- Psalm 9 (New Century Version)
- Acts 17:29-31 (Good News version)
Let me also say it another way. People who do not give thanks to God are likely to think they are entirely “self-made” individuals. What they have, they have earned themselves or with a little help from their human friends. People who do not give thanks to God are unable to see the ways of God in the good that has come their way.
Long ago, a Jewish poet wrote in Psalm 92, “It is good to give thanks to the LORD.” And throughout the Bible, one writer after another reminded the Jewish people of all God had done for them. Had it not been for the mighty acts of God, the Jewish people would still have been slaves in Egypt. Had it not been for the saving hand of God, they would have starved in the wilderness before they reached the Promised Land. Had it not been for the powerful hand of God, they would have been overcome by their enemies. And so the long story of God’s involvement with the people traced its way through biblical history. Because God had done so much for them, the reasonable response of the Jewish people was thanksgiving.
Being thankful and being dependent upon God are tied together at the hip. When our sense of dependence upon God becomes shaky, so does our thankfulness. Was there ever a time when we expressed our belief publicly and clearly that our own bounty – having enough food to eat and a place to live – and our growth and prosperity as a country were because of God’s goodness? Do we still? Was there ever a time when we daily thanked God for His presence with us? Do we still?
By any standard Canada is a remarkably blessed country. By any standard, all of us here this morning would no doubt say that we too have been blessed with good things -- even if we are in the midst of difficult circumstances now. But do we consider ourselves blessed because we are clever and industrious? Or are we blessed because God is the One who has been there and is here for us always with His good gifts? King David, who wrote Psalm 9, reinforces what people who trust people have known all along: God is in all the good that comes our way in one way or another. And our response to such goodness ought to be thanksgiving. As King David said in verse 1: “I will praise [or give thanks to] the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.”
Psalm 9 gives at least three reasons for us to give thanks to God.
One reason to give thanks is that a good and just God will judge the world (Verses 5–8, 15–16).
The psalmist knew God – not as tiny, tribal God in his small corner of the world – but as the Creator God of all the peoples throughout the entire world. God is the One who sees all that is done in this world and God is the One who will judge the world in fairness. God will decide what is fair (vs. 8). Here is a vision of a just and good God presiding over a world He created. This world was meant for justice and goodness because the God who made it is just and good. And be assured, God sees what is not just and not good. God sees the injustice and evil that concerns us as well. Notice the phrases about God sprinkled throughout this psalm:
God will judge the world in fairness, God defends those who suffer, God will not leave those who come to him, God remembers who the murderers are, God will not forget the cries of those who suffer, God is known by his fair decisions, those who have troubles will not be forgotten by God, the hopes of the poor in God will never die.And notice the phrases about those who are not just and who do evil: they will fall into the pit they dug, their feet will be caught in the nets they dug. Finally the psalm says, “Wicked people will go to the grave and so will all those who forget God” (9:17).
I know many people do not like the idea of God judging people. They believe -- and rightly so -- that God’s character is loving and compassionate. Just like them, they hope. Except, have you ever noticed that we who feel we are loving and compassionate are also people who judge others we know all too quickly and easily and sometimes even harshly and often, probably, unfairly. So we make judgement calls on other people ourselves.
But there is a judgement that is just and right. And with that judgement comes certain consequences. We call that justice. For instance, the wicked and evil behaviour of Robert Pickton has been judged, and rightly so, by his peers. He was thus convicted of criminal, immoral and murderous harm against others. And he has been dealt with justly by being put in jail without parole for a minimum of twenty-five years – and probably (we hope) for the rest of his life.
Now let’s connect God’s judgment with God’s justice. Think about what God’s judgment will mean for those who have cheated and stolen from others, for those who have hurt the innocent and for those who have taken advantage of people who are poor and naïve, for those who have been willfully destructive of what is good in many ways, for those who have persecuted and tortured people and maimed and murdered them and believe they have gotten away with it. If not in this life, then in the end, God will judge them – and he will judge them -- fairly and justly. They will find themselves dealt the appropriate consequences. God’s judgment will connect with His justice.
Please understand that judgment is not a time for God to act vindictively or maliciously. Rather, judgment is the time when all of life will finally make sense. Good will be noticed for what it is and appropriately rewarded. Bad will be remembered for what it is and justly dealt with. For instance, people who have been unfairly and wrongly hurt, maligned, damaged with no seeming way out of their circumstance will ultimately receive the justice they deserve. This is because a loving and just God can ultimately be trusted to do what is right and good and loving and just for people. And God will make up for what other people and life itself took away from them because God is that loving and that powerful. God sees what is happening in this world. And in the meantime, as King David said it in verse 10: “Those who know the Lord trust him, because he will not leave those who come to him.”
So we trust God and we give thanks to God -- that God is good and just and will, in His time and in His way, connect judgment with fairness and justice.
Another reason to give thanks is that a compassionate God cares for and saves those who are helpless (Verses 9–12, 17–18).
Throughout the psalm, there is a repetitive theme. The English Standard Version puts it this way:
“The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in time of trouble” (9:9). “The Lord does not forget the cry of the afflicted” (9:12b). “For the needy shall not … be forgotten, nor [will] the hope of the poor perish forever” (9:18).
Well-known author Philip Yancey, in an article titled "Where Is God When It Hurts?" [Christianity Today (June 2007), p. 56] wrote:
I once was part of a small group with a Christian leader … who went through a hard time as his adult children got into trouble, bringing him sleepless nights and expensive attorney fees.
Worse, my friend was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Nothing in his life seemed to work out.
"I have no problem believing in a good God," he said to us one night. "My question is, 'What is God good for?'"
We listened to his complaints and tried various responses, but he batted them all away. A few weeks later, I came across [this statement] …: "For those who love God, [there is] nothing [that] can happen to you [that cannot be redeemed]."
I went back to my friend. "What about that?" I asked. "Is God good for that promise?"I don’t know how Yancey’s friend responded but clearly, the psalmist -- King David -- believed a compassionate, caring God was good for that promise.
The entire Bible tells about a God who is always caring – passionately caring -- for those who are poor. From earliest times in Hebrew life, the Jewish people were told to make provision for people who were poor. In Matthew 25, Jesus said that one of the ways he will measure us is in the way we have cared for others who are hurting and helpless. I am grateful we worship a God who cares for such people. But I have discovered I’m not all that different from those who are materially poor as I might like to believe. They are needy. But before God, I am needy too. They are obviously in need of special help. But before God, I need special help too. They need forgiveness. And before God, I need forgiveness too. They have great difficulty taking care of themselves. In the sight of God, I’m sure God sees me as a child he loves who often has difficulty taking care of myself too. In God’s sight, all of us, no matter our particular circumstances, look pretty much the same. So we give thanks to a compassionate God who cares for all of us and can save all of us.
One more reason to give thanks is that a personal God is the One who saves us personally (Verses 3–4, 13–14).
There is not only praise and thanksgiving in Psalm 9 but also a profound cry for mercy and help to God who is deeply personal to the psalmist. In verse 13 we hear that cry: “Lord, have mercy on me. See how my enemies hurt me. Do not let me go through the gates of death.” And in verse 14 he says: “I will praise you; I will rejoice because you saved me.” These verses are characteristic of lament in the psalms. To lament means to express grief for something, perhaps even to weep because of something. Psalm 9 has elements of lament – of crying for help.The psalmist is expressing his personal lament to God. He cries out in pain. But then in the next breath, he says that one day, he will praise God! He doesn’t know when that day might come, but he trusts it will come.
Last week I asked the question: How do we perceive God? How do you see God? The psalmist is reaching out to a personal God – that is one way he sees God. He may sometimes feel God is “at a distance” as the song goes, but King David wants God to span that gap because he knows God is personal. Jesus reminds us that God is so personal “even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:30–31). Jesus even invited us to pray to God by God’s most personal name Abba – Father -- “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9a). We can take great comfort that a very personal God cares for us and hears our laments – God is touched by our grief and our cries for help from our enemies.
Some of us may experience other people as our enemies. There are people who have spiteful intentions toward us or treat us unjustly and we cry for help. Some of us experience physical afflictions that are enemies to us because we lose our health and our ability to live the productive lives we want to live.
On June 22, 2007, a hit-and-run incident left Daniel McConchie paralysed from the waist down. About a year after that traumatic day, Daniel wrote: "God has not healed my affliction, but he has taught me the power of lamenting to him about it."
Daniel made further comments about his lament:
To our detriment, one of the most overlooked portions of Scripture [today] … are the psalms of lament. However, David repeatedly demonstrated that laments make obvious our intense faith in God that he can and will intervene in our time of need. They demonstrate just how deep our relationship with [God] the Father really is. After all, we don't communicate our grief and mourning to strangers. We save that for those we truly know and love.We do save our deepest grief for those we truly know and love – for those whom we believe truly know us, love us and understand us. We express our most intimate selves with those who are most closest and most personal to us. My friends, both the psalmist and Jesus our Lord remind us that God wants to be most personal with His people – with those whom He loves so personally. With you.
Being thankful to God is basic to our being believers in God and followers of Jesus Christ. Thankfulness expresses our dependence upon God and trust in God in a world that is often unjust and not safe. I’ll conclude with this simple illustration of trust. It comes from theologian Dale Bruner. [Dale Bruner, "Is Jesus Inclusive or Exclusive?" Theology, News, and Notes [of Fuller Seminary] (October 1999), p.3] Bruner writes:
The best parable of trust we have in our home is our cat, Clement of Alexandria. (We had a companion cat, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, but a local coyote ate the archbishop recently.) When our cat goes outside, he lives in terror. He looks around as though it's a jungle, and he is terrified. But when he comes in the house, he lies on the floor right between the kitchen and the dining room -- where we walk most frequently -- and falls asleep in total trust. [My wife] Kathy or I could squash Clement's head, but he trusts us.
Our cat lives in complete, total confidence in his human companions. (In this connection, I think the best animal synonym for faith is purring.) Every time I see Clement just lying there, I say to myself: That's what Jesus wants me to do—to trust him. The kind of trust the cat shows in us is the kind of trust the Lord Jesus Christ invites from us.When we choose to have that kind of trust in God, without hesitation or reservation, we will find ourselves giving thanks to God, like the psalmist, with all our heart.
May this be so for you and for me.
Rev. Chris Miller
August 8, 2010
OYM Oriole-York Mills United Church, Toronto
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