Transcript

“I just heard the latest forecast for Thanksgiving Day. Turkeys will thaw in the morning, then warm in the oven to an afternoon high near 190 degrees. The kitchen will turn hot and humid, and if you bother the cook, be ready for a severe squall or cold shoulder.

During the late afternoon and evening, a cold front like a knife will slice through the turkey, causing an accumulation of one to three inches on plates. Mashed potatoes will drift across one side while cranberry sauce creates slippery spots on the other.

A weight watch and indigestion warning have been issued for the entire area, with increased stuffiness around the beltway. During the evening, the turkey will diminish and taper off to leftovers, dropping to a low of 34 degrees in the refrigerator.

Looking ahead to Friday and Saturday, high pressure to eat sandwiches will be established. Flurries of leftovers can be expected both days with a 50 percent chance of scattered soup late in the day. By early next week, eating pressure will be low as the only wish left will be the bone.”

Thanksgiving Day is a distinctive holiday. It doesn’t commemorate a battle or a birthday or anniversary. It is simply a day set aside to express our thanks to God. It’s special because it’s a holiday that takes its name from Scripture: thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving is a time to remember, to heighten your sensitivity to the blessings we have from God. It’s good because it can grab our attention, cause us to shake the cobwebs loose, and take inventory and remind us of all God’s gifts and blessings in our lives.

It rekindles in us the kind of God-centered gratitude that God desires and deserves.

Gratitude to God isn’t something that should pass from our minds with the passing of a holiday. Thanksgiving is a God-focused, faith-based response to God’s working, grace, and goodness that can remain with us continually as we are sensitive to and note God’s continual working, grace, and goodness in our lives.

Gratitude is an appropriate response to God’s grace. And as we grow in God’s grace and are transformed by it, it will make us more and more thankful.

Psalm 136:1-3: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

Psalm 136 is a psalm of thanksgiving. There are 26 admonitions to give thanks to God, one for each verse. The Jews called it the Great Hallel. Hallel means “praise.” When we say, “Hallelujah,” Hallel means praise, and ujah means Jehovah or the Lord, or praise the Lord! Psalm 136 is a unique psalm because the same refrain is repeated 26 times: “for His mercy endureth forever.”

In Scripture, when things are repeated, it is for emphasis. By the Psalm, the Holy Spirit is driving this truth into Israel’s minds and hearts that God’s mercy is always the same, it never changes, it is never exhausted, it never fails, and it endures forever.

And we in the Body of Christ need this reminder too that God’s enduring mercy never fails, never ends in life. And “forever” we will experience His mercy in heaven too. By the Psalm, we learn that the Lord has plenty of mercy and that He will never run out of it!

Ephesians 2:4 says that God “is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us.” We need God’s mercy for our salvation from our sins, and He is rich in mercy.

And in our daily lives we need God’s mercy over and over again, and “His mercy endureth forever.” Psalm 136 reminds us that each step of the way in our lives, in His mercy He is always there showing us mercy.

And the reason for the thanksgiving that God deserves is expressed repetitively, 26 times, because His mercy endures forever.

The Psalm begins with “O give thanks unto the Lord.” We don’t just give thanks in a vague, general way, like the world often puts it. You’ll often hear people say that they’re thankful, but they often won’t say to Whom.

We don’t just give thanks, we give thanks to a Person, to the Lord. Scripture says we specifically are to give thanks to the Lord, to God. We give thanks “to Him.” Verses 4,5,6,7 all say “To Him, To Him, To Him, To Him.” We give thanks to the Lord.

And thanksgiving is to be given to the Lord because He “is good.” We give thanks to the Lord for who He is and because of His intrinsic goodness. He is good in and of Himself. The Lord told the rich young ruler that “there is none good but one, that is, God.”

We call all kinds of things good, such as: “This meal is good.” “That person is a good friend.” “That was a good movie.” But what we call “good” on this earth is tainted and imperfect. God alone is good, perfectly good.

Psalm 119:68 says, “Thou art good, and doest good.” Out of His goodness, God does good, and He gives, He blesses, He works, He is always there, He is always providing.

God’s goodness is set apart unto Himself. It is perfect. It is infinite. His goodness defines what goodness really is and means and does.

We need to be reminded of God’s goodness because the enemy of our souls, Satan, repeatedly tries to get us to doubt it. And because of the weakness of our faith we often do.

But as the old saying goes, “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.” God is always good, always demonstrating His goodness, always showing His kindness to us, even in and through the things that take place in our lives that are not good.

And more often than we do in life, we need to stop and look, think, and take note, and take inventory of His goodness to us and give thanks to Him. We give thanks to the Lord because He is good and out of His goodness, His mercy endures forever.

God is identified by three names in three verses here. “LORD” in verse 1 is Jehovah. It speaks to Him as being the faithful, covenant-keeping God, and the eternal God, the self-existent One.

“God” in verse 2 is the Hebrew word “Elohim.” It speaks of Him as the supreme One. He is supremely superior in all things in all ways. His power, wisdom, greatness is supreme.

“Lord” in verse 3 is “Adon.” It speaks of Him as Ruler, Sovereign, Master, Owner. He is above all. He is sovereign and greater than and over all lords.

Verse 1 teaches God’s people to give thanks to the “LORD,” to the eternal God, who was and is and always will be. We give thanks to Him because is the faithful God.

We give thanks to the God of gods, to the God who is supreme over all, who has no equal, no competition. There is no other like Him. He is the true and living God.

The nations back then and now have their dead, false gods, but Jehovah alone is the God of gods and Lord of lords, who alone is eternal, supreme, and Sovereign, and we give our thanks to this God who is over all.

We thank God for who He is and that He is good and that His mercy endures forever. We put God in His rightful place when we place Him above all and don’t try to bring Him down to fully understand Him, but just exalt His greatness and thank Him for it.

Psalm 136:4-9: “To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.

“To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever: The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever: The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

We give thanks to the God of gods and Lord of lords, who alone does great wonders. He does wonders, and the wonders He does are great and marvelous.

He “alone” does them, meaning that these wonders spring from His direct and absolute power. He doesn’t need help from anyone or anything to perform them.

God is good and God is great, and He is the Creator God. And creation reveals His great wonders. I love how Scripture doesn’t argue the point of God as Creator. It confronts you with it! There is nothing to argue. He made it all. It’s as simple as that.

He created all things and all things are held together by Him. He alone is powerful and wise to do the great wonders of bringing all of creation into being and to sustain it. Job says, “He hangeth the earth upon nothing.” It’s by His power that it’s held there.

And the minute objects that are seen by a microscope are as great of a wonder as what is seen by telescopes. Every we look we see His handiwork.

His goodness and mercy are seen in the great wonders of creation. By His wisdom He made the massive and glorious expanse of the heavens, with its detail, design and beauty.

The Psalmist’s details of God’s mercy begins in the highest regions, in the heavens above, and it gradually descends in the Psalm from the heavens to “our low estate” in verse 23. Nothing is too high or too low for the reach of God’s enduring mercy.

We give thanks to God for this. In verse 6, we learn how the Creator stretched out the earth “above” or higher than the waters. He made the dry land appear as Genesis 1:9 says and made it fitting for the abode of man.

By His mercy, God placed light fixtures in the sky, and made great lights. What a blessing light is. It is a blessing we often take for granted. We should give thanks that we do not have to make our way through life in a world of darkness in the absence of light.

There is mercy in every ray of light, and His faithful, enduring mercy is reflected by the order, certainty and regularity from these lights. God’s great lights shone on Adam at the beginning, and they continue to faithfully shine to this day on us.

By His mercy, He made the sun to rule by day, and provide daylight. The sun rules the day because God rules the sun. It is not the sun we worship, but the One who made it.

Seeing the run rise or set, sitting in the warmth and light of this great heavenly body, should remind us to “give thanks unto the Lord.”

By His ceaseless mercy, God made the moon and stars to rule by night, making subdued lights for the nighttime. No hour is left without a ruling light, by the Lord, the Ruler of all.

The moon with its changes, and the stars in their fixed spheres bring gladness to the night and reason to praise God. The Lord is the Maker and Keeper of the moon and the stars.

He calls each of them by their names. He named them because they are His as Creator.

The sun, moon, and stars and their constancy are tokens and reminders of God’s mercy which endures forever. And wherever and whenever we look, up at the heavens, down at the earth and water, day or night, we see evidence of the hand of God, the goodness of God, and the greatness of God. And we should thank Him for it.

Jeremiah 10:10-12 says, “But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God…He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion.”

Psalm 136:10-15: “To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever: And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever: With a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth for ever.

“To him which divided the Red sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for ever: And made Israel to pass through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth for ever: But overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

Another example of God’s great wonders was His deliverance of Israel from Egypt. The Psalmist turns from His creative activity to His salvation activity.

The Great Creator is also the Mighty Redeemer. In order to rescue His people from their bondage in Egypt, God smote the firstborn in Egypt in the 10th plague.

The Lord told Moses when He initially sent him to Egypt, “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn” (Ex. 4:22-23).

Because Egypt severely oppressed Israel, the Lord’s firstborn, the Lord threatened Pharaoh with the death of his firstborn if he did not let Israel go. Pharaoh did refuse to let God’s people go, but God was merciful and sent 9 plagues first to force Pharaoh to let them go.

Finally, the Lord at the last, after 9 previous plagues, fulfilled His threat to slay Pharaoh’s and Egypt’s firstborn.

It was because of His mercy to His people, Israel, that He did it. Smiting the firstborn became the only means of their deliverance from bondage, because Pharaoh and the Egyptians would not otherwise have allowed them to depart.

On the last night they were in Egypt, Israel was instructed to sacrifice a spotless lamb and put its blood on the doorposts. On that night God passed over their houses with the blood and struck dead the firstborn of all the houses of the Egyptians.

Because of that, by His mercy, verse 11 says that God “brought out Israel from among them,” and the children of Israel were freed from their captivity.

God brought His people out from their bondage, “with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm,” His power was revealed in the rescue of His own.

As He brought them out with power, God “divided the Red Sea into parts” and “made Israel to pass through the midst of it” safely to the other side.

But when the army of Pharaoh pursued into the sea, God “overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea,” when they were engulfed in the waters when God directed them to return to their place. It was all a never-to-be-forgotten display of the mercy of God that endures forever for His people.

God’s mercy is revealed in the deliverance, redemption, and salvation of His people Israel from Egypt. And God’s mercy is revealed in the deliverance, redemption, and salvation of sinners by the Cross of Christ.

By the sacrifice of the spotless Lamb of God who shed its blood to set us free, His mercy endures forever. By God bringing us out of our bondage to sin, we see His enduring mercy.

With a strong hand, and with outstretched arms at the Cross, by His almighty power, He has “delivered us from the power of darkness,” Colossians 1:13 tells us. For our deliverance, redemption, and salvation, we give thanks to the Lord for His mercy.

Psalm 136:16-22: “To him which led his people through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth for ever. To him which smote great kings: for his mercy endureth for ever: And slew famous kings: for his mercy endureth for ever:

“Sihon king of the Amorites: for his mercy endureth for ever: And Og the king of Bashan: for his mercy endureth for ever: And gave their land for an heritage: for his mercy endureth for ever: Even an heritage unto Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

After Israel’s deliverance, they went into the wilderness to travel to the promised land. Their deliverance from Egypt didn’t conclude the mercy of God toward Israel, because His mercy endures forever.

The Lord “led His people through the wilderness.” A pillar of cloud guided them by day and a pillar of fire by night.

For forty years, God led the Israelites through the wilderness. There were no paved highways, no road signs, no maps, no GPS. The Lord was all they needed.

He is all we need. Like He did with Israel, the Lord will lead and guide us. He wants us to follow Him. Thanksgiving was to be given to the One who led and guided Israel through the wilderness. So we should be thankful for His loving-kindness and mercy in leading and guiding in our lives, through the uncertain wilderness of life in this world.

Israel’s conduct of complaining, rebellion, and unbelief in the wilderness, tested the Lord’s mercy. After He had gloriously and mercifully delivered them from Egypt, they sought after other false gods, and they failed to trust the Lord to provide for them.

But God never abandoned His people, because His mercy endures forever. The history of God’s dealings with Israel, His care for them in spite of their repeated rebellion and idolatry, puts on full display that God’s mercy is truly everlasting.

It’s encouraging for us, because when we stumble, or lack faith, or murmur, or outright rebel, we know He will never abandon or forsake us, out of His enduring love and mercy.

Verses 17-20 show that as the 40 years in the wilderness came to an end, Israel had been led by the Lord to the gateway and within sight of the promised land.

And the Lord, on Israel’s behalf, by His mercy, fought their battles for them and triumphed over great and mighty kings and took their lands.

He “smote great kings…And slew famous kings.” The Lord made short work of these so-called “great kings” who are nothing compared to His greatness. What good was their fame? When they opposed the God of gods, they became infamous rather than famous.

Sihon and Og were the two most mighty kings who blocked the way of Israel’s entrance into the promised land. But they were no match for the God of gods, and Lord of lords whose mercy endures forever. They were routed before Him.

Joshua 12:1-4 reads, “Now these are the kings of the land, which the children of Israel smote, and possessed their land… Sihon king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon… And the coast of Og king of Bashan…”

The Lord smote Pharaoh at the beginning of the wilderness journey, and He smote Sihon and Og at the close of it. God gave Israel their land as an heritage, or inheritance. The Lord won the victory for them, and gave them their land as an act of His goodness and mercy.

And again this reminds us of the Cross. Christ our Savior is the One who has won the victory over our sins for us at the cross. And then by His enduring mercy and kindness, He gives us an inheritance in heaven. For this, we should give thanks to the Lord.

Psalm 136:23-26: “Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever: And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.

“Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

Like with Israel, God sees us “in our low estate,” or our lowest point, and remembers us, and never leaves, because His mercy endures forever. Even just the fact that the Lord to thinks about us is an act of mercy. We should thank Him for this.

In Israel’s low estate, of which there were many, such as their Assyrian or Babylonian captivity, or any other time when Israel was humiliated and oppressed by her enemies because of her idol worship and disobedience to God, God’s mercy was enduring.

And God in His forever mercy redeemed and rescued them and freed them from their enemies. He provides Israel’s needs, like needing deliverance from their enemies. And He provides for even the most basic need of all flesh: food.

A demonstration of His enduring mercy, which we see at all times, is that He unfailingly provides food for all living things. We should be thankful for our food, because God gives it. It is His provision. Every bite of food we eat can be traced back to originating from Him.

It is right and proper to give thanks to God for the food that we eat, because it is from His hand and is an evidence of God’s enduring mercy.

Thanksgiving is a day to acknowledge our dependence on God. We depend on God more than we realize. We each depend on Him for food, and by His creation, He provides.

He has provided the fruitful seasons, warm sunlight, and the rains that produce the harvest, which sustains life upon the earth (Acts 14:17). Psalm 145:15 reads, “The eyes of all wait upon Thee; and thou givest them their meat [food] in due season.”

The psalm begins with a call to give thanks to God because of His goodness. He then gives causes for giving thanks to Him: God’s great wonders in creation, salvation, and provision, which all display His enduring mercy.

In verse 26, the Psalmist implores “O give thanks unto the God of heaven, for His mercy endureth forever.” The title God of heaven is full of honor. The Lord is God in the highest realms, above all and over all.

And yet in His mercy, He condescends to us and to our low estate, and He cares for us.

By the repetition of the “for His mercy endures forever” after each statement, you find that in each event here, God was involved in it, showing His mercy and kindness. And He is involved in our lives.

He has delivered us in our salvation, He is active in our lives in leading and guiding us, and He is the provider of all of our needs.

When we stop and think about this we should become filled with thanksgiving. We don’t deserve His mercy or anything that God gives or does for us.

But God does it to us anyway because He is good. He is a good God. And as the structure of the Psalm demonstrates, out of His goodness God pours out blessing after blessing after blessing in our lives and shows us His enduring mercy in so many ways.

And so as Psalm 92:1-2 says: “It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD.”