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As Steve said, Pastor Butler's 
away and will be back on Thursday, returning to his exposition, 
I believe, in the Book of Matthew and in the Ten Commandments. 
Until that time, I trust that you'll bear with his substitute 
in the pulpit, and I trust God will give strength that it will 
be easy for you to do so. You can turn in your Bibles to 
Psalm 107. Psalm 107, as we Explore some of the riches of 
Psalm 107, verses one to nine, both morning and evening. Psalm 
107, we have good words of our God concerning his merciful deliverances 
to men. We want to rehearse Thanksgiving 
and rehearse the reasons for Thanksgiving here this morning 
and then this evening. Get into some of the specifics 
with regards to God's deliverances and why men ought to praise and 
thank their God. So this is Psalm 107, beginning 
in verse one and finishing in verse nine. The word of the living 
and true God. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, 
for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed 
of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the 
enemy and gathered out of the lands from the east and from 
the west. from the north and from the south. 
They wandered in the wilderness in a desolate way. They found 
no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul 
fainted in them. Then they cried out to the Lord 
in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. 
And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go 
to a city for a dwelling place. Oh, that men would give thanks 
to the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to 
the children of men. For He satisfies the longing 
soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Amen. Well, let 
us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You 
for Your Word. We thank You for this psalm that we just read, 
disclosing the fact that men ought to be thankful, that men 
ought to give praise to their God for His goodness and for 
His mercy delivered. And we do pray, God, that You 
would help us as we explore Your Word Give us grace to rejoice, 
to give us that presence of wisdom to understand, to take in these 
things, to glory in the truths that Your Word discloses to us, 
that we might leave this place rejoicing and seeking to live 
in light of Your truth. And we just pray that You would 
bless preacher, that You would bless hearer, that again this 
exercise of worship, the preaching of the Word, Lord, would be done 
to the praise of Your grace and to the praise of Your Most High 
Name. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen. Well, you'll remember 
that there are many types of psalms when we come to our Bibles, 
when we come specifically to the book of Psalms, we find various 
types, we find psalms of lamentation. Remember where the psalmist is 
giving formal expressions of grief over sin, over oppression, 
over those who oppose and sometimes even over the absence of God 
or the perceived absence of divine favor. Psalms of doxology. Remember what that is. That's 
psalms of praise. The psalmist simply giving praise 
to God for his multitudinous mercies and kindnesses. We have 
messianic psalms, don't we? Those psalms that set forth Christ 
in the Old Testament typically, directly and prophetically. We 
have psalms of thanksgiving like we do here in Psalm 107, where 
the psalmist is calling upon the congregation to give thanks 
to God. And in so doing, he rehearses 
various mercies and various redeeming activities of God in order to 
elicit that thanksgiving. And so we want to rehearse some 
of the texts that we find here in Psalm 107, examine them under 
two headings this morning, the call to thanksgiving and the 
general character of God that informs man's thanksgiving and 
praise. So first off, notice the call 
to thanksgiving. It's very simply, oh, give thanks 
to the Lord. Remember, and you've heard this 
from me multiple times, and I apologize, but you probably will hear this 
until God brings me home, that these calls come to men, oh, 
give thanks to the Lord, because in spite of the obvious reality 
that we should be such that are to give thanks to God, It comes 
to men who it comes to us because we can be so often marked by 
thanklessness. And so these calls come to men. It comes to redeemed men so that 
our souls might be aroused to the thing brought before us. 
In this case, the call to thanksgiving. And hopefully you'll come with 
me and realize that as the redeemed people of God, we are to be marked 
by this particular disposition. Under the call to thanksgiving, 
though, oh, give thanks to the Lord. We want to notice, first 
off, generally all men are to give thanks and praise to God. 
This hopefully is an obvious thing because of who God is and 
what he has done. Our confession says at this point, 
generally all men are to give thanks. and praise to God. Our 
confession in the doctrine of God reads this way. He is most 
holy in all his counsels, in all his works, and in all his 
commands. To him is due from angels and 
men whatsoever worship, service, or obedience as creatures they 
owe unto the Creator, and whatever he is further pleased to require 
of them. You know, the commandment here, 
the entreaty to give thanks to God, Doesn't it illustrate that 
the commands in Christianity are blessed commands? What are 
we commanded to do but to give thanks to God? What a kindness 
that God issues this command through his psalmist and the 
command is give thanks to the Lord. It's an interesting thing 
here in the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew. 
Two words are brought together. One word is the word to confess 
or to profess. And the other word you'd be familiar 
with, it's Alleluia. So when we read here, blessed 
or when we read here, oh, give thanks to the Lord, the Greek 
translators chose the word Alleluia, praise ye the Lord. And so this 
command is given and the command is give thanks to the Lord or 
praise ye the Lord with your mouths, confess Yahweh and his 
goodness and his mercy. All men, though, are to give 
thanks to God. Calvin writes this. There is 
no one who is not indebted to him for numberless benefits. 
You see, later on in actually the very next verse, we read, 
let the redeemed of the Lord say so. But you see, it is all 
men that are to give thanks to God. As Calvin says, there is 
no one who is not indebted to him for numberless benefits. 
The redeemed, yes, that makes sense, of course, doesn't it? 
That we are to give thanks to our great God for the numberless 
benefits that he has bestowed upon us. But you see, he has 
bestowed numberless benefits upon all men, regenerate and 
unregenerate alike. Turn with me to Psalm 117. Psalm 
117. A very short psalm, isn't it? 
Two verses, but notice. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Laud him, all you peoples, for 
his merciful kindness is great toward us and the truth of the 
Lord endures forever. You see, it is the case, of course, 
again, that the redeemed are to give thanks to the Lord. But 
the psalmist, because of the greatness of his God, because 
of the goodness of his God, because of the multitudinous mercies 
of his God, calls out to Gentiles and says, praise the Lord all 
you Gentiles, laud him all you peoples. Our God is great and 
he is greatly to be praised. Bibles at the ready, turn as 
well to Psalm 148. We want to tour through much 
Bible this morning and this evening. To see these connections, to 
see these truths, to see these things from Psalm 107. Notice 
in Psalm 148 and at verse 11 on this note, kings of the earth 
and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, both 
young men and maidens, old men and children. Let them praise 
the name of the Lord for his name alone is exalted. His glory 
is above the earth and heaven. And he has exalted the horn of 
his people, the praise of all his saints, of the children of 
Israel, the people near to him. You see what the psalmist does 
here, again, in the spirit of Psalm 107 and Psalm 117, kings 
of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the 
earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children, let them 
praise the name of the Lord. Generally, all men are to give 
thanks. and praise to our God, because what do we read in the 
Bible? But this motto, not this motto, but these words that truly 
sum up this reality, he gives to all life, breath, and all 
things. Men, unregenerate and regenerate 
alike, wake up in the morning and they have life. Their hearts 
are beating. Their bodies are working. They 
have strength in their bones, even in weariness and even in 
laziness and even in tiredness and even in sickness. It is the 
case that most of us brethren can rise up from our beds and 
we have strength in our bodies. We have strength in our limbs. 
We have breath in our lungs. It's a startling thing that the 
God who condescends in his goodness to give things to men that they 
are to be thankful for, like breath in their lungs, nevertheless 
use that breath to blaspheme the very God who gives it to 
them. God gives life, breath and all 
things to men. Generally, all men are to give 
thanks and praise to our God. Secondly, under the call to thanksgiving. 
This is, though, to be a definitive and abiding disposition of the 
people of God. Kids, when we say, when I just 
said now, this is to be a definitive disposition of the people of 
God, that simply means that Christians, kids, are to be defined by thanksgiving. It is to mark us. If you're a 
Christian, if you say you are a Christian, then you can't be 
one unless you are marked by thanksgiving. That is something 
that is definitive of a Christian. We are to be a thankful people. And when we say it's to be definitive 
and abiding disposition of the people of God, that means it 
is to be a continual thing in the people of God. We're going 
to see this as we work on this point, a definitive and abiding 
disposition of the people of God. First, we see this in that 
it is absent from the unbeliever. Turn with me to Romans 1. We 
see that this is to be a definitive and abiding disposition of the 
people of God, because to the contrary or on the contrary. The enemies of God are defined 
by the absence of thanksgiving, notice Romans one beginning in 
verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against 
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth 
in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of 
God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For 
since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, 
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. 
Because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, 
nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and 
their foolish hearts were darkened. You see what the absence or the 
opposite of thankfulness is? Well, we know that it's thanklessness, 
but thankfulness is set in opposition here to the foolishness of thoughts, 
futility of thoughts, foolishness of hearts, and darkened understanding. Christians are marked, are to 
be marked by a thankfulness because it is the very case that the 
unbeliever is marked by a thanklessness. They have been made known by 
virtue of creation and providence and their own conscious, their 
own consciences that testify to the reality that there is 
a God in high heaven who will judge the living and the dead. 
Nevertheless, they're thankless and they become futile in their 
thoughts and their foolish hearts are darkened. It is a definitive 
and abiding disposition of the people of God. Secondly, because 
it was at the best of times what characterized Old Testament Israel. 
You can turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 15. It is to 
be a definitive and abiding disposition of the people of God. We see 
this demonstrated at least in his people redeemed from out 
of bondage in Egypt, though many of these were unregenerate, it 
nevertheless recognizes that the people of God, in this sense, 
His old covenant people, exercised a measure of thankfulness. And this would extend spiritually 
to His new covenant people, regenerate, who are to do likewise. Notice 
in Exodus 15.1, Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this 
song to the Lord and spoke, saying, I will sing to the Lord, For 
He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider He has 
thrown into the sea." You see the thankfulness here. Well, 
we don't see a thankful, we don't see a word rendered thankfulness 
or that they gave thanks to the Lord or I will sing thanks to 
the Lord. Nevertheless, hopefully you see that there. They were 
just redeemed from out of bondage in Egypt. They were just brought 
by their God from out of physical bondage in Egypt and God had 
judged. their enemies. And so they sing 
this song that is later repeated in verse 21. But we see there 
that the people of God at the best of times were characterized 
by this disposition of thankfulness. Notice as we find our way back 
to the Psalms, thirdly, that it is the constant refrain of 
the psalmist throughout the Psalms. Hopefully when we read that Psalm 
107, verse 1, hopefully you sort of were reminded of the fact 
that I've heard this a lot as I've read my Bible. You've read 
through the Psalms. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, 
for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. That's a constant 
refrain by the psalmists in our psalms. A couple of instances, 
notice in Psalm 95, and we want to bring out a particular point 
with this instance of the phrase in Psalm 95 in verse two. Notice what we read. Well, beginning 
in verse one. Oh, come, let us sing to the 
Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let 
us come before His presence with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully 
to Him with psalms. You see what's going on here 
is the importance, and this we'll bring up later, but the importance 
of coming together as the saints of Christ in church. You may 
have a title that isn't inspired, a help added, if you will, by 
those translating the Bible. Mine says a call to worship and 
obedience. And that's right. You see, it's 
the psalmist call to the gathered assembly or perhaps even to the 
assembly not yet gathered, saying, oh, come, come to the gathering, 
come to the assembly and let us sing to the Lord. Let us shout 
joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence 
with thanksgiving. You see, there is a peculiar 
and certain reality that God is present with His people when 
they gather together in the house of the Lord. The joy it is to 
come into this place, hopefully for you, brothers and sisters, 
and you give thanks because you have like-minded saints gathered 
together. There's something that ought 
to warm the heart. When we stand up together, we open up a hymn 
book. and we sing of the glories of 
our God. If you're like me and I think I want to set a, you 
know, a figurative nuclear bomb that destroys all social media 
and the internet. I know it's helpful and we can 
find good stuff on there. But sometimes don't you find 
yourselves alone in your, you know, your whatever, your current 
events and that sort of a thing and you're just bombarded by 
the wickedness of our world. You're bombarded by the madness. 
You're bombarded by rainbows and people singing the praises 
of a woman's choice to murderously and barbarically destroy their 
child. And they're singing the virtues 
of these things. And you feel sort of alone because 
you're usually by yourself. You're on your computer. You're 
doing whatever you are with those devices, looking at these things 
of current events. And you're like, man, is everybody 
out there? against the truths that I hold 
dear. And then you can come into church. 
You come into church and be with your people who are with you, 
your God, whose presence is here and who is with you. It's a wonderful 
thing. Be thankful for that. We come 
and we sing to the Lord. We shout joyfully to the rock 
of our salvation. We come before his presence and 
we do so with what we do so with Thanksgiving. because of the 
glories of our God, because of the blessings and the benefits 
that he pours out upon us abundantly through Christ Jesus the Lord. 
This is to be a definitive and abiding disposition of the people 
of God, fourthly, because it was the disposition of the mediator, 
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're what as Christians, we're 
constantly by the grace of God being conformed to what? The 
image of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to follow after 
our savior, the Lord Jesus. And at the point of thanksgiving, 
we do well to follow after him, don't we? You can turn to the 
book of Matthew. The Lord Jesus Christ, his disposition 
is marked by thanksgiving, Matthew 11. Matthew 11 and verse 25, you 
know this verse well. At that time, Jesus answered 
and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that 
you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and 
have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed 
good in your sight. You see, God is to be thanked for his 
sovereign good pleasure in all things, the particular point 
of view, his sovereign pleasure in hiding gospel truths from 
the wise and the prudent, but revealing them to babes, a doctrine 
so maligned, even by some who say they fly the banner of Christ, 
the unrivaled mastery and sovereignty of God over all things in this 
world, even unto the point of the redemption of guilty sinners. The truth that is so maligned, 
Christ praises God for. A truth that is so maligned by 
the opponents of predestination and the doctrines of grace is 
God is thanked for by the mediator, by the God man, the Lord Jesus 
Christ. But all of that to bring us back 
to this, let's follow after our master, the Lord Jesus, and have 
hearts of thankfulness. You know, here's another thing 
that I might say too often, but hopefully it's a wholesome repetition. What ought we to do when we wake 
up in the morning? This isn't just to fill sermon 
time. When we wake up in the morning, 
we are to be marked by souls of thankfulness. Yes, because 
we draw life. Yes, because we draw breath or 
have life and draw breath. Yes, because of the multitudinous 
benefits that God physically and temporally gives us. Brothers 
and sisters, as we'll get to later, because of the mercies 
of God through the saving and perfect work of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. As Deacon Steve prayed in his prayer, we pillow our 
heads at night with thankful hearts. And we follow after our 
mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, in doing so. Fifthly, this is 
to be a definitive and abiding disposition of the people of 
God, because it is the disposition that is to mark our prayers, 
according to the Apostle Paul, isn't it? Remember what Paul 
says to the anxious, what Paul says to the worrying. He says, 
be anxious in nothing, but with prayer and supplication mingled 
with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Our disposition 
in prayer. You see, we just don't we don't 
launch into prayer. We don't fly into prayer with 
fast feet, skipping past the disposition that is thankfulness. We don't just bring our supplications 
and throw our requests at God, charging into the prayer room. 
But rather, we are to come with those controlled by the spirit, 
with a disposition of thankfulness. Paul's major point there. Be 
anxious in nothing but with prayer and supplication mingled with 
thanksgiving. Make your requests known to God. 
In prayer our disposition is to be one of thanksgiving. Not 
a give me attitude. Not this attitude whereby we 
see prayer as some sort of formula where we ask and God gives. But with hearts of thankfulness 
that have been made such by the shed blood of such a Savior and 
by the spiritual power of such a spirit, we come to God in prayer 
with thanksgiving, making our requests known to God. And the 
peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, is ours through 
Christ, the glorious Redeemer. Lastly, under this is to be a 
definitive and abiding disposition of the people of God, It is to 
be our signature disposition in all things. So to sum it all 
up, to wrap this all up, the Bible tells us that it is to 
be our signature disposition in all things, brethren. Turn 
to Colossians with me. The book of Colossians, we read 
there in chapter three, that prayer is to be the Christian's 
signature disposition in all things. Notice what we read beginning 
in Colossians 3 at verse 15, and let the peace of God Rule 
in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, 
and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell 
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one 
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with 
grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or 
deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to 
God the Father through him. You see then that it is true 
that our disposition is to be, our signature disposition in 
all things, is a thankfulness. We'll hopefully close by looking 
at some things whereby we can culture this, but brethren, we're 
reminded time and again to give thanks to the Lord because we 
need to be reminded time and again to give thanks to the Lord. 
Might it always be our disposition? Yes, we'll slip. Yes, we might 
go through a day in our busyness And whatever else, we'll have 
times of seasons where we seem like we're far from the presence 
and the favor of God. But might we always, by God, 
be brought back to the point where we rise and we fall, where 
we wake and we sleep with that disposition, thanking God through 
Jesus Christ for the benefits, for the blessings, for the glorious 
things that he gives us. Thirdly, then, under the call 
to thanksgiving, we have what is the content of thanksgiving 
and praise? You see, maybe, I don't know 
if you've ever done this exercise, and I'm just throwing out a hypothetical. A husband and a wife, they've 
been married for a long time, and they're becoming weary, and 
they're becoming, they've just maybe gone their own separate, 
not separate ways in life, but one, the husband's working a 
lot, the mother, the wife, she's wrapped up with housework and 
kids and everything else. She's schooling them, she's feeding 
them, You know, maybe there are two ships passing in the night 
and they sit down and they want to rekindle, they want to get 
back on track with their relationship, one with each other, hopefully 
prayerfully, and they sit down and they write a list of those 
things, those things that they're thankful for, one to each other, 
husband and wife, and hopefully the list can get long and hopefully 
they can sit there for a while and write, but if you've ever 
done these exercises, sometimes it's like, okay, Okay, yeah, yeah, right. And 
then you eventually get a list going. But hopefully, brethren, 
moving to much higher things, not that the relationship between 
a husband and wife should be taken lightly. It's a blessed 
gift given from God. But the point is, we're to give 
praise and thanks to our God, and right when we're called to 
write a list, the pen should hit the paper right upon the 
command, and we can keep going until eternity. Throughout eternity. What do we have? What is the 
content of our thanksgiving and praise? Well, firstly, brethren, 
generally and necessarily, thanksgiving and praise for all things. Well, 
that's an easy thing to say, preacher. But it's true, and 
let's rehearse some. The content of our thanksgiving 
and praise, generally and necessarily, thanksgiving and praise for all 
things. First off, under that, we want 
to note, we are to thank God for daily blessings, and those 
all undeserved, brethren. We thank God for daily blessings 
and those all undeserved. At this point, Pink makes a good 
observation. Gratitude is the return justly 
required from the objects of his beneficence. Let's stop for 
a moment. What Pink is saying is that thankfulness 
is rightly to be given God because of his benefits given. Gratitude 
is the return justly required from the objects of His beneficence. 
That means His bestowal of good things and benefits. Yet, is 
it often withheld from our great benefactor simply because His 
goodness is so constant and so abundant? It is lightly esteemed 
because it is exercised toward us in the common course of events. You see, we, at least in the 
Western world, We have so many benefits, don't we? So many blessings. 
Yes, we have life and breath, but we have an abundance of food, 
don't we? We have cars that most of them 
work and we can drive them. We have houses, we have clothing, 
and no shortage. Yes, there are those that struggle, 
but if we look at our lives, we can look and we can see that 
this is true. that there are so many, that 
there is an abundance of the goodness that is constant, and 
it is exercised toward us in the common course of events. 
You see, we can go through a day, we can go through a week, and 
we enjoy so many things, but do we stop along the way and 
give thanks to our God? You see, ritual is a good thing. What do I mean by that? Obviously, 
salvific ritual, ritual in order to gain God's favor, is an abomination. Empty and vain ritual of the 
pagan sort are nonsense and should never be followed after, of course. 
But at the point of thanksgiving, you know what a good ritual is? 
You know what a good custom is? Give thanks to God for your food. Oh, but you know, it's just a 
ritual. You close your eyes and you bow your head and you thank 
God for your food. Yes, glorious ritual. Why? Because at least 
there we're stopping and we're doing what is to be our disposition. We're doing what is to be our 
activity as Christians. We're giving pause to consider 
the benefit of the benefactor that he's given to us in his 
grace and in his condescending mercy. We don't deserve the food 
that we have. Remember, Pastor Butler, maybe it was last Lord's 
Day said something like this, that the only The thing that 
we deserve is what? An eternity in a lake of fire. 
Because of our sinfulness, because of our iniquity, because of our 
depravity. So when we get to cut into a 
juicy steak, or if you're a vegetarian, when you get to cut into a good 
chunk of tofu, when you get to cut into your 
blessed meal, brethren, it's undeserved. And that reality 
is to cry out, Thanks to God. That reality is to cause you 
and your soul to be stirred to a high thanks to God who gives 
us things in the face of the reality that it's undeserved. 
We do not deserve those things that he gives. So for daily blessings, 
all undeserved life, breath and all things as well, not only 
for blessing, but for affliction. That's that's why some people 
can look upon Christians who embrace this reality, thankfulness 
and affliction and can say, man, they're weird. Because that just 
doesn't ruminate with them, that just doesn't fly with with the 
unbeliever. But brethren, turn with me to 
Psalm, turn with me to Psalm 119. This is and I want to we 
want as you're turning there, Psalm 119 and specifically verse 
71. Psalm 119 and verse 71. If you want, you can read it 
before I read it. That's fine. But I want to pause here for 
a moment. You'll remember, most of you will remember, a fellow, 
a blessed brother that died a number of years back, Johnny Farese. 
He was afflicted with SMA. And he Near you know the last 
I don't know. I'm just guessing at this point, 
but it's certainly the last 20 years of his life Completely 
unable to move it may be the smallest movement of course in 
his mouth but as far as his limbs as far as large bodily movement 
nothing a withered man on a bed and Yet he was he was able to 
in that create websites with his mouth to send out prayer 
requests and to to maintain a prayer distribution list and a Reformed 
Baptist directory and do all these things with just the movement 
of his mouth. You know what he would close 
off most of his emails with? It is good for me that I have 
been afflicted that I may learn your statutes. Wow. What does that speak to? but 
a disposition of definitive and abiding thankfulness. He had 
been afflicted with this disease, and yet he did not, as so many 
unbelievers would, raise his fist to God and say, why? Why 
have you given this to me? But rather, he would close off 
his emails with, it is good for me that I have been afflicted, 
that I may learn your statutes. Oh, sure. He would send emails 
sometimes repenting and saying, Struggled this week with, you 
know, wondering why I've been afflicted for so long and that 
sort of thing. But then he would quickly collect 
himself and say, find himself back with a thankful heart at 
this text again. It is good for me. Brethren, 
blessing and affliction. In fact, in our Psalm, Psalm 
107, if we were to read the entirety of it, we would see That it is 
in blessing and affliction that we are to rehearse the praises 
of our God. We are to give thanks to God 
for both blessing and affliction. The merchant mariners, the psalmist 
says, know that truth for a certainty. Notice Psalm 107, 23. Those who go down to the sea 
in ships, who do business on great waters, they see the works 
of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For He commands and 
raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea. 
They mount up to the heavens, they go down again to the depths. 
Their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger 
like a drunken man, and are at their wits end. Then they cry 
out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their 
distresses. He calms the storm so that its 
waves are still. You ask, well, where is giving 
thanks to God here for blessing and affliction? Well, notice, 
yes, it is God who calms the storm so that its waves are still. 
But brethren, verse 25, for He commands and raises the stormy 
wind. You see, God delivers the storm. in the good pleasure of his will, 
in the wisdom that he alone has for the good of his people, for 
his own glory, and yes, for the judgment of his enemies. But 
you see, that same God calms the storm so that its waves are 
still. Blessing and affliction give 
thanks to God. We are to give thanks to God 
for the law of God. Psalm 119.62. Psalm 119 and verse 62, we give 
thanks to God for his law. At midnight, I will rise to give 
thanks to you because of your righteous judgments. And perhaps 
in view is most certainly his law, but perhaps even more to 
the point, the execution of his laws demands. Notice the language 
here is because of your righteous judgments. Well, when we get tonight to 
an examination of more of the general character of God, we'll 
note that it is a mercy of God when he judges the enemies of 
his people. Here we see, brethren, that we 
are to give thanks to God for his law and for the execution 
of it. God's law is wise. It is right. It is glorious. It is to come 
to us as honey to our lips. It is a blessed thing, his law 
and his word. And lastly, we are, this is under, 
again, the content of our thanksgiving and praise. We are to be thankful 
for the gospel. You see, that ought not to be 
a stretch that comes to your ears and hopefully you say a 
wholesome, yes, that's right. Not a yeah, right. But a wholesome, 
yes, that's right, preacher, because If all of these things, 
of all of the things, daily blessings, all undeserved blessings and 
afflictions considered temporally and physically, these things, 
remember, will fade away and will be gone. But the one abiding 
and eternal thing is what? Gospel verities that we've been 
saved by such a Christ, by such a God, through such a glorious 
work of redemption. And so we come to God with thankful 
hearts for all things. We come to him first and foremost 
and with primacy at the point of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
You look for this in the Psalms, and I believe we find it in many 
places, but Psalm 103. Verse 1 and following. Bless 
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his 
holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and 
forget not all his benefits. Now notice, who forgives all 
your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your 
life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and 
tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so 
that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Calvin says at the 
point of this psalm, and particularly at who heals all your diseases, 
and he notes some take this to mean and to assume that God, 
when he forgives us of our sins, will also heal us from our sicknesses, 
our maladies, and our physical diseases. And Calvin says, no, 
that is to restrict it. It's referring spiritually to 
God's deliverance from our spiritual death and sickness. who forgives 
all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases. Does He give 
us physical food that satisfies? Does He give us good things that 
we can eat and be sustained physically? Yes, but when we read who satisfies 
your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like 
the eagles, we're to mount up from physical things and to arrive 
at the spiritual and to say He feeds us with the bread of life. That is Christ Jesus the Lord. 
Notice what we find back in Psalm 107 at this point. Closed our 
section in Psalm 107 verse 9, we read, for he satisfies the 
longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness. Brethren, 
when you come to the word of the living and true God, you 
have food for the soul. When we cry out in hunger and 
when we cry out with longing souls, God feeds us with Christ, 
the bread of life. John 6. If you ever wonder if 
God feeds you with anything spiritually, go to John 6. Christ says, he 
who eats my flesh and drinks my blood, he has life in him. Not blasphemously referring to 
some strange and magical transformation of the elements at the Lord's 
Supper, that's nonsense. But rather speaking to what he 
had already said prior to that, he who believes in me will never 
hunger. He who comes in me, comes to 
me, shall never thirst. God feeds us with sustaining 
strength. God feeds us with His Christ, 
with revelations of His word, with the truths of the gospel. 
Remember that stuff that Isaiah brings out in Isaiah 55. Come, 
you who hunger, you who thirst, and buy without money. You see, 
we spend and we pour so much money into physical things. Now, there are things that we 
need to spend money on. Money is, that's, You know, that's 
the stuff that we need to buy stuff, to put in our mouths, 
to drive, to live, to put raiment on our backs, and to have houses 
over our heads. But you see very often, we can 
go overboard, and we can waste money on some pretty trivial 
things, can't we? Not sinful necessarily, but nevertheless, 
things of no lasting value. Things that can so often steal 
away our attention. You see, the things that we are 
to focus on as Christians with regards to the soul, certainly 
not those things. Those things should never warm 
our souls. Giving thanks to God for physical 
benefits, sure, but the things of abiding value that we're to 
feed ourselves with, the Word of God, His Christ, and His Gospel. 
The flower fades and the grass withers. The Word of God lives 
and abides forever. Brethren, we have so much. to 
thank our precious God for. We're going to move to the general 
character of God tonight. As time ticks on, we want to 
close with a few things here, a few closing thoughts. We'll 
push the general character of God that informs man's thanksgiving 
and praise to this evening. But let's close with some few 
closing thoughts here. First, we are to be a thankful 
people. That's obvious. But brethren, 
be a thankful people. Be a Christian. who is only such 
when marked by a disposition of abiding thankfulness. Remember, 
the unbeliever is marked by thanklessness. We are not to mimic and we are 
not to follow after the way of the unbeliever. That's sure and 
that's obvious. And so what are we to be then? 
If they are thankless, we are to be a thankful people. We thank 
our God for daily blessings all undeserved. We thank God in blessing 
and affliction. We thank him for the wisdom of 
his law and his word. We thank him for the blessings 
of gospel truth, the blessings of redemption, the blessings 
of salvation. Be a thankful people. Secondly, 
we are to cultivate our thankfulness. We are to cultivate, nurture, 
grow our thankfulness. How do we do that? If in the 
first place we are to be a thankful people, then how do we cultivate 
that? How do we grow that? How do we 
nurture that? I think it's simple, brethren. A large tome, a large 
book need not be written. How to cultivate your thankfulness. 
We're to come to church. Oh, here he goes again. Him and 
Butler. Always saying, come to church. 
Brethren, remember what we looked at before. Oh, come. The psalmist 
calls for the gathering of the people of God. Come and give 
thanks to God. You can give thanks to God Monday 
through Saturday to be sure. But there is a divinely designed 
and mandated and commanded gathering wherein that thankfulness is 
formally expressed. And it's in the corporation, 
the gathering, the corporate body of Christ in his church. 
That's why the psalmist so often rehearses and attaches these 
things to worship, to commands to gather together in worship. 
Remember, the new covenant announcements and declarations are no different. 
Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is 
the manner of some. Cultivate your thankfulness by 
coming to this place. Yes, you got a cracked pot in 
the pulpit and you're surrounded by other sinners saved by grace. But brethren, we with one voice 
raise a voice to God and we give him thanks and praise for so 
many things. The crowning thing of which is 
the gospel of free and sovereign grace. Prayer. How am I to cultivate thankfulness? By prayer. A Christian is a praying 
man, woman, boy, girl. Go to the Lord in prayer. Remember, 
if it is the case that a measure, a hint of anxiety or worry is 
welling up in you, hear the words of the Apostle Paul again, be 
anxious in nothing, but with prayer. and supplication mingled 
with Thanksgiving. Make your requests known to God. 
Go to our God in prayer. And brethren, you're a Christian. 
If you're a Christian, you go to God in prayer. You will find 
yourselves thanking him. You will find yourselves thanking 
him because we cannot but arrive at multitudinous benefits when 
we read his word, when we cast our eyes upon creation and providence. We can't but land on a posture 
of thanksgiving unto our God for all of his blessed benefits. 
The reading of the word. The reading of the word. How 
do we cultivate our thankfulness? Read your Bibles, brethren, because 
page after page, as Spurgeon said, chapter after chapter, 
we find Christ upon the cross working out the salvation of 
men. We come to our Bibles and we find an absolute Mine, an 
absolute treasury of things that we throw into our hymn book of 
thanksgiving and praise to our God. You go to the book of Psalms, 
hopefully that is an address of Holy Scripture that you find 
yourselves often in. Because the psalmists rehearse 
the multitudinous glories of our God. Kids, multitudinous, 
another big word. That just means a lot. I could, 
we could just probably just say a lot, but to be honest, multitudinous 
sounds great. Multitudinous glories, riches, 
excellencies of our God. We come to the Psalms and we 
have things that will fill our hymn books throughout eternity. 
We come to the New Testament. We come through the old, which 
is Christward in its trajectory. We arrive at the New Testament. 
Christ has come, and that covenant document of the new covenant 
ratified in His blood speaks of what? The glories of Christ. 
Redemption by Him. The victory of a crucified and 
resurrected Redeemer. You see, the hymn book that is 
populated by the riches and the glories of Christ is not three 
pages long, but it's an inexhaustible hymn book that will launch a 
multitude of hymns throughout eternity. We are to read our 
word, we are to read the scriptures, and we are to take from it the 
blessed, revealing truths of God, wherein he discloses Christ 
upon the cross, working out the salvation of sinners. Brethren, 
baptism in the Lord's Supper. Remember that God has instituted, 
God has ordained things whereby the grace of faith is strengthened. 
If you're a believer and you haven't been baptized, be baptized. 
Why are you waiting? Why aren't you coming in obedience 
to Christ to be blessed in that blessed pool. The water has no 
efficacy. The words of the pastor, the 
words of the one baptizing you have no efficacy in and of themselves. 
But God, through the ordinance, blesses you. Cultivate your thankfulness 
by thanking God for his redeeming activity, for giving you newness 
of life. You come up from that water. 
It's an emergence of thanksgiving. And as you look back upon that 
day throughout your life, when you went into those waters of 
blessed obedience, give thanks to your God for salvation by 
such a Christ in the Lord's Supper. That is, remember, an ordinance 
of remembrance and thanksgiving, isn't it? What are we doing? But we're remembering our Christ. 
We're remembering his redeeming work. What a blessed thing. We 
have all of those things to cultivate our thankfulness. And brethren, 
lastly, we are to rehearse God's goodness and mercy. We'll get 
to that tonight. But remember what this thanksgiving 
is rendered for or what this command to give thanks is to 
rehearse what follows. Oh, give thanks to the Lord for 
he is good, for his mercy endures forever. When you are thanking 
your God, you are to rehearse his goodness in your lives and 
his mercy in your lives at all of those points where his goodness 
and mercy come. And that is in all things. But 
remember that crowning event. Saving of your souls, the work 
of our Christ, the application, the benefit benefits of his perfect 
crosswork by the Holy Spirit of our love. We are to remember. We are to rehearse the goodness 
and mercy of our God. If you're here this morning and 
you don't know this Christ, you don't know our God, you don't 
believe in this one who is to be thanked, this one who is filled 
and perfect in his goodness and mercy. You are what we described 
earlier, one who is thankless. There might be some sort of, 
you know, measure of thankfulness that you have, but it is a godless 
and a Christless thankfulness. It's a spiritually ambiguous 
and atheistic and agnostic thankfulness whereby you're thanking something 
or someone, but you're leaving the singular one who is to be 
thanked and praised for all things. You're leaving him. You're not 
giving him the thanks and the praise that is his due, but rather 
your futile and your thoughts and your foolish hearts are darkened. 
The Bible comes and it says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and you shall be saved. The Bible says that you've sinned, 
all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. But 
you see, there is not loss if you close with Christ, there 
is much loss if you don't. But if you believe on the king, 
the redeemer, the glorious one who came into this world, sinners 
to save, who rose again to secure that salvation, who now sits 
at the right hand of the majesty on high, interceding for all 
those whom he saved, you close with him and you will give thanks 
to your God. You will give thanks for your 
Christ and you will sing the thankfulness of so great a salvation. 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. We'll 
see you tonight. Heavenly Father, we thank you 
for your word. We thank you for this psalm that 
simply discloses the command to give thanks. And we know that 
it is not a heavy and burdensome thing. to do so, but rather we 
cheerfully comply and we pray that you would give us your spirit 
that we might do so. We would give you thanks that 
we would honor you, that we would praise you, for there is so much 
to give you thanks for. We pray that you would help us, 
that you would give us strength to give you thanks, that you 
would give us daily that a presence of mind to be found thanking 
you, our precious God, for all of the benefits that you pour 
out upon us through Christ Jesus, the Lord. We pray that you would 
strengthen your saints this day and save sinners, that you would 
help us, Lord God, to go out into this world this week to 
be thankful and to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel 
of Christ. Go with us now, Father. Might all that we do this day, 
this Lord's Day Sabbath, be done unto the praise of your most 
high name. And it is in Christ's name that 
we pray. Amen.