For our scripture reading this morning, I invite you to turn with me to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, a very familiar psalm, a very beautiful psalm, a favorite psalm of so many people. As we read the psalm together, considering in a particular way the first five verses of Psalm 103. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David writes, Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known His ways to Moses, His deeds to the people of Israel. The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He knows how we are formed. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. The wind blows over it and it is gone. And its place remembers it no more. But, from everlasting to everlasting, the Lord's love is with those who fear Him and His righteousness with their children's children, with those who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. The Lord has established His throne in heaven and His kingdom rules over all. Praise the Lord, you His angels, You mighty ones who do His bidding, who obey His word. Praise the Lord all His heavenly hosts, you His servants who do His will. Praise the Lord all His works, everywhere in His dominion. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Beloved in the Lord, Thanksgiving Day. This holiday, of course, is a favorite holiday for many people. It's a day, as is evident here by the guests and visitors who are family members, it's a day of family gatherings. It's a day of traditions. It's a day of feasting. It's a day of parades, of football, of travel. It's a day, of course, that means many different things for many different people. And for many, I suspect, they're really not sure what truly what the Thanksgiving part of the day is all about. Hopefully, indeed, they're thankful for family members and food in abundance and physical strength to play football and means by which to travel long distances in short amounts of time. But beyond this, many truly are missing the foundation of what true Thanksgiving is all about. Of course, we too as believers, we are thankful for the physical blessings of life. But by the grace of God, our thanksgiving has a foundation. We have a reason to give thanks. And we understand that reason. And that reason is our God and Heavenly Father for Jesus' sake. Beloved, it's good that we spend a few moments this morning being reminded of what true thanksgiving is and is to be as we consider the call for true thanksgiving. As we said this past Sunday morning as we considered Psalm 100, Psalm 100 is the only psalm on the Psalter that is given the heading a psalm for giving thanks. It's the only one designated in that way, but many of the other psalms indeed as well call for giving thanksgiving and praise to God, including Psalm 103. And this text, the first five verses, There we find the only object of thanksgiving, the many motives for thanksgiving, and the comprehensive means of thanksgiving. Now, this psalm of David is considered to be one of the most, if not the most, beautiful expressions of praise to the Lord. And David calls for true thanksgiving by calling himself, commanding himself to praise the Lord and to praise His holy name. Now, very simply, this means to kneel before Him in praise and thanksgiving, recognizing, as we have said many times before, who He is, first of all. As well, recognizing what He has done. It means to acknowledge Him as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. It means to confess His sovereignty, His majesty, as well as all of His divine attributes. And to praise the Lord is to proclaim the goodness and grace of His dealings with those who live in Him and move in Him and have their being in Him, as Paul says. In other words, David makes it very clear that the only object of thanksgiving is to be the Lord and His holy name. We know, of course, that when we talk about the name of the Lord, that's talking about the name of God declares who He is. It's talking about our God in all of His completeness, in all of His fullness. The name of the Lord reveals Him and His wonderful attributes. And David makes it clear that the Lord, Lord Yahweh, is His holy name. Holiness is the glory of His name. It's talking about the purity of God. And His holiness really beautifies all of His perfections. We know that holiness is one of God's attributes. It's one of the many. And He is 100% holy in His being. But also, His holiness also can serve as a prefix for all of His attributes. We can speak of His holy love, His holy jealousy, His holy righteousness, His holy omniscience. If He weren't holy, He couldn't be God. That's true of any one of His attributes, but in a particular way, holiness. The fact that God is holy means that He is set apart from all that is unholy. David here is highlighting the separateness, the majesty, the transcendence of God. And His holiness makes Him the object of our awe and our adoration and even our fear because of our holiness apart from Jesus Christ. 1 John 1 verse 5 says, This is the message that we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. And this means, beloved, that fellowship between the holy purity of God and that which is willfully unholy is impossible. Yet, David calls for worship. He calls for bowing down before this holy God. He calls for the fellowship of praise with Him and he can do this in confidence, you see, because this God is the Lord. He is Yahweh. He is Jehovah. but He is the covenant God who covenants with His people. He is I am who I am. He is the God who was, is, and ever shall be. He is the Creator of all things, and He is the Redeemer of His people. He is the one who is faithful to His covenant promises in Christ Jesus. David calls for praise, for true thanksgiving to be given to the one and only God who is living and real, who on the one hand is far removed because of His majesty and holiness, who is separated from man's sinfulness. Yet on the other hand, He is one who is near at hand, who takes loving care of His sheep. He is our Father who has compassion on His children. He is the one who gets intimately involved in the lives of His people. Israel knew from experience that the Lord is the God of salvation and deliverance. He is the God of help and protection. This God is long-suffering. He is patient toward His people, withholding from them that which they truly deserve. At the same time, showering upon them that which they don't deserve. There is no other like Him. Yet it's interesting. It's interesting that all that David says about this holy God with his confession, setting God apart and talking about His majesty. Talking about that which should automatically draw us to Him. It's interesting that David has to command himself. He has to command himself to remember. He has to command himself to give due adoration to his Lord. Three times, verses 1, 2, and 22. Three times he utters the command, Praise the Lord, O my soul. Everyone has the duty to give gratitude to God simply for who He is. Because He is the one and only Almighty God. But because of our selfish, sinful natures, we don't automatically do it as we should. We're too busy thinking about ourselves so that we often fail to pay attention to this One who made us. And even David, David, a man whom God Himself described in Scripture as a man after God's own heart. Even David, a man like that, confesses his need to be aroused to give thanks. He confesses that by the very fact that, again, he commands his soul to praise the Lord. Yet as he considers who he is apart from God and as he considers who God is, meditates upon who God is and what he has done, David is brought under the conviction of what he must do. Verses 1 and 2, praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Notice in the second place the many motives for thanksgiving. Forget not all his benefits. Do not forget them. Also translated, forget none of His benefits. Do not forget even one. Remember each and every one. This call for true thanksgiving is for the generous benefits of our covenant God. See, beloved, the Lord has furnished His people with abundant reason or motive for praising Him. By the very fact that He made us, we ought to be thankful to Him. But you see, David in the psalm, he goes way beyond that. He goes to all that God has done for His people that is totally undeserved because of sin. Verses 3-5. Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion. Who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. If you listen close, you can hear a progression here. And the story this list of benefits tells echoes the familiar words of Lamentations 3, verses 22 and 23, which says, Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. God's grace shines bright in the darkness of sin and illness and death. Now the first benefit that David records is forgiveness. Pardon for sins. And this must be first, you see, because no life can prosper as long as it's separated from God through sin. In fact, in sin there is no life, there's only death. Reconciliation with God, being brought back together in favor with God, is the fountain from which all the other blessings flow. Now the believer is able by God's grace to confess that God has forgiven all of his sins, all of his transgressions as far as the east is from the west. So far has God removed them so that I do not ever have to look at my sins again and God will not look upon them again. And this is truly a benefit because sin had taken away the good things of God from us. And sin had stripped us of spiritual blessings as well as the welfare of physical blessings so that nothing works for the believer's good. Instead, everything works against Him. But when God forgives my sin, when He remembers them no more, then once again, by that same pardoning grace, good things are restored. We may not necessarily like these good things. In fact, we might not always think that these good things are very good or that they're good for us. But they work for my good. The ungodly and wicked who benefit from God's handiwork, from rain and sunshine, from health and physical ability, from wealth and crops, even though they enjoy the goodness of God in these things, they do not taste and see that the Lord is good. And therefore, God's goodness works against the unrepentant and will testify against Him on the day of judgment because He did not see all that He enjoyed as gifts from the hand of God and did not turn to God in thanksgiving and praise. But God's people enjoy His free, pardoning grace and the blotting out of our sins being received into His favor. It's only through forgiveness granted to those who repent and believe by grace through faith that any other good things of God can and will contribute to our welfare, toward our spiritual health and salvation. And He does this for His own good. The Lord says in Isaiah 43, verse 25, I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. And then when the germ is removed, when that germ is destroyed, then the sickness must disappear, right? That's the second benefit that David records. Who heals all your diseases? Now we know, of course, that God might heal our physical diseases in this life. Those diseases which he uses to draw his people closer to himself so that we are moved to give him thanksgiving and praise. He might heal them in this life. And when those diseases are healed, it's God who healed them, no one else. But He definitely heals our spiritual diseases. The corrupt nature because of sin is the sickness of the soul. Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? You see, without healing, there is only death. But the necessary benefit of forgiveness is that through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are put to death. The believer's corruption is cleaned up. He is restored to the healthy condition of a godly and an upright life. Oh, it's not yet perfect by experience in this life. We know that. We can confess that all too readily. God looks at us as perfect and righteous and holy for the sake of Jesus Christ, but by experience it's not yet perfect. But the beginning is there. You see, beloved, our crimes were capital crimes. But God saves our lives by forgiving them. Our diseases were mortal, leading to death, but God again saves our lives by healing them. He takes away the guilt of sin by pardoning mercy and He breaks the power of sin. by renewing grace so that we can sing with confidence. He breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me. Jesus said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. The medicine of God blots out our guilt. It cures us of our inherent corruption and therefore also delivers us from the punishment of destruction. David continues, Who redeems your life from the pit? By the power of the blood of Jesus, he has purchased his people. We are redeemed from the spiritual death into which we had fallen and therefore also from the eternal death which would have been the necessary result. Beloved, if the death penalty had not been removed, then forgiveness and healing would have been incomplete. But the Lord's work of redemption is not incomplete. It is finished. Therefore, the sentence of death has been reversed for those who believe. So that Paul could say with confidence, Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. apart from forgiveness and healing, we are still dead in trespasses and sins, and the grave has a terrible sting. But David could confess, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? See, hell has no fear for those who belong to Jesus Christ. It holds no fear, no terror over those who are in Christ Jesus. See, beloved, the redemption of your soul, that soul which continues to live even though your body might die, the redemption of your soul is precious and it must be precious to you. Is it precious to you? Is it any wonder that David proclaims, Praise the Lord, O my soul. When you remember, when you glory in His benefits, then you cannot help but to bless Him, to praise Him with thanksgiving and with worship. But the list of benefits goes on. There is a spiritual life change that takes place by the hand of God who crowns you with love and compassion, which David, in essence, explains throughout the rest of Psalm 103, speaking of the Father's compassion over His children and His love which is from everlasting to everlasting. And what a picture of rags, from rags to riches, from being a slave to sin to being crowned all around, behind, before, on all sides with God's immeasurable and abundant grace. Spurgeon said it beautifully. This crown must be far more precious than if it were made of corruptible things such as silver and gold. It is studded with gems of grace and lined with a velvet of loving kindness. It is decked with the jewels of mercy but made soft for the head to wear by a lining of tenderness. What a crown! And only the crown of the Lord's love and compassion truly satisfies who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Beloved, all that God gives to His redeemed people are good things, every last bit of it, because they come from His hand. Indeed, He gives us physical blessings, the things that we are most often mindful of on this particular day, food, clothing, shelter, work, families, friends, and every other physical blessing. He gives us spiritual blessings which flow from His saving grace, contentment, peace, love, joy, all the fruit of the Spirit. But He also sends adversity, pain, and difficulties to His people. And these are also gifts. These are also good things. Why? Because indeed they all things work together for good to those who love God. David says, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. There are many different ideas about the youthfulness of an eagle. One prominent one is that every year the eagle loses its feathers and grows beautiful new ones so that even when it's very old, it looks very young. But David is most likely talking here about the strength of an eagle. An eagle keeps its strength along with its beauty until an extremely old age. So then is David saying that the Christian stays physically strong all his life? That he never gets weary and worn out and weak and tired? Not at all. If that's what it's supposed to be, then each one of us is in trouble. Although the believer's physical strength may and will fail, his spiritual strength increases toward perfection by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah says, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Beloved, why are we called to give true thanksgiving to our God? Because as David recites, He is our God. He is our forgiver, our healer, our redeemer, our provider, our satisfier. He is our life, all for the sake of Jesus Christ. All of these blessed benefits belong to the Christian only because our Savior has paid the price for our sins. Indeed, the pure holiness of God can have no fellowship with such a sinner as I unless I am a sinner saved by grace, by the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There's no other reason for giving thanks to God, you see. And apart from Him, there is no true thanks to give for anything. But that thanksgiving is also to take on a certain character. David speaks of the comprehensive means of thanksgiving. He says again, Praise the Lord, O my soul. O my inmost being, praise His holy name. Very simply and briefly, the soul is the true life. The soul is the being of a person. David commands his whole life, his whole being, to praise the Lord. Now today, we might say the same thing by saying, put your heart into it. Put your heart into it. As he lists the Lord's benefits to the believer, it's clear that all of the believer is affected inside and out, spiritually, physically, and therefore we must use our all to give thanksgiving, praise, and worship to God. All of our thoughts, words, actions, motives, desires, and intentions are to be used to give thanks to God. All of our days, our good days, as well as our bad days, including our rest and play and work and worship, must reflect thanksgiving to Him. All of our breath is to be used. As the psalmist says, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. And beloved, instead of being unsatisfied because of what we don't have and always wanting more, We are called to take inventory of what we do have in Jesus Christ. What do the redeemed have in Jesus Christ? John says that He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And therefore, that means with the filth removed, we may now come into the presence of this holy God. Jesus said, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. In Jesus Christ, His people have eternal life with the guarantee of glorification, perfection, and everlasting fellowship with God. And today, and today, God will hear and He will accept our praise as imperfect as it may be. He will hear it and accept it for the sake of Jesus. Beloved, all of the benefits of Christ's work culminating in eternal reconciliation and fellowship with God, this is what gives meaning to the things that we are often mindful of. Forgiving thanks. Our loved ones. Our physical possessions. Our fully crowned dinner tables. Our health. Our jobs. Because apart from Him, everything is meaningless. Yet by the grace of God, we can also confess with David in Psalm 13, verse 6, I will sing to the Lord because He has dealt bountifully with me. And His bounty works toward the good of those who love Him. If you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then this day and every day mean nothing to you. And you have nothing for which to give thanks, except that today is still the day of God's grace. It's still the day of salvation. It is still the day of God's patience. And therefore you are called to repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God because only when your soul is saved will it be able to praise the Lord. Now I suspect that today many of you might go around the dinner table and say what it is you're thankful for. It's a good practice. It's a good exercise. Are you thankful today? For what? Today, this fourth Thursday of November, along with every other fourth Thursday of November, we're thankful in a special way, but Thanksgiving is to be the lifestyle of the believer. And may you indeed praise the Lord with your soul and all that is within you for all of His benefits to you. In Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Shall we bow together in a time of prayer? Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, indeed, it is good to praise Your most holy name, to be reminded once again of these things that we know, to be reminded of who You are, of Your greatness, of Your majesty, of Your love, of Your redeeming grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. to be reminded of who you are and what you have done for us, which only you could do. And Father, may it be that each one of us on this day, in a particular way, but every day of our lives, that we would search the depth of our hearts, each one, that each one of us would take inventory of your benefits to us, that indeed we would not spend time worrying about and complaining about that which we don't have and always want more of. but that we would indeed be so very grateful for all of your blessings to us. Whether we have little on our dinner plate or whether there is enough for seconds and thirds. Whether our clothes are new and in style or whether they are hand-me-downs. And we could list so many things, O Lord, that you have given to us that we are to be thankful for. We thank you for your blessings to us. And may our thanksgiving and praise be demonstrated throughout all of our life in all that we say, in all that we do. May it be reflected in how we communicate with each other and how we love one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, in how we work at our jobs with our co-workers. Father, may that gratitude that you call your people to, May that grateful living be so very evident from each and every one of us, even in times of sorrow, even in times of hurt, that we might be able to bless the Lord, to praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me to praise His holy name. And Father, indeed, we know that in Christ Jesus and only because of Christ Jesus, we can be thankful in the difficult times, that we can be thankful even in the midst of death, the death of a believer. And as a people of God in this morning hour, we pray for those, and on behalf of those who have lost loved ones in this week, we pray for your blessing upon the Tiersma families, upon Gertie and Dick Dykstra and their family, and the death of Louis Tiersma this past week. We pray also with Sue and Orwin DeBoer and Jim and Michelle Jansman the death of Sue's father early this morning. And Father, we pray that you would give these families hope and comfort because you have blessed them with a testimony of their loved ones. And for others of us who have lost our believing loved ones in this year, we give you thanksgiving and praise for the legacy of faith which they have left behind. And Father, we pray for those who are struggling with ongoing difficulties and sicknesses and whatever their needs may be, that they too might be able to praise your holy name because you are the one who sustains them in all of life, even in the midst of the difficulties. We do pray this morning as well for Orwin DeBoer. We thank you for the successful surgery that he was able to submit to yesterday. We pray that you would bless him as he recuperates in the hospital. And we ask, O Lord, once again, that you would provide him with full and complete healing. And for others of our loved ones and dear ones and friends in other places, both near and far away, we ask that you would bless them who may be going through the difficulties of life. Father, we pray on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ, wherever they might be, throughout this world that each one would indeed give to you day by day but also in corporate worship the thanksgiving and praise that belongs only to your most holy name. Father, we ask for your blessing upon each one of us in this day as we gather together with family and friends as we enjoy each other's company as indeed we feast physically upon the good things that you will crown our tables with. May we not take any of your blessings, your benefits for granted, but recognize that all of life has meaning only because of the salvation we enjoy in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, we pray that you would hear our prayer for Jesus' sake. And in his name alone, we pray these things. Amen.