be saved and the whole world will be filled with the glory of God. That’s what it was. So why wouldn’t you sing? The tabernacle worship prior to this was silent worship. I mean, it wasn’t sung, at least. There may have been words spoken, but no indication of singing. Singing is tied to the coming of the king.

And so at Christmas time, songs of thanksgiving and worship and praise, it’s a wonderful thing to do. It’s what the spirit of God would have us to do. And it’s what the spirit of God had David do. He brought the ark up and he put it not on Mount Moriah. There are, you know, mountains. It’s like Mount Tabor. It’s like the hills in Portland. And in Jerusalem, in the city of Jerusalem, there were several mountains or hills. And there was Mount Moriah. This is where Abraham had sacrificed Isaac. And this is where the temple would be built.

Mount Zion is not the temple mount. We think it is because we associate Zion and temple, but it wasn’t. Mount Zion—before the temple is built on Mount Moriah—David brings the ark to Mount Zion. And on Mount Zion he’s constructed another tabernacle or tent. This is a worship place. And these psalms in 1st Chronicles 16 are about that.

The ark comes up. They place it in the house of the ark, the tabernacle, the meeting place that David had constructed for it. And 1st Chronicles 16 tells us some amazing things about this. Because in this worship center we’ve got the ark, but where are the altars? Well, during this time, the altars and the rest of the tabernacle articles are at Gibeon, another city altogether. And animal sacrifices are going on over there somewhere.

But in Jerusalem, while animal sacrifices begin, Zion worship—once the blood is shed for its initiation—Zion becomes a great place of musical worship and praise and thanksgiving to God because the ark is there. So no blood except for its initiation. Zion is unusual too because it says at the end of this chapter that they offered praise and thanksgiving to God in the presence of the ark. And the indication seems to be there’s no veil separating the worshiping community from the direct presence of God the King sitting in their midst. That’s remarkable.

And not only that, but we read again in 1st Chronicles 16 that David had set up this musical worship. The Levites were worshiping. And the musical team, so to speak, the men—one of the men that was supposed to help in this musical worship is none other than Obed-Edom. And this is probably the same Obed-Edom the Gittite.

And so what we would have here is it seems like Jew and Gentile are coming together in the direct presence of God the King, singing songs of praise together. Blood is replaced by musical song and singing. And this is what worship was like for a period of time. Then the temple is built. David’s psalms are brought into temple worship. The ark is taken over to Mount Moriah. The stuff is brought back from Gibeon. The temple is established.

But, you know, David is a little picture, a little emblem of what’s going to happen when the greater David comes. When not just the representation of God’s presence in the ark, but when God becomes incarnate, when his advent occurs, what will happen to worship?

The Jew-Gentile distinction will be eliminated totally and forever in AD 70. Gone. There are no more Jew and Gentiles. And there’s no more blood. Jesus dies on that cross, sheds his blood to start up the worship of the church. But we don’t shed blood here. The sacrificing of animals is replaced with the singing of praise and thanksgiving. And we don’t have a veil. When Jesus dies, the veil is ripped in two and we have direct presence.

You see, we worship directly in the presence of God, our worship occurs. In fact, he—we eat him and we eat the meal with the king. He’s right here in this room with us. You see? So this wonderful Zion worship is a little emblem of what’s going to happen when Psalm 98 and the fourth book of the psalter finds its great culmination—that he’s coming to judge the earth, to establish righteousness in all the world. When all that happens with the coming of Jesus Christ.

So 1st Chronicles 16 is all about what’s going to happen in the New Testament. And so we read in here of Jew and Gentile coming together and all kinds of things. So advent—the advent of God as king to Jerusalem—creates this musical, this outburst of the spirit. The spirit—we don’t just say words, we sing thy praises to God. And this is New Testament worship.

Now, the scriptures tell us pretty conclusively that’s what we’re doing here. In Hebrews 12:22, people wonder, why do I preach so much of the Old Testament? There’s more of it. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that. It’s a lot bigger. But also in Hebrews 12:22, we read that you—talking to the worshiping community of the Hebrews—have come to Mount Zion, not to Mount Moriah, the temple mount, but to Mount Zion, he says, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels.

When we gather together, it says in worship, we come to Mount Zion. Now, if you don’t understand 1 Chronicles 16, you don’t know what you’re doing in worship. I mean, that’s a little bit of an overstatement, but not much. You have to understand what Mount Zion was. And you don’t—if you don’t understand it, you don’t know what you’re doing here. But if we know that Mount Zion is this 1st Chronicles 16, then maybe it’s important for us to look briefly at the Psalm of Zion that establishes everything else. It’s the beginning of all the book of the Psalms, the psalter.

We come to Mount Zion. Not only that, but in Acts chapter 15, there’s discussion going on and verse 13 says, “And after they had become silent James answered saying, ‘Men and brothers listen to me. Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his name and with this the words of the prophets agree.’”

So they’re saying what’s the relationship of Jew and Gentile as a council of Jerusalem? And he quotes as being relevant to this discussion what’s going on. He said in verse 15 is what was written. And so in Acts 15:16, we read, “After this I will return. I will rebuild the tabernacle of David which has fallen down. I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things.”

So Acts 15 says that what’s going on in the New Testament period after 30 AD, what’s going on is God is rebuilding the tabernacle of David. And what was it? It was Jew and Gentile coming together to praise God without blood sacrifice in his direct presence. He understood this and he said that what we’re doing in the New Testament church is we are worshiping at the tabernacle of David. And Hebrews says the same thing.

When we come together for worship, we come to Mount Zion where the tabernacle of David worship was established. So you see, that’s why we’re looking at 1st Chronicles 16—to understand a little bit better what our worship is, because we have a lot of detail given about tabernacle of David worship. And so if we’re going to understand it, if we’re going to understand our worship, then we are on Zion. God’s rebuilt the tabernacle of David. Here is where we are. Let’s understand what it is.

So let’s now turn to the text. That’s why we look at this text. Well, let’s look at the text.

Verse 4: “He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord.”

So general header—they’re going to minister. Well, what does it mean to minister? Well, there’s three words given here: to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel.

So there’s three actions that are normative of Zion worship. When we come together, this is what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to commemorate, thank, and praise.

Now, commemorate means to remember. So we, you know, we commemorate the Lord’s work here. We talk about the mighty acts of God. We sing about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And we commemorate God’s faithfulness to his covenant. We look to the past. Commemorate what he has done and accomplished. We give thanks to God in the present. And praise, I think, is focused primarily on the future. We praise him for what he is doing. We’ll see that as we go through this psalm.

But there are three normative actions here: to commemorate. And it doesn’t just mean to remember. It means to commemorate in the sense of having our lives changed as a result of the commemoration. “Remember the Sabbath day.” He didn’t mean mentally remember it when you went to work or went around shopping. No, he meant to commemorate it, to memorialize it, to remember it in a way that changes what you do.

If you remember God’s faithfulness, then you will not be given to sin. Remembering in the Bible is not just an intellectual exercise. It involves remembering past actions, but it does it in a way that changes present reality and your future actions.

Okay, so that’s commemorate. The specific word that’s used, the word thank—to thank God, the third word, or the second word rather—it can mean to confess sin. It means to confess, to acknowledge, to say this is what it is. This is reality. And when we say this is what it is, this is reality, it is to give thanks to God for it. I mean, it is of necessity. This is what God has done. All things working together for good. All things are proper objects or subjects of our thanksgiving.

You see, that’s what this word means. The word is yada, which is related to Judah. Judah—those who praise God. The Jews were those who we’re true Jews, you know, not if we wear funny clothes. We’re true Jews if we praise God. And that particular word for praise implies, depending on the context, implies thanksgiving. So the true Jew is the one who gives thanks to God.

Again, the centrality of thanksgiving to the life of the Christian. Now, this next word, praise—the third word—is halal, which we know as Hallelujah. We remember that. And that’s more what we think of as praise. So there’s three distinct words: to commemorate, to give thanks—yada, oda, Judah. Jews give thanks, to acknowledge or confess, but to thank God for everything by acknowledging it all comes from his hand.

So it has that relationship to it. So these three normative actions are given to us here. And in the context here, what we do in the present is to give thanks, commemorating the past and praising God for what he’s going to do and is doing in the context of the future. So I think that’s what these three actions speak to, and that’s what it says in verse 4.

When we come to church on Sunday, when we go to that rebuilt tabernacle of David, when we come to Mount Zion, these are what we’re doing. We’re commemorating, we’re giving thanks, and we’re praising God. So that’s the three actions described in this section.

Now the actual psalm itself then begins in verse 7.

And look at verse 7. Verse 7 says, “On that day, David first delivered this psalm into the hand of Asaf and his brethren to thank the Lord.”

So now what he’s going to do is this psalm will be commemoration. They’ll remember what God did in the past, and it’ll be praise—that Yahweh has come. He’s coming to judge the earth, to bring Jew and Gentile together, and the whole earth will be filled with his glory. It’s to praise him for those future actions. But so it involves—this word thank—must involve all these things. Because if we look at the psalm, at what the song is in 1 Chronicles 16, it has commemoration and it has praise. But the summary word—okay, the summary word for the psalm of Zion that forms the basis for how we’re to worship and praise God for the advent of Jesus Christ, the great king—the summary term used for this psalm that he gives it to his church to sing is specifically to give thanks.

Specifically to give thanks. And that’s why I’ve entitled the sermon “The Primacy of Thanksgiving.” It’s not just one of the three elements. David says we can sum up all three elements in one word. That’s to give thanks to Yahweh. So you see, it’s absolute primacy in the life of Christians. Thanksgiving.

Praise God that we have this holiday for it. All right.

And then on your outline, I know it can get a little—we’ll just do this very quickly. I think I’d made my basic point already—hopefully, the primacy of thanksgiving. But if we would take a time to look at verses 8 to 22, they almost line up perfectly with Psalm 105. And I put them in parallel on your handout as I mentioned earlier.

And what’s going on in 8-22? There is thanksgiving. I say worship on your outline—make it thanks because that’s what the worship is. David says this is given to give thanks. So scratch out worship—thanksgiving. Thanksgiving based on the past.

So verses 8 to 11 are generalized terms: Give thanks, call his name, proclaim his name, sing, talk, glory in, rejoice, and seek God. And then verses 12 to 14 specifically tells us to remember some things. Verse 12. So verses 8 through 11 are kind of a summary beginning by giving thanks. “Oh, give thanks to the Lord.”

So again, the primacy first place—all three actions are signified by David calling it a thanksgiving. And at the very beginning then of the actual song itself in verse 8, we begin by “Oh give thanks to Yahweh”—and for what?

Well, then we’re told explicitly in verse 12 that we’re to remember. Now thanksgiving includes this commemoration word—to remember. Remember certain things in verse 12. “Remember his wonderful deeds which he has done.”

We don’t give thanks to God sort of abstractly. We don’t give thanks to God by just saying “I love you. I love you. I love you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” No, the thanksgiving is to include specific elements. And we’re told it’s specifically to include a commemoration of what God has done, what he’s done to us.

And if we were to look carefully at those verses 12 to 14, it tells us to remember what he’s done, his works and his judgments in the context of the world. By the way, notice in verse 13, “O seed of Israel, his servant.” But if you have your handouts in Psalm 105, David changes that to “O seed of Abraham his servant.” Goes from Israel to Abraham. Why? Well, I think because it shows this general movement of the whole psalm that what’s happening is that God is reaching out when the king comes, and all the world—the Gentiles, all the children of Abraham, the father Abraham. See, Israel is still used to talk about us, but it was more specifically his priestly nation.

So anyway, the point is that in these verses we remember his works. He is the Lord our God. His judgments are in all the earth. So several verses talk about what we’re to remember: his past deeds, his judgments in the earth. We’re to remember this and give thanks.

And then secondly in verse 15, another section starts: “Remember his covenant forever. The word which the commandment which he commanded for a thousand generations. The covenant which he made with Abraham is oath to Isaac. He also confirmed to Jacob for a statute to Israel as an everlasting covenant saying to you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance.”

So we are to remember—verses 15-18 tells us to remember his covenant. Remember his covenant word and the promises. And then in verse 19, he describes these past actions of protection and preservation of his people. In verse 19, “They were few in number, strangers in the land, and they wandered about from nation to nation, from one people to another. He permitted no man to oppress them. Don’t touch my anointed when he says.”

So we are to remember God’s past actions of creation. We’re to remember God’s past actions of redemption, which involve the preservation of his people. And at the heart of that remembering section is remembering his covenant and his covenant word to us.

So we have this focus upon the past actions—thanksgiving based on the past. You know, we’re generally talking about life on the cross. And you know, if we look at the past, and then we look toward the future—what this psalm does, which our worship always does—in the present what we are is thankful. That’s living in balance for what God has accomplished in the past and what he’s doing in the context of the future.

Because the next set of words in this psalm, verses 23 to 33, which are essentially the same as Psalm 96, these verses talk about thanksgiving based on the future—now what he will do. And so, you know, having an understanding of what he’s done in the past for the people of Israel, for his creation and his judgments in the world, for his covenant word to Israel, for preserving Israel in the past—now they’re to think about what’s going to happen in the future.

And so verse 23 says, obviously starting a new section, “Sing to the Lord all the earth.”

Now, if you have your handouts on the parallel side on the right hand side, really the first two and a half verses of Psalm 96 go with that one verse: “Sing to the Lord, all the earth.” And it’s expanded up to this: “Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, bless his name.”

So you take the center—it’s one verse—but it’s spread into three things. And we see that a development then into an obvious Trinitarian perspective in Psalm 96, but we see the same Trinitarian perspective throughout 1 Chronicles 16 as well, over and over again. There are things in triplets. But here specifically:

“So now we’re seeing to the Lord, sing to the Lord all the earth. Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples, for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.”

So now we have a focus that this our worship of thanksgiving doesn’t just commemorate the past, but now we’re called into the musical singing and praise of God for what he’s doing now in terms of all the nations. So there’s a transition from the past to all the nations.

Now, as he said, Psalm 96 reminds us of these things because it’s set in the context of the coming of the king—”Joy to the World”—not just the people, now the land, but now the nations as well are received and redeemed by God.

So verses 23 to 27, the great creator God is to be proclaimed to the Gentiles. We thank him and we do this by proclaiming his word to the Gentiles. And verses 28 to 30 tell us that Yahweh shall establish the world through proclamation and worship. So we have this optimistic view to the future. We proclaim God. We have a requirement to do that to the nations because that’s what he’s doing—he’s saving all the world.

And then the last few verses, Yahweh unites Jew and Gentile together in 31-33. Look at verse 31.

“Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice.”

So the two elements—heaven and earth, the heavenly people, the earthly people, the priestly nation, the nations of the world—all the created order now will be coming together to rejoice.

“And let them say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns.’”

All the nations will have this message—the rain—the universal reign and sovereignty of God.

“Let the sea roar and all its inhabitants.”

It doesn’t mean in opposition. The Gentile nations, the sea are now roaring their thanksgiving and praise to God as well.

“Let the field exalt and all that is in it.”

In the Old Testament, the seas represent the Gentile nations, the field the Jews, the priestly people of God in the land.

“Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth.”

And so the advent of God to Jerusalem and to the worship there—he’s coming. God is coming to judge not just Israel but the whole world. You see, and all the world now will reflect back the praise and thanksgiving of God.

So God says that in all these things we are to give thanks in the present, commemorating the past, looking forward in praising his name for the future actions which are assured. How are they assured? They’re assured by the advent of the king.

And we, this side of the cross, can enter into this joyful psalm of Zion with great confidence knowing that advent—the final advent—has come. The Lord Jesus has arrived. All the world now will be filled with his glory. And in fact, we can see it. We can look back and commemorate the evangelization of the nations and look forward to the Muslim nations and those places of darkness that remain being evangelized as well, because Yahweh has come. Jesus has been incarnated. He’s done his work and he’s established his kingdom.

And then finally, verses 35. “Then say, ‘Save us, oh God of our salvation. Gather us and deliver us from the nations to give thanks to thy holy name. Glory and thy praise.’”

So again we end verse 34. “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good for his loving kindness is everlasting. And then the final benediction, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. That all the people said, ‘Amen.’ And praise the Lord.”

So David says this is a psalm of thanksgiving. David says that if we think about commemoration for the past, proclamation optimistically about the future, it’s all summarized in thanksgiving. David writes the psalm by beginning with thanksgiving. And here at the end, the last thing he talks about is giving thanks again. So our thanksgiving is the bookends for the commemoration of the past and the joyful anticipation of what the present king now is accomplishing in the context of our world. It’s a wonderful thing. A wonderful way to remember what it is we do in worship based on an Old Testament picture of what God calls us to do every Lord’s day. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is our cure. It’s our delight.

We give thanks to Yahweh in the present with an eye to the past, bright hope for the future.

Now, why don’t we do it then? Well, in part, we don’t do it because we’re fearful. We don’t understand that. We don’t comprehend. We don’t believe the atoning work of the Savior. And we’re afraid that every problem we have is going to kill us. And for the Christian, this is a common thing—lack of belief, a lack of faith.

But every Lord’s day is a proclamation of thanksgiving. It’s a reminder to you, dear people, that the Lord God has done everything for you in the past. And he’ll accomplish everything that the world might be saved in the future. And we could give thanks in the present. It’s a reminder to you that the world is not moving in terms of death, no matter what postmillennialists tell you. The world is moving in terms of life—the advance and manifestation of the kingdom of God. It’s a reminder to us of that because we need it. We’re fearful people. We’re unbelieving people, and we’re prideful people as well. This is the other problem.

To give thanks is an offense to pride.

I mean, not to give thanks to another man maybe, or to give thanks for whatever, but to give thanks to God is an offense to the prideful human nature. You know, I’ve heard people say this: “Why do I give God thanks for the food that my labor put on this table?”

Well, see, this is simply to misunderstand who you are and who God is. It is a humbling thing to say that all of this—my life, the breath I take, the energy I have, the way that you blessed my labor to make the crops grow or the job successful, whatever it was—none of this is my doing ultimately. All of this is because you’ve given your creatures life. You’ve given me life in order to give thanks to God for our creation, and then for our redemption. Because otherwise we’d be made under the curse of God in everything that we do.

It’s humbling to us. It’s fearful to us to go through difficult times. And it’s humbling to think that somehow what we do isn’t the basis for the blessings we get. And yet it’s tremendously curative for us to give thanks in spite of our fear and humbling ourselves before God to give thanks to him.

I know that—you know, I know that every week in the life of the church is filled with problems of various sorts. Blessings too. But I know what a lot of you struggle with. I probably know more than you think I know. I know what you’re going through. And I know for some of you it’s real hard times right now. For some of you, Thanksgiving will be kind of natural thanksgiving this year, commemorating what God has done and blessed you with in the past.

For some of you, it’ll be natural thanksgiving. It’ll be thanking God in the midst of tremendous disappointment, fear for the future, difficulties in the present. But thanksgiving is the corrective to that. It takes your eyes off of yourself and trains them upon the only source of hope and love and comfort that there is—God. And it is a confession. It’s an acknowledgment of reality.

And I tell you today, I tell you, and I tell myself, when we’re tempted to unthankfulness—in a way that’s being tempted to lunacy—because we’re not trying to wish something into being. Thanksgiving is not trying hard to get something done or accomplished. Thanksgiving is a simple confession that the Lord God is in control of all things, and that no matter what happened to me, no matter what disappointments I have, no matter what problems with friends that I’m encountering, no matter what difficulties in relationships or over my own spirit and soul I’m struggling with, no matter what difficulties in my employment, my husband, my wife, my kids—whatever it is—you see, the Lord God is sovereignly moving all things for the manifestation of his kingdom.

We don’t have to gin that up. I’m not asking you to believe something untrue. I’m just saying this is reality. God is the creator, redeemer God. And worship—when we come together on Mount Zion on the Lord’s day, that’s the proclamation. Don’t worry. Be anxious for nothing. In everything with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Now, I’m not making light of your troubles or my troubles. We’re to cast all of our cares. We have cares. It doesn’t say get rid of them. It doesn’t say they’re wrong, but it says to cast those cares upon God because the fact is—the truth of the matter is—reality is that he cares for you. And what that means is he’s thinking on you in every moment of your life. His thoughts are upon you for good because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you may not understand how good it is for this or that bad thing to happen in your life. But you know what? Your dad always knows things a lot better than you. It’s true. Father knows best.

So we have cares. We have troubles. But we can cast them all upon God. And we do that by means of the liturgical thanksgiving here. We’re all going to give thanks at this table. We’re all going to sing songs of thanksgiving whether we feel like it or not. And that reminds us—that’s the way to cure the difficulties, to keep out of sinful ways of responding to the situations that the Lord God has placed us in.

Yes, thankfulness is humbling. Yes, it’s a bit of a—you know, belief. The Lord God will take me through death to resurrection. It requires faith. The end result of thanksgiving is that then we’re living our lives as Christians. And Christians are those who are assured—based on God’s faithfulness in the past and knowing his sure covenant word—we can look forward to the future with bright hope and anticipation. And that’s a sound footing for thanksgiving to God.

Let’s pray.

Father, forgive us our unthankfulness. Build our faith. Help us to believe, Father, what your scriptures tell us. And it’s hard to believe them if we don’t read them. So help us, Lord God, to be people of the book. We thank you for telling us today what worship is, what it is we do here, summed up in a single word. It is this thanksgiving that we focus on today in this season.

Thank you, Lord God, for the advent of Jesus Christ, for the wonderful blessings that has brought to your world and will continue to bring. We give you thanks. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.