November 25, 2012
An Attitude of Gratitude
- Psalms 100:1-5
- Rev. Jim Capps
I certainly can’t speak for you, but I have so much for which to be thankful. Last weekend Alice and I were in Orlando visiting our daughter, son-in-law and our 7- month-old granddaughter. It was only a few years back that we prayed that if it were God’s purpose for her, that God would bring the right man in Becky’s life who she might fall in love with and marry. While she turned 35 on her honeymoon, she married a wonderful man.
Then, it has been her heart’s desire, since she loves children, to be a mommy. In April during the month of her 37th birthday, Dulaney was born and now is doing so well. My heart is filled to overflowing with gratitude as I have seen Becky love and nurture her daughter. During our time in Orlando, Alice and I were filled with an attitude of gratitude.
In thinking about the importance of being thankful, listen to these words from Melinda Beck on the subject of thanksgiving or gratitude:
“A growing body of research has tied an attitude of gratitude with a number of positive emotional and physical health benefits. A November 2010 article in The Wall Street Journal summarized the research:
Adults who frequently feel gratitude have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to the studies conducted over the past decade. They’re also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy, or alcoholics. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly, and have greater resistance to viral infections.
Now, researchers are finding that gratitude brings similar benefits in children and adolescents. [Studies also show that] kids who feel and act grateful tend to be less materialistic, get better grades, set higher goals, complain of fewer head aches and stomach aches, and feel more satisfied with their friends, families, and schools than those who don’t.”
Interestingly enough, another study also shows that gratitude doesn’t come naturally. In her book, The Gift of Thanks, Margaret Visser comes to the conclusion that learning to be thankful has a steep learning curve. She writes, “In our culture thanksgiving is believed to be, for most children, the last of basic social graces they acquire…. Children have to be ‘brought up’ to say they are grateful.”
With all of that said, let’s turn to God’s handbook for living, the Bible, and read Psalm 100, one of the all-time greatest hymns of thanksgiving. Known as the “Old Hundredth,” it has been called the “Jewel of worship in the Psalter.” It is a literary masterpiece dripping with spiritual vitality.
Most scholars would agree that Psalm 100 was first sung as a processional hymn as worshippers approached the Temple in Jerusalem to sacrifice a thank offering. Verses 1-3 were sung by those expectant pilgrims approaching the gates and verses 4-5 were sung in response by a choral group already within the Temple. In each of these groupings of verses, there is a call to praise and thanks, followed by the reasons for such joyful gratitude.
With this in mind, let’s read Psalm 100.
DID YOU NOTICE THAT THERE WERE FIVE IMPERATIVES IN THE TWO CALLS TO WORSHIP?
In passionate exuberance, those taking part in the “thank offering ceremony” are strongly called to worship.
- · “Shout for joy, all the earth” - The people were to lift their voices in loud, joyful praise to their wondrous God who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage; after 40 years of wandering brought them back to the Promised Land; and now they were about to enter the glorious Temple which Solomon had built. It was only right for them to make their thanksgiving known to the whole earth through uninhibited shouts of joy.
We as good Presbyterians, who are known for doing everything decently and in order, find it difficult to consider shouting for joy in a worship service. It’s hard enough for us to smile out loud much less shout.
However, I must tell you that yours truly has done quite a bit of shouting for joy this week, especially as Butler beat North Carolina last Tuesday evening. I hope that will be shouting for joy this afternoon as the Colts take it to the Bills.
It’s too bad that we can shout for joy at something as insignificant as a game and yet be far less passionate about our joyful thanksgiving to our Great God.
- · “Worship the Lord with gladness”- We recently spent 7 weeks talking about worship being focusing our attention on our Audience of One, our Awesome God.
There is a lot that we bow down before and worship with respect and gladness. But far too often we don’t make the time in our self-important, hurried lives to “worship the Lord with gladness.”
In an interview for the magazine, ChristianityToday, author and speaker, Brennan Manning said: “I believe the real difference in the American Church is not between conservatives and liberals, fundamentalists and charismatics, nor between Republicans and Democrats. The real difference is between the aware and the unaware.
When someone is aware of that love—the same love that the Father has for Jesus—that person is just spontaneously grateful. Cries of thankfulness become the dominant characteristic of the interior life, and the byproduct of gratitude is joy. We’re not joyful and then become grateful—we’re grateful and that makes us joyful.”
- · “Come before him with joyful songs”- The Psalmist calls God’s people to join their voices and hearts in joyful songs of thanksgiving and gratitude to God. There is something so special about joining together in singing.
Steven Guthrie in his book, Creative Spirit, writes these words about the importance of singing together:
“As a freshman at the University of Michigan I sang the Michigan fight song with my fellow students—at football games, in the student lounge, at pep rallies on campus. Singing, ‘Hail to the Victors!/ Hail to the conquering heroes!” I felt a proud camaraderie with my classmates, our institution, and its sports teams.
At the same time, ‘Hail to the Victors’ served as a kind of embodiment of the University of Michigan community for me. When I first heard that song sung in a stadium full of Michigan supporters, I felt I was ‘meeting’ that extended community and joining in its character and identity.
…This is a trivial and in many ways [unique] example; …Nevertheless, it illustrates on a superficial level the sort of thing that happens much more profoundly among a group of people—such as a church—who gather regularly and sing. Songs are one way that a community has its identity and one way that individuals find their identity within a community.”
I believe the Psalmist understood that profound truth about singing.
- · “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise”- Now it’s the choral group on the inside of the temple singly loudly, calling the people of God to come inside and together express their thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. Those who remain on the outside, too busy or preoccupied with other things, are missing something really important. Maybe life has dealt them a tough hand and they find it difficult to express thanksgiving and praise to God. They are not experiencing the collective joy and wonder of giving thanks to God and are cutting themselves off from the community of faith.
Even though he has suffered much hardship and persecution, the apostle Paul states emphatically at the end of his first Letter to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 18, “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
Sometimes it’s not easy to “enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” Yet, it’s when we do enter, even when the going is tough, that we experience a peace which passes understanding and an overwhelming joy.
Listen to these words from the late Henri Nouwen: “To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives—the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections—that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say ‘thank you’ to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for. Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.”
When you and I are not entering his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise, not only are we missing God’s best for us, but we are cheating others. The community is not complete when each one of us is not present.
- · “Give thanks to him and praise his name”- For the Hebrew, one’s name is very important. It is a revelation of who a person is and who he will become. When one would give another his name, he was beginning a personal relationship.
Remember at the Burning Bush in the desert when Moses asked God who was speaking to him, “Who shall I say sent me?” when he went to the Israelites in the bondage of Egypt, what did God do? He answered with the name, “Yahweh,” which meant, “I am who I am” or, “I cause to be what I cause to be.” In this divine self-revelation, God was initiating a special relationship with Moses. Maybe it was something like when we share our personal contact information with someone. They have access to us. There is a personal relationship.
Thus, when we give thanks to him and praise or bless his name, we are giving thanks for the one who already know us by name and has allowed us to have access to Him. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s desire to be in a personal relationship with each one of us.
Wow! As we look at these five imperatives, they serve as an overwhelming call to have an attitude of gratitude.
NOW, LET’S LOOK AT THE REASONS FOR THIS ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE.
- · “Know that the Lord is God”- The world and culture around the Hebrew people was filled with all kinds of gods, worshipped by the masses of people. For the Hebrew people, there was only one God, not many. That was at the very center of their beliefs. There was one God so powerful and holy that they couldn’t even say or write the highest form of his name, Yahweh. Their beliefs were “counter-culture.”
Through the centuries, to “know that the Lord is God” has been counter-culture. It was counter-culture at the time of Jesus and Paul, when the Roman Emperor was a god, along with the many other Greek and Roman deities.
We believe that the Lord is the one and only God. No one or no thing is capable of sitting on the throne of ultimate authority and power in each of our lives. The reason is that no one else can deliver. When I try to be god, I fail miserably. When I put other people or anything at the place of highest honor and authority, that person or thing can never deliver.
Knowing that the Lord is God is a reason for having an attitude of gratitude.
- · “It is he who made us and we are his”- When the children of Israel brought their thank offering to God, they were bringing it to the Great Creator God who made everything that is. The wonder of it was that they were his. It was the Creator’s right to possess them and he did in the most gracious ways.
He lovingly cared for Israel like a shepherd cares for his sheep. He knew them by name. He always searched them out when they nibbled themselves into lostness. That was a reason for an attitude of gratitude not only as they came to the Temple to worship God, but on all days and in all situations of their lives.
Dear friends, so it is with us. We, too, were made by God and He tenderly cares for us like a shepherd cares for his sheep. God knows your name. You matter to God.
As Isaiah 53 puts it, even though we are all like sheep, each of us turning to his own way, but, the Lord has laid on Jesus the iniquities or sins of us all. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who was willing to become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
That’s not just empty rhetoric. That’s incredibly good news! We can know that we have been forgiven for our sins, experience a genuine joy and peace, and have hope for whatever the future hold. Praise God! That’s a reason to have an attitude of gratitude.
That brings us to our final 3 reasons for continually expressing our thanksgiving to God, all found in verse 5.
- · “For the Lord is good”- In the midst of a world with all kinds of evil lurking in the shadows, the Psalmist could say to the Children of Israel, “For the Lord is good.” He sets the ultimate standard for goodness. His motives are pure and he does not try to trick or manipulate us. He is good.
You and I can count on the fact that the Lord is still good today. He will never abuse or misuse us. He always wants the very best for us. He is completely righteous and will never lead us into situations which will prove bad for us. He brings us hope that the more we are like Jesus, the more we, too, can be and do good. Goodness is a fruit of the Holy Spirit.
- · “His love endures forever” – When life was changing all around them, Israel could count on God’s enduring love. Like Hosea, who was called to buy back, his wife, Gomer, who had left him and become a prostitute, God would always love them.
While we talk, sing, and write about love more than any other subject, none of us can say that our love endures forever. When I stand before a couple and ask them to say their marriage vows to one another, the last phrase is, “As long as we both shall live.” When I hold my granddaughter no matter how authentic it might be, it’s not a love which will endure forever, since I will not live forever here on this earth.
God’s love endures forever and that’s a reason for an attitude of gratitude.
- · Finally, “His faithfulness continues through all generations”- Israel was fickle and often was unfaithful to the God who created, loved, cared for them like a Shepherd, and continually searched for them when they had gone astray. Generation after generation experienced his unwavering faithfulness.
Today, we live in a world where often we try to do in others before they do us in. We don’t keep our commitments. We are continually looking for “loopholes” so that we can do what we want and not be faithful to our word and responsibilities.
We’ve just gone through another election cycle when all kinds of promises were made. Once elected, how many of those elected officials will be faithful to his or her campaign promises. We have become so disillusioned, at times, we don’t even really expect them to faithfully fulfill their promises.
You can count on God to be faithful to all generations and keeps his promises. What’s more, this same God, through the work of the Holy Spirit wants to produce the fruit of faithfulness within us. When people see the real faithfulness in us, they are naturally drawn to our God.
These are just a few of the reasons that you and I should have a continual attitude of gratitude.
APPLICATION
I want to close with a story I believe the Psalmist would have liked and would say expresses the very kind of attitude of gratitude he was calling the pilgrims entering the Temple to demonstrate.
Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision tells about a worship service he experienced in Port-au-Prince, Haiti nearly a year after the devastating earthquake. Far from being in Solomon’s Temple, their building was a tent made of tarp and duct tape pitched in the midst of a sprawling camp of thousands of people still homeless from the earthquake. Listen to the lesson he learned there in that church in Haiti:
“In the front row were six amputees ranging in age from 6-60. They were clapping and smiling as they sang song after song and lifted their prayers to God. The worship was full of hope… [and] with thanksgiving to the Lord.
No one was singing louder or praying more fervently than Demosi Louphine, a 32-year-old unemployed single mother of two. During the earthquake, a collapsed building crushed her right arm and left leg. After four days both limbs had to be amputated.
She was leading the choir, leading the prayers, standing on her prosthesis and lifting her one hand in praise to God….Following the service, I met Demosi’s two daughters, ages eight and ten. The three of them now live in a tent five feet tall and perhaps eight feet wide. Despite losing her job, her home, and her two limbs, she is deeply grateful because God spared her life on January 12th [2010] … “He brought me back like Lazarus, giving me the gift of life,” says Demosi… [who] believes she survived the devastating quake for two reasons: to raise her girls and to serve the Lord for a few more years.
It makes no sense to me as an “entitled American” who grouses at the smallest inconveniences—a clogged drain or a slow wi-fi connection in my home. Yet here in this place, many people who had lost everything—expressed nothing but praise.”
Demosi had an attitude of gratitude. While researchers believe that thankfulness is the last social grace we learn, God wants to produce an attitude of gratitude within each one of us. Think of how much better our lives and the lives of the people we love would be if we asked God to produce an attitude of gratitude within each one of us. Dream of how ZPC would be different, of how our community would be enriched, of how our nation would be radically changed if you and I had an attitude adjustment and had the kind of thankfulness expressed in the Psalm and seen in the life of Demosi Lauphine.