I will give thanks to God with all my heart
and will praise Him forever.
“Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart, In the company of the upright and in the assembly. … The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.” (Psalms 111:1, 10)
In commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the founding of Victory Presbyterian Church, we are holding a revival meeting. Yesterday Friday, the message God gave me through the pastor’s sermon was ‘Only by the saving grace of the Holy Triune God’ (Eph. 1:3-14). I was told that God the Father loved sinners like me and chose me before creation, Jesus the Son redeemed me by dying on the cross, and God the Holy Spirit sealed and guaranteed me. After receiving this message, we all praised God wit the gospel song “How great is Your love.” That night, I sat in a chair in the church's pastoral room, looked for the gospel song on the Internet YouTube and listened to it over and over again (singing and playing the violin). Particularly when I heard the song being played by a young sister in Christ on the violin, I was thrilled. After that, I started reading Psalms 119, which should be read at the morning prayer meeting for the last day of the morning prayer meeting in preparation for the revival meeting, and then went back and meditated on Psalms 111, which I had already meditated on during the morning prayer meeting this week. As I read and read the words of Psalms 111, I focused on the words of verse 1b and verse 10b.
In Psalms 11:1, 10, the psalmist gave thanks to God with all his heart and said that praising God should continue forever. What was the reason? The reason was because the great works that God had done (v. 2). He was pleased with the great works God had done, so he studied them (v. 2). In particular, he studied what God did to the Israelites in the past of Exodus, which can be divided into three steps:
The first step is that God brought the Israelites out of the hands of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, through Moses, by bringing 10 plagues to Egypt.
Look at Psalms 111:4 – “He has made His wonders to be remembered; The LORD is gracious and compassionate.” Here what was God's wonders remembered by the psalmist? These were the 10 plagues that God brought upon Egypt at the time of the Exodus. The psalmist not only remembered but studied these great wonders of God (v. 2). This was the confession of the psalmist who studied His wonders: “The Lord is gracious and compassionate” (v. 4). Like the psalmist, we also should enjoy the great wonders God has done in our lives. And we must study them. As we look back on our past, we must remember the wonders God has done for us. The wonder of God we must remember is that through Jesus, the true Moses, He delivered us from the kingdom of Satan, that is like Egypt. How did God set us free and deliver us from the kingdom of Satan that we used to be slaves to sin? That is, God delivered us from the Satan's kingdom by making Jesus, the begotten Son, who is the Lamb of the Passover, to die on the cross like the tenth plague that fell on Egypt. When we remember this great wonder of God, we must confess, like the psalmist, that God is gracious and compassionate’ (v. 4).
The second step is that God gave food to the Israelites in the wilderness.
Look at Psalms 111:5 – “He has given food to those who fear Him; He will remember His covenant forever.” Not only did the psalmist remember and study the great wonder of God who delivered the Israelites from Egypt, but also he remembered and studied God’s feeding the Israelties for 40 years in the wilderness. He remembered all the way which the Lord God had led the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years (Deut. 8:2). And he remembered God feeding them with manna (v. 3). When God rained down manna upon them and fed the Israelites to eat and gave them food from heaven (Ps. 78:24), the confession of the psalmist was, “He will remember His covenant forever” (111:5, 9). Like the psalmist, we must rejoice in the great wonders that have been done by God in our lives and study them. As we look back on our past, we must remember that God has given us daily bread. In particular, we must remember the heavenly food that God gave us, that is Jesus. In other words, we must remember Jesus, who is the bread of life (Jn. 6:48). We must remember the eternal covenant that God made with Jesus. Although the first Adam disobeyed the word of the covenant made by God, Jesus, the second Adam, obeyed the word of God until He was crucified and died. As a result, God has forgiven all our sins and saved us according to the promise made with Jesus. We are forgiven and saved in Jesus Christ and have eternal life. Therefore, we who have this eternal life must confess, like the psalmist, “Holy and awesome is His name” (v. 9).
The third step is that God gave the Israelites Canaan, the promised land, as an inheritance.
Look at Psalms 111:6 – “He has made known to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations.” What is the inheritance that God gave to His people, Israel? It was the land of Canaan, which is “the heritage of the nations” (v. 6). God showed His power by giving the promised land, Canaan, to the Israelites (v. 6). God was with Joshua and the Israelites and made them to conquer the land of Canaan (Josh. 18:1). God destroyed the seven tribes of the land of Canaan and gave it to the Israelites as an inheritance (Acts 13:19). The true “Joshua” is Jesus (the meaning of the two names is the same – “God is salvation”). And the true “land of Canaan” is heaven. God gave us forgiveness of sins (redemption) and salvation (eternal life) through Jesus' death on the cross. And God became our inheritance (Deut. 10:9). Because of the Lord, who is our eternal hope, we have come to “a better country” (Heb. 11:16). We, who experience this power of salvation, must confess like the psalmist: “The works of His hands are truth and justice; All His precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever; They are performed in truth and uprightness” (Ps. 111:7-8). We say, ’The work of salvation that God does is truth and justice. We must confess, “They are performed in truth and uprightness” (vv. 7-8).
What was the psalmist's confession when he studied the great works that God did to the Israelites? Look at Psalms 111:3 – “Splendid and majestic is His work, And His righteousness endures forever.” What is ‘the work of God’ here? It is “redemption” (v. 9). God redeemed the Israelites and saved them. The psalmist realized that the saving righteousness of God stood forever and confessed, ‘God is splendid and majestic’ (v. 3). And he said, ‘I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart. I will continue to praise Him forever’ (vv. 1, 10). Like the psalmist, let us remember and study the great work of salvation that God has done for us, so we wholeheartedly can give thanks to God and praise God forever.
With the redemptive grace of Jesus, who became the Passover Lamb who died on the cross to deliver such sinner like me from the kingdom of Satan,
James Kim
(Going toward that heaven, following the guidance of the Shepherd Lord in this wilderness-like world)