“Give thanks to the Lord”
[Psalms 136]
Last week, during the early morning prayer service on Saturday, I thought about the ‘spiritual filter.’ The reason I thought about it was because I heard through someone who came to fix the water purifier in the church that the problem of our church water purifier was the filter. Just as the water purifier filter had a problem and the drinking water didn’t come out well, I thought that there was a problem with the church spiritual filter that wasn’t properly expressed. In particular, this thought was based on the words of Ephesians 5:15-21. Here, “the spiritual filter” refers to “wisdom.” In other words, our church has been taught that with the wisdom of God, with spiritual discernment, we must accept what we suppose to accept, and not accept what we shouldn’t accept. Therefore, we have learned to save time and understand the will of the Lord to live a life filled with the Holy Spirit. And we have learned that such a life filled with the Holy Spirit is expressed in three ways. They are praise/worship and thanksgiving and obedience. In other words, those who are filled with the Holy Spirit praise and worship God, always give thanks to Heavenly Father in their hearts, and submit to each other in the fear of Christ (vv. 19-21). Are we really living a life filled with the Holy Spirit?
At last week's Wednesday prayer meeting, we were urged to “Praise the Lord” based on Psalms 135. In the meantime, in Psalms 136:1, the psalmist exhorts us: “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” The reason the psalmist exhorts us to give thanks to God is because God is good. In Psalms 135, the psalmist exhorted us to praise the Lord because He is good. But in Psalms 136, he exhorts us to give thanks to Him. In Psalms 136, he exhorts us to give thanks to God, repeatedly saying 26 times in each verse, “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” The reason why we should give thanks to God is because our God shows us His goodness by loving us with His eternal love. In the past and now, God revealed and is revealing to us His goodness. And in the future, our God will reveal His goodness to us. Why is our God showing us His goodness in this way? The reason is because God loves us with His everlasting love.
In the meantime, the psalmist gives four more specific reasons why we should give thanks to God in Psalms 136:
The first reason is because God is great (Ps. 136:1-3).
Look at Psalms 136:2-3: “Give thanks to the God of gods, For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” The psalmist says that we must give thanks to the Lord because He is a God who excels in all gods and all lords, that is, our God is the true God among the gods and the true Lord among the lords. In other words, he is saying that we should give thanks to God for being who He is, that is God. I remembered the Korean Gospel song “Oh His name is one we raise above all names”: “Oh His name is one we raise above all names/ Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord/ Let us all now kneel down and glorify the King/ Jesus is lord of everything/ Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord/ Let all the universe join in/ To praise and sing, to glorify the king/ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus is Lord.” The reason we should give thanks, praise, and worship God is because our God is the superior God and Lord of all lords. This great and good God is still loving us with His everlasting love. Therefore, we must give thanks to our great God.
The second reason is because of the great wonders that God made heavens and the earth (Ps. 136:4-9).
Look at Psalms 136:4 – “To Him who alone does great wonders, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” While meditating on the words of Psalms 135 during the Wednesday prayer meeting last week, we learned that the second specific reason why we should praise God is because of God's natural grace (135:6-7). The great God who created the heavens and the earth (v. 5) is the God who moves everything in nature. God is still in charge of all things big and small in the natural world according to His pleasing will (v. 6). God is also moving to bring the precious people He has chosen to live on this earth. Therefore, we have been taught that we must sing praises to God for this natural grace of God. In Psalms 136:4-9, the psalmist is telling us to give thanks to God for the great wonders that God created the heavens and the earth. He says that the first reason to give thanks to God is because He is who He is, that is God(vv. 1-3). And here in verse 4 he says to give thanks to God because of the great wonders that He alone does. Here what is God’s great wonders that He does alone? The psalmist is talking about the great wonders in verses 5-9. The great wonders that God did alone is that He made the heavens with skill (v. 5), spreaded out the earth above the waters (v. 6), made the great lights (v. 7), made the sun to rule by day (v. 8) and the moon and stars to rule by night (v. 9). He says that we should give thanks to God for the great wonders of God who made the heavens and the earth. Almighty God, who created the heavens and the earth, is revealing to us His greatness through all things He created. Therefore, we must give thanks to God for seeing His greatness through the heavens and earth that He created. I remember the Korean gospel song “Great Is The Lord, And Greatly To Be Praised”: “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, In the city of our God, In the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation the joy of the whole earth, Is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, The city of the great King. Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah! Sing Hallelujah! The city of the great King.” We should give thanks to God because the great Lord has accomplished great works and revealed His great glory.
The third reason is because God has redeemed us (Ps. 136:10-22).
The psalmist said in Psalms 136:10-22 to give thanks to God because God delivered the Israelites from Egypt and performed great wonders (v. 4) in the wilderness at the time of the Exodus. He told them to give thanks to God because God struck the firstborn of Egypt (v. 10) with His strong hand and an outstretched arm (v. 12), so that he brought the Israelites out of Egypt (v. 11) and divided the Red Sea (v. 13). After letting them pass through like land (v. 14), Pharaoh and his army fell prostrate in the sea of the Red Sea (v. 15), made Israel pass through the midst of it (v. 16), smote great kings (v. 17), mighty kings (v. 18), Og, king of Bashan (v. 20), and gave their land as a heritage to Israel (vv. 21-22). This speaks of a special grace that God gave to His beloved chosen people, His own possession for Himself (135:4). In other words, the reason why we should praise and give thanks to God is because of God's saving grace. Since we who have received God's special grace, we must give thanks to God again and again. God, who loved us and chose us and delivered us from the kingdom of Satan like Egypt is leading us in this world like the wilderness. Because God who gave us eternal inheritance and eternal life, we must give thanks to God as those who have received the grace of salvation.
The fourth and last reason is because of God's providence (Ps. 136:23-26).
In His providence, God works in the lives of His people to reveal His glory by protecting, guiding, and supplying His people whom He loved and chose. God's providence, which can be seen in Psalms 136:23, is the fact that God allows the Israelites to be “in our low estate”. Here, “our low estate” refers to the Israelites being taken captive to Babylon. Why did God allow the Israelites to be in that low estate? The reason was because of the sins of the Israelites. When the Israelites sinned and then didn’t repent, God put them in the low estate as a result of their sins. As a result, the Israelites convicted of their sins in the low estate and repented. At that time, how did God response? God delivered the Israelites from their enemies (v. 24). God, who used Babylon to discipline the Israelites, His beloved children, when they sinned against God without repentance, eventually struck Babylon and rescued the Israelites from their hands and brought the Israelites back to the land of Judea. And then God gave food to all of them (v. 25). We should be grateful to God for giving us our daily bread. We must be grateful for the lovingkindness of God who gives us our daily bread. We must give thanks to the God of heaven (v. 26). Why? The reason is because of God’s lovingkindness is everlasting (v. 26).
In order to know the measure of our faith, we can see how often the confession of thanks to God comes out of our mouths. If we simply give thanks to God while experiencing God's grace and love, then we are truly mature believers. However, if we complain with our mouths, then we are immature believers. Let us all give thanks to God. The reason is because God is God. Also, let us give thanks to God for the great wonders of God's creation of heaven and earth and His grace of salvation. Also, let us give thanks to God for God's providence. Let us give thanks to God for putting us in a low estate and delivering us again and giving us our daily breads.
I have no choice but to give thanks to God,
James Kim
(As I trust God’s providence)