A Heart of Thanksgiving: Understanding Psalm 147

I don't need anything else.

Amen.

Amen.

I again think about how many things in our life would be totally

different if we would just keep our eyes on Jesus Christ.

If we just simply continue to focus on him.

If you would, in your Bibles this morning, turn to Psalm 147,

Psalm 147 around Thanksgiving.

We have touched on this psalm at various times over the years.

It's just a wonderful psalm.

A psalm of Thanksgiving.

A psalm of Thanksgiving.

And yes, Brother House was hopefully going to be here this morning.

He didn't feel well.

I did offer an invitation for next week if he's.

If he's feeling good.

So listen, it's just going to be kind of one of those things.

You show up and he's here, or you show up and you get me.

You know, it's the way it goes.

But I am always thankful that I have such good men in my life who

have influenced me, and Brother House is one of those.

And I am so thankful, many, many years ago, over 30 years ago,

that I met him.

And what a blessing he's been to me and to this church over the

years.

And so we'll invite and continue to extend the invitation

to him and just say, hey, if you get up in the morning, you feel

good, come on.

And he's just 90.

I mean, it's not like, you know, 90 years old.

Thanksgiving.

A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

Let's look at verse one.

I'm going to read the whole chapters.

Praise ye the Lord.

For it is good to sing praises unto our God.

For it is pleasant and praise is comely.

The Lord doth build up Jerusalem.

He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.

He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds.

He telleth the number of the stars.

He calleth them all by their names.

Great is our Lord, and of great power.

His understanding is infinite.

The Lord lifteth up the meek.

He casteth the wicked down to the ground.

Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving.

Sing praise upon the harp unto our God who covereth the heavens

with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass

to grow upon the mountains.

He giveth to the beasts his food and to the young raven which

cry, he delighteth in the strength.

He delighteth not in the strength of the horse.

He taketh no pleasure in the legs of man.

The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that

hope, in his mercy.

Praise the Lord.

O Jerusalem.

Praise thy God, O Zion.

For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates.

He hath blessed thy children within thee.

He maketh peace in thy borders.

He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth.

His word runneth very swiftly.

He giveth snow like wool, he scattereth the hoar frost like ashes.

He casteth forth his ice like morsels.

Who can stand before his cold?

He sendeth out his word.

He melteth them.

He causeth his wind to blow and the waters flow.

He showeth his word unto Jacob, he his statutes and his judgments

unto Israel.

He hath not dealt so with any nation.

And as for his judgments, they have not known them.

Praise ye the Lord.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we do want to praise you and thank you this morning,

Lord, for your providential care, for your protection, for, Lord,

all that you've done, the grace that you've so richly given

to us.

Lord, I pray this morning again, we would see that.

That we would never take it for granted.

And, Lord, again, we just want to thank you.

In Jesus name, Amen.

We think about psalm.

We think about, again, a book of songs.

This was the songbook for the Jewish people.

For Israel, it was poems that God's people had put together.

And again, there's a whole list of those, and I'll give you

a few in a moment.

It's songs that would direct their hearts and their ways.

It would.

It's songs that would direct the thoughts of Israel to the ways,

the works and the words of God.

And especially as God relates to his children, by the way, as God

relates to our lives.

Our lives.

It was wholesome music.

Wholesome music.

I don't know if I want to get off on all that this morning, but

wholesome music for the nation of Israel, it provided them songs

to sing that were wholesome, that were godward.

They were directed and gave so many things and characteristics of

God.

Can I just, again, encourage parents, do your utmost to make your

home a place of safety, a place where there is shelter from

the outside world, especially when it comes to music.

Think about how much we listen to music every day, how much we listen

to podcasts every day, or whatever it is.

Would you, as a parent, not take the effort?

Would you, as a parent, ought to take the effort?

You, as a parent, ought to be in charge of what your kids are listening

to, make sure it's wholesome.

You should know what podcasts or anything else they're listening

to.

Hello.

And that's what the children of Israel had this psalm book for.

It gave them wholesome music for their homes and for the temple.

In fact, Psalm 147 may have been written for the dedication of

the second temple and it alludes to it.

Take care in what you're listening to.

So it was provide good music for the children of Israel.

There are ten types of psalms.

Instructional, historical, confessional.

Psalms about needs.

Psalms about destroying their enemies.

Psalms, Messianic psalms, Psalms about nature.

Psalms of praise and thanksgiving.

That's what we have here today, a thanksgiving psalm.

There are seven known writers of the Psalms, mostly David.

But there are 50 anonymous writers, but many of them probably

attributed to David.

Psalms is quoted.

Listen to this.

Psalms is quoted or alluded to in the New Testament.

How many times you think?

454 times.

May I again remind you, as I've done, I think two or three times

the last five or six Sundays that the New Testament writers wrote.

In light of that, you already know your Old Testament.

Think about it.

454 times the new Testament quotes the book of Psalms.

How are you going to know what those psalms were intended for or

what they mean unless you go back and read them?

When Jesus quotes a psalm, you ought to go back and read the psalm

and see what it has to do with it.

In other words, again, so important.

The Old Testament is the foundation of the New Testament Psalm.

Psalms is a great source to help deepen our devotional life.

They, that is the psalms are great source of commentary on the

attributes of God.

A great source, maybe the greatest source besides maybe Romans

on the attributes of God about who God is.

It's a great source.

Therefore, it helps us to know him.

And the more we know him, the more accurately we understand who

he is.

We the greater impact it'll have on us.

The greater, the more accurate our understanding and knowledge and

how we view God is, the greater impact it'll have on every

decision you make when you're in the hospital.

It'll help you make the right decision.

It'll help you make the right decision financially.

All these things, man.

What we think about God is the most important thing about us.

Aw tozer the Psalms.

What a great book.

Poetical book.

In our chapter today we have again a psalm of Thanksgiving.

In Psalm 147 it describes Israel back in the land.

They've been in captivity for 70 years and now they're back in

the land.

And it seems as though, and I think it does portray that not only

have the houses been rebuilt, but now the temple is finished.

And either this is a dedication psalm for the temple,

or it's closely associated with It.

And therefore they sing praises and thanksgiving to God.

And they sing praises in Psalm 147 for his goodness, for his mercy,

for his grace, for his wisdom, for his power.

We serve a great God.

And they were recognizing that.

In verses 1 through 6 we see they sing of his great power.

His great power.

Praise the Lord, he says, for unto his good.

I'm not going to reread the whole thing, but he speaks about

again them being outcast now brought back to Israel, and that

God would heal the broken heart.

And he binded up their wounds.

Israel had been outcasts for 70 years now back in the land, and

God was binding their wounds, healing them.

Says it is good to praise Him.

What does that mean?

Well, comely, that means appropriate.

I mean, how good God is.

It's just appropriate to praise him.

It's reasonable to praise him.

We should praise him.

Praise him.

Praise and thanksgiving go hand in hand, both one and the other

together, praising him and thanking him for how good and how

good he's been to us.

He's been good by way of his grace.

Verses 2 and 3 He brought them back.

He built Jerusalem again.

And they were back in their land, back in the city.

Even though Israel had forsaken him.

Even though Israel is the one who left him.

Even though Israel had traced other gods, yet in God's grace, man,

wonderful grace of God in their sin, God saw them.

In their sorrow, God saw them.

And God gave to them what they did not deserve.

He showed them grace.

He showed them grace.

God's unmerited, unearned favorite even into enablement.

Can I tell you today, all of us have experienced the grace of

God at one time or another.

And I especially experienced the grace of God when I got saved,

when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.

The Bible says, for we are all sinners.

Israel, they forsook God, and yet God brought them back.

So thankful that God brings us back.

God wants a personal relationship with us.

God desires our affection.

God desires our love.

God desires for us to know Him.

God desires that personal relationship.

Christianity is not a religion.

It's not a set of rules.

It's a relationship.

It truly is about walking in the steps of Jesus, following him,

loving him, walking with him.

That's his desire.

I'm thankful that I, at the age of six years old, knelt in my

pastor's office and accepted Christ as my Savior.

I'm thankful for the time the Holy Spirit convicted my heart, that

I was a sinner in need of a Savior.

Even at the age of 6 years old realizing that unless I accepted

Christ as my Savior, unless I came to him in my sin and asked him

to forgive me of my sins, which put him on the cross that he

died for me, that he shed his blood for me.

Unless it did that I would die and go to hell.

Thankful.

At the age of six years old, I put my trust in Jesus Christ, his

life, his death and his resurrection.

You know what happened?

God showed his grace to me.

God's grace abounded to me.

And the Holy Spirit came to abide in me and live in my heart.

And I was gloriously saved.

Have you experienced salvation?

Do you know Jesus as your Savior?

And we're fixing.

We're coming right up to Christmas.

Here we go.

When we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Savior of the world, who

came to seek and to save that which is lost.

And we were all lost without Him.

I'm so thankful I got found.

Have you been found?

The grace of God.

They were praising him for the grace of God.

Praising him for giving them what they did not deserve.

I did not deserve heaven.

I deserved hell.

Because of my selfishness, because of my sin.

But Jesus came and died for my sin.

He paid the penalty for my sin.

He died in my place.

He took the wrath of God for me.

That's grace.

God's unmerited.

God's earned favor.

Aren't you glad it's free?

I'm glad salvation's free for you and for me.

I'm glad salvation's free.

For it's the gift of God, not a works that any man should boast.

God showed his grace to the nation of Israel, though they did

not deserve it.

He showed his care and compassionate.

And they were making that case to him.

That it's very evident, God, that you love me, that you care for

me.

Because you brought us back into the land.

You rebuilt us, protected us by way of his power.

Verses 4 and 5.

Man.

What power he has.

He telleth the number of the stars.

He calleth them all by name.

That's pretty powerful.

That's all.

Knowing God is an eternal God.

He's an everlasting God.

We are finite.

He telleth the stars.

It's an old word, but we still use it.

I went this last week.

I went up to the bank and I had to go inside for something.

So I went into the bank to get some cash and I approached a teller.

Telleth.

Telleth count.

You know what she did?

She counted out some bills for me.

He telleth the number of the stars.

He numbers them.

He knows how Many stars there are.

Scientists say there are millions of galaxies.

There are trillions upon trillions of stars.

Nobody really knows how many.

Because he's an infinite God.

He knows the infinite number.

And because we're finite, we don't.

In fact, our brains can't even wrap around an infinite number because

it just doesn't exist.

God is wholly other.

He's transcendent.

He is infinite.

He is beyond our reach of understanding in every way.

We can know him in some ways because he revealed it to us.

But we won't get to know him in every way until we get to heaven.

Amen.

That's the kind of God we'll be able to learn about him and have

that relationship with him forever and ever and ever and never,

never come to the end of it.

Wrap your head around that one.

God is so big, he telleth the stars.

He knows them all by name.

Man, there are some crazy, crazy street names.

And I've used this illustration before, you know, over

here in Sundera Rancho.

It's like Sidewinder, Horse Run.

But I was coming back from a wedding.

I performed a wedding down in Cleburne here about a week ago for

a fireman and his future spouse.

And so I was driving back, it was getting dark and I was looking

at my GPS and I wanted.

Honestly, I hadn't had supper yet and I was starving.

It was about 6:30 and there was a QT at the corner of 35.

One of those other streets.

Anyway, they're in Alvarado, you say.

Well, isn't there like a bunch of restaurants across the street?

No, no qt.

I wanted qt.

I wanted Taquito.

It's what I wanted.

And I wanted a cold drink in a foam cup.

So as I was going there, I.

It was just.

It was.

I even took a picture and sent it to my wife.

The traffic was terrible.

And I took a picture and sent to her and said I'm going to be here

for an hour.

When I finally got up, I saw the street signs next to it.

Street signs like this one, Cow Pasture Street.

Really?

Really?

That's all you could come up with?

Cow Pasture Street, Hay Meadow Street.

And if I named the other ones, like one of them was Big Tree Street,

I guess there's a big tree.

I don't know.

I didn't go down that particular street.

But God knows All the stars by name.

We have a lot of people who lack intelligence, who put names

of streets together.

I just.

It just floors me, some of the names.

God Knows all the Stars by name.

You realize when he put Adam in the garden that Adam and I'm telling

you, we're going to get to heaven to find out that the pre flood

world was so different.

So different.

And that our ancestors, Adam and his offspring, were much smarter

than we are.

And that we think they are.

Adam named every animal.

Pretty impressive, isn't it?

When we can't even come up with names for streets.

Cow pasture.

Really?

Where do you live?

I live on one.

On one?

Cow pasture.

Really?

You living out in the cow pasture?

No, it's a street.

Cow pasture.

Now I live in the Hay Meadow.

Hay Meadow Street.

No, it's just not right.

No.

Adam named all the animals.

Shows amazing intelligence.

God knows every name of the stars.

Romans 11 tells us that that's power.

He's an all knowing God.

An infinite God.

We're not careful.

We lose.

We become sometimes familiar with things, especially some things

about God.

And we lose the awe or the wow.

He knows every star by name.

And yet he knows every sparrow that falls.

Matthew tells us in Matthew that God knows every sparrow that

dies.

There are lots of sparrows.

I won't go into that illustration again.

But great is our God and greatly to be praised.

Dr. Barber used to say.

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing occurs to God?

Nothing surprises God?

No one can teach him.

He knows everything.

He knows our heart.

He knows our minds inside and out.

Psalm 44, verse 21 says he knows the secrets of our heart.

Psalms 44:21

The prophet Ezekiel says He knows every thought we've ever had.

And again, I remind you, if your spouse knew every thought that

you ever had, would they still be your spouse?

And yet God still loves you.

And God still loves me.

That's the kind of God we serve.

What a compassionate, gracious God.

One who is so merciful not to give me what I deserve because I

don't deserve the goodness of God.

Then verse 6 speaks of his past judgments.

And he speaks of the meek, not the weak, by the way, the meek.

Verse 6.

Look there, where it gives me.

And the Lord lifted up the meek.

He casteth the wicked down to the ground.

He lifteth up the meek.

The meek shall inherit the earth.

The Bible says in the New Testament.

By the way, meek is not weak.

It's not weakness.

It's strength under control.

Go read about Moses.

The Bible describes Moses as the meekest man alive at the time.

But the wicked shall be judged.

Can I tell you I read the back of the book.

And we win.

Yeah.

The wicked shall be judged.

And then we see not only God's.

Great power.

We see God's great provision.

God provided for them.

Verses 7 through 11 sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving.

Sing upon the harp.

Who covereth the heavens with the clouds, who prepareth the rain

and he goes on.

He delights in taking care of the beasts.

He delighteth not in the strength of horses.

But the Lord takes pleasure.

God provides.

His provision is endless.

He provides the rain.

He gives what the plants need.

We need rain, especially in Texas.

We just need rain.

Thankful for the rain lately.

Help that winter grass grow up.

Feed my goats so they in turn can feed me or someone else.

Aren't you thankful the grass grows?

Because that's where cows eat and I need cows to eat so I can eat

them.

I mentioned that last Sunday morning.

I won't go into that.

God is so good to provide for us.

He takes care of us.

He takes pleasure, The Bible says here, in our affection, our

affection to Him.

He desires us to love Him.

He does not take desire, does not take delight in human strength,

horses, but he takes delight in our dependence upon him.

Those that hope in him, those who fear him and hope in his mercy.

Takes delight in.

God is so good, not only in his provision, but in his providence.

He never fails us, the Bible says.

He never forsakes us.

He doesn't forget us, but again provides for us.

Verse 14.

He maketh peace in thy borders and filleth thee with the finest

of the wheat.

He provides for us.

Here they're describing God providing for them peace and prosperity.

Providing for them.

He strengthened the gates of the city.

He is protecting them.

He's taking care of them.

By the way, that's applicable to all of us.

That God provides for us.

He protects us.

He strengthens the gates for us.

It speaks here about the winter.

I thought that was appropriate this morning.

Very appropriate, right in Texas for us to get up.

Yesterday was like summer.

Today is winter.

There is no in between.

Yesterday I was out in my T shirt and jeans checking on the goats

and chickens.

Today I'll be hunkered down, hoping they live without me.

Yeah, we'll take care of them.

I don't mean that, but he provides in all seasons.

In fact, what it's saying here is that he provides the seasons.

The four seasons are necessary for growth, for plant growth and

all these things.

They're necessary for us.

At least in this region it is.

He provides that.

Can I remind you that God made a promise to Noah when Noah got off

the ark.

He promised Noah that until he returns, that there will be summer,

winter, springtime, and harvest.

I want to remind you that, too, because there's a lot of, as

I said last Sunday morning, a lot of weird beliefs out there and

a lot of worshiping the creature more than the Creator.

And I want to remind you that your Bible says because God said

to Noah, he promised that when he returned that summer, winter,

springtime and harvest would still be in place.

Well, what does that mean to us?

Well, it means when Jesus returns, there'll still be four seasons

in place.

And we kid in Texas that there's not four seasons, but there

is.

And the rainbow was put in the air, put in the sky to remind us

of the promise that God would never bring a flood again.

But the promise wasn't just that he would not bring a flood.

The promise was also that there would be four seasons in place

when he returns.

Some of y' all can read into that.

I got off onto that last Sunday.

I'm not going to do it today.

But God is so good.

When you see the rainbow, you ought to remember the promise.

By the way, what is a rainbow?

It's a bow without an arrow in it.

It's a bow with no ammunition.

It's a bow with no wrath.

God's wrath was spilled out in the flood.

God's wrath was appeased just as it was on the cross of Calvary.

And because Noah and his family were in the ark, which is

a picture of Christ, they were saved from the wrath of God upon

the sin of all mankind.

The bow, the great promise, the reoccurring season are expression

of God's loving care.

And I'm done today, a reminder that we ought to be thankful.

We ought to be a thankful people.

And that God in His great power provides for us.

He protects us.

His providence, he guides us and cares for us in every way, every

facet of our lives.

And we ought to praise him for it.

We ought to be thankful for Him.

And as I said Wednesday night or Tuesday night, a thankful people

are a thankful people.

God is good and that praise and thanksgiving should be expressed.

You did it the this morning by way of singing the hymns, we ought

to praise him and thank him, express that to him on a regular

basis.

He loves us.

He cares for us.

He provides for us.

He protects us.

What a gracious, loving, caring, merciful God we serve.

Let's all stand.