November 24, 2025 • 29 mins
What if thanksgiving is not a holiday mood but a way of life that reshapes worship, work, and hope? We open Psalm 100—the only psalm explicitly labeled for thanksgiving—and trace a simple, memorable arc: approach, apprehend, appreciate. The call is loud and clear: make a joyful shout, serve the Lord with gladness, and come before His presence with singing. That’s not hype; it’s the sound of people who know their King and trust His promises.
We walk from the ancient courts of the Second Temple to the torn veil of the cross, showing how limited access gave way to welcome through Jesus. Along the way, we revisit the thank offering in Leviticus, the pilgrims’ love of Psalm 107, and why weekly gathered worship is a privilege, not a chore. Stories from believers worshiping under heat, scarcity, and hardship rekindle our own zeal and expose the thin excuses that dull our praise.
Then we slow down to know God as He reveals Himself. “Know that the Lord, He is God.” His covenant name speaks of the self-existent, promise-keeping One; Elohim declares His power. He made us, so we are not self-made; He owns us, so our lives have purpose. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus lays down His life, gathers one flock, and leads us into green pastures of grace. Gratitude becomes our daily practice: entering His gates with thanksgiving, aligning our emotions with His goodness, and letting joy rise from truth that endures to all generations.
If this conversation stirred your heart toward glad worship and deeper gratitude, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review telling us where you’ve seen God’s goodness this week.
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Foundation of Truth.
The Bible teaching ministry ofPastor Timothy Mann at
Providence Church, CormannBeach, Florida.
Providence Church is a localassembly of followers of Jesus
Christ dedicated to helpingpeople become committed and
mature followers of JesusChrist.
Now here's Pastor Timothy Mannteaching the word.
SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
Psalm 100, the Bible says this make a joyful shout to
the Lord, all you lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence withsinging.
Know that the Lord, he is God.
It is he who has made us, andnot we ourselves.
(00:43):
We are his people, and the sheepof his pasture.
Enter into his gates withthanksgiving, and into his
courts with praise.
Be thankful to him and bless hisname.
For the Lord is good, his mercyis everlasting, and his truth
endures to all generations.
(01:04):
This is the word of God.
It is a striking fact about the100th Psalm, that it is the only
one in the entire book ofPsalms, in all the Psalter, as
it's called, it's the only oneexplicitly identified as a psalm
for giving thanks.
You see how most of the Psalms,even in your English Bible, has
(01:27):
a heading above it.
You know, some will say, likePsalm 102 says, a prayer for the
afflicted when he is overwhelmedand pours out his complaint
before the Lord.
So if you're feeling depressedand down and worried and
overwhelmed, pray Psalm 102.
It's a good one for you.
Various ones will say, you know,to the to the to the music
director, to the choir director,and various things that often
(01:50):
have headings.
Not all of them, but many do.
This one has this heading.
In the New King James, it says apsalm of thanksgiving.
A psalm for giving thanks.
Now, this doesn't mean, eventhough this is the only one that
has this heading, it doesn'tmean that this is the only psalm
of the 150 in the book, in thePsalter, that is to be used to
(02:12):
give thanks, of course.
It's not the only one.
Expressions of thanks and callsfor to give thanks occur at many
places in the Psalms, and thereare other psalms of specific
Thanksgiving besides this one.
In my study this week, I wasinterested to find that Psalm
107 is one in particular.
And of course, we celebrate ournational holiday of
(02:34):
Thanksgiving.
And it's tied to those pilgrimsin Massachusetts, in the colony
of Massachusetts, Plymouth Rock.
Psalm 107 in America is actuallycalled the Pilgrim Psalm because
it was cherished by our Puritanforerunners as a very
appropriate and movingdescription of their experiences
(02:54):
in coming to the New World.
If you've not read Psalm 107,you should.
It describes, in their minds atleast, their deliverance from
homeless wanderings, fromimprisonment and persecutions,
which they endured in Europeafter they left England for a
while.
They were trying to go somewhereelse, and it didn't work out
there either, before coming toAmerica.
(03:15):
And then all their perils atsea, starvation, and the deaths
of family and friends, whichthey experienced once they
departed.
Psalm 107 concludes (03:24):
Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,
and they will understand themercy or the loving kindness of
the Lord.
The pilgrims undoubtedly readthat psalm with tears, both of
sorrow and joy, on that veryfirst Thanksgiving.
Sam Bradford talks about it inhis memoirs.
Also, Psalm 118, it actuallyuses the word thanks more than
(03:47):
any other psalm, beginning withand ending with the challenge
all the way through that psalm.
Give thanks to the Lord, for heis good.
His mercy or his love enduresforever.
Repeats it over and over.
He uses the word thanks morethan any other psalm.
And yet, Psalm 100 is the onlypsalm that is explicitly
identified as a psalm for givingthanks.
(04:10):
A psalm for thanksgiving.
The New American Standard Bibleand biblical scholar Joseph
Rotherham renders it psalm for athank offering, a thank
offering.
Or for thanksgiving.
This psalm was actually used bythe Jews in the Second Temple
(04:31):
period, which was rebuilt byNehemiah, the second temple in
Nehemiah's day, in connectionwith the sacrifices of
thanksgiving, often called thethank offering.
The thanksgiving offering wasalso called the peace offering.
It was offered in gratitude forspecial mercies received from
(04:52):
the Lord.
And in giving, if you go toLeviticus, Leviticus chapter 7
in the Old Testament, and givingus the various laws of the
offerings in Leviticus, the HolySpirit actually places this
offering last, the thankoffering.
It's not mandatory, it's avoluntary offering.
It's not for atonement.
(05:13):
It's nothing along those lines.
It's a voluntary offering.
It is for giving thanks.
This is probably because thetrue expressions of thanksgiving
really flow from an appreciationand a gratitude of all that God
has done in Christ for us,especially.
It's the last offering that'smentioned in Leviticus.
(05:35):
And the truth is, it's not untilwe are done with our sins and
ourselves that we can trulyworship as we ought to.
Only then, when we've come to anend of ourselves and we're done
with our sins, and we say, Idon't want that anymore, that's
when you can really thank God.
That's when we can reallyworship as we ought.
(05:58):
This psalm teaches us somethings, though.
This psalm for giving thanks,the thank offering, teaches us
about approaching God.
It teaches us about apprehendingHim and appreciating Him.
Approaching Him, apprehendingHim, and appreciating Him.
Let's dive into that just alittle bit more.
(06:20):
This Psalm for giving thanks.
First of all, we see in verses 1and 2 about approaching God.
Verse 1, Psalm 100 begins with asummons here to all the lands to
make a joyful shout.
It's the Hebrew word ruah, shoutloudly.
Some of the translations saynoise.
(06:44):
Shout loudly andenthusiastically to Jehovah, to
the Lord.
This is actually for allpeoples.
It says for all you lands.
It wasn't just for the Jewishpeople.
It's for all peoples, all theearth, all nations, all ethnic
groups.
That's why we do missions.
The very reason why we domissions is because not all
(07:08):
peoples yet worship God, thetrue and living God.
And want to take the gospel tothem, the message, so they can
hear.
This is for all peoples.
Make a joyful shout to the Lord,all you lands.
And so what the psalmist seeshere and what he hears in his
mind is the shout of the peopleat the crowning of a popular
(07:28):
king.
This is us, overcome with joy,because Jesus is king.
And this joy also looks to afuture day when King Jesus'
kingdom comes to all theuniverse when he comes again.
I mean, I can well imagine thismorning what a sigh of relief
(07:49):
will come from believers fromall nations, the sheep of
Matthew 24, when we realizefinally that the nightmare is
over.
I mean, the beast, theAntichrist, is dead.
The false prophet is dead.
Satan has been incarcerated inthe abyss.
War has been abolished at last.
The deserts and droughts are tobe no more.
(08:10):
Lawlessness and rebellion andcorruption will never again be
tolerated as a means of gettingthings done.
Crime is gone from the earth.
There will be no more need fordoctors.
There will be no more need fornurses or morticians.
All because of this wonderfulking with the nail scarf hands.
Yeah, that's why we come beforehim with a joyful shout to the
(08:34):
Lord.
That's why.
Talk about a joyous shout, thiswill be.
And now, of course, the psalmalso envisions the people of God
giving thanks together in God'shouse.
It would be accurate to expressthis idea that by saying that
the people of God are to praiseGod loudly, like you guys just
(08:55):
did, because they're happy withhim.
They're happy with him.
Look, when you are thankful foryour king, you approach him with
joy.
You give him praise.
The text says, shout.
Some translations say noise.
But all say joyful.
(09:16):
All say joyful.
Charles Spurgeon, the famouspreacher of the 1800s, said of
this verse.
He said, Our happy God should beworshipped by a happy people.
Right?
Look, I'd much rather be a partof the happy clappy than the
frozen chosen.
Much rather.
(09:38):
Our happy God should beworshipped by a happy people.
He goes on to say, a cheerfulspirit is in keeping with his
nature, his acts, and thegratitude which we should
cherish for his mercies.
Now there's a time to be silentbefore God.
There's a time to be veryreverent before God.
But there's a time for a joyfulnoise, for a joyful shout when
(10:01):
you are approaching the King ofthe universe.
Hey, Jesus Yeshua is king.
He's king, he's king of kings,he's lord of lords.
But our shouting, our shoutingought to lead to serving him.
For he is the only true God.
And one of the ways you servehim is in glad worship, like
(10:24):
today.
Verse 2.
Serve the Lord.
That word serve can betranslated, worship the Lord.
But worshiping him is one of thevery first ways you serve him as
his servant.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence withsinging.
The word presence in verse 2 canbe rendered face.
(10:47):
Come before his face.
The essence of all true worship.
The essence of all true serviceto the Lord is to come into the
presence of the Lord and toappear before his face in
adoration gladly.
You know, at best, the OldTestament Hebrew can only do
this from a distance.
(11:08):
The Gentile, like me, likeprobably most of us in here,
unless you're an ethnic Jew.
The Gentile from even a greaterdistance.
People were given an access toGod, but it was limited access,
very limited.
Between the sinner and a holyGod, a number of barriers were
erected in the Old Testament.
(11:30):
There was a gate to thetabernacle or the temple, giving
entrance to the outer court.
Once the gate had been passed,the seeking sinner was
confronted with an altar and alaver, a bowl, to teach him that
he needed a radical andrecurrent cleansing.
And even when he'd been acceptedat the altar, unless he was a
(11:53):
priest, he could go no further.
He had to remain in the outercourt.
It's as far as he could go.
If he were a priest, he couldpass the door, enter the holy
place, and enjoy the benefits ofthe table, the lampstand, and
the golden altar.
But he could go no further thanthat unless he was the high
(12:15):
priest.
And he alone, the high priest,after an elaborate ritual
preparation once a year, hecould lift the final veil, he
could pass through the barrierand come very haltingly, very
scared, fearfully before thepresence of God.
(12:38):
All that I just described foryou, listen, the cross on which
Jesus died has changed all that.
It's changed all that.
King Jesus changed all that.
And because of the death ofJesus on the cross, we have
access right into the presenceof God through Christ.
Access.
We have access.
(13:00):
The story is told of a littleboy who many years ago went up
to London to visit the king,early part of the 20th century.
But he could not get into thepalace.
The gates were closed againsthim, and a soldier stood guard,
as they do.
Several policemen were walkingup and down to move people
along.
But the boy exclaimed, But Icame to see the king.
(13:23):
The policeman said, Can't helpthat, sonny.
You're not allowed in there.
About that time, a verywell-dressed gentleman came
along and overheard theconversation.
He said, What's the matter, boy?
He asked, and the boy replied, Iwant to see the king.
Well, you just come with me,said the gentleman.
He held out his hand and the boytook it.
(13:44):
To his surprise, the policemanmade no attempt to stop him, nor
did the guard.
Indeed, in fact, the guardsprang to attention and
presented arms when thepoliceman unlocked the gate, and
in they went along the corridorsright into the presence of the
king.
That little boy had taken holdof the hand of the Prince of
Wales, Prince Edward, the king'sown son, and that gave him
(14:08):
access to King George.
I'm telling you, that is thebirthright of every genuine
believer today.
You have been taken hold of bythe hand of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, hastaken you by the hand, and by
repentant faith you took hold ofhis, and that assures you of
access to the presence of theFather.
(14:28):
You have a high privilege thatyou did not have before.
All because of the Son, JesusHimself.
And the call here to approachGod is to serve Him, to worship
Him.
It's a call, it's a command.
To serve the Lord with gladness,come before His face with
(14:51):
singing.
These are imperatives, these arecommands.
He's saying, Do this.
Do this.
Not just it'd be a good idea.
Do this.
And since our bodies, if we aresaved by grace through faith,
are a temple of God's HolySpirit, we should worship the
Lord as we walk throughout eachday.
(15:13):
We should serve the Lord as wewalk throughout each day.
But we should also acknowledgethe Lord by gathering with his
people for worship every week.
Unless we're sick at home ortraveling away on vacation, we
should gather with his peopleevery week for worship.
Just as the psalmist extendedthe call here to worship, so we
(15:34):
as a local church extend thecall from God to come and
worship the Lord God.
Sadly, many professing believersdo not answer this call.
Many simply disobey God'scommand to assemble with other
believers.
Oh, and they've got all kinds ofexcuses.
All kinds of excuses.
(15:54):
Others do go to church, but theydo so grudgingly or
half-heartedly out of duty orobligation.
And sometimes, look, sometimesI'm glad you did just show up
out of duty.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm a little glad that you feelobligated.
That's good.
But our attitude and truth aboutgoing to church to worship the
(16:18):
Lord should be one ofanticipation and joy.
Never should we have to say, Ihave to go to church today.
Actually, to the contrary,serving the Lord and going to
his house is a high privilege,and it ought to be among the
greatest joys in our lives.
Saw pictures this week from uhDavid.
(16:41):
He and Florence have been inThailand of these, in the rural
village in Thailand of thesebelievers gathered around in the
bush, basically, to hear thegospel preached.
Listening to my brothers inHaiti yesterday on a call, the
the board meeting about thebrothers and sisters who,
(17:03):
because there's no fuel, by theway, there's not been fuel for
10 weeks in Haiti.
None.
Walking miles to get to cometogether in an open air, lean
to, basically, to come togetherand worship the Lord.
And I'm gonna tell you what, youthink Florida's hot?
(17:25):
Uh Haiti is about 20 degreeshotter and more humid.
Look, I'm telling you, going tohis house and serving the Lord
is a high privilege and it oughtto be one of the greatest joys
of our lives.
We should serve the Lordcheerfully and worship him
wholeheartedly.
The truth of the matter is this: anything less, anything less (17:43):
undefined
than serving him cheerfully andworshiping him wholeheartedly,
anything less is unworthy of himand his great glory and his love
that he's demonstrated toward uswhile we were lost.
This psalm teaches us that ifwe're going to give thanks to
God, we have to approach himwith a joyful acknowledgement of
(18:06):
his kingship and serve himgladly and sing before his very
presence.
I want to ask you, is this howyou approach the one to whom you
owe all thanks?
Is this how you approach him?
It teaches us about approachingGod.
(18:27):
It also teaches us aboutapprehending God.
Apprehending.
That's a weird word to thinkabout sometimes as it relates to
this, but it really means toseize, to lay hold of, to grasp,
to understand, to comprehend.
I used it to help you rememberit.
Approach, apprehend.
(18:47):
Verse 3.
Know that the Lord, he is God.
It is he who has made us, andnot we ourselves.
We are his people and the sheepof his pasture.
So the psalmist here has athreefold grasp of the truth
concerning the king.
First of all, we see his person.
(19:09):
He says, Know that the Lord, heis God.
In other words, that's a that'sa uh uh tetragrammaton,
grammaton, that word Lord,that's really not what the
Hebrew says.
The Hebrew says Jehovah.
Yeah.
You say, well, doesn't it sayJehovah?
There's really no J in Hebrew,it actually is a Y.
(19:30):
Yehovah.
Jehovah.
He is Elohim.
That's the Hebrew word.
God.
Jehovah, he is Elohim, says thepsalmist.
This is a truth concerning hisperson.
This is who he is.
Yeah, that that uh uh I am, thatI am, is the name by which God
(19:53):
revealed himself to his people.
It's the name by which he sworewhen he made his covenant with
us, with his people.
His name guarantees that he willkeep his promises at all costs.
He'll keep his promises at allcosts.
God, the word we use, Elohim,means the all-powerful, mighty
(20:14):
one.
The all-powerful, mighty one.
So, what this is telling us isthat this self-existent,
covenant-making, promise-keepingone is all-powerful,
all-knowing, and all-present.
He is the one and only true God,and the one and only true and
living God who is sovereign overall things.
And the psalmist said, know thatfact.
(20:36):
Know it.
Apprehend it.
Comprehend this truth.
This is his person.
To know the Hebrew Yedah.
It means to know personally,intimately, and by experience.
Apprehend him, grasp him in thisway, understand him in this
(20:59):
manner.
Know that the Lord Himself isthe all-powerful, mighty one.
He is God.
You need to know his person.
But also we see his power.
It is he who made us, and not weourselves.
It is he who made us, not weourselves.
God, Elohim, is the creator.
(21:20):
He made mankind, and thereforewe are his.
He formed our bodies and oursouls.
Psalm 139, 14 through 16 talksabout that.
He crafted our spirits and blewhis breath, the only source of
life, by the way, into us.
We live, move, and have ourbeing.
(21:41):
We live and breathe and existbecause of him.
Acts 17, 28.
We are not self-made.
We are made by God, whopersonally and individually
created and designed us,mankind, for fellowship with
himself to enjoy the fullness ofthe glory of his presence
forever and ever.
And accordingly, because ofthis, he is our rightful owner.
(22:04):
He's our rightful owner.
Matthew Henry, the great Puritancommentator, once wrote, he
said, He, meaning God, has anincontestable right to and
property in us and all things.
His we are to be actuated,that's to be used.
His we are to be used by hispower, disposed of by his will,
and devoted to his honor andglory.
(22:28):
What happens when we do not knowGod as creator?
Well, we imagine then that we'reour own creators.
That's what we imagine.
Or that we're some random fluke.
Some random accident.
You know, that nothing plusnothing created everything.
(22:51):
And this is what lies behind thesurprisingly persistent appeal
of the lie of Darwin'sevolution.
The appeal of evolution is thatit does away with the need for
God.
It does away with the need for acreator.
Now I know there's some, youknow, supposedly Bible-believing
(23:12):
people who try to somehow mergeDarwin's evolution with some
kind of idea of theism that,well, God could have used
evolution.
God could have, you know,listen, you need to reject that
lie.
Because that immediately, thatimmediately casts doubt on the
authority of God's word.
When some guy, look, and I'mgonna hurt your feelings here
(23:33):
just for a second, all right?
When some popular guy out ofAtlanta that's the pastor of
North Point Church, I'm notgonna call any names, but his
initials are Andy Stanley, whenhe says something like this,
when he says when the Bible andscience collide, science must
win to every must win everytime.
(23:54):
What has he done?
He has just then denied theauthority of the Word of God,
tried to explain it away in ahumanistic, secular way, and to
say, in reality, you don't needto take it too seriously.
If you're a fan of his, I hopeyou're not anymore.
(24:18):
Because he's denied theauthority and the sufficiency of
the word of God.
In other words, to say the wordof God is enough.
And while the while the word ofGod, while the Bible is not a
science book, I want to tell youeverywhere that the Bible
addresses matters of scientifictruth, it is absolutely 100%
accurate.
(24:40):
The appeal of evolution is itdoes away with the need for God.
It attempts to dogmaticallyexplain how things are, how
things got to be as they are,without any all-powerful divine
creator behind them.
And of course, if we don't needGod as our creator, then we
don't need to be thankful.
Right?
We don't need to be thankful.
I mean, why should we?
(25:01):
We got here by ourselves, thankyou.
We have actually no one to thankbut ourselves to thank.
And another way we imagine thatwe are our own creators is by a
very inordinate admiration ofour own abilities and our own
achievements.
You know that the very reasonthat second after second that
(25:24):
your heart is beating and breathis going in and out of your
lungs, that's not because ofyou.
The very creator who made you ina less than a split second could
decree your physical death andyou'd be done.
Here by his mercy.
Even Dr.
Yoon couldn't save you.
(25:45):
And he's a good doctor.
If it was God's will.
Listen, it is only when we knowGod as our creator that we know
ourselves as his creatures.
And when we know ourselves ashis creatures, then we find
ourselves appropriately thankfulto him.
That it is he who made us andnot we ourselves.
(26:09):
Some translations say we arehis.
And we are his.
Yeah.
Oh, how we need to apprehendGod's power again.
His person and his power.
We see his purpose.
We are his people, the sheep ofhis pasture.
David recognized that fact on avery personal level in Psalm 23.
(26:31):
It was a comforting truth.
The Lord Jesus has declaredhimself to be the good shepherd
of the sheep.
Who's so glad in David's heart?
I would say to you, even moreimportant than knowing God as
creator is knowing him and hispurpose as redeemer.
Which is what the words here,his people and the sheep of his
(26:54):
pasture, ultimately refer to.
It's hard to, at this point, tonot think of David's very moving
and personal expression of faithin God as his shepherd in Psalm
23.1, when he said, The LordJehovah is my shepherd, I shall
not want.
I shall not be in want.
Or we think of the way that theLord Himself, the Lord Jesus,
(27:15):
explained it to the disciples inhis very extensive discourse on
himself as the good shepherd,which is recorded in John 10.
Jesus said, I am the goodshepherd.
Listen, the good shepherd laysdown his life for the sheep.
The hired hand, the hireling, isnot the shepherd who owns the
(27:35):
sheep.
So when he sees the wolf coming,he abandons the sheep and runs
away.
He said, I am the good shepherd.
I know my sheep, and my sheepknow me, just as the father
knows me and I know the father.
And again, he says, and I laydown my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that are notof this fold, this sheep pin,
(27:58):
but I must also bring themalong.
They too will listen to myvoice.
And there shall be one flock,one herd, one flock and one
shepherd.
If there's no other reason whywe must be thankful to God this
morning and throughout this weekand in truth, every day of our
life, it is because he has bothmade us and redeemed us.
(28:19):
No one should be more thankfulto God than the sheep who are
cared for by the Good Shepherd.
Nobody should be more thankfulthan you.
You need to apprehend that Godhas a purpose of gathering his
sheep.
Are you one of his sheep?
Is Jesus your shepherd?
SPEAKER_00 (28:39):
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the
word of God stands forever.
That's Isaiah 48.
Thanks for tuning in to theFoundations of Truth Podcast
with Pastor Timothy Man fromProvidence Church in Ormond
Beach, Florida.
Join us next time.
And until then, keep buildingyour life on God's eternal
truth, the Bible.
Welcome to Foundation of Truth.
The Bible teaching ministry ofPastor Timothy Mann at
Providence Church, CormannBeach, Florida.
Providence Church is a localassembly of followers of Jesus
Christ dedicated to helpingpeople become committed and
mature followers of JesusChrist.
Now here's Pastor Timothy Mannteaching the word.
SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
Psalm 100, the Bible says this make a joyful shout to
the Lord, all you lands.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence withsinging.
Know that the Lord, he is God.
It is he who has made us, andnot we ourselves.
(00:43):
We are his people, and the sheepof his pasture.
Enter into his gates withthanksgiving, and into his
courts with praise.
Be thankful to him and bless hisname.
For the Lord is good, his mercyis everlasting, and his truth
endures to all generations.
(01:04):
This is the word of God.
It is a striking fact about the100th Psalm, that it is the only
one in the entire book ofPsalms, in all the Psalter, as
it's called, it's the only oneexplicitly identified as a psalm
for giving thanks.
You see how most of the Psalms,even in your English Bible, has
(01:27):
a heading above it.
You know, some will say, likePsalm 102 says, a prayer for the
afflicted when he is overwhelmedand pours out his complaint
before the Lord.
So if you're feeling depressedand down and worried and
overwhelmed, pray Psalm 102.
It's a good one for you.
Various ones will say, you know,to the to the to the music
director, to the choir director,and various things that often
(01:50):
have headings.
Not all of them, but many do.
This one has this heading.
In the New King James, it says apsalm of thanksgiving.
A psalm for giving thanks.
Now, this doesn't mean, eventhough this is the only one that
has this heading, it doesn'tmean that this is the only psalm
of the 150 in the book, in thePsalter, that is to be used to
(02:12):
give thanks, of course.
It's not the only one.
Expressions of thanks and callsfor to give thanks occur at many
places in the Psalms, and thereare other psalms of specific
Thanksgiving besides this one.
In my study this week, I wasinterested to find that Psalm
107 is one in particular.
And of course, we celebrate ournational holiday of
(02:34):
Thanksgiving.
And it's tied to those pilgrimsin Massachusetts, in the colony
of Massachusetts, Plymouth Rock.
Psalm 107 in America is actuallycalled the Pilgrim Psalm because
it was cherished by our Puritanforerunners as a very
appropriate and movingdescription of their experiences
(02:54):
in coming to the New World.
If you've not read Psalm 107,you should.
It describes, in their minds atleast, their deliverance from
homeless wanderings, fromimprisonment and persecutions,
which they endured in Europeafter they left England for a
while.
They were trying to go somewhereelse, and it didn't work out
there either, before coming toAmerica.
(03:15):
And then all their perils atsea, starvation, and the deaths
of family and friends, whichthey experienced once they
departed.
Psalm 107 concludes (03:24):
Whoever is wise, let him heed these things,
and they will understand themercy or the loving kindness of
the Lord.
The pilgrims undoubtedly readthat psalm with tears, both of
sorrow and joy, on that veryfirst Thanksgiving.
Sam Bradford talks about it inhis memoirs.
Also, Psalm 118, it actuallyuses the word thanks more than
(03:47):
any other psalm, beginning withand ending with the challenge
all the way through that psalm.
Give thanks to the Lord, for heis good.
His mercy or his love enduresforever.
Repeats it over and over.
He uses the word thanks morethan any other psalm.
And yet, Psalm 100 is the onlypsalm that is explicitly
identified as a psalm for givingthanks.
(04:10):
A psalm for thanksgiving.
The New American Standard Bibleand biblical scholar Joseph
Rotherham renders it psalm for athank offering, a thank
offering.
Or for thanksgiving.
This psalm was actually used bythe Jews in the Second Temple
(04:31):
period, which was rebuilt byNehemiah, the second temple in
Nehemiah's day, in connectionwith the sacrifices of
thanksgiving, often called thethank offering.
The thanksgiving offering wasalso called the peace offering.
It was offered in gratitude forspecial mercies received from
(04:52):
the Lord.
And in giving, if you go toLeviticus, Leviticus chapter 7
in the Old Testament, and givingus the various laws of the
offerings in Leviticus, the HolySpirit actually places this
offering last, the thankoffering.
It's not mandatory, it's avoluntary offering.
It's not for atonement.
(05:13):
It's nothing along those lines.
It's a voluntary offering.
It is for giving thanks.
This is probably because thetrue expressions of thanksgiving
really flow from an appreciationand a gratitude of all that God
has done in Christ for us,especially.
It's the last offering that'smentioned in Leviticus.
(05:35):
And the truth is, it's not untilwe are done with our sins and
ourselves that we can trulyworship as we ought to.
Only then, when we've come to anend of ourselves and we're done
with our sins, and we say, Idon't want that anymore, that's
when you can really thank God.
That's when we can reallyworship as we ought.
(05:58):
This psalm teaches us somethings, though.
This psalm for giving thanks,the thank offering, teaches us
about approaching God.
It teaches us about apprehendingHim and appreciating Him.
Approaching Him, apprehendingHim, and appreciating Him.
Let's dive into that just alittle bit more.
(06:20):
This Psalm for giving thanks.
First of all, we see in verses 1and 2 about approaching God.
Verse 1, Psalm 100 begins with asummons here to all the lands to
make a joyful shout.
It's the Hebrew word ruah, shoutloudly.
Some of the translations saynoise.
(06:44):
Shout loudly andenthusiastically to Jehovah, to
the Lord.
This is actually for allpeoples.
It says for all you lands.
It wasn't just for the Jewishpeople.
It's for all peoples, all theearth, all nations, all ethnic
groups.
That's why we do missions.
The very reason why we domissions is because not all
(07:08):
peoples yet worship God, thetrue and living God.
And want to take the gospel tothem, the message, so they can
hear.
This is for all peoples.
Make a joyful shout to the Lord,all you lands.
And so what the psalmist seeshere and what he hears in his
mind is the shout of the peopleat the crowning of a popular
(07:28):
king.
This is us, overcome with joy,because Jesus is king.
And this joy also looks to afuture day when King Jesus'
kingdom comes to all theuniverse when he comes again.
I mean, I can well imagine thismorning what a sigh of relief
(07:49):
will come from believers fromall nations, the sheep of
Matthew 24, when we realizefinally that the nightmare is
over.
I mean, the beast, theAntichrist, is dead.
The false prophet is dead.
Satan has been incarcerated inthe abyss.
War has been abolished at last.
The deserts and droughts are tobe no more.
(08:10):
Lawlessness and rebellion andcorruption will never again be
tolerated as a means of gettingthings done.
Crime is gone from the earth.
There will be no more need fordoctors.
There will be no more need fornurses or morticians.
All because of this wonderfulking with the nail scarf hands.
Yeah, that's why we come beforehim with a joyful shout to the
(08:34):
Lord.
That's why.
Talk about a joyous shout, thiswill be.
And now, of course, the psalmalso envisions the people of God
giving thanks together in God'shouse.
It would be accurate to expressthis idea that by saying that
the people of God are to praiseGod loudly, like you guys just
(08:55):
did, because they're happy withhim.
They're happy with him.
Look, when you are thankful foryour king, you approach him with
joy.
You give him praise.
The text says, shout.
Some translations say noise.
But all say joyful.
(09:16):
All say joyful.
Charles Spurgeon, the famouspreacher of the 1800s, said of
this verse.
He said, Our happy God should beworshipped by a happy people.
Right?
Look, I'd much rather be a partof the happy clappy than the
frozen chosen.
Much rather.
(09:38):
Our happy God should beworshipped by a happy people.
He goes on to say, a cheerfulspirit is in keeping with his
nature, his acts, and thegratitude which we should
cherish for his mercies.
Now there's a time to be silentbefore God.
There's a time to be veryreverent before God.
But there's a time for a joyfulnoise, for a joyful shout when
(10:01):
you are approaching the King ofthe universe.
Hey, Jesus Yeshua is king.
He's king, he's king of kings,he's lord of lords.
But our shouting, our shoutingought to lead to serving him.
For he is the only true God.
And one of the ways you servehim is in glad worship, like
(10:24):
today.
Verse 2.
Serve the Lord.
That word serve can betranslated, worship the Lord.
But worshiping him is one of thevery first ways you serve him as
his servant.
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence withsinging.
The word presence in verse 2 canbe rendered face.
(10:47):
Come before his face.
The essence of all true worship.
The essence of all true serviceto the Lord is to come into the
presence of the Lord and toappear before his face in
adoration gladly.
You know, at best, the OldTestament Hebrew can only do
this from a distance.
(11:08):
The Gentile, like me, likeprobably most of us in here,
unless you're an ethnic Jew.
The Gentile from even a greaterdistance.
People were given an access toGod, but it was limited access,
very limited.
Between the sinner and a holyGod, a number of barriers were
erected in the Old Testament.
(11:30):
There was a gate to thetabernacle or the temple, giving
entrance to the outer court.
Once the gate had been passed,the seeking sinner was
confronted with an altar and alaver, a bowl, to teach him that
he needed a radical andrecurrent cleansing.
And even when he'd been acceptedat the altar, unless he was a
(11:53):
priest, he could go no further.
He had to remain in the outercourt.
It's as far as he could go.
If he were a priest, he couldpass the door, enter the holy
place, and enjoy the benefits ofthe table, the lampstand, and
the golden altar.
But he could go no further thanthat unless he was the high
(12:15):
priest.
And he alone, the high priest,after an elaborate ritual
preparation once a year, hecould lift the final veil, he
could pass through the barrierand come very haltingly, very
scared, fearfully before thepresence of God.
(12:38):
All that I just described foryou, listen, the cross on which
Jesus died has changed all that.
It's changed all that.
King Jesus changed all that.
And because of the death ofJesus on the cross, we have
access right into the presenceof God through Christ.
Access.
We have access.
(13:00):
The story is told of a littleboy who many years ago went up
to London to visit the king,early part of the 20th century.
But he could not get into thepalace.
The gates were closed againsthim, and a soldier stood guard,
as they do.
Several policemen were walkingup and down to move people
along.
But the boy exclaimed, But Icame to see the king.
(13:23):
The policeman said, Can't helpthat, sonny.
You're not allowed in there.
About that time, a verywell-dressed gentleman came
along and overheard theconversation.
He said, What's the matter, boy?
He asked, and the boy replied, Iwant to see the king.
Well, you just come with me,said the gentleman.
He held out his hand and the boytook it.
(13:44):
To his surprise, the policemanmade no attempt to stop him, nor
did the guard.
Indeed, in fact, the guardsprang to attention and
presented arms when thepoliceman unlocked the gate, and
in they went along the corridorsright into the presence of the
king.
That little boy had taken holdof the hand of the Prince of
Wales, Prince Edward, the king'sown son, and that gave him
(14:08):
access to King George.
I'm telling you, that is thebirthright of every genuine
believer today.
You have been taken hold of bythe hand of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, hastaken you by the hand, and by
repentant faith you took hold ofhis, and that assures you of
access to the presence of theFather.
(14:28):
You have a high privilege thatyou did not have before.
All because of the Son, JesusHimself.
And the call here to approachGod is to serve Him, to worship
Him.
It's a call, it's a command.
To serve the Lord with gladness,come before His face with
(14:51):
singing.
These are imperatives, these arecommands.
He's saying, Do this.
Do this.
Not just it'd be a good idea.
Do this.
And since our bodies, if we aresaved by grace through faith,
are a temple of God's HolySpirit, we should worship the
Lord as we walk throughout eachday.
(15:13):
We should serve the Lord as wewalk throughout each day.
But we should also acknowledgethe Lord by gathering with his
people for worship every week.
Unless we're sick at home ortraveling away on vacation, we
should gather with his peopleevery week for worship.
Just as the psalmist extendedthe call here to worship, so we
(15:34):
as a local church extend thecall from God to come and
worship the Lord God.
Sadly, many professing believersdo not answer this call.
Many simply disobey God'scommand to assemble with other
believers.
Oh, and they've got all kinds ofexcuses.
All kinds of excuses.
(15:54):
Others do go to church, but theydo so grudgingly or
half-heartedly out of duty orobligation.
And sometimes, look, sometimesI'm glad you did just show up
out of duty.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm a little glad that you feelobligated.
That's good.
But our attitude and truth aboutgoing to church to worship the
(16:18):
Lord should be one ofanticipation and joy.
Never should we have to say, Ihave to go to church today.
Actually, to the contrary,serving the Lord and going to
his house is a high privilege,and it ought to be among the
greatest joys in our lives.
Saw pictures this week from uhDavid.
(16:41):
He and Florence have been inThailand of these, in the rural
village in Thailand of thesebelievers gathered around in the
bush, basically, to hear thegospel preached.
Listening to my brothers inHaiti yesterday on a call, the
the board meeting about thebrothers and sisters who,
(17:03):
because there's no fuel, by theway, there's not been fuel for
10 weeks in Haiti.
None.
Walking miles to get to cometogether in an open air, lean
to, basically, to come togetherand worship the Lord.
And I'm gonna tell you what, youthink Florida's hot?
(17:25):
Uh Haiti is about 20 degreeshotter and more humid.
Look, I'm telling you, going tohis house and serving the Lord
is a high privilege and it oughtto be one of the greatest joys
of our lives.
We should serve the Lordcheerfully and worship him
wholeheartedly.
The truth of the matter is this: anything less, anything less (17:43):
undefined
than serving him cheerfully andworshiping him wholeheartedly,
anything less is unworthy of himand his great glory and his love
that he's demonstrated toward uswhile we were lost.
This psalm teaches us that ifwe're going to give thanks to
God, we have to approach himwith a joyful acknowledgement of
(18:06):
his kingship and serve himgladly and sing before his very
presence.
I want to ask you, is this howyou approach the one to whom you
owe all thanks?
Is this how you approach him?
It teaches us about approachingGod.
(18:27):
It also teaches us aboutapprehending God.
Apprehending.
That's a weird word to thinkabout sometimes as it relates to
this, but it really means toseize, to lay hold of, to grasp,
to understand, to comprehend.
I used it to help you rememberit.
Approach, apprehend.
(18:47):
Verse 3.
Know that the Lord, he is God.
It is he who has made us, andnot we ourselves.
We are his people and the sheepof his pasture.
So the psalmist here has athreefold grasp of the truth
concerning the king.
First of all, we see his person.
(19:09):
He says, Know that the Lord, heis God.
In other words, that's a that'sa uh uh tetragrammaton,
grammaton, that word Lord,that's really not what the
Hebrew says.
The Hebrew says Jehovah.
Yeah.
You say, well, doesn't it sayJehovah?
There's really no J in Hebrew,it actually is a Y.
(19:30):
Yehovah.
Jehovah.
He is Elohim.
That's the Hebrew word.
God.
Jehovah, he is Elohim, says thepsalmist.
This is a truth concerning hisperson.
This is who he is.
Yeah, that that uh uh I am, thatI am, is the name by which God
(19:53):
revealed himself to his people.
It's the name by which he sworewhen he made his covenant with
us, with his people.
His name guarantees that he willkeep his promises at all costs.
He'll keep his promises at allcosts.
God, the word we use, Elohim,means the all-powerful, mighty
(20:14):
one.
The all-powerful, mighty one.
So, what this is telling us isthat this self-existent,
covenant-making, promise-keepingone is all-powerful,
all-knowing, and all-present.
He is the one and only true God,and the one and only true and
living God who is sovereign overall things.
And the psalmist said, know thatfact.
(20:36):
Know it.
Apprehend it.
Comprehend this truth.
This is his person.
To know the Hebrew Yedah.
It means to know personally,intimately, and by experience.
Apprehend him, grasp him in thisway, understand him in this
(20:59):
manner.
Know that the Lord Himself isthe all-powerful, mighty one.
He is God.
You need to know his person.
But also we see his power.
It is he who made us, and not weourselves.
It is he who made us, not weourselves.
God, Elohim, is the creator.
(21:20):
He made mankind, and thereforewe are his.
He formed our bodies and oursouls.
Psalm 139, 14 through 16 talksabout that.
He crafted our spirits and blewhis breath, the only source of
life, by the way, into us.
We live, move, and have ourbeing.
(21:41):
We live and breathe and existbecause of him.
Acts 17, 28.
We are not self-made.
We are made by God, whopersonally and individually
created and designed us,mankind, for fellowship with
himself to enjoy the fullness ofthe glory of his presence
forever and ever.
And accordingly, because ofthis, he is our rightful owner.
(22:04):
He's our rightful owner.
Matthew Henry, the great Puritancommentator, once wrote, he
said, He, meaning God, has anincontestable right to and
property in us and all things.
His we are to be actuated,that's to be used.
His we are to be used by hispower, disposed of by his will,
and devoted to his honor andglory.
(22:28):
What happens when we do not knowGod as creator?
Well, we imagine then that we'reour own creators.
That's what we imagine.
Or that we're some random fluke.
Some random accident.
You know, that nothing plusnothing created everything.
(22:51):
And this is what lies behind thesurprisingly persistent appeal
of the lie of Darwin'sevolution.
The appeal of evolution is thatit does away with the need for
God.
It does away with the need for acreator.
Now I know there's some, youknow, supposedly Bible-believing
(23:12):
people who try to somehow mergeDarwin's evolution with some
kind of idea of theism that,well, God could have used
evolution.
God could have, you know,listen, you need to reject that
lie.
Because that immediately, thatimmediately casts doubt on the
authority of God's word.
When some guy, look, and I'mgonna hurt your feelings here
(23:33):
just for a second, all right?
When some popular guy out ofAtlanta that's the pastor of
North Point Church, I'm notgonna call any names, but his
initials are Andy Stanley, whenhe says something like this,
when he says when the Bible andscience collide, science must
win to every must win everytime.
(23:54):
What has he done?
He has just then denied theauthority of the Word of God,
tried to explain it away in ahumanistic, secular way, and to
say, in reality, you don't needto take it too seriously.
If you're a fan of his, I hopeyou're not anymore.
(24:18):
Because he's denied theauthority and the sufficiency of
the word of God.
In other words, to say the wordof God is enough.
And while the while the word ofGod, while the Bible is not a
science book, I want to tell youeverywhere that the Bible
addresses matters of scientifictruth, it is absolutely 100%
accurate.
(24:40):
The appeal of evolution is itdoes away with the need for God.
It attempts to dogmaticallyexplain how things are, how
things got to be as they are,without any all-powerful divine
creator behind them.
And of course, if we don't needGod as our creator, then we
don't need to be thankful.
Right?
We don't need to be thankful.
I mean, why should we?
(25:01):
We got here by ourselves, thankyou.
We have actually no one to thankbut ourselves to thank.
And another way we imagine thatwe are our own creators is by a
very inordinate admiration ofour own abilities and our own
achievements.
You know that the very reasonthat second after second that
(25:24):
your heart is beating and breathis going in and out of your
lungs, that's not because ofyou.
The very creator who made you ina less than a split second could
decree your physical death andyou'd be done.
Here by his mercy.
Even Dr.
Yoon couldn't save you.
(25:45):
And he's a good doctor.
If it was God's will.
Listen, it is only when we knowGod as our creator that we know
ourselves as his creatures.
And when we know ourselves ashis creatures, then we find
ourselves appropriately thankfulto him.
That it is he who made us andnot we ourselves.
(26:09):
Some translations say we arehis.
And we are his.
Yeah.
Oh, how we need to apprehendGod's power again.
His person and his power.
We see his purpose.
We are his people, the sheep ofhis pasture.
David recognized that fact on avery personal level in Psalm 23.
(26:31):
It was a comforting truth.
The Lord Jesus has declaredhimself to be the good shepherd
of the sheep.
Who's so glad in David's heart?
I would say to you, even moreimportant than knowing God as
creator is knowing him and hispurpose as redeemer.
Which is what the words here,his people and the sheep of his
(26:54):
pasture, ultimately refer to.
It's hard to, at this point, tonot think of David's very moving
and personal expression of faithin God as his shepherd in Psalm
23.1, when he said, The LordJehovah is my shepherd, I shall
not want.
I shall not be in want.
Or we think of the way that theLord Himself, the Lord Jesus,
(27:15):
explained it to the disciples inhis very extensive discourse on
himself as the good shepherd,which is recorded in John 10.
Jesus said, I am the goodshepherd.
Listen, the good shepherd laysdown his life for the sheep.
The hired hand, the hireling, isnot the shepherd who owns the
(27:35):
sheep.
So when he sees the wolf coming,he abandons the sheep and runs
away.
He said, I am the good shepherd.
I know my sheep, and my sheepknow me, just as the father
knows me and I know the father.
And again, he says, and I laydown my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that are notof this fold, this sheep pin,
(27:58):
but I must also bring themalong.
They too will listen to myvoice.
And there shall be one flock,one herd, one flock and one
shepherd.
If there's no other reason whywe must be thankful to God this
morning and throughout this weekand in truth, every day of our
life, it is because he has bothmade us and redeemed us.
(28:19):
No one should be more thankfulto God than the sheep who are
cared for by the Good Shepherd.
Nobody should be more thankfulthan you.
You need to apprehend that Godhas a purpose of gathering his
sheep.
Are you one of his sheep?
Is Jesus your shepherd?
SPEAKER_00 (28:39):
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the
word of God stands forever.
That's Isaiah 48.
Thanks for tuning in to theFoundations of Truth Podcast
with Pastor Timothy Man fromProvidence Church in Ormond
Beach, Florida.
Join us next time.
And until then, keep buildingyour life on God's eternal
truth, the Bible.
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