Thankfulness as a means of Christian formation
Next Thursday is Thanksgiving, so it seems appropriate that I should talk about being thankful. However, the theme this month is Christian formation.
Fortunately, it is not hard to combine these two, because gratitude is one element of Christian formation. Christians should be thankful, and the grace that God gives to us should motivate us to be gracious toward other people. It is a sense of thankfulness toward God that affects our relationships with other people.
Being thankful helps us become more like Christ. Have you ever thought of Christ as being a thankful person? Have you ever thought of God as being thankful? God has everything in the universe, so what does he have to be thankful about? We can’t give him something that he doesn’t already have….. Oh, but yes, we can. God does not have everything in the universe – he does not have the loyalty of everyone on earth. And every time that someone repents and turns to God, they are giving him something that he doesn’t already have. And God rejoices at every sinner who repents. It sounds to me like God is thankful.
How thankful are we as a people? Some of you come from a developing nation, and you are thankful to be in this nation. And you take some of the blessings that you have here, and you share them with people who have less back home. Blessings should be shared. That’s part of the offerings we give each week, that we share some of the blessings that we have with others. It is an expression of thanks.
Now, others of us have grown up in this nation, and perhaps we tend to take some of our blessings for granted. Well, we shouldn’t. We need to be thankful for what we have, no matter whether it is a lot or only a little. And the attitude of being thankful will help us be more generous with what we have.
This is true for spiritual wealth, too. Many of us grew up in a spiritually impoverished community, and now we have been blessed with more. How thankful are we for this increase in understanding of God’s love and grace? How willing are we to share it with people who have less? We all need to be more thankful for what we have, and we need to share the good news with others.
Now, there are a number of verse in the Bible that tell us to be thankful, even to be thankful when we have trials and problems and we are beseeching God for some sort of help. We can still be thankful for what we DO have.
But today, I want to look at a passage in the Old Testament that provides a springboard for talking about gratitude. This is a psalm of thanksgiving that is found in the book of 1 Chronicles, chapter 16. This psalm was written by David when he brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem. There was dancing and there was singing and there was a big celebration, because David was thankful at what God had given him.
Let’s start reading it in First Chronicles chapter 16, verse 7:
7 That day David first committed to Asaph and his associates this psalm of thanks to the LORD:
Now, the first thing we notice here is that this is a psalm of thanks. That’s its theme.
8 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
Well, there we have it. Thanksgiving in the first line, and evangelism in the second line. Or maybe I should say missions. When we are thankful for what God has done in our life, and we know that we didn’t deserve it any more than the Mongo tribes in South America did, then that can lead us to share the gospel with others. Missions can be an expression of thanksgiving to God. We help other people learn of what God has done.
Verse 9 says: Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.
When we are thankful, we worship God—but we are not just telling him about what he has done. We are also telling other people about his wonderful acts. Some people actually come to faith through worship.
Verse 10: Glory in his holy name;
Now, what do you think that means? It may mean that we find our glory, our sense of importance, not in ourselves, but in God – and that we are glad to do that. We take pride in being one of God’s people. It makes us feel good, to lift our head up, to be optimistic about life.
And what does it mean to glory in his name? It reminds me of what happens when teenagers fall in love. They are just fascinated with the name of the person they like. They absent-mindedly doodle the name in the margins of their books, they perk up whenever someone mentions the name. It’s not the sound that is important, of course, but it is because that name is special because it signifies a special person. And it is the same with God’s name – it signifies someone tremendous special, and we are glad to be named with his name. His name makes us feel good about our place in the universe, because without him, we wouldn’t even have a place in the universe.
David continues:
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
Verse 11 Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.
12 Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
Yes, remember what he has done.
Verse 14: He is the LORD our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
15 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded, for a thousand generations,
16 the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.
17 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant:
18 “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion you will inherit.”
And to us he has given a far better covenant – a promise of life eternal.
19 When they were but few in number,
few indeed, and strangers in [the land],
20 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
21 He allowed no man to oppress them;
for their sake he rebuked kings:
22 “Do not touch my anointed ones;
do my prophets no harm.”
Even today, we are few in number, and we wander from nation to nation, but God is with us, and his plan for us is to bless us abundantly.
Verse 23: Sing to the LORD, all the earth;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
24 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Here we are at evangelism again, proclaiming salvation throughout the earth, telling people about how good God is, and the good things that he does for people. In this psalm of thanks, we are encouraged to take the spiritual riches we have been given, and share them with others. Why?
Verse 25 For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
In other words, share Jesus, because he is really good. He is far better than anything else that this world can offer. Everything else is a cheap imitation – that’s what we read in verse 26:
26 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
27 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and joy in his dwelling place.
That’s what he wants to share with us: strength and joy, splendor and majesty – and that’s the news that we can share with others.
28 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
This is a call to worship for all peoples. It is the mission of the church to invite people to worship God, for he is good – and this springs from our sense of being thankful for what he has given us.
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength,
Yes, talk about how powerful and good he is – and he is not just supremely powerful – he is also tremendously concerned about each person. He has all the power in the universe, but he cares for every people on this tiny little planet in a tiny solar system in a small galaxy in one speck of the universe. The phenomenally great God is concerned about little people like you and me, and about the Mongo tribe in South America, and the Igarot, and the Aucas, and everybody else.
Verse 29: ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.
Bring an offering and come before him;
Yes, that’s part of our worship, part of our thanks. We praise God, we tell other people about him, and we bring an offering. In David’s time, that
offering might have been an animal that was killed and burned up on the altar. Today, it might be money that we give in support of preaching the gospel. It might be time that we sacrifice in coming early to help set up the meeting place. It might be our pride that we swallow when somebody offends us and we decide to forgive them. When we are more grateful to God, the little nuisances of this life don’t seem as big anymore. We can let them go. As someone has said, it is really hard to be thankful and angry at the same time.
worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.
Verse 30 Tremble before him, all the earth!
The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.
31 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!”
You know, I didn’t really expect to find that a psalm of thanks was really a missionary psalm, but here it is again. David is so thankful to God that he wants to share the good news with all the earth. He wants everyone to rejoice in the love and power of God.
Verse 32 Let the sea resound, and all that is in it;
let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them!
Let’s praise! Let’s party!
33 Then the trees of the forest will sing,
they will sing for joy before the LORD,
for he comes to judge the earth.
Finally, verse 34:
34 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
And David ends with an altar call in verse 35 – he encourages people to
35 Cry out, “Save us, O God our Savior;
gather us and deliver us from the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name,
that we may glory in your praise.”
We have been saved so that we will give thanks to the holy name of God – and part of the way in which we do that is by sharing the good news of what he has done for us. – that we will feel good when other people come to faith in God – that we will glory when people start to praise him.
Christians are called to give thanks, and we are more Christian when we are thankful. Being grateful is part of Christian formation – it is Christ being formed in us, and as we draw closer to him in the way that we think, we will also be doing the work that he has given us to do.
Verse 36 Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
Then all the people said “Amen” and “Praise the LORD.”