I love the Lord, because He hears my voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I shall call upon Him as long as I live. The cords of death encompassed me and the terrors of Sheol came upon me; I found distress and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord; “O Lord, I beseech You, save my life!”

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yes, our God is compassionate. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For You have rescued my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, I shall walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I believed when I said, “I am greatly afflicted.” I said in my alarm, “All men are liars.”

What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His godly ones. O Lord, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bond. To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and call upon the name of the Lord. I shall pay my vows to the Lord, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people, in the courts of the Lord’s house, in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! 

Notice with me a few things about the heart of the writer. Verses 1 to 4 - the first paragraph - is the pouring out of this man’s heart. In many ways a description of where we live life.

This past week the San Francisco Chronicle - on the editorial page - commenting on the Inaugural of our new Governor - the editorial article said, “We have gone from assuming the business of government would be gridlocked for years, to a reasonable hope for progress.” One reason they listed for that hope was, “Things can’t get much worse.” (1)

That’s optimism. Remember Murphy’s Laws? There’s hundreds - maybe thousands of these Murphy Laws.

“If anything can go wrong it will.”

“Any time you put an object in a ‘safe place’ it will never be seen again.”

“Your best golf shots always occur when playing alone.”

“Traffic is inversely proportional to how late you are, or are going to be.”

“The other line always moves faster.”

“If everything is going right something is wrong.”

And, one of my favorites, “Murphy was an optimist.”

We laugh at these - just like the Chronicle editorial - because we often find ourselves feeling this way.

In verses 1 to 4 we’re reading the heart cry of a man aware of his frailty - his mortality - a man of physical and emotional needs. Beyond living the day-to-day issues that we all live with this man lives in distress and anquish. His life is one of affliction and tears - hopeless. Each of us perhaps could list deeper things that we struggle with.

Then notice, starting with verse 5, there's a change - a description of the deliverance of God. "Gracious is the Lord - our God is compassionate - when I was in great need He saved me - I walk before the Lord in the land of the living." I live because of God!

And again, we can identify with the heart of this man. Listening to the to the sharing this morning we’ve heard hearts share these feelings. With what we go through in life - when we turn to God - even if we haven’t always followed Him or obeyed Him - when we’ve turned to Him - and even when we haven’t turned to Him - He’s always been there. God loves us. God cares for us. God meets our needs. He hears our prayers. He's working to deliver us. He's compassionate towards us - merciful and gracious to His children.

Beginning in verse 12 the heart cry of the psalmist turns to thanks giving - our focus this morning. “What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits towards me?” How great is God’s goodness towards us! He’s given us everything. How can we give thanks to God? To respond adequately to Him?

I’d like to give some emphasis to answering this question. To help us respond and give thanks to God. We need to give thanks. Not just today. But every day. How do we do that? Looking at verses 12 to 19 - there are 3 observations that I’d like to share with you.

The first comes in verse 12. In an exclamation of praise and thanks giving the question is asked, "How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?" (NIV) Notice the focus of that question - the Lord. God is the focus of this entire Psalm.

The first observation is this: THANKS GIVING IS HONORING GOD. Would you say that with me, “Thanks giving is honoring God.”

Especially since September 11th - 2001 - and with the war in Afghanistan and Iraq - it’s become politically correct to again say “God Bless America” - to invoke the divine. It’s become politically correct to “thank God.” But which god? Today there’s a movement to equate church with mosque and with synagogue - to create a politically correct god - a generic god who has very few - if any - expectations of us - who blesses us because he should.

A while back I read about a report written by a 4th grader who wrote a politically correct paper on the origins of Thanksgiving. He wrote: "The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what. When they landed, they gave thanks to you know who. Because of them, we can worship each Sunday, you know where." (2)

So often the focus in thanksgiving is on us - on what we get - what God does for us - rather than God - who gives.

In 1623 - when the Pilgrims gave thanks - there was no confusion as to who God is and all that God had done for them. William Bradford, the Governor of the Plymouth Colony - wrote this: "To All You Pilgrims: Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all you Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at the meeting house, on the hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November the 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, the third year since you Pilgrims landed on Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to your pastor, and render thanksgiving to Almighty God for all His blessings." (3)

As the crisis of September 11th is fading in our national memory - as a nation - we’re slowly slipping back into our old pattern of self-sufficiency and the godless business of our lives. We’re becoming distracted again by our own self-sufficiency - forgetting the simple truth of God’s presence - His faithfulness towards us - His provision - His love and care that sustains us.

When we begin to focus on God - in humility we must admit that we need God to bless us. We need days like today - weeks like this coming week - to give thanks to God - to honor God - who despite ourselves - chooses to give to us.

Second observation: THANKS GIVING IS PERSONAL. Say that with me, “Thanks giving is personal.”

Two men were walking through a field one day when they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly they started running toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they weren't going to make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other, "Start praying, John. We're done for it!"

John answered, "I can't. I've never prayed publicly in my life."

"But you have to!" yelled his companion. "The bull is catching up to us."

"All right," panted John, "I'll say the only prayer I know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: 'O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful.'" (4)

Psalm 116:13 is personal: "I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord." The cup is not just any cup. It’s the cup of salvation - the cup is symbolic of our life and relationship with God - the blessings and experiences that are given to us by God.

Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane - in prayer before His arrest, trial, crucifixion and death - blood coming from Him like sweat - prays, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not my will but Thine be done." (Luke 22:42-44)

Later that night - as Jesus was arrested - Peter takes out his sword and in this bold - heroic - foolish act of defending Jesus - cuts off the right ear of the High Priest's slave Malchus.

Jesus says to Peter - as He's healing the ear of the slave - Jesus says, "Peter put your sword away. The cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" (John 18:1-11)

At their private meals - the Jews had a cup of blessing - that the Head of the Household would drink from. In drinking from the cup - the head of the household gave thanks to God - first - acknowledging that his life and blessings were all from God and secondly he presented the cup back to God - symbolic of giving his life back to God.

To give thanks for the blessings of God is to accept the life - the cup - He offers. We respond to the blessings of God by saying, "Not my will. Not my life. But, the life you have given me is yours." Thanks giving is personal. We give thanks by giving ourselves to God.

Third observation - THANKS GIVING IS PUBLIC. Together, “Thanks giving is public.”

In Luke 17 we read that Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. On the way He enters a village on the border between Samaria and Galilee. Ten lepers, standing at a proper distance - standing away from everyone else because they’re unclean - diseased - these 10 lepers call to Jesus. Their cry is for pity - mercy - something to help alleviate their misery. That was the way these hopeless men had to get their needs met. They’re simply conducting business - like a person living on the street who begs for a living. Lepers begged for what they needed to live.

Jesus meets the need of these social outcasts in a way that they really didn't ask for or could have ever imagined. Jesus instructs the lepers to go to the priests for the legally required declaration of health. In those days it was the priests who determined if someone was sick or not - clean or unclean. As they go - on the way the lepers are cleansed.

We know this story. For whatever reason, nine healed lepers continue on to Jerusalem. One leper - the Samaritan - the most despised of the group - when he realized that he was healed - returns to Jesus - praising God at the top of his voice - in front of everyone who was there - he throws himself at Jesus' feet and thanks Him. (Luke 17:11-19)

Thanks-giving means indebtedness. Responding in thanks giving to God means that we admit our inability - our inadequacy - our lack of self-sufficiency. Like lepers where only a miracle of God - only the gracious blessing of God - can heal us.

God doesn't deliver us just so that we can feel all wonderful about our lives and go on our merry way - soaking up His blessings and using them for ourselves. God delivers us - and protects us - and provides for us - and has saved us - so that we can publicly testify of His graciousness and righteousness and compassion - of who He is and what He's done.

This is what Psalm 116 says - in verse 14: I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people - and in verse 19 - in the courts of the house of the Lord - in front of all God's people - in your midst, O Jerusalem - in front of the entire city. Praise the Lord!

As individuals - and as a church - we should be like the 10th leper. To return to Jesus - to fall on our knees - completely prostrate without pretense and pride - in humble thankfulness for what God has done.

How can we give thanks to God? First - Thanks giving is honoring God. Second - Thanks giving is personal. Third - Thanks giving is public.

By way of thinking through how all this applies to us today I’d like to make 4 suggestions - 4 practical things we can do to give thanks - not just at thanksgiving - but every day.

1. Take time alone. Find time daily - weekly - regularly - sit down alone with God and consider His blessings. Make a list of all His blessings in your life. Then thank Him for each one.

2. Give Him thanks by giving Him control of your life. Whatever the cup He’s given you to drink from - wherever He is leading you - whatever the circumstances - thank Him - trust Him - give Him control. In some situations that may not be easy.

You might want to read through Psalm 116 and think about how God has blessed you in the past - and the assurance that He is working in your life. Or you might think about what God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:11: "I know the plans I have for you....plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

3. Come together as families and share His blessings - be public with your thanksgiving. Share what you’re individually giving thanks to God for. Talk about how God has preserved and blessed your family. Our kids and grandkids - nieces and nephews need to know that God is working in your life - and they need to see the example of thanks giving in us.

4. As a church let's continue to give thanks to God - to praise Him publicly - together - for His blessings. What we’ve come here for today is not to celebrate ourselves. Today - and every Sunday - we come to praise Him - to testify of His goodness. Our Service of Worship is a service for His benefit.