An Attitude of Thanksgiving

I like to tell my son, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” In other words, how you respond, in your heart and mind and actions, to the things that challenge you will shape the person you will become, how high you will go, or how low you will stay.

Thanksgiving is a time to reevaluate our attitude towards God.

So, how are you doing?

This morning, I ask you to join me in considering our response to the life God has given us by meditating upon one of the greatest of the thanksgiving psalms, Psalm 136.

Psalm 136 is a psalm that Spurgeon called one of Israel’s favorites because it was so simple. We love simple songs. And this one has a refrain that repeats 26 times. Some might be tempted to wrongly apply our Lord’s warning against vain repetition to this liturgical device. But John Calvin reminded his congregation in Geneva that it was never wrong to sing a refrain that enables an assembly of believers to join in voice to thank God for His grace.

And it is true that this psalm shows up at the most special of times in Israel’s history. For instance, it is there at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple where we read:

“When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, 'For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever'” (2 Chron. 7:2-3, NRSV).

The refrain of this psalm is a refrain of praise to God’s grace. The word goodness or steadfast love or mercy in some of your various translations is hesed, and many of you know about this word. Hesed is God’s steadfast love, His loyal love, His covenant faithfulness; it is His covenant of grace. And what we learn today is that this hesed love, this grace, this mercy, this loyal love forms the sacred refrain of a believer’s life that leads us to thanksgiving.

The division of the psalm suggests how His grace leads us to thanksgiving for four major themes.

1. We may first thank God for His Person (read vv. 1-3 responsively).

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of gods,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for his steadfast love endures forever;

We thank God for who He is.

This psalm uses the holy Triune structure to praise God and in doing so reveals His Person. In verse 1, He is Yahweh, the Covenant-making, Covenant-keeping personal God of Israel. In verse 2, He is called Elohim, and He is differentiated from the small gods, the idols that seek to seduce us, but who cannot deliver, cannot save, cannot bring happiness, cannot give life. In verse 3, He is called Adonai, the Lord of lords. I thank God today for our Triune God! For the Father who chose us in love before the worlds were framed, for the Son who came to give us life through His life lived and His atoning death for our sins, and for the Spirit of the God, proceeding from Father and Son to draw us to Jesus, to comfort us, to teach us, to open our hearts to receive Him and to thank Him. Oh we should thank God for who He is.