Our scripture reading is taken today from Psalm 65. Please turn with me and your Bibles to Psalm 65. We'll read the whole psalm. Psalm 65, let us hear God's own word. Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall thou's be performed. O you who hears prayer, to you shall all flesh come. When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple. By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation. the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, the one who by his strength established the mountains being girded with might, who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. You water its furrows abundantly, settling its edges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty. Your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. The pastures of the wilderness overflow. The hills gird themselves with joy. The meadows clothe themselves with flocks. The valleys deck themselves with grain. They shout and sing together for joy. So far the reading of God's Word. Many years ago when I was an undergraduate, we had a very famous professor of American history in those days by the name of David Potter. And David Potter, like many American historians, was fascinated with the question, what is distinct about Americans? Is there some way to talk about what sets Americans off a little bit from the rest of the world? And David Potter wrote a little book in which he tried to answer that question. What is distinctive about Americans? And he gives his answer in the title of the book. The title of the book was, A People of Plenty. A People of Plenty. And his argument was that, of course, not every individual, but in general, Americans had lived in a land in which there was plenty of land, Plenty of food, plenty of opportunity, there were abundant natural resources, and that that had made of Americans a distinctively optimistic, hopeful, forward-looking people, because they were a people of plenty. And you notice even in Washington's first Thanksgiving proclamation, he made allusion to that. as something he recognized all the way back in 1789. You remember, well, you may not remember every word of the proclamation that I read, but he said there that we should unite in thanksgiving in rendering unto God our service and humble thanks for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have enjoyed. And I think as we gather here today, if we are honest, we acknowledge that for most of us here, we have enjoyed plenteous blessings from the Lord. That is not, of course, at all to say we have not had our share of struggles and difficulties, of frustrations and sins and loss and pain. But still, as we look at our lives, as we look back at the past year, We can say we have been, haven't we, a people of plenty in so many ways. And this psalm, Psalm 65, helps give voice to our thanks and to our praise to God for the plenty that we have experienced. This is a psalm that thinks about the plenteous, the abundant, the overflowing provision of God for his people. And so it is a psalm that helps us to focus our thanks, to focus our praise, to focus our thoughts on this day as we think about our great God and the marvelous provisions that he makes for us. In the latter part of this psalm that we sang about, we see indeed his abundant provision. That's what this psalm focuses on, his provision for us, particularly in harvest. Thanksgiving, of course, was originally a harvest celebration. When George Washington issued his proclamation, and even when Abraham Lincoln began the annual Thanksgiving tradition, America was largely a nation of farmers. Even in Lincoln's day, more than 90% of Americans lived on farms. And so the whole idea of harvest was very much on the minds of Americans, just as harvest had been very much on the minds of ancient Israel, where people were largely farmers as well. And so the minds of farmers go to the natural seasons of the year, don't they? And one of the great issues that farmers think about all the time, particularly in places like Israel and like California, is water. Will there be enough water for the crops? Will the rains come? Will the rivers flow? Will there be water? And you see how God is celebrated as the source when we think about harvest, first of all, as the source of water. Verse 9, you visit the earth and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. Verse 10, you water its furrows abundantly. And here the people of God voice their thanks to God that he would water the earth. And this needs to be an ongoing prayer for us as Christians, doesn't it? Particularly Christians in California, where we face the reality that water doesn't just always come. That water is a blessing. That water is a gift. That water is given by our great God according to his wisdom. And we can indeed celebrate when he provides that water in abundance. And where that water comes in abundance, Israel confessed that there was abundant growth that surrounded them. And how true we see that in California as well. One of the most productive agricultural regions in the world when the waters come. and when the crops can grow, and when the livestock is watered. And God calls us then here to realize, to pause, and to reflect. That's why a service like this, I believe, is so important, because we do pause and think that the food we will eat today doesn't come automatically, doesn't come inevitably, but it's a gracious provision of our great covenant God. And so we pause to honor him, to thank him, to praise him, to say, yes, indeed, O Lord, we realize that when there is rain, when there is water, when the crops grow, that's because of your hand of blessing, that you are ultimately the source of all these great and good things. And so this psalm says that water is what produces the grain that we have, the food stuffs that we have, the products of the earth. And it's that water that sustains the livestock as well. And so we praise our God and recognize that all comes from him. All comes from him. When we first moved to Escondido, this was still a congregation with lots of farmers. There aren't quite so many as there used to be. But we still are a people who need to remember that harvest, that food, doesn't come, boys and girls, from just bonds. Food comes from God, and it is produced by his blessing upon his people. And surely when we are a people of plenty, I think most of us will experience that when we go home, or go to visit family or friends today. Tables will groan with food, and then we'll eat it all, and then we'll groan. But we need to remember that it is God who provides. It is God who gives us these abundant, amazing, plentiful gifts. And this psalm says that provision, that abundant provision from the hand of God comes from his abundant power. This psalm wants to celebrate that that provision is an expression, is a manifestation of the power of the God whom we serve. And that too is an important truth to pause over on a day like this. Our God is able so abundantly to provide, because he is so abundantly powerful in who he is in himself. And we need to celebrate that too. What a great God we have. What a glorious God we have. What a powerful God we have. And the psalm pauses over that to reflect on that, to encourage us to reflect. God is the creator of all things. This psalm mentions just one little instance of that in verse 6. God is the one who, by his strength, established the mountains. Now, if you ever get a chance to go to Israel, and you are a typical Californian, you will look around at the mountains in Israel and say, mountains, mountains, these are what we call hills in California. We are not overly impressed. But the Lord has planted us in a land where there are indeed mountains. mountains, great mountains, high mountains, and they all speak of the power of God. And this psalm says, when you look at the mountains in their grandeur, in their size, in their impressive stability, remember it's God who made them firm. It's God who established them. they point, in a sense, to God and say, in a sense, we mountains that are so strong point to a God who is much stronger. And so we're invited to reflect, to remember the strength of our God. And then the psalm celebrates the providence of God as a sign of his strength. You see that, don't you, in verse 7. God is the one who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves. For ancient Israel, nothing was more a sign of the flux and the dangers potential in the world in which we live than the sea. They didn't tend to look at the sea and say, how beautiful. They didn't tend to look at the sea and say, where's my surfboard? they tended to look at the sea and say, that's a dangerous place. Look at all the power in those waves. Look at all the potential for flood and destruction and damage. And many of the pagan religions that surrounded them made gods of that power of the sea. And here the psalmist reminds us that whatever the tumult of the world, Whatever the apparent chaos that may reign in the world, God remains in control. When God says, be still, the seas are still. He is supreme in power over them. And did you notice that little phrase? It's easy sort of just to pass over it at the end of verse 7. God, in his power, is able to still the tumult of the peoples. God is able to still the tumult of the peoples. Sometimes the nations behave, sometimes people behave like the wild sea. And this psalm wants to remind us that God's in control of that too. God's in control of that too. This word for tumult is taken up by the prophet Isaiah in the 17th chapter of his prophecy, although it's translated slightly differently in our ESV. But in Isaiah chapter 17, at verse 12, we read about the tumult of the people. Ah, the thunder of many peoples. They thunder like the thundering of the sea. Ah, the roar of nations, they roar like the roaring of mighty waters. The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, but God will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, and whirling dust before the storm. At evening, behold, terror, before morning, they are no more. This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us. I think it's worth pausing on this Thanksgiving Day to remember the power of God over the tumult of the peoples because we live in a time in which there is terror in the morning for some people. We've just lived through a week or two in which, once again, people have had to face terror and terrorism. And it can be very easy to begin to wonder who's in charge. Where is history going? Sometimes Christians begin to wonder, is the whole world spinning apart? And this psalm wants to say to all of us, God is in charge. God knows what he's doing. God will bring all things to his purpose and his end. You don't need to be terrified. You don't need to fear that somehow things have run out of control. There may be terror in the morning, but the terrorists are gone by night, Isaiah said. Disappeared. Now that doesn't make facing the terror in the morning easy. It doesn't mean there aren't legitimate fears and real struggles and problems to be faced. But the psalmist wants to say to all of us, don't forget, whatever the terror, that God remains in control. That God is accomplishing his purpose. And that God will not allow the terrorists to win. This is a psalm of praise, of the power of God. of the glory of our God, of the bigness of our God, that the power of our God radiates through the whole world in which we live. Did you notice how frequently this psalm talks about the knowledge of God reaching the ends of the earth? Sometimes I think we as Christians in our day come to fear that somehow Christianity isn't amounting to very much, that we seem sort of insignificant and irrelevant as the world rushes on with its interests and values. And this psalm is saying nature is constantly providing a witness to the world, a witness that the world cannot suppress that God is powerful, that God is glorious, that God is in control. Look at that last part of verse 8. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. Every morning and every evening, God is bearing witness to himself throughout this whole world that he is supreme, that he is powerful, and the ends of all the earth see that. And so we need to be built up in faith. We need to be built up in confidence that our God reigns, that he is sovereign, and that he will accomplish his purpose in this world. So God is a God of grand and abundant provision. God is a God of abundant power. But this psalm begins by reminding us he is also a God of abundant pardon. This psalm begins there because There is no ultimate blessing for people apart from the pardoning grace of God. This psalm begins with a reflection on pardon because we're called to see God's priority in this world, that people should acknowledge their sin and turn to him in hope. Verse 3, When iniquities prevail against me, you attain, you atone for our transgressions. Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple. What a great God we have. How we need to pause and think with thanksgiving that in the face of our sins, God's reaction was to make atonement. We know that our God is holy. We know that our God is judge of all the earth. But this psalm begins by celebrating the love of God for his people. The response of God to his people, atoning for sin. We are an abundant people. We have an abundance of sins. And God comes with an abundance of grace, with an abundance of pardon, with abundance of love in Jesus Christ. Where does God atone for the sins of his people? He atones for the sins of the people on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what this psalm looked forward to. That's what this psalm anticipated. That God would provide. That God would provide the sacrifice. That God would provide the atonement. And that in that atonement we could find pardon for all our sins. The abundance of our sin is answered by the abundance of God's grace. and by God's grace calling us to himself. You notice that? Verse 4, blessed is the one you choose and you bring near. Here is the celebration of the grace of God, the electing grace of God, to come to his people, to call them by name, to bring them to himself. And what do we find when God brings us to himself? we find the satisfaction of his grace. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple. It's not just that Christ has atoned for us, but Christ calls us to fellowship with him and to be satisfied in him, to rejoice in him, to experience the goodness of God in him. And what an abundant, what a splendid, what a glorious provision that is for us. This was similarly celebrated in Psalm 63, where we read from verse 2, So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands. My soul shall be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. That's what the Lord calls us to. That's what the Lord has so abundantly provided for us, so that we have this abundance of provision, and we see the abundance of his power, and then we are surrounded with the abundance of his pardon. And what does that lead to then? This is a four-point sermon. It's not a Sabbath, so it can be a four-point sermon. What does that lead to? It leads to an abundance of praise. It leads to an abundance of praise. And that's what we see here in this remarkable psalm, that praise echoes through it in an abundant way. And actually, the psalm starts more profoundly than our translations would indicate. The psalm in our ESV and in most English translations begins, Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion. But literally, and we have this in the footnote, I really don't know why they put it in the footnote, because it's clearly the meaning of the text. But literally the psalm begins, Praise waits for you in silence, O God in Zion. And the translators, I think wanting to be smarter than David, thought to themselves, well now wait a minute, praise can't be silent, that can't be what they mean. But I think that's exactly what's meant here. The psalm opens somewhat somberly with Israel, So overwhelmed with a sense of its sin that they stand before God, but they stand silently before God. And then this psalm unfolds for us the abundance of what God does for his people. He pardons all their sin. He uses his power to show himself to them. He provides for them in all their needs. And as this psalm goes on, that silence then is turned to shouting. Verse 8, you make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy. Verse 13, the meadows deck themselves with flock, the valleys deck themselves with grain. They shout and sing together for joy. Now it's good Reformed Christians who are a little too decorous to do much shouting. But the Lord says, our hearts should be so overflowing with thanks and praise to God that we no longer stand in silence before him. But in our singing, we lift our voices in loud praise to him, to thanks, to give thanks for all of his abundant provision and blessing for us. It is good and right that we should have a day of thanksgiving. it is good and right that we should gather to turn our minds and our hearts and our thoughts and our voices to God in thanks and praise. But of course, at a deeper level, since God provides for us every day abundantly, every day should be for us a day of thanksgiving when we reflect that we are indeed a people of plenty because of the great provision of our God. Amen.