Foundations of Truth

Thanksgiving In Psalm 100

• Dr Timothy Mann

Share episode

What if thanksgiving is not a holiday mood but a way of life that reshapes worship, work, and hope? We open Psalm 100—the only psalm explicitly labeled for thanksgiving—and trace a simple, memorable arc: approach, apprehend, appreciate. The call is loud and clear: make a joyful shout, serve the Lord with gladness, and come before His presence with singing. That’s not hype; it’s the sound of people who know their King and trust His promises.

We walk from the ancient courts of the Second Temple to the torn veil of the cross, showing how limited access gave way to welcome through Jesus. Along the way, we revisit the thank offering in Leviticus, the pilgrims’ love of Psalm 107, and why weekly gathered worship is a privilege, not a chore. Stories from believers worshiping under heat, scarcity, and hardship rekindle our own zeal and expose the thin excuses that dull our praise.

Then we slow down to know God as He reveals Himself. “Know that the Lord, He is God.” His covenant name speaks of the self-existent, promise-keeping One; Elohim declares His power. He made us, so we are not self-made; He owns us, so our lives have purpose. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus lays down His life, gathers one flock, and leads us into green pastures of grace. Gratitude becomes our daily practice: entering His gates with thanksgiving, aligning our emotions with His goodness, and letting joy rise from truth that endures to all generations.

If this conversation stirred your heart toward glad worship and deeper gratitude, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review telling us where you’ve seen God’s goodness this week.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Foundation of Truth. The Bible teaching ministry of Pastor Timothy Mann at Providence Church, Cormann Beach, Florida. Providence Church is a local assembly of followers of Jesus Christ dedicated to helping people become committed and mature followers of Jesus Christ. Now here's Pastor Timothy Mann teaching the word.

SPEAKER_01:

Psalm 100, the Bible says this make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. This is the word of God. It is a striking fact about the 100th Psalm, that it is the only one in the entire book of Psalms, in all the Psalter, as it's called, it's the only one explicitly identified as a psalm for giving thanks. You see how most of the Psalms, even in your English Bible, has a heading above it. You know, some will say, like Psalm 102 says, a prayer for the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and pours out his complaint before the Lord. So if you're feeling depressed and down and worried and overwhelmed, pray Psalm 102. It's a good one for you. Various ones will say, you know, to the to the to the music director, to the choir director, and various things that often have headings. Not all of them, but many do. This one has this heading. In the New King James, it says a psalm of thanksgiving. A psalm for giving thanks. Now, this doesn't mean, even though this is the only one that has this heading, it doesn't mean that this is the only psalm of the 150 in the book, in the Psalter, that is to be used to give thanks, of course. It's not the only one. Expressions of thanks and calls for to give thanks occur at many places in the Psalms, and there are other psalms of specific Thanksgiving besides this one. In my study this week, I was interested to find that Psalm 107 is one in particular. And of course, we celebrate our national holiday of Thanksgiving. And it's tied to those pilgrims in Massachusetts, in the colony of Massachusetts, Plymouth Rock. Psalm 107 in America is actually called the Pilgrim Psalm because it was cherished by our Puritan forerunners as a very appropriate and moving description of their experiences in coming to the New World. If you've not read Psalm 107, you should. It describes, in their minds at least, their deliverance from homeless wanderings, from imprisonment and persecutions, which they endured in Europe after they left England for a while. They were trying to go somewhere else, and it didn't work out there either, before coming to America. And then all their perils at sea, starvation, and the deaths of family and friends, which they experienced once they departed. Psalm 107 concludes: Whoever is wise, let him heed these things, and they will understand the mercy or the loving kindness of the Lord. The pilgrims undoubtedly read that psalm with tears, both of sorrow and joy, on that very first Thanksgiving. Sam Bradford talks about it in his memoirs. Also, Psalm 118, it actually uses the word thanks more than any other psalm, beginning with and ending with the challenge all the way through that psalm. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His mercy or his love endures forever. Repeats it over and over. He uses the word thanks more than any other psalm. And yet, Psalm 100 is the only psalm that is explicitly identified as a psalm for giving thanks. A psalm for thanksgiving. The New American Standard Bible and biblical scholar Joseph Rotherham renders it psalm for a thank offering, a thank offering. Or for thanksgiving. This psalm was actually used by the Jews in the Second Temple period, which was rebuilt by Nehemiah, the second temple in Nehemiah's day, in connection with the sacrifices of thanksgiving, often called the thank offering. The thanksgiving offering was also called the peace offering. It was offered in gratitude for special mercies received from the Lord. And in giving, if you go to Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 7 in the Old Testament, and giving us the various laws of the offerings in Leviticus, the Holy Spirit actually places this offering last, the thank offering. It's not mandatory, it's a voluntary offering. It's not for atonement. It's nothing along those lines. It's a voluntary offering. It is for giving thanks. This is probably because the true expressions of thanksgiving really flow from an appreciation and a gratitude of all that God has done in Christ for us, especially. It's the last offering that's mentioned in Leviticus. And the truth is, it's not until we are done with our sins and ourselves that we can truly worship as we ought to. Only then, when we've come to an end of ourselves and we're done with our sins, and we say, I don't want that anymore, that's when you can really thank God. That's when we can really worship as we ought. This psalm teaches us some things, though. This psalm for giving thanks, the thank offering, teaches us about approaching God. It teaches us about apprehending Him and appreciating Him. Approaching Him, apprehending Him, and appreciating Him. Let's dive into that just a little bit more. This Psalm for giving thanks. First of all, we see in verses 1 and 2 about approaching God. Verse 1, Psalm 100 begins with a summons here to all the lands to make a joyful shout. It's the Hebrew word ruah, shout loudly. Some of the translations say noise. Shout loudly and enthusiastically to Jehovah, to the Lord. This is actually for all peoples. It says for all you lands. It wasn't just for the Jewish people. It's for all peoples, all the earth, all nations, all ethnic groups. That's why we do missions. The very reason why we do missions is because not all peoples yet worship God, the true and living God. And want to take the gospel to them, the message, so they can hear. This is for all peoples. Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands. And so what the psalmist sees here and what he hears in his mind is the shout of the people at the crowning of a popular king. This is us, overcome with joy, because Jesus is king. And this joy also looks to a future day when King Jesus' kingdom comes to all the universe when he comes again. I mean, I can well imagine this morning what a sigh of relief will come from believers from all nations, the sheep of Matthew 24, when we realize finally that the nightmare is over. I mean, the beast, the Antichrist, is dead. The false prophet is dead. Satan has been incarcerated in the abyss. War has been abolished at last. The deserts and droughts are to be no more. Lawlessness and rebellion and corruption will never again be tolerated as a means of getting things done. Crime is gone from the earth. There will be no more need for doctors. There will be no more need for nurses or morticians. All because of this wonderful king with the nail scarf hands. Yeah, that's why we come before him with a joyful shout to the Lord. That's why. Talk about a joyous shout, this will be. And now, of course, the psalm also envisions the people of God giving thanks together in God's house. It would be accurate to express this idea that by saying that the people of God are to praise God loudly, like you guys just did, because they're happy with him. They're happy with him. Look, when you are thankful for your king, you approach him with joy. You give him praise. The text says, shout. Some translations say noise. But all say joyful. All say joyful. Charles Spurgeon, the famous preacher of the 1800s, said of this verse. He said, Our happy God should be worshipped by a happy people. Right? Look, I'd much rather be a part of the happy clappy than the frozen chosen. Much rather. Our happy God should be worshipped by a happy people. He goes on to say, a cheerful spirit is in keeping with his nature, his acts, and the gratitude which we should cherish for his mercies. Now there's a time to be silent before God. There's a time to be very reverent before God. But there's a time for a joyful noise, for a joyful shout when you are approaching the King of the universe. Hey, Jesus Yeshua is king. He's king, he's king of kings, he's lord of lords. But our shouting, our shouting ought to lead to serving him. For he is the only true God. And one of the ways you serve him is in glad worship, like today. Verse 2. Serve the Lord. That word serve can be translated, worship the Lord. But worshiping him is one of the very first ways you serve him as his servant. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. The word presence in verse 2 can be rendered face. Come before his face. The essence of all true worship. The essence of all true service to the Lord is to come into the presence of the Lord and to appear before his face in adoration gladly. You know, at best, the Old Testament Hebrew can only do this from a distance. The Gentile, like me, like probably most of us in here, unless you're an ethnic Jew. The Gentile from even a greater distance. People were given an access to God, but it was limited access, very limited. Between the sinner and a holy God, a number of barriers were erected in the Old Testament. There was a gate to the tabernacle or the temple, giving entrance to the outer court. Once the gate had been passed, the seeking sinner was confronted with an altar and a laver, a bowl, to teach him that he needed a radical and recurrent cleansing. And even when he'd been accepted at the altar, unless he was a priest, he could go no further. He had to remain in the outer court. It's as far as he could go. If he were a priest, he could pass the door, enter the holy place, and enjoy the benefits of the table, the lampstand, and the golden altar. But he could go no further than that unless he was the high priest. And he alone, the high priest, after an elaborate ritual preparation once a year, he could lift the final veil, he could pass through the barrier and come very haltingly, very scared, fearfully before the presence of God. All that I just described for you, listen, the cross on which Jesus died has changed all that. It's changed all that. King Jesus changed all that. And because of the death of Jesus on the cross, we have access right into the presence of God through Christ. Access. We have access. The story is told of a little boy who many years ago went up to London to visit the king, early part of the 20th century. But he could not get into the palace. The gates were closed against him, and a soldier stood guard, as they do. Several policemen were walking up and down to move people along. But the boy exclaimed, But I came to see the king. The policeman said, Can't help that, sonny. You're not allowed in there. About that time, a very well-dressed gentleman came along and overheard the conversation. He said, What's the matter, boy? He asked, and the boy replied, I want to see the king. Well, you just come with me, said the gentleman. He held out his hand and the boy took it. To his surprise, the policeman made no attempt to stop him, nor did the guard. Indeed, in fact, the guard sprang to attention and presented arms when the policeman unlocked the gate, and in they went along the corridors right into the presence of the king. That little boy had taken hold of the hand of the Prince of Wales, Prince Edward, the king's own son, and that gave him access to King George. I'm telling you, that is the birthright of every genuine believer today. You have been taken hold of by the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has taken you by the hand, and by repentant faith you took hold of his, and that assures you of access to the presence of the Father. You have a high privilege that you did not have before. All because of the Son, Jesus Himself. And the call here to approach God is to serve Him, to worship Him. It's a call, it's a command. To serve the Lord with gladness, come before His face with singing. These are imperatives, these are commands. He's saying, Do this. Do this. Not just it'd be a good idea. Do this. And since our bodies, if we are saved by grace through faith, are a temple of God's Holy Spirit, we should worship the Lord as we walk throughout each day. We should serve the Lord as we walk throughout each day. But we should also acknowledge the Lord by gathering with his people for worship every week. Unless we're sick at home or traveling away on vacation, we should gather with his people every week for worship. Just as the psalmist extended the call here to worship, so we as a local church extend the call from God to come and worship the Lord God. Sadly, many professing believers do not answer this call. Many simply disobey God's command to assemble with other believers. Oh, and they've got all kinds of excuses. All kinds of excuses. Others do go to church, but they do so grudgingly or half-heartedly out of duty or obligation. And sometimes, look, sometimes I'm glad you did just show up out of duty. Don't get me wrong. I'm a little glad that you feel obligated. That's good. But our attitude and truth about going to church to worship the Lord should be one of anticipation and joy. Never should we have to say, I have to go to church today. Actually, to the contrary, serving the Lord and going to his house is a high privilege, and it ought to be among the greatest joys in our lives. Saw pictures this week from uh David. He and Florence have been in Thailand of these, in the rural village in Thailand of these believers gathered around in the bush, basically, to hear the gospel preached. Listening to my brothers in Haiti yesterday on a call, the the board meeting about the brothers and sisters who, because there's no fuel, by the way, there's not been fuel for 10 weeks in Haiti. None. Walking miles to get to come together in an open air, lean to, basically, to come together and worship the Lord. And I'm gonna tell you what, you think Florida's hot? Uh Haiti is about 20 degrees hotter and more humid. Look, I'm telling you, going to his house and serving the Lord is a high privilege and it ought to be one of the greatest joys of our lives. We should serve the Lord cheerfully and worship him wholeheartedly. The truth of the matter is this: anything less, anything less than serving him cheerfully and worshiping him wholeheartedly, anything less is unworthy of him and his great glory and his love that he's demonstrated toward us while we were lost. This psalm teaches us that if we're going to give thanks to God, we have to approach him with a joyful acknowledgement of his kingship and serve him gladly and sing before his very presence. I want to ask you, is this how you approach the one to whom you owe all thanks? Is this how you approach him? It teaches us about approaching God. It also teaches us about apprehending God. Apprehending. That's a weird word to think about sometimes as it relates to this, but it really means to seize, to lay hold of, to grasp, to understand, to comprehend. I used it to help you remember it. Approach, apprehend. Verse 3. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. So the psalmist here has a threefold grasp of the truth concerning the king. First of all, we see his person. He says, Know that the Lord, he is God. In other words, that's a that's a uh uh tetragrammaton, grammaton, that word Lord, that's really not what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew says Jehovah. Yeah. You say, well, doesn't it say Jehovah? There's really no J in Hebrew, it actually is a Y. Yehovah. Jehovah. He is Elohim. That's the Hebrew word. God. Jehovah, he is Elohim, says the psalmist. This is a truth concerning his person. This is who he is. Yeah, that that uh uh I am, that I am, is the name by which God revealed himself to his people. It's the name by which he swore when he made his covenant with us, with his people. His name guarantees that he will keep his promises at all costs. He'll keep his promises at all costs. God, the word we use, Elohim, means the all-powerful, mighty one. The all-powerful, mighty one. So, what this is telling us is that this self-existent, covenant-making, promise-keeping one is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present. He is the one and only true God, and the one and only true and living God who is sovereign over all things. And the psalmist said, know that fact. Know it. Apprehend it. Comprehend this truth. This is his person. To know the Hebrew Yedah. It means to know personally, intimately, and by experience. Apprehend him, grasp him in this way, understand him in this manner. Know that the Lord Himself is the all-powerful, mighty one. He is God. You need to know his person. But also we see his power. It is he who made us, and not we ourselves. It is he who made us, not we ourselves. God, Elohim, is the creator. He made mankind, and therefore we are his. He formed our bodies and our souls. Psalm 139, 14 through 16 talks about that. He crafted our spirits and blew his breath, the only source of life, by the way, into us. We live, move, and have our being. We live and breathe and exist because of him. Acts 17, 28. We are not self-made. We are made by God, who personally and individually created and designed us, mankind, for fellowship with himself to enjoy the fullness of the glory of his presence forever and ever. And accordingly, because of this, he is our rightful owner. He's our rightful owner. Matthew Henry, the great Puritan commentator, once wrote, he said, He, meaning God, has an incontestable right to and property in us and all things. His we are to be actuated, that's to be used. His we are to be used by his power, disposed of by his will, and devoted to his honor and glory. What happens when we do not know God as creator? Well, we imagine then that we're our own creators. That's what we imagine. Or that we're some random fluke. Some random accident. You know, that nothing plus nothing created everything. And this is what lies behind the surprisingly persistent appeal of the lie of Darwin's evolution. The appeal of evolution is that it does away with the need for God. It does away with the need for a creator. Now I know there's some, you know, supposedly Bible-believing people who try to somehow merge Darwin's evolution with some kind of idea of theism that, well, God could have used evolution. God could have, you know, listen, you need to reject that lie. Because that immediately, that immediately casts doubt on the authority of God's word. When some guy, look, and I'm gonna hurt your feelings here just for a second, all right? When some popular guy out of Atlanta that's the pastor of North Point Church, I'm not gonna call any names, but his initials are Andy Stanley, when he says something like this, when he says when the Bible and science collide, science must win to every must win every time. What has he done? He has just then denied the authority of the Word of God, tried to explain it away in a humanistic, secular way, and to say, in reality, you don't need to take it too seriously. If you're a fan of his, I hope you're not anymore. Because he's denied the authority and the sufficiency of the word of God. In other words, to say the word of God is enough. And while the while the word of God, while the Bible is not a science book, I want to tell you everywhere that the Bible addresses matters of scientific truth, it is absolutely 100% accurate. The appeal of evolution is it does away with the need for God. It attempts to dogmatically explain how things are, how things got to be as they are, without any all-powerful divine creator behind them. And of course, if we don't need God as our creator, then we don't need to be thankful. Right? We don't need to be thankful. I mean, why should we? We got here by ourselves, thank you. We have actually no one to thank but ourselves to thank. And another way we imagine that we are our own creators is by a very inordinate admiration of our own abilities and our own achievements. You know that the very reason that second after second that your heart is beating and breath is going in and out of your lungs, that's not because of you. The very creator who made you in a less than a split second could decree your physical death and you'd be done. Here by his mercy. Even Dr. Yoon couldn't save you. And he's a good doctor. If it was God's will. Listen, it is only when we know God as our creator that we know ourselves as his creatures. And when we know ourselves as his creatures, then we find ourselves appropriately thankful to him. That it is he who made us and not we ourselves. Some translations say we are his. And we are his. Yeah. Oh, how we need to apprehend God's power again. His person and his power. We see his purpose. We are his people, the sheep of his pasture. David recognized that fact on a very personal level in Psalm 23. It was a comforting truth. The Lord Jesus has declared himself to be the good shepherd of the sheep. Who's so glad in David's heart? I would say to you, even more important than knowing God as creator is knowing him and his purpose as redeemer. Which is what the words here, his people and the sheep of his pasture, ultimately refer to. It's hard to, at this point, to not think of David's very moving and personal expression of faith in God as his shepherd in Psalm 23.1, when he said, The Lord Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want. I shall not be in want. Or we think of the way that the Lord Himself, the Lord Jesus, explained it to the disciples in his very extensive discourse on himself as the good shepherd, which is recorded in John 10. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. Listen, the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, the hireling, is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. He said, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my sheep know me, just as the father knows me and I know the father. And again, he says, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold, this sheep pin, but I must also bring them along. They too will listen to my voice. And there shall be one flock, one herd, one flock and one shepherd. If there's no other reason why we must be thankful to God this morning and throughout this week and in truth, every day of our life, it is because he has both made us and redeemed us. No one should be more thankful to God than the sheep who are cared for by the Good Shepherd. Nobody should be more thankful than you. You need to apprehend that God has a purpose of gathering his sheep. Are you one of his sheep? Is Jesus your shepherd?

SPEAKER_00:

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever. That's Isaiah 48. Thanks for tuning in to the Foundations of Truth Podcast with Pastor Timothy Man from Providence Church in Ormond Beach, Florida. Join us next time. And until then, keep building your life on God's eternal truth, the Bible.

Head Shot

Dr Timothy Mann

Host