As we prepare to hear the Word of God today, let us turn to the Lord in prayer, asking Him to bless the reading and preaching of His Word. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we do acknowledge before You how gracious and kind You are to us, Your people. How You do indeed love to show Your grace, to make Your ways known to Your people. And we are thankful this morning for Your Word. and for the assurance that is ours that in the scriptures we have your true and utterly reliable word. Your word which speaks to us of your goodness, of your grace, and of your mercy. Your word which leads us to understand you, and to turn to you, and to rely upon you. And so we pray, O Lord, that you will send your Holy Spirit among us, that we might be attentive to the reading of your word and to the preaching of your word. We pray that your word would lead us today especially to be a more thankful people and a people more fully aware of how great, how glorious, how good you are. Hear us then and bless us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please turn with me in the word of God to Psalm 136. One might say that there is a psalm for every occasion, but it would seem that particularly in days of Thanksgiving, the psalter is full of encouragements to us. And so we turn to a Thanksgiving psalm this morning, Psalm 136. I'm going to read it just a little differently than you'll find it in your NIV Bibles in terms of the refrain. But let us give attention now to the reading of God's Word. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His love has no end. Give thanks to the God of gods, for His love has no end. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His love has no end. To Him who alone does great wonders, for His love has no end. Who by His understanding made the heavens, for His love has no end. Who spread out the earth upon the waters, for his love has no end. Who made the great lights, for his love has no end. The sun to govern the day, for his love has no end. The moon and stars to govern the night, for his love has no end. To him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for his love has no end. and brought Israel out from among them, for his love has no end. With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, for his love has no end. To him who divided the Red Sea asunder, for his love has no end. And brought Israel through the midst of it, for his love has no end. But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea, for his love has no end. To him who led his people through the desert, for his love has no end. Who struck down great kings, for his love has no end. And killed mighty kings, for his love has no end. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his love has no end. And Og, king of Bashan, for his love has no end. And gave their land as an inheritance, for his love has no end. An inheritance to his servant Israel, for his love has no end. To the one who remembered us in our low estate, for his love has no end. And frees us from our enemies, for his love has no end. And who gives food to every creature, for his love has no end. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his love has no end. So far the reading of God's word. This is a psalm that is remarkable in a number of ways. It's remarkable as a clear call to thanksgiving. We are called three times at the beginning of this psalm to give thanks to the Lord. And the psalm concludes with that same call, give thanks to the Lord. It's a psalm that's unusual also because of its repeated refrain. I'm sure you noticed that. For his love has no end. It's almost as if he doesn't want us to forget that. There are other psalms that have refrains, but seldom, if ever, more than a refrain repeated two or three times. And in that sense, this psalm is unique. It hammers away a theme that he wants us never to forget. We have no trouble forgetting, do we, the three times repeated declaration of the angel that we have in Isaiah chapter 6. Holy, holy, holy. That has been made into a glorious hymn. It's often repeated. It's preached on how essential the attribute of holiness is to an understanding of our God. And that's entirely true. But here, 26 times we are reminded that His love has no end. That's why we are preeminently to give thanks to God. Because he is so good. Because he is so faithful. Because he is so kind. 26 times we are reminded. I think because we're inclined to forget that his love for his people has no end. This psalm goes on in a striking way to talk about this loving God as the God of creation and as the God of redemption as the God of splendor as the God who rules over all the pretentious gods and lords and rulers of this world and then in a somewhat peculiar way moves from this universal grandeur of God to mention Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan not household names not among the Bible figures that we know best or remember most not actually mentioned very often in the Bible and this psalm reminds us that God is in charge of everything but that doesn't just mean he's in charge of the big picture but it means he's in charge of all the particulars of life. Even things that we forget he has remembered and cared for and planned. And then as if the psalmist almost anticipated the essential character of this day for most of us in this country, he says in verse 25, give thanks to God, he who gives food to all flesh. I must confess that maybe that's part of the reason I chose to preach on this particular psalm. What is more appropriate for this day, where probably many of you already rose early to begin to prepare meals, than a psalm that concludes celebrating God's goodness in giving food to every creature and yet when we pause to think about it it also seems a somewhat strange way for this psalm to approach its conclusion again such grand and glorious things have been said about God it's a little bit peculiar that at the end we come back to what we might think is a slightly mundane observation that he gives food to all his creatures. Now, those of you who have been planning menus and shopping and gathering recipes and cooking for days may think it's only an insensitive male preacher who could call this a mundane activity. And yet, in the splendor of things, we often take food so for granted. And I think this psalm wants to say to us, in all that God does, in all that God has done, in all that God will do for us, his people, in who he is and in what he does, food is a wonderful way to think about summing up who our God is. He is a God who gives. And every time we eat, we really should remember, And give thanks that he is a God who gives us the food that sustains us. Both the physical food that sustains our daily physical lives. And the spiritual food that daily sustains our spiritual lives. Food is a wonderful symbol throughout the scripture and throughout our lives. of the care, of the presence, of the goodness and kindness of our God. And so I want you to think with me a little bit as we look through this psalm on this theme of food as a source of our thanks, but even more as a source of our understanding of who our God is. Food as it points to God the giver and God the creator. and God the Redeemer. First, God the Giver. You notice how He's celebrated in this psalm. He's celebrated, first of all, as the one who gives out of His supreme power. Our God is the God of gods. He is the Lord of lords. He is the God of heaven. He is the majestic one. He is the supreme one. There is no challenge to His authority. He has no competitors for control. That phrase that concludes this psalm, he is the God of heaven, is a phrase often used in the Scripture, particularly in thinking about God in relation to the unbelieving and Gentile world. He is in control of all things. And out of that supreme power, he gives to his people. That's what this psalm celebrates. He doesn't above all demand. He doesn't above all array himself like some monarch to be served. But he is above all, in that power, a God who gives because he is a God who loves. Give thanks to the Lord. And there it's the covenant name of God. Give thanks to the one who keeps covenant with his people. Give thanks to the one who has gathered a people for his name. That refrain, as I read it, has been translated for his love has no end. But that word love there is that remarkable Hebrew word that talks about God's covenant faithfulness, his covenant care, his loyalty to his people. There is no end to that loyalty. And it's out of that character of God as not just all-powerful, but also all-loving for his own, that he gives, and he gives, and he gives. And that's why we are called to give thanks. For we should meditate on that wonderful love of the Lord for His people. A love that surrounds us and goes with us and buoys us up and cares for us at every point. The psalmist celebrates this throughout the Psalter in a variety of ways. We read in Psalm 33, verse 5, The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Sometimes I think we get the impression as Christians that we're a kind of small and besieged community. And however small we may feel our community is, or the extent of the church in a world where there is so much unbelief, this psalm reminds us that spread throughout this whole world is testimony to the covenant love of God. And in a profound and an amazing sense, God bears witness to that truth by giving to every creature food. The Apostle Paul raises that searching question, doesn't he? 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7. What do you have that you have not received? What do you have that you have not received? And of course, we are Americans. We pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It's by our own hard work that we've accomplished what we have. It's by the sweat of our brow. And this is not a sermon to sit back and be lazy. But it's a sermon that says no matter how hard we work, No matter what we have accomplished, we have to stand back and recognize that ultimately the strength and health that we've had, the success that we've had, the opportunities that we've had, the very energy and will to work that we've had, is all a gift from the hand of our Creator. And that in a profound sense, every time we raise a bit of food to our mouths, whether the way our mothers would have us eat with forks or in some more obscure and barbaric manner, we ought to acknowledge that we have that food only from the hand of God. What do you have that you have not received? Psalm 145 says, The Lord is good to all and His mercy is over all He has made. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His works. Something of the generosity and kindness of God is present in every bite of food that every creature receives. This theme is elaborated for us in Psalm 104. where having talked about the creatures that God has made, the psalmist goes on to say, These all look to you to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed. When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send forth your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. You see, at every moment, God is the one who gives to his people and sustains what they have. And when we pause this afternoon or this evening at tables groaning with food, We ought to think about how that wonderful variety speaks something of the goodness of our God. He delights, that we should delight in the good things that he has given us. He doesn't give us just crackers. Wouldn't that be awful? All the time, only crackers. Even if they're very, very good crackers, how boring that would all become. But that's not what our God does. He gives to us such abundance, such variety, and delights when we delight. Ecclesiastes 3.13 says, Everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil. This is God's gift to man. And there is something so revelatory about the very nature of God as we think of our God as one who gives. That's who He is for His people. And so we should give Him thanks. God is not only the giver in a general sense, but this psalm celebrates how He is a giver in His whole plan of creation. This psalm says he made the creation in wisdom. He had a plan. Some of you have been involved in building one way or another. You've got to have a plan. You'll never get to an end. At least people have told me that. I have no understanding of such things. But I've been assured that you'll never have the building you want at the end if you don't have a plan at the beginning. God had a plan at the beginning. It was according to wisdom and understanding that he made this world, That He made the heavens. That He brought the land up out of the sea. And He ordered that world in wisdom so that there would be light. The sun to govern the day and the moon and the stars, the psalm says, to rule over the night. And why did He do this? So there'd be a place for you and me to live. He ordered a world for us. His creation activity culminated in the creation of humankind to bear His image and to be in fellowship with Him. So that He could give, and He could give, and we could give thanks. And again, He gives daily bread to His people, doesn't He? Again, elaborated for us in Psalm 104, where the psalmist declares you cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart and then he goes on he made the moon to mark the seasons the sun knows it's time for setting you make darkness and it is night when all the beasts of the forest creep about The young lions roar for their praise, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. And man goes out to his work, to his labor until the evening. This is how God set the world up. So that we could find fulfillment in our labor. And that we could work so that the land would bring forth food. and that we would have an answer to our prayer for daily bread. This is how God made the world. And whenever we experience its blessing and its goodness, we should be moved to thanks. Of course, that's the origin of this special Thanksgiving Day, isn't it? Pilgrims who came to America, who endured a difficult first year and faced on the rocky shores of New England the very real threat of starvation, and yet through their own labors and through the kindness of American Indians, but above all through the generosity of God, They survived. And recognizing that what they had, they had received, they gathered to rejoice before God and give thanks. I was struck just this week. A friend said to me, Thanksgiving, that's a real Calvinist holiday, isn't it? And I thought, you know, I've never really thought about him in quite those terms, but he's right. It's a Calvinist gift to the nation. It's a day that we remember because pious, reformed folk, in the midst of their struggles, recognized that what they had had come from the hand of their God. And they took time to rejoice, not always the easiest thing for Calvinists to do, but also to give thanks, to give thanks to the one who had given to them the physical food that sustained their physical bodies. But God is the giver not only of physical food, but he is the giver of spiritual food. And this psalm goes on to celebrate the God who gives spiritual blessings to his people as well. And in particular, this psalm celebrates how God rescued His people from the house of bondage where they were oppressed and how He led them through obstacles that seemed insurmountable. Overcoming the power of Pharaoh's army. Overcoming the physical obstacle of the Red Sea. Overcoming the dangers attendant on wandering through a wilderness. Overcoming kings that stood between them and the promised land. Kings that don't strike us as very important anymore. Sion, king of the Amorites. Who are the Amorites? Og, even stranger. King of Bashan. What is Bashan? But in the days when the people faced those enemies, they were fearsome. They faced armies and they faced weapons and they faced death and they faced determined opponents who would keep them from entering the promised land. But God said to Moses, I have given them into your hand. And for all of their power, they could not resist the purposes of God. They could not keep the people of God out of the promised land. And they entered the promised land, the land of rest, the land flowing with milk and honey. Because God had given it to them. And those promises are promises to us of spiritual blessing as well, aren't they? God has rescued us from the bondage of sin in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, has gone with us to face every spiritual obstacle that stands between us and the land of promise. God has assured us that the enemy will not overwhelm us, but that we will be preserved by the power of God, by the life of Jesus Christ, to live in him and to live for him and to be filled with thanksgiving as his people. And he's used food to remind us of those promises, hasn't he? Unleavened bread of the Passover to remind us how speedily the help of God can come to deliver us from the hand of the enemy. And he has given his people manna. The grain of heaven, it's called in Psalm 78. The bread of angels to sustain them in the wilderness. And he's given to us the Holy Supper of our Lord. Simple bread and wine to remind us that in the body and blood of Jesus Christ is our life. Is our hope. is our promise of eternal life and rest to come. This is the wonderful character of our God who has promised that he will sustain us as individuals, that he will sustain us as his church, and has demonstrated that over and over again through the history of his people. We're just finishing the anniversary of remembering the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin. God has raised up through the whole history of the church wonderful faithful preachers and leaders to call his people to the scriptures and to the truth. This is also the 175th anniversary, although as far as I know it's been unmarked among us, of the secession of 1834, the ofskiding, the beginning of a great reforming movement in the Dutch Reformed Church that was part of an even broader reforming movement that was sweeping through Europe and through America, revitalizing the churches, bringing them back to the scripture. and we've marked this year as a 50th anniversary, the building of this building. That didn't make it into Psalm 136. But for us, it's even bigger than Sihon, king of the Amorites. It reminds us that God is working in huge things and in relatively little things to accomplish his purpose, to preserve His people, to make His salvation known among His own. And when we think of that provision of the Lord, when we think how often over 50 years the Lord's Supper has been administered here to build us up in the faith, to draw us to Jesus Christ, to assure us that His body and blood continues to be our food to everlasting life. How blessed we are. How much has been given to us? And we not only acknowledge that what we have, we have been given, but we acknowledge that we have been given so very much. Why? Because the Lord is good, and his love has no end. And we are the people who are surrounded by that bounty. And so, let us be a people filled with thanksgiving. Let us be a people that acknowledge all that we have comes from the hand of the Lord. And let us remember on this day the words of Deuteronomy 8 verse 10. And you shall eat and be full and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. We give thanks today to the Lord. Amen.