Not only this morning as I was driving over here, I caught myself grumbling at Thanksgiving. My mom reminded me. It's so wonderful to have occasions like this where we hear, as we did from the choir, the enumerations of God's blessings to us. It's when we hear it in the concrete that we begin to laugh at ourselves at the ways in which we take ourselves and our circumstances too seriously. And yet at the same time, this is a Thanksgiving where, although I know every Thanksgiving is a time of mixed emotions, it seems that our church has particularly had its fair share of illnesses, deaths, bereavements. For some, this is another Thanksgiving without a loved one. And sometimes Thanksgiving can not underscore the wonder of family and friends and a sense of fullness and joy, but can highlight, sort of opening the wound again, highlight the absence and loneliness that we feel. Friedrich Nietzsche, the philosopher of what's called nihilism or nothingness-ism, said that Christianity is a religion for the weak. And Ted Turner, the CNN mogul, seems to back him up when he says, although he himself was raised by missionary parents and went to Christian schools, Christianity is a religion for losers. And this Thanksgiving, instead of standing up and saying, no, it's not, we ought to stand up and say, yes, it is. Praise the Lord for that, because I'm one of them. And our psalm this morning helps us to thank God as the losers we are. Beginning at verse 1. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around all those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him. O fear the Lord, you His saints, for those who fear Him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Boy, there's a paradox. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers him out of all of them. He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked. And those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants. None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned. The event that is celebrated here in Psalm 34 is recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 21. After eating the bread of the presence in the sanctuary of God, David then continued his flight from Saul to Achish, the king of Gath. shrewdly observing that the foreign king was well aware of his fame, Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands. David escaped the potential schemes of the king of Gath by pretending to be insane. Very clever trick, after which he was promptly sent away. Therefore, we might expect a celebration here in this psalm of David's greatness, Because that seems to be appropriate for what's recorded in 1 Samuel 21. Wasn't his fame spread far and wide? Didn't even the secular king know the story? Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands? And yet David's greatness is not celebrated in Psalm 34. How about David's merciful justice? Was he not kind and tender? Did he not refuse to return evil for evil when Saul, his king, was persecuting him? Or how about David's goodness? Was he not generous to the poor and the needy? Was he not celebrated in the historical books for that kind of character? How about David's wisdom? Surely, David's wisdom, after all the event being celebrated, turns on David's ingenious distraction. Each one of these attributes seems to describe David in 1 Samuel 21, and yet each of these attributes are celebrated of God in reflecting on this event by David in Psalm 34. If ever there was a Superman, David's the guy. You know, Nietzsche talked about not the weak of the earth. We're going to be the Superman. Well, here's David, a real Superman. Someone who really could celebrate his greatness, his glory, his goodness, his power, his wealth. And yet as he reflects on this period of his life, he only sees himself as a poor and needy sinner. a beggar in the sanctuary of God who has given bread for the journey and so David here celebrates first of all God's greatness thanksgiving for God's greatness in verses 1 through 3 I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth my soul makes its boast in the Lord let the humble hear and be glad oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. In many respects, this psalm follows both in form and content Psalm 49. In fact, the first three verses of Psalm 49 look a lot like the first three verses of Psalm 34. The former opens with this call to worship, very similar to the one I just read. Hear this, all peoples. Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom. The meditation of my heart shall be understanding. Wisdom and thanksgiving, knowledge of God's accomplishments, and praise for the attributes exhibited in them combine richly in both of these psalms. The rich and the poor together are able to assemble before the Lord. They're able to give ear. They're invited. They're called to give ear to the celebration of God's greatness. David himself is the poor and afflicted one in this stage of his life. Great in the Lord's power, to be sure, yet hunted down by his own beloved king. Can you imagine how that must have racked him with a sense of great, deep disappointment and depression? He has no place to lay his head. And yet God himself feeds him from his own storehouse of holy bread in the sanctuary and preserves his life. I will bless the Lord at all times, David says. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. That's why the rich and the poor together can have thanksgiving. Because whether in plenty or in poverty, whether our hearts are glad or sad, there is a God who is sovereign over our circumstances, who is greater than everything that we can see and feel and experience in this life which makes us able to say with David even in his affliction I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Although the context of this psalm then might seem to justify David's self-confidence in his own greatness the psalm gives testimony only to God. My soul makes its boast in the Lord, he says in verse 2. Let the humble hear and be glad. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Although we're often given quite rightly, I think, to the criticism of a lot of contemporary worship that it's therapeutic, there really is a therapeutic aspect to this. Of course, God doesn't exist for our happiness. Nevertheless, he does make us happy in all circumstances. There really is a sort of therapeutic aspect to this. Because God is greater than our circumstances, and because our salvation is grounded in his grace and mercy, not in our greatness or righteousness, we are able to praise him continually and at all times because that grace never diminishes. The humble are called to worship today whether they're rich or poor. The weak are summoned to God's court this morning for blessing. That's not how things go in the world as Nietzsche and Ted Turner tell us. But that is how it goes in God's sanctuary. And here the wisdom of the world is in flat contradiction to the wisdom of God. David knows that it was not his greatness celebrated as it might have been by the great kings of the earth. It was God's greatness that gained the victory. And that's great news for the rest of us because I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly David. I mean, I don't feel the greatness that David in the annals of history is celebrated as representing. And so it's good news for all of us. If someone as great as David was not worthy to celebrate his own greatness and yet found himself blessed in the sanctuary of God far beyond all of the supermen who celebrate their greatness. then let the humble hear and be glad. It's also not an individualistic hymn like so many songs of myself in contemporary worship. It's a call to corporate thanksgiving. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. Because God has done these great things not just for David, not just for various individuals, but for His whole people. God's greatness has been displayed both for us individually as we come together this morning and also corporately as the people of God and not only the people gathered in this place but the body of Christ gathered around the earth and so that we can say even in affliction even when according to reports 200,000 Christians are being martyred every year around the world. We can say, let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. And secondly, he praises God for his merciful justice in verses 4 through 7, which I have already read. Again, like Psalm 34, Psalm 49, In almost parallel verses, praises God's mercy and justice in the context of suffering that doesn't make sense. Why should I fear in times of trouble when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me? Those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches. Truly, no one can ransom another or give to God the price of his life. For the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice that he should live on forever and never see the pit. less elegantly, we could summarize that by saying they can buy cars and boats and houses, maybe even people, but they can't buy one day of their life. They cannot, with all of their wealth and power, add one more day to their life. Their checks are not recognized by the bank of the grim reaper. Fears are natural. They're natural to believer and unbeliever alike. And sometimes we sturdy Calvinists don't believe in fear. Well, David did. David believed in fear. It's just that fear never had the last word. God did. There was one who was greater than all of our fears. Trust in God doesn't cancel out our fears, but it offers a way of encountering our fears that leads to life. Verse 4, I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. It's by looking to God. Now again, if anyone could have looked to himself and his own greatness and his own sense of justice, It surely would have been David, but even he looked to God and only by looking to God could he say those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. Gloom gives way to radiance as the sun of righteousness rises over our affliction. One of the things I really like about this psalm is how concrete it is. It doesn't just talk. We often, at times of affliction, when we talk to each other about what we're experiencing, sometimes we talk about God in the general. We talk about affliction in the abstract. We talk about these general things that we go through and a general goodness of God, a general greatness of God. But the psalmist is very specific here. First of all, he says, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The psalmist may even be referring to himself here as the poor man. But even if he's not referring to himself, he's pointing his finger to someone in particular, not to the sufferer in general as an abstract concept. This poor man cried out and the Lord answered him and saved him out of all of his troubles. You see, our covenant God has pledged Himself to our rescue when we call on His name. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Whoever, each individual person who calls on the name of the covenant God will receive an affirmative answer. God will rescue us from all of our troubles. Just as the concrete character of the sufferer As pointed out here, this poor man, just as concrete, is the Savior. The angel of the Lord, he says, encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. This isn't just an appeal to God's general goodness, or even to God in general, but to the angel of the Lord, who throughout the Old Testament is ordinarily associated with a Christophany. That is the appearance of Christ before his incarnation. The angel of the Lord is none other than the eternal Son of God before his incarnation. And so we're not directed to divinity in general. It is the angel of the Lord, the captain of armies, the Lord of hosts, is himself God. And he encamps, sets up an encampment all around us, a military perimeter that no one can break through. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the movement of this army. It doesn't mean that there is no battle. It doesn't mean that we don't suffer on the battlefield. But it does mean that finally, God has the victory. We will never be overwhelmed by it. And then thirdly, thanksgiving for God's goodness in one really pregnant verse which stands at the heart, it seems to me, of this psalm. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Certainly in his own experience, David had tasted that bread of the presence that had to have tasted very good after he was starving to death. and God mercifully gave it to him out of the holy of holies. Certainly he had seen the greatness of God in God's deliverance from Saul and the king of Gath. And sometimes we as Calvinists are suspicious of tasting and seeing. We're people of a book. And that's right, there are perfectly good reasons for us being suspicious of tasting and seeing. Giving unlimited free reign to our senses because God has given us his word to hear. When Eve saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eyes and desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and she ate. Idolatry is substituting the word of God for the vision of God that we ourselves fabricate. So, idolatry is completely forbidden in Scripture. So, we have a reason to be suspicious here, but we should be no more suspicious of these senses in themselves than we are of hearing. Our hearing, our seeing, our tasting have to be restricted to what God focuses our senses on rather than what we ourselves would like to experience. We are called here to taste and to see God's goodness. Taste and see God's goodness, that's odd. Affirm God's goodness. Have good doctrines about God's goodness. Think about God's goodness. All of that makes sense. But taste and see that the Lord is good? While it's true that our faith doesn't grasp things in their fullness yet, it does anticipate already the fullness that it grasps by faith. We have not yet attained the consummation. We haven't been brought in fully to the age to come, but the age to come is breaking in on us so that the writer to the Hebrews can say that we are enlightened. We have tasted of the heavenly gift. We have tasted of the heavenly gift. We've been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, he goes on to say. we have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come. So we can taste and we can see to a certain extent, although we don't see everything in its fullness. God has given us things to taste and see. To the Word, He's added His sacraments. Think of Psalm 23. Very familiar to us. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Why, in the midst of his affliction, does the psalmist there in Psalm 23 or the psalmist here in Psalm 34, have utter confidence like that, that he will dwell in the house of the Lord, that God's goodness and mercy will follow him not only to tomorrow, but to the next day and all the way to the end of his life. Why? Because God has here and now spread a table before him in the presence even of his enemies. My cup runs over. It's not only what God does in our hearts, our souls, our minds, But the deeds that he has done in history, which he then brings before our review of our senses. That tells us that God is not only good, but that God is good to us. That's what's hard. For those of you right now who are suffering, who are lonely, who are weary of this world. That's what is hard. We say in the midst of it all, especially with other Christians, God is good. And then secretly wonder, but he's not being very good to me. And so God provides these tokens, these signs and seals, the table that will be spread later today. To say, I am good. Taste and see. Finally, thanksgiving for God's wisdom, verses 9 through 22, which we have read. Psalm 49 here too, the last part of Psalm 49 corresponds in substance to the last part of this psalm. Even the wise die. This is as if written to Friedrich Nietzsche and Ted Turner. Even the wise die. The fool and the stupid alike must perish. And lead their wealth to others. Man in his pomp will not remain. He's like the beasts that perish. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence. Yet after them, people approve of their boasts, like sheep they are appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. Their form shall be consumed in Sheol with no place to dwell. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Be not afraid when a man becomes rich, when the glory of his house increases. For when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory will not go down after him. For though while he lives, he counts himself blessed. And though you get praise when you do well for yourself, his soul will go to the generation of his fathers who will never see light again. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, is like the beasts that perish. Indeed, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And that's because we cannot live without fear. We cannot live in this world without fear. The question is, are you going to be held in the bondage of fears that do not have ultimate authority over your destiny? or are you going to surrender to the fear of God who chases all of our nightmares away? While the fear of creatures holds us in bondage to a pessimistic outlook on life, the fear of God puts all of these other fears in their place. God is the only God. His is the only sovereign power in the universe. And as verse 8 calls us to taste and see, verse 11 summons us to listen as the psalmist teaches us the fear of the Lord. And those who fear the Lord receive his swift response. Verse 18, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crust in spirit. Yes, it's true. God is for losers. he's near to the broken hearted not to the stout of heart and mind he's near to those who are crushed in spirit not those who are self confident and cocky full of pomp and show just as David wouldn't take any credit for his own temporal deliverance he gives us no place for self confidence in this matter of final vindication he says in verse 22 Great passage. The Lord redeems the life of His servants. The Lord does this. The Lord redeems the life of His servants. Not one of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned. It's the same contrast between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world that Paul often refers to. Right where the world can only say, That's foolish, that's stupid, that's weak. God is most powerful and wise and glorious. The world chooses the powerful, the rich, the mighty, the wise. God chooses the weak, the poor, the helpless, the foolish to shame all of the Ted Turners and all of the Friedrich Nietzsche's of the world so that God himself will be seen to be the only sovereign in the universe. When we actually taste and see the wisdom of God in the apparent foolishness of the cross, we give thanks with a confidence that the wisdom of this world cannot know and it cannot offer. So Paul says, Oh, the depth of both the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Or who has ever been his counselor? Or who has ever given anything to him that he should repay him? For of Him, and to Him, and through Him are all things, to whom be the glory now and forevermore. Amen. Let's pray. Thus speaks the Lord in the fifth book of Moses, Deuteronomy 8, 10 and 11, and thou shalt eat and be full, and thou shalt bless Jehovah thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware lest thou forget Jehovah thy God in not keeping his commands and his ordinances and his statutes which I command thee this day. Lord God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you for all of your benefits which we so unceasingly receive from your bountiful hand. We thank you that it pleases you to sustain us in this temporal life and to supply all our needs. We are especially grateful that you have regenerated us to the hope of a better life, which you have revealed to us in your holy gospel. We pray, merciful God and Father, that our hearts may not become too deeply attached to these earthly and perishable things, but that we may always, through them, look heavenward, expecting our Savior Jesus Christ until he shall appear upon the clouds unto our full and final deliverance. In the name of Christ our Lord. Amen.