Psalm 122, let us hear God's own word. I rejoiced with those who said to me, let us go to the house of the Lord. Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built like a city that is closely compacted together. That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel. There the thrones for judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels. For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your prosperity. So far, the reading of God's word. Thanksgiving, as I said at the beginning of our service, has been an annual proclamation, a call to Thanksgiving from the President since the days of President Lincoln. But the practice of Thanksgiving is even more deeply rooted in our history. It may have become an annual celebration only 150 years ago, but its roots go all the way back to the earliest pilgrim immigrants to New England and their early struggle to survive. They had headed for Virginia and missed it and landed in Massachusetts, a far less hospitable farming region. And the struggle to survive was serious. And when the harvest came in, adequate to allow them to survive through the winter and through another time of planting and harvest, they were thankful indeed to God. And so they gathered to feast and gathered to give thanks. And they did that as part of a conviction amongst the Reformed that is even older than the pilgrims coming to America and that first Thanksgiving. It goes back to a conviction that the people of God ordinarily are to worship on the Sabbath day, but that it is appropriate that they should gather for special times of Thanksgiving as well, to give thanks to God, to rejoice in him, and to be thankful to him. And therefore, Thanksgiving, in a sense, is a Calvinist gift to America. And it is right that we should be in our churches to worship God and to give thanks to him on this day. But, of course, the idea of Thanksgiving is not an invention of Calvinists. Throughout the history of the church, we can see God's people gathering in times of thanksgiving for his blessings upon them. And the idea of thanksgiving is rooted in the scriptures. And we read here in Psalm 122, verse 4, that the tribes go up to Jerusalem to praise the name of the Lord, Or it's also possible to translate that to thank the name of the Lord according to the statute given to Israel. And this psalm reminds us that Israel, in the law given to it, was required to gather for times of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord. In the new covenant, we are not bound by that requirement, but we are bound to be thankful. But it is interesting to read here that Israel, according to the statute given to it, was to go up to praise and thank the name of the Lord. And as we study the Old Testament, we recognize that that obligation, that law imposed upon Israel was in relation to three annual feasts. Israel was to go up three times a year to Jerusalem to thank the Lord. And that call then to thanksgiving, that obligation to thanksgiving, that responsibility for thanksgiving was deeply implanted in the consciousness of God's people. They were to pause regularly to think about their God, to turn their minds to God, and to be thankful. In Psalm 69 we read, I will praise the name of the Lord with a song. I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the Lord more than an ox or a bull with horns and hooves. When Israel went up to Jerusalem, it did indeed go up to offer sacrifice on the altar of God. But the Psalms remind us that God was more concerned about what was going on in the hearts of His people than He was concerned about what was going on on the altar. And that God was concerned that his people would be a thankful people. That his people would recognize his blessings to them. And so in Psalm 122, we have a reminder that God calls his people to be a thankful people. And as he calls the people to be a thankful people, we are to be thankful, first of all, in remembering his provision for us. And that's what those three feasts were really all about. Israel was to go up in the first place in March or April of the year to celebrate the Passover or the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. And they were to go up there to remember that they had been spared when God sent judgment on Egypt. That the angel of death had passed over them and that they had come out of Egypt alive. That God had rescued them and redeemed them from the house of bondage and liberated them. And so they were to go up year by year in March or in April to give thanks to the Lord that He was their Redeemer, that He had saved them, that He had made a people of them. And they were to pause in the midst of their lives, their busy lives, to go up and to thank God as their Redeemer. And then, later in the year, in May and in June, they were to go up for the Feast of Weeks. And the Feast of Weeks was a celebration of the grain harvest. And they were to remember and be thankful that God had blessed their labors, that God was giving them food, that God would sustain them. And they were to pause in the midst of that labor to remember that in Egypt they had labored as slaves, but God had liberated them. And now they own their own farms. They had their own good land. They worked for themselves. They were able to see God's blessing upon the fruit of their hands. And so they went up to be thankful that God had liberated them and that God had blessed them. And then later in the year, in September or October, they would go up again to the land, to Jerusalem, to celebrate, to remember the end of their work upon the fields, to reflect on how God had blessed them, how God had provided for them, and to celebrate that God was the provider. And so, annually, in this rhythm in the life of Israel, they were called upon to pause. Pause not only on the Sabbath day, week by week, to think about their God, to worship their God, but also to pause at these three festivals, to not only pause, but to travel. All the males were required to appear in Jerusalem, but often whole families would go. We read in Luke chapter 2 that Mary and Joseph went annually to Jerusalem at the Passover with Jesus. They kept this law, they reflected on it, and that interruption, the Feast of Passover was a week. The Feast of Weeks was only a day, but the Feast of Ingathering or the Feast of Booths was a week as well. So, time of travel, time away from home, time away from work, the expense of travel. All of it to say, let your life be interrupted so that you can give attention to the one who gives you life. So that you can pause and remember that it is the Lord our God who has given you all that you have. who has given you homes and land and life and health and prosperity. All of that comes from the Lord, and he is to be praised, and he is to be thanked. That was the great message of these three feasts. And while we are not bound by them, we are not under that old covenant law, we are to learn from this message of the importance of thanksgiving, the importance of cultivating a spirit of thanksgiving, of taking time to remember that what we have comes not in the first place from our hard work or from our wisdom, but from the Lord our God. And it should strike us as more than a little sad that so many in America today don't really think of Thanksgiving as a time to pause and to think about our Creator and about our Redeemer. But for many, the day has become simply a day for food and football, and to the extent there's any controversy about how the day should be spent, the controversy seems simply to be whether we should do more or less shopping on this day. The question is not how much we eat, And the question is not how much football we watch. The question is, are we thankful? Do our minds and our hearts turn with thanks to the Lord? It is so easy to be forgetful. It is so easy to forget who has given us all that we have and all that we possess. Some time ago, I was looking at John Milton, another Calvinist of sorts. John Milton's great poem, his epic poem, Paradise Lost. And part of what Milton does in that remarkable poem is to speculate on why Satan rebelled against God. Scriptures really don't tell us much about why Satan rebelled against God. But in this poem, Milton penned remarkable words. And I want to read part of this to you. These are the words of Satan as he speaks to the Son. Not the Son of God, but the Son that God had created in the heavens. And Milton is imagining how Satan had come to rebel against God. And these are really remarkable words, I think. Satan speaking. To thee I call, but with no friendly voice, and add thy name, O Son, to tell thee how I hate thy beams that bring to my remembrance from what state I fell. How glorious once above thy sphere, till pride and worse ambition threw me down, warring in heaven against heaven's matchless king and wherefore he deserved no such return from me whom he created what I was in that bright eminence and with his good upbraided none nor was his service hard what could be less than to afford him praise the easiest recompense and pay him thanks. How do? Yet all his good proved ill in me and wrought but malice. Lifted up so high I disdained subjection and thought one step higher would set me highest. And in a moment quit the debt immense of endless gratitude so burdensome, still paying, still to owe. You see the anger of Satan? And what's he angry about? That God had given him so many good things, but God hadn't made him God. That's what he's angry about. And what he's angry about is that God had given him so many good things that he ought to be grateful. But how does he respond to the God to whom he ought to be grateful? He's simply resentful of the debt immense, of endless gratitude, so burdensome. Still paying. Still to owe. What an awful thing to have to be forever grateful. You see, some of the boys and girls are smiling. They ought to smile. Isn't that silly? Isn't that stupid? To be angry that someone has given you something. To be angry that you've been so blessed, you ought to be thankful. But there is that deep in the human heart, isn't it? I don't want to be thankful. I don't want to have to recognize I've gotten anything from anybody else. I want to be able to proclaim that all I have is from my wisdom and my goodness and my insight, my hard work. Here we see something of the very essence of sin. Hating the fact that God is God. That's why thanksgiving is so important. Because we come to say, we recognize we are not God. We recognize that we are not ultimately in control. We recognize that God is in control of all things. That whether there's flood or drought, or just the amount of rain farmers want. Whether we have health or sickness. Whether we live or die. That is all ultimately in God's hand. And that he has given us so many good things. That even in the face of the struggles of this world, we need to be a thankful people. Satan hated the sun because he remembered he was once more glorious than the sun, but that was not glorious enough. And he warns us that we need to be a people who remember, turn again and again to remember what God has done for us. In Jesus Christ, he called us out of the slavery and bondage of sin and liberated us to be citizens of the promised land. In Jesus Christ, he has provided for all of our spiritual needs and promised us eternal life. In Jesus Christ, he has called us into his family, made us part of his people. and showered on us so many other blessings in addition. And so, this psalm, as it reflects on the three great feasts that Israel was to observe, reminds us that our life and our years need to be characterized by thanksgiving. We need to remember to be thankful. But we need not only to remember to be thankful, but we need to be thankful by being renewed in a reflection on God's promises. This psalm celebrates that as these pilgrims who had traveled any number of days to get to Jerusalem finally arrived in Jerusalem. Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. We've traveled. Some of us have traveled for days and days. And at last we are here and we look around and what are we celebrating? We're celebrating that we are part of what God has promised to do in this world. We are renewed in a sense of being His people. We are here amongst His people. This is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to praise the name of the Lord. For there stands the throne of judgment, the thrones of David. Jerusalem reminded them that they were to be renewed in a sense of the God of salvation, The God of justice. The God who was creating a people. The God who was uniting a people together. A God who said to his people, I will do right by you. I will bless you. And I have promised that one day there will be a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. That's what the throne of David promises us. That's what Christ as great David's greater son promises us. And we need to be, as a thankful people, renewed in that sense that God is the God who keeps his promises. God is the God who does good to his people. And that therefore, as his people, we need thankfully to seek the goodness that God has promised. You notice that one of the repeated promises here, the repeated longings of the hearts of God's people is for peace. Verse 6, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May those who love you be secure. May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels. For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, peace be within you. God has promised his people peace. God has promised his people security. And that's what we have above all in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus came ultimately that there might be peace between man and God. Peace that he made on the cross. And Jesus Christ came that there might be peace between his people. As Israel came up to Jerusalem, as Israel dwelled together in Jerusalem, they had to put aside old enmities, old unhappinesses, old sins. There had to be peace. Peace between brothers and sisters, as well as peace with God. And that's the promise of what God has said to his people. He is creating. He wants us to be renewed in that remembrance that we are to be his people, to be at peace with one another, and to be at peace with our God. We need to be thankful for that, that such great blessings have been given to us and will be given to us. And then finally, we are called to thanksgiving by this psalm as we rejoice in the presence of God. We're to remember, we're to be renewed, and we're to rejoice. Israel went up to Jerusalem as a duty, but it was not enough just to fulfill the duty. The psalm rightly begins, I was glad when they said unto me, the old translation. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go to the house of the Lord. It was a duty. It was a responsibility. It was an obligation. And sometimes when we have duties, we do them only dutifully. Sometimes we take no delight in duty. But that's not the attitude that God wanted when he called Israel into his presence. It was a duty, but even more, it was to be a delight. I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. I was glad when they said, let's pack up the donkey and the tent and the camping tools. I hate camping. I would not have made a good Israelite. But they were glad when they said, let's pack up the donkey and pack up the food and travel for those days and leave house behind that we can go up to Jerusalem with the crowds and with the people overcharging for food and with the streets all jammed. I hate a parade. I turn on the news every Thanksgiving, read about the Macy's parade and think, Why would anyone do that? But, you know, I don't want to rain on your parade. If you like parades, that's great. This would have been a duty, I'm afraid, more than a delight for me. Lots of it. But, you see, what they're called on is to rejoice not in the travel time, not in the crowded conditions, but to rejoice that they're with the people of God in the presence of God. That's the rejoicing. And it's interesting, even in Deuteronomy and in Exodus, when we read about these feasts, particularly the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Ingathering, we're always told that you are to rejoice in my presence. And then we read in Nehemiah, when the Feast of Booths was restored to Israel, that they greatly rejoiced in the presence of the Lord. And they greatly rejoiced because they were thankful. Because they acknowledged that all that they had, all that they were, all that they hoped to do came from the hand of the Lord. And so on this Thanksgiving, let's enjoy the food and the family. Let's maybe even enjoy the football and, if you have to, the parade. But let's, above all else, rejoice in the Lord and acknowledge that he is the one who has blessed us with all the blessings that we possess. All the blessings of his creation and providence, all the blessings of our redemption in Jesus Christ come from him and from him alone. May our hearts be filled with thanksgiving on this day. Amen.