Cultvating Thanksfulness Psalm 135

Well, good morning, and welcome to Faith Bible Church. See some faces here, and I know there's many more that are at home. And we say hello to you. Our prayers and our greetings go out to you, and we're just thankful that we can gather in the manner that we are and that we can project and communicate via YouTube.

We'll take that one as well, and we're thankful that we can continue to try to be together as a church. This is a difficult time. You know, we're really meant to congregate, to be with each other, but we have to wait on the Lord and trust Him, because He knows our path, He knows our trials, He knows our struggles, and He is in our midst, and we thank Him for that.

Continue to be encouraged. The elders, Victor and I, and John is sharing with us in this process as well as we're pursuing an opportunity with the church, and more of that will come out over time, but we're trying to not make this a high and a low, and a high and a low, and yes and no, and yes and no.

We want to be solid about what we ultimately can present to you, so anyway, keep it in prayer, and they're encouraging activity there, so we're thankful, so certainly something to be thankful for. And so, we're going to do it a little different today, but we're going to sing through, before you stand, we're going to sing, We Gather Together.

To Massie, now cease from distressing, sing praises to his name, he forgets not.

Before we continue, we're going to have, this is Thanksgiving week, and as a believer, really, every week ought to be Thanksgiving week, right? But we want to take a little time now to reflect on God's goodness, things that we are thankful for, to acknowledge Him, even in these times, especially in these times, that even through the trials, and the difficulty, and the crises that are going on in our country, and the uncertainties of it all, God is there, and we need to continue, that is when we draw upon our faith even more, is in time of trial, in time of difficulty, so Janet's going to play through, We Gather Together a couple times, and I'd like you to each, individually, take a moment, heads bowed, and just pray to the Lord, and express your thankfulness and gratitude for Him, for what He's given us, and then we'll continue singing after.

That.

So, let's pray together silently. Our Lord God, we are so grateful for your mercy, for your grace, for your love, that even in these trying times, Father, you are there, you are guiding us, you are showing us a better way, Father, through this challenging time, Father.

Thank you that you love us abundantly, that Lord, we do not need to lean on our own understanding of the things that are going on around us, because we don't understand the things that are happening, Father, but you do, you know, and may we trust you now, Lord.

And Father, continue to allow us to have a heart of gratitude, a heart of thanksgiving at all times, that we might see you in a way that will just draw us to yourself, Father. Father, we ask that you would bless us this morning as we draw near to you in worship, together, in hearing of the Word, we pray for Pastor John, that you would bless him, and use him, Father, as your instrument in proclaiming the truth of the gospel, Father.

So, Lord, we commit our time to you, and give you praise in all things, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Let's stand together as we continue to sing, as we gather together.

He chastens and hastens his will to make known the wicked oppressing, now cease from distressing. Sing praises to his name, he forgets not his own. Beside us to guide us, our God, with us joining, ordaining, making divine.

So from the fight we are winning, our song be the triumph. Congregation, escape tribulation, by name be us free.

Our next song is Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart, in giving thanks and seeing the providence of God through trials and difficult times.

Rejoice, ye pure, rejoice, give thanks and sing. Give thanks and see the saints, the strains of Gen Z.

Grateful heart. I love this song. I've known it for many years, and it normally brings tears to my eyes. It's very emotive, and so really think about the words, and let's give thanks with our hearts. Let us give thanks.

Please be seated. Jim, will you come up for the scripture reading?

Good morning. Good morning. Our scripture reading for this morning is found in Psalm 135. Psalm 135. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the same name of the Lord. Praise the Lord, ye servants of the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant. For the Lord himself hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.

Whichever the Lord blessed, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places. He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the rain. He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.

Who spoke the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast. Who sent tokens and runners into the midst of the old Egypt, upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants. Who spoke great nations and slew mighty kings.

Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan. And gave their land for inheritance, and heritage unto Israel his people. Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.

For the Lord will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants. The idols of the heathens are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see not.

They have ears, but they hear not. Neither is there any breath in their nostril mouths. They that make them are like unto them, for it is so is everyone that trusteth in them. Bless the Lord, O house of Israel.

Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. Ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth not at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. May the Lord bless you to His reward.

Thank you so much, Jim. Well, we're going to go to Psalm 135 in just a few moments. But before we go there, would you join me and go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. In the New Testament, almost all the way through, 1 Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

We had a real blessing. I think some of you know that both my daughters are involved in a national speech and debate league. So we go to tournaments in California and sometimes in other states. But it was a debate tournament, and it was down in Modesto area at a Christian school.

And there was about 150, 140 high school students. All the men were dressed in coats and ties. All the young men dressed in coats and ties. All the ladies were in business attire. And I got a chance to visit with quite a few people that I haven't seen for a while.

And a number of them, one in particular, you know, was joking about some of the things that are going on with COVID. And this one guy said, yeah, we're celebrating with all of our family. All of our brothers and sisters are coming to our house for turkey.

And I'm making a sign for the front yard that says the French Laundry. Which is the name of the restaurant that our governor went to at $350 a plate with no masks and no social distancing. And I thought, what a neat idea.

And I said, I took it one step further. I said, why don't we all get in our cars at around 1030 at night and start driving the streets, waving American flags and drive for four or five hours in the middle of the night just to break the curfew.

I mean, really, you think about it. There's a curfew from 10 p .m. to 5 a .m. How many people are out mingling at 10 a .m. I'm sorry, 10 p .m. to 5 a .m. Not me. I'm in bed. So we're going to go to Psalm 135 in a moment.

But my daughters did very well. It requires a certain, you have to get so many points and have so many wins. This is the first time they're both partners in a debate. They do what's called team policy debates.

So it's two against two. It's a historical method of debating. And then another method is called Lincoln and Douglas, going after the famous debate between Abraham Lincoln and Douglas. And where Abraham Lincoln won.

And these young ladies qualified, got one what's called a checkmark to qualify for the national finals.

How about that?

Am I a proud dad? So let's pray. Father, we're so thankful for this day, for the great blessing of being together. We think of those that are at home that are not here joining us. I just personally, as a pastor, I want to give each of them a hug.

I want to say hi. I want to tell them how much we miss them. I want to tell them how wonderful it is to be together and to worship the Lord. And Lord, we pray that as we turn to your word this morning, that our hearts would be encouraged and strengthened, God.

We pray, Father, most of all for your glory. We know that you're a good God. You're an amazing God. That you knew, because you're omniscient, before the foundation of this world, that our country would be in the position that it's in right now.

We know, God, that because you're all powerful, that you can stop this virus and what the politicians are doing with this virus and the media. You can do that right this moment. Because we know, God, you are all powerful.

But we also know, God, that your ways are higher than our ways. So as we turn to your word, we ask, God, that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher, that he might empower the word, that he would point us to Christ.

Even if we're watching by video, God, we pray, God, that you would just empower your word to strengthen the hearts of your people, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen?

So for about the last 10 years or so, we've had a garden where we grow vegetables, various vegetables. Always have tomatoes, almost always have squash, eggplant, peppers, green peppers. I love green peppers in my salad.

So we have green peppers and we have beans. I built this kind of trellis out of concrete framing material, so we have beans. And everybody that has a garden or has ever had a garden knows that it takes some work and some effort.

The soil needs to be prepared, often through rototilling. We have quite a large garden, so I rototill it. So that the fresh soil, the soil that's down underneath comes up and it has a chance to get oxygen and nutrients.

And a lot of times, almost every year, but sometimes I don't get around to it, you're supposed to put compost in there. Ideally, right now would be a great time to spread compost and let the rain put it in.

If the soil was a little more dry, I would rototill it right now and get that compost in there, so it has a chance to just work its way through the soil all winter. You add fertilizer oftentimes in the spring.

You level it out. And this process, all of that work, is called cultivating. You cultivate the soil. And the word cultivate actually means to prepare and use land, listen, to prepare and use land for crops or gardening.

That's the actual word. Now, this is an extremely difficult year for millions of people around the world and in the United States. We were just talking about that before the service with Barb and one of the ladies.

Just the challenges that are going on right now. And right around the corner is a national holiday called Thanksgiving. And the idea with Thanksgiving is to be thankful. And the reality is that sometimes it can be quite challenging to be thankful.

A friend of mine used to say, John, you need an attitude of gratitude. Those were in the days when I couldn't afford a new tire for my car. I mean, some of you remember when your muffler used to go out and you didn't have the money for a muffler, they had muffler tape.

So you crawl under the car and you wrap your muffler with this tape that supposedly will keep it. And and within, you know, 25 miles of tape blows and it's. So today, as we look ahead to this Thanksgiving holiday that the government says we should celebrate alone.

I want to look together at some lessons from God's word about being thankful, especially and specifically about some ways that God's word tells us we can cultivate thankfulness. The Thanksgiving holiday was first celebrated, as we know, by early immigrants to North America.

There was about one hundred and ten people on the Mayflower. Almost all of them were Christians, were solid Bible believing believers that had been born again. A few were just God fearers. They believed in God, but they had not been saved.

And they had come from Great Britain to this country. Listen to me carefully. They had come to this country. To get away from government control over their worship of God, they wanted religious freedom.

They wanted the freedom to worship God apart from government control. Does that sound a little familiar? Roughly half of the first immigrants to the United States died in their first winter here. And the half that did survive dedicated a number of days.

Really, a whole week to celebrate and give thanks to God for his loving and watchful care over them. So this morning, in honor of what is now a national official holiday in the United States, I want to speak with you.

The message title, if you have your notes, is Cultivating Thankfulness. And my focus this morning is not going to be on just being thankful in general, and just that whole idea of a feeling like Harold talked about when we sing that song, Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart.

It's a favorite of mine. There's something about the melody, the way that that song, that chorus is written, that it just generates a thankful heart. Give thanks with a grateful heart. But the idea and the truth that I want to drill into is how to cultivate thankfulness and being thankful to God.

And maybe there is a bell ringing in the back of your mind, because the Bible is very clear about believers being thankful. In fact, the Bible is very clear that it is God's will and his desire that his children be thankful.

God's children are specifically told in God's word to be thankful again and again. And again, what I'm saying is not being thankful in just that general sense, but specifically to be thankful to God. Christians are to be thankful people.

Now, if you look here at 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul is ending this first letter to this young church, Thessalonica, at which he only was able to spend just a couple of weeks. One of the only churches where he spent that short a time.

The church is Galatia, probably a year and a half. Ephesus, three years. Rome, not at all. So you have the Book of Romans, which is, you know, his magnus opus, as it were. And you come to 1 Thessalonians and he's wrapping up this letter.

And he says in verse 16, rejoice always. How often? Why did we sing the song? Rejoice, you pure in heart. Right. Rejoice always. Pray. How often? Without ceasing. Verse 18. In everything, give thanks.

In everything. Wow. Everything? Yeah, everything. In the Greek, everything means everything. Yeah. You mean when I get the flat tire? Yeah. You mean when your child who's learning to drive almost gets you in an accident?

Yeah. That's in everything. Right. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. In Ephesus. I mean, I'm sorry. In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul told the believers in Ephesus, do not cease giving thanks.

He told them in Ephesians, chapter five, verse 18, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with hymns, songs and spiritual songs, singing, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Ephesians five, he says, let no filthiness and silly talk or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but giving thanks. First Corinthians one, four, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, the Father.

Philippians four, six, be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 317, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Giving thanks to him. Giving thanks to him. God's people should always be giving thanks. And this attitude and disposition is not to be limited just to Thanksgiving or birthday parties or when we get a raise at work, but giving thanks at all times.

Christians are to be and should be thankful people. Now go to Psalm 135. It is God's will for his people to be thankful people. And yet experience teaches us and tells us that sometimes being thankful.

Listen, I don't know about you, but sometimes being thankful. Isn't automatic and it doesn't happen in a vacuum. You know, it's dark in a room. And we come in and we flip the switch and the light goes on, right?

Simple. But at times being thankful isn't as simple as flipping on a light switch. You know, I've talked to many people over the years, and there are times when even sincere believers can find it challenging to be thankful to God.

And the blessing and the encouragement that God's word has to offer us this morning in Psalm 135 is that this Psalm lays out a kind of how to instruction sheet when it comes to having a thankful heart.

Now, this year was kind of interesting. We put our garden in. It was late because of the weather that we were having in in March and April. So I didn't it was just too wet to till. But we were having problems once we got the tomatoes in.

I was like, honey, we need to get the tomatoes in. I went and bought little I think one or two tomato plants and put them in a pot because it kept raining. If you remember, it was raining all the time.

So the so the garden soil just wasn't drying out. So I put a couple in a pot just to get started, you know. But we were having once we got them in just like there's no the little yellow flowers. They're not coming in, which is what turns into a tomato.

If you know tomatoes, the little yellow flowers that that gives you a tomato. And so she Googled and she goes, I think I know what it is. I don't see any bees out there. They're not getting pollinated.

What do we do? Run to Home Depot, get they recommended marigolds and lavender. So we popped some marigolds in the in the garden and then we put a lavender and a thing. And within a day or two, we had bees.

And very shortly after, we had the little yellow flowers. Guess what? Google was right about that. I don't know what else it's right about. So in the same way, there are times when we aren't necessarily feeling thankful to God or we aren't being thankful to God.

Or we're finding it a challenge to be thankful to God because of the circumstances we're facing. And the truth is, listen, the truth is we're hardly in the mood to be thankful about anything with that stuff going on.

I mean, I got to take my car. I mean, we just bought the car. We got to go put new tires on. The check engine light came on. Oh, no. Another thousand dollars. So my prayer is that we understand this psalm more fully.

We can learn some things that are helpful when it comes to cultivating thankfulness. We added marigolds and we added that lavender to our garden and we began to see fruit. We began to see yellow flowers and pretty soon we began to see those tomatoes.

So what does Psalm 135 tell us to add to the soil of our heart and our thinking so that we can be more thankful? Now, if you look at the psalm, I want you to look at it in your mind's eye, the overview, all 21 verses, because this psalm follows a classic Hebrew poetry pattern called chiastic, a chiastic structure.

And if you were to diagram it, and I would put it maybe on a slide for you, basically what happens is in a chiastic structure, the first two, three verses are the main message. Then you will have all kinds of support.

And then you come back and you have the main message. And the reason they wrote this way is to make sure you got the message. OK, so if you look at verses one and two, Jim, thank you for reading it. Praise the Lord.

Praise the name of the Lord. See the word praise, praise, praise. So there is this call and this charge to praise the Lord. Verses one and two. Then when you read through it and you go verses three through 18, he gives you reasons why you should praise the Lord.

There is this call to praise the Lord. Then there is all these reasons why to praise the Lord. And then he comes back again in verses 19 to 21, and he tells you here is this charge again, beginning in verse 19, to praise the Lord.

So the call and the charge to praise the Lord, then repeat it at the end. Get it in your head. So the psalm follows the chiastic structure of Hebrew poetry. It is meant to emphasize a particular message or truth.

And the purpose of the psalm writer here is to encourage believers to praise and thank the Lord. So it is through this lens of praise, through looking through this lens, this call to be praising God, that believers can find the basically, if you want to put it this way, the biblical truths, the fertilizer, right?

The water, the sunshine that will cultivate thankfulness, that is a fruit of having a joyful relationship with the Lord. People cultivate gardens by tilling the soil, by adding compost and fertilizer, by watering, by pulling weeds.

This year we added marigolds and lavender to attract bees. And all of these, all of this work together to produce the vegetables we're still enjoying. OK, so what do we learn in this psalm about having a joyful relationship with God that will in turn cultivate and produce thankfulness?

Cultivating Thankfulness Begins with Praise

Number one, cultivating thankfulness requires obeying the call and the charge to praise the Lord. I want to say that again. Cultivating thankfulness requires obeying the call and the charge to praise the Lord.

This is how the psalmist begins the psalm. He says in verse one, by the way, the exclamation points at the end of the very first part of the verse, at the end of verse one, those exclamation points are not in the original Hebrew.

They are put there by the translators to help us understand the enthusiasm. And, you know, sometimes people, they kind of get put off. If the pastor gets kind of excited about a message, it can get, oh, I'm a little overwhelmed.

But the idea here is praise the Lord. Come on. Praise the name of the Lord. That's the idea. OK, and I'll calm down now. O ye servants of the Lord, you who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

That's the idea. So what I want you to do to get some traction from this psalm. As we work our way through it this morning and we won't get too far through it, but we'll get some. What I want you to do, if you can, listen to me.

I want this to mean something to you. OK, so here's what you need to try to do. It's going to take some humility. It's going to take some honesty. Overlay your attitude and your disposition this morning when we were singing.

As hard as that one song, a little rejoice, kind of hard for us guys to get up there. But overlay your attitude and your disposition when you're singing the Lord in the church. Or when you're at home and it's time to do your daily devotions.

Overlay your attitude and your disposition, your state of mind with what we're going to learn in this psalm. OK, because there's a number of truths here about praising the Lord that are significant in understanding what it means to cultivate thankfulness.

OK, first of all, it begins with the word praise. The word praise comes from a Hebrew word, the root that is that is the giving off of light. I can't pronounce it properly. Pastor Bernstein could. That man, I'll tell you what.

I sat here. We all did. Sunday after Sunday. Some he nailed biblical pronunciation. I went up to him and I said to him one time, I said, Pastor Bernstein, he goes, what, John? I said, I have been pronouncing that word wrong for 20 years.

He goes, well, I just you know, you know how he was. Right. I just made sure that that I had him down. And I'm Jewish, remember. So he nailed it. Right. Did something happen? Are we OK? OK, so the word the root word that is translated praise here refers to the giving off of light by celestial bodies like the light from stars.

Now, how far away is a star? They say there are millions of light years away and we can still see them. Have you ever looked at the sun? Astronomers say and astrophysicists say that the sun is like a star, but the star is millions of light years away.

The sun is a lot closer. Right. What happens to you when you try to stare at the sun? You go blind. That's how bright it is. That's the word. So to get a handle on the meaning of this word, it's significant and its significance to being thankful.

Imagine for a moment how you how you feel when you're out in the woods away from all the lights of the city, the light pollution, and you look up into the nighttime sky and you see millions and billions of stars.

You ever been camping? And you ever looked up into the nighttime sky? I don't know about you, but to me, it's overwhelming. It is unbelievable that there's so many stars that we could see the light to.

So think of that swelling of the heart and the awe at the majestic beauty of stars in a clear nighttime sky. Another way the word was used was to help people to understand the contrast between being in the dark and in the light.

OK, so the word was used to describe that feeling. If you can imagine being in a dark tunnel and your walk, there's no light, you have no flashlight, the flashlight is burned out. You're in this tunnel, but way up ahead, you see this little spot, speck of light.

And it's so dark and you're feeling claustrophobic and you're feeling and there's bugs and stuff and you're going through this tunnel and the light keeps getting bigger. You know that feeling, can you imagine it?

Can you? And you're going down that tunnel and as you come out, you burst into the light. Praise God, I'm safe. You know that. Can you relate a little? That's the idea. You're overpowered by the light.

So the psalmist here is talking about the bright and full, overflowing enthusiasm in our praise and our worship of the Lord. It's like I've been to some baseball games and you're in the crowd and your team is down.

I've been to, I don't know, maybe four baseball games in my life. When we first moved to Arizona, the Arizona Diamondbacks, was that the name? They were winning the World Series for the first time. And this church, every like 90 percent of the church, I've never seen it before.

They were like Diamondback fans and they were screaming and yelling. And we finally went to a Diamondbacks game and you can't believe these people screaming and yelling. That's the idea. That's the idea.

Now, there's something else, because not only is that characteristic of the praise of God's people. Notice what he says. He says, praise the name of the Lord. And this is so helpful and so important to understand, because God's use of names in the Old Testament, names are very, very important to God.

Remember, he changed Abram to Abraham to communicate a message. He changed Peter's name. He changed Saul of Tarsus that killed Christians and persecuted Christians. He changed his name from Saul to Paul.

The psalmist says, praise the Lord. And then he modifies, he strengthens that. He doesn't just keep saying, praise the Lord. He then says, praise the name of the Lord. And he's using the personal name of God.

Most of your Bibles, when you look at those, the name Lord there, they're all capitals. And that's to tell you that there is a significant difference between in the Old Testament. When you come across the word Lord, L-O-R-D, where the O-R-D is lowercase and L-O-R-D, they're all capitals.

When in the Old Testament you see the name Lord, the word Lord, and it's all capitals, and then you also can differentiate other times where you see it capital L, lowercase O-R-D. When it's all capitals, it's the name Yahweh.

The name Yahweh is the personal name of God. It's like when you're referring to somebody, there's a huge difference between somebody's personal name and just this person sitting there, right? Like if I'm looking at Victor, and I go, that guy sitting back there.

You're going, who is he talking about? That guy sitting back there. But if I say Victor or Mr. Arnett, does that change everything for you? That's his personal name. And the moment that you say Victor, you think about the fact that he was at Jeanette's house this week fixing something.

And then last Saturday, he was down here fixing a light bulb. And the Saturday before that, he was doing, right? Everything that you know about Victor as a man comes flooding in, or Harold, or any of us, right?

That's the idea. This is his personal name. And the idea here is God, listen, later in the psalm, he talks about idols. Verse 15, the idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.

They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear, nor is there any breath in their mouth. Beloved, compare those idols to Yahweh, who speaks to us, who knows us.

Every hair on our head is numbered, who is all powerful, who spoke this world into being. That is the idea. God is not some abstract idea, some statue on the wall of a Chinese restaurant. He is a personal God that is personal to his people.

So the psalmist here, by using the name Yahweh, is calling our attention to the character of God. He's calling our attention to all that God is, all that he reveals to his people about himself to his people in his word.

The idea here is that both God and his character are worthy of our time and our effort to think about today and every day. I was at that tournament yesterday, and I was judging kids, and I couldn't stop thinking about my kids, because they're my kids, right?

They're my daughters, because they're my daughters. Our God is worthy to think about. He's a personal God. His character and his nature and who he is is worthy of our enthusiastic, joyful praise and thanksgiving.

Now, apparently, listen, this issue of praise is so important, and it's so important. It is important enough that the psalmist calls out three major groups of people to praise the Lord. Notice that he says, praise the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.

Look at this. Praise him. O ye servants of the Lord, praise him. You who stand in the house of the Lord, praise him in the courts of the house of our God. So the first group, the end of verse one, are servants of the Lord, servants of the Lord.

This likely refers to the priests who served in the tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple. They were specifically and especially designated to lead worship priests. They're the ones who offered the sacrifice.

They're the ones who, when you brought the sacrifice, told you, what did you do? Why did you do it? What were you thinking when you did that sin? OK, cut the throat of this animal and stop sinning. Another group was those who stand in the house of the Lord.

Most likely, this was the servants in the temple, because the temple had all kinds of things that had to be done. When people gave offering at the tabernacle, when they brought offerings, they would have to be taken to the treasury.

So there were servants that did cleaning and help the priests with things like that. There's two basic groups of priests from the tribe of Levi, but only the line of Aaron represented the priesthood. So these two groups, the servants of the Lord and those who stand in the house of the Lord, likely represented all of the Levites that had been specially called into the service of the Lord to lead God's people in worship.

And then he says there's a third group. Those who are in the courts, those who are in the courts, those are the people that are not Levites. They're the ones who are standing all around observing the worship.

The area of the temple that was reserved for the priests was for priests alone. Those who stood in the courts, all the rest of Israel. What is he saying?

Everyone, everyone here.

Jim, you, Katie, you, Kim, you, my daughter, Jackie, Jim, all of us get together. Everybody here, praise the Lord. Let's get together and let's cheer and let's praise and let's shout to the Lord. That's the idea.

Amen.

Now, if you can get that picture. Hopefully you begin to get a better idea about thankfulness. See, because it should be because of what the psalmist is saying here. That cultivating thankfulness is an outgrowth of knowing and remembering and reflecting on who and what God is.

And walking in those truths about God. See, most of us have many things to be thankful for. And we should be. You know, we should be thankful to God that we have a roof over our heads. We should be thankful to God that we have the financial means to have clothes and food on the table.

We should be thankful to God for family. We should be thankful to God for things like the freedoms and the opportunities that we have in this country. And cultivated soil is where a productive garden starts.

So we cannot and should not forget that in the same way. Thankfulness is rooted and cultivated through a meaningful relationship with God. And friends, that relationship is possible today because of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Beloved, we learn in this psalm that cultivating thankfulness is a result of having a joyful relationship with God. And the cornerstone of the foundation for that kind of relationship with God is obedience.

Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey me. And the obedience that is being called to here is to praise the Lord in this way. To praise him like the lights of heaven light us up and take our breath away.