Sermon: A Gratitude Primer

Again, wanna welcome you to our evening service at University Reform Church. Uh, if you were here this morning as I was, I was a little confused from Pastor Nate, whether his sermon was the last in the series or mine was, but I want to tell you, mine is truly the last series sermon in the series. Uh, but Nate did a great job talking about a plan for gratitude. So my job tonight is to give a closing psalm of gratitude.

And as Nate did, I want to just review some of the big themes that have been, uh, expressed in the morning service. Pastor Jason talked about a portrait of gratitude, and he defined what gratitude is. It's a whole life expressed in Thanksgiving to God. The posture of gratitude is humility, persevering in gratitude when things are hard. And then today, how do we express gratitude together as a congregation? So my job, uh, I'm gonna preach on Psalm 1 38,

so you might wanna look that up in your Bibles right now. And it's a closing psalm of gratitude. I'm thinking of it as kind of a, a gratitude primer. A primer is usually something that is given in the beginning. It kinda lays out the basics. It's a short thing that kind of expresses what whatever the topic is all about, this is coming at the end. So it will function as something of a concluding summary and encouragement, uh,

to nurture in us a gratitude attitude. So let's read Psalm 1 38. And, uh, before we do that, let's pray for the Lord's help. As, as we preach and listen tonight, father, we confess that we are poor and needy, but we are precious to you. We thank you for your word, which is a lamp unto our feet. We thank you for your spirit, which makes it come alive to us. Lord, we need your help tonight. I need your help as I preach.

We all need your help, that we would have open hearts, that our hearts would be good soil. So Lord, tonight through this sermon, through this psalm of gratitude, we pray that you would captivate our hearts with your glory. We pray that you would liberate our hearts with your great power. We pray that you would educate our hearts with your truth. That sets us free. And we pray that you would motivate us to gratitude and obedience through your grace.

So that as Paul says, everything we do, we do in the name of Jesus, and we are overflowing with thanksgiving to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 1 38, A Psalm of David, I give you thanks, oh Lord, with my whole heart before the gods. I sing your praise. I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness. For you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

On the day I called, you answered me my strength of soul. You increased all the kings of the earth shall give thanks, oh Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth. And they shall sing of the ways of the Lord for great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar, though I walk in the midst of trouble. You preserve my life, you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies.

And your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Your steadfast love, oh Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. This is God's word to us tonight as we go through this psalm. I'm gonna do it in three sections. The first is just the, the first three lines. And we're gonna look at the how of expressing gratitude. Three ways that we express gratitude to God. And then most of the sermon will be, um, almost all

of the rest of the psalm. And that will be the why we express gratitude to God. We're gonna look at six reasons for gratitude, and then there's a, a final request at the very end of the psalm. So how we express God, why we express God, and a final request. So verses one and two A, the first three lines, David says, I give you thanks, oh Lord, with my whole heart before the gods. I sing your praise, I bow down toward your holy temple.

So the first way that we express gratitude to God, according to David, is with complete devotion. He says, I give you thanks, oh Lord, with my whole heart. We would say today with all my heart, it means with sincerest feelings. There's no faking it. With all my energy and enthusiasm, enthusiasm, nothing held back with my body and soul, there's no limits to my gratitude. Now, that's a high standard, and often our gratitude seems kind of wimpy in comparison

to what God deserves. But it's important that we remember that this wholehearted gratitude is not something we're just meant to generate on ourselves. We can't just conjure it up by our willpower. I give thanks, oh Lord, with my whole heart is a response to God's wholehearted grace and blessings to us as undeserving, but beloved people. Here's how the Lord says it in Jeremiah 32 41, he says, I will rejoice in doing them good

and I will plant them in this land and faithfulness with all my heart and soul. God blesses unworthy purpose with all his heart and soul and there, and therefore a wholehearted responsive gratitude is reasonable. So that's the first way we give thanks to God. We do it with our whole heart with complete devotion. Secondly, we do it with what I'm gonna call exuberant boldness. David says, before the Gods, I sing your praise.

Now that sounds like a large and very impressive audience, and David is very bold. Now of course, we, we, we, we think what, who are the gods literally in Hebrew? It's the Elohim sometimes referring to God himself. But that wouldn't make any sense here, commentators, conjecture. It might be the angels that David is singing before and, and praising or the false gods of the nations or the kings of the earth or temporal judges in Israel.

We don't know for sure if I was gonna weigh in I it, what seems reasonable to me is when we praise God, we're praising him before all the angels and the church triumphant the saints in heaven. So David says, before the Gods, I sing your praise, it reminds us of another psalm of David, which is Psalm 40, verses nine and 10. There the, the audience is a little different, but it's the same attitude. David says, I have told the glad news

of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips as you know, oh Lord, I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. Again, David is unashamed and uninhibited in his thanks and praise. Thirdly, the third how we express gratitude is with awestruck humility.

David says, I bow down toward your holy temple. Bowing down is a posture of humble worship. Holy temple is the place of God's holy presence. Now, we don't have to do certain postures, although often it seems very natural to bow down, to lift up our hands, to kneel. But we're not required to do that. And there's no place we have to go. God's holy temple where God's presence is for us. Being in Christ is the place of humility

and being in Christ is the place of holiness. So what does that look like? I'd like to read a quote by, uh, Charles Spurgeon, one of my favorites, and I think he captures this, this sense of awestruck humility. He says in this childlike fear, there is not an atom of that fear which signifies being afraid. We who believe in Jesus are not afraid of our Father. God forbid that we ever should be the nearer we can get to him, the happier we are.

Our highest wish is to be with him forever and to be lost in him. But still we pray that we may not grieve him. We beseech him to keep us from turning aside from him. We ask for his tender pity towards our infirmities and plead with him to forgive us and deal graciously with us for his dear son's sake. As loving children, we feel a holy awe and reverence as we realize our relationship to him, who is our Father in heaven, A dear loving, tender,

pitiful father, yet our heavenly Father who is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. So those are three ways. Three, hows rather we, we worship with complete devotion. We worship with exuberant boldness and we worship with awestruck humility. Now we're gonna turn to the, the main body of Psalm 1 38 and we're gonna look at six reasons why we give thanks.

These, these, this might be the wise of gratitude verses two B through almost the end of the Psalm verse eight A. So first of all, we give thanks to God for his steadfast love and faithfulness. That's what he says we give. I give thanks to you, oh Lord, with my whole heart, and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Now, there's many, many, many infinitely perfect attributes of God for which we give thanks,

but I personally am glad this one is first. I think this is what we need and desire above everything else. For God who knows all our sins and all our sufferings who has dealt comprehensively with all of them at the cross to love us steadfastly and faithfully, forever and ever. That is healing. That is comfort. That is life. Again, God has infinite perfect infinite beauty in all his attributes. But the Puritans used to like to say

that it's only his steadfast love. It's only his tender mercies. It's only his loving kindness that can melt our hearts and win our hearts and change our hearts. And so we give thanks to God for his steadfast love and faithfulness. Secondly, we give thanks to God because he has exalted above all things His name and his word. I I I'm sure you have noticed that all human beings are natural worshipers. You could say we are exalt.

That means we desire to elevate something to the highest place above everything else. We can't help it. We were created to worship. We long to exalt, to look to someone or something higher, better, stronger, more beautiful than ourselves, and then rejoice in that exalt in that praise and delight. And so many people a week or so ago watched the College National Championship 'cause they wanted to exalt either. It doesn't sound like a very good choice, does it?

Either Ohio State or Notre Dame. Tonight is the conference, uh, the NFL Conference Championship in a couple weeks will be the Super Bowl. Some people watch Miss Universe contest to see who's the most beautiful woman I might be interested in. Who's the greatest rock guitarist blog or something, something like who are the hundred most influential people in the last thousand years? It's why we get hooked into political parties or candidates

or maybe here. Who's the greatest English speaking theologian? Is it Jonathan Edwards or John Owen? But brothers and sisters, God himself has weighed in. God himself is an exalt. If we wanna know in exalting what he says is infinitely good, infinitely true, and infinitely beautiful. He says it's in his name and in his word. And both of those point us to his son. God has exalted above all things his name and his word, Jesus Christ, his name.

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his Father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. There will be no end or Philippians two. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name,

so that the name of Jesus, every niche should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. How about his word? In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only son from the Father full of grace and truth. So secondly, we give thanks to the Lord for his exalted name and word, Jesus Christ. Third, we give thanks

because on the day that we call, God answers us and strengthens our soul. Verse three, on the day I call, you answered me my strength of soul. You increased. Today we would call that same day service. Lots of lots of, uh, business will advertise that way. You, you come in whatever you need, we'll get it for you on the same day. But it doesn't always work that way, does it? It doesn't work that way on the phone. Have you ever tried to call someone for help, some business

or company or organization? They, they say that they're there for you and they give you a toll free number and you call and you get transferred three or four times. Don't, don't you hate those words? Hold on and I'll connect you. And then you're made to wait for an interminable amount of time while they provide muza, which is amazingly both bland and grading at the same time. And then you wait and wait and wait and you realize there's no one there on the other end.

I've been disconnected. And so you call and start all over again. About two weeks ago, I had a dentist appointment scheduled, kind of a yearly bi-yearly checkup, but I got a sinus infection. And so I realized I can't go to the dentist whether I have a sinus infection. So here's what I did. You know how they text you and remind you and tell you to confirm, yeah, here's my, my appointment. So twice I responded to those texts

and says, have an infection. Can't come. I'll call and reschedule twice. Then on the day of the dentist appointment, I called and left a voice message. Same thing, have an infection, can't come, I'll call and reschedule. Then that day they called me and I said the same thing, live to the lady on the other end. And then two days later, we got a letter in the mail that said, Hey, you missed your appointment and if you do it again, we're finding you $50.

Ah, that doesn't sound like same day service to me. But when we call on God, we get through right away, right through to the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace. David says on the day that I called and I, I personally have to do that all the time. I do that all day at work in between counseling appointments, uh, sometimes I've, I've sat on my own couch in my office and just said, Lord, I'm tired.

I can't do this. I need your help. Sometimes at night, Judy and I often have a kind of an evening routine. I'll come home, maybe she's getting dinner, we talk for a while, we eat dinner, we have devotions. Maybe we play a game and then we watch a little tv, but many, many times, seven 30 or eight o'clock, honey, I, I just need to go out in the other room, just spend a little time with the Lord. It's not because I'm so holy, it's

because I just need the Lord. And there's no, i, I love the fact that there's no need for me to wait until office hours tomorrow. God doesn't have office hours. There's no need to wait till I'm more, more coherent or together or full of faith or worthy. I call on him and he always welcomes me and he always meets me and he always answers. On the day I called you, answered my, my strength of soul. You, you increased. He promises to increase our strength

of soul, literally the strength of life. It's what we need more than anything else. Sometimes he does that by just reorienting or reminding us of the big picture. There's more going on than we can see or sense or feel. Things are often very different in reality than what we feel He reminds us. Pat aff affliction is normal. Discipline is sanctifying. Help is promised, and glory is coming. And sometimes, not, sometimes,

all the time he does even more than that. He even offers us words to use to talk to him because sometimes we're so tired, we're so burdened, we don't even know how to pray. Now we know Paul says the Holy Spirit intercedes for us and that's precious. But sometimes I turn to or because I have, I have them memorized a few verses in Psalm 25 that just seems to cover everything. David says, turn to me Lord and be gracious to me.

For I am lonely and afflicted the troubles of my heart have multiplied. Bring me out of my distresses. Consider my affliction and my trouble and forgive all my sins. Even that last line covers everything. Consider pay attention to my affliction and my trouble and forgive my many sins. And so we give thanks to God that he answers us when we call and promises to increase the strength of our soul. Fourth, we give thanks to God

because the whole world will eventually hear his word, sing of his ways and glorify him. Our God is not a local tribal deity. He's the God of heaven and earth. And the gospel is meant for all nations. That's why we do missions. It goes back to Abraham in Genesis 12, when God calls him out of earth and he says, I'm gonna bless you and I'm gonna make your name great, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you.

That is a universal God. So verses four and five, all the kings of the earth shall give you thanks for they have heard the words of your mouth. And they shall sing of the ways of the Lord. For great is the glory of the Lord. Again, that connects back to another psalm, Psalm two, which is used a number of times in the New Testament. Psalm verse or verses four and five, connect with Psalm two. And in that Psalm, God makes a promise to his Messiah

that the whole world will ultimately submit to and glorify him. In that psalm, Jesus the Messiah says, I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son today. I have begotten you ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. That is great hope to all of you. To all of us who are involved in evangelism and local ministry, local mission and worldwide mission, God will win the world for Christ.

And in Revelation 21, it kind of talks about what that's gonna look like. Listen to this by its light, that's the light of the Lord will the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations revelation tells us that all the nations will bring their glory into the new Jerusalem.

In worship commentator Michael Wilcox says it this way, the glory and honor of the nations contribute to the magnificence of the city. All that is truly good and beautiful in this world will reappear there purified and enhanced in the perfect setting. Its maker intended for it. Nothing of real value is ever lost. And so we give thanks to God for the glory of the worldwide gospel. Fifth, we give thanks to God because the most high God regards preserves

and delivers his humble saints. Verse six, for though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar though I walk in the midst of trouble. You preserve my life, you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies and your right hand delivers me. Verses six and seven reveal both God's awesome majesty. The Lord is high, and his tender mercy, he regards the lowly. Jonathan Edwards would call those God's

diverse excellencies. Normally great majesty and tender mercy don't come together in one person and both the father and the Son have something to say about their majesty and mercy. Here's what the father says in Isaiah 57. I dwell in a high and holy place, but also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite. God is saying, I'm infinitely above all things.

You can't even conceive of me, much less reach me, but I delight to come down and dwell with the humble to revive their hearts. That's what the Father says. The son says it very succinctly in Luke 1232. He says, fear not little flock for it. Is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom? John Piper says, every word in that, in that verse is meant by Jesus to disarm all our hesitations and objections and fears.

And so Jesus says, fear not. You don't need to be afraid. He calls us little flock. Little meaning you are little, you're small and insignificant, but little can also be a term of endearment. You are precious dear shepherd. Fear not little flock. It is your father's. That's who he is to you. He's not just your creator. He is not just your king or judge, but he's your Abba father. It is your father's good pleasure. You don't need to twist his arm. You don't need to nag him.

This is his delight, what to give. You don't need to twist his arm. You don't need to save up. You don't need to work hard. You don't need to be good enough. God delights to give who you by a time I would point to every one of you, you, you, yes, you God delights to give you what the kingdom that means all that there is or ever could be for your everlasting happiness. So we give thanks because the most high God, our Father,

through Jesus Christ notices every one of us He protects and saves those who humbly come to him. I love the verse that says, though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life. I think that's just a a, just a description of all of our lives. Every day there's some trouble over here and there's some trouble over here and there's troubles we've already come through and there's troubles up ahead. But God preserves us. He delivers us.

He strengthens us when we are low, he loves to help us. Finally, number six, we give thanks to God because the Lord, and here again is his steadfast love. In his steadfast love, he will fulfill his purpose for each one of us. He says it this way, the Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Now, obviously I'm speaking to all of you, but I wanna speak especially to young people, maybe high school students and college students.

There's so much pressure in our culture today for you to discover your identity and fulfill your destiny. We, we all seem trapped in a Choose your own adventure book. Are you familiar with those books? I know they were popular a long time ago and I looked online, they're still there. Choose your own adventure book is you read for a while and then you come to a, you have to make a decision. If you decide this, you turn to this page

and the story goes that way. If you decide this, you go to a different page in the story. Well, that's kind of fun in reading. But what if every day was a choose your own adventure? And it was like some massive thing? You have to decide. You have to discover your identity and fulfill your destiny. It's unbearable pressure. First of all, life is not primarily about you and your adventure. Sorry to tell you that. That's what we're told to believe.

Life is about you look within, discover who you are, follow your desires, become the best version of you, fulfill your destiny. That's not what life is about. It's about something much bigger and much better. You can't bear the weight of being the center of your life. Only God can. You are meant to be a supporting actor in the great story of God's glory. But we get it all backwards. We think God is the supporting actor in my story

of glory. It's exactly the Opposite. That's The first reason why it's unbearable Pressure. Secondly, think about it. If you have to discover your own identity and fulfill your destiny, there are endless potential identities and endless potential destinies and therefore endless ways of screwing up and falling short and disappointing others and condemning yourself. It just, it just raises this pressure. And when you fail, Which you will

At times forgiving yourself or seeking forgiveness from others, it won't cut it. It's not enough. Only God's forgiveness can cleanse and restore. So how Freeing, How hopeful that the Lord will fulfill his purpose For me, That's beautiful. The Lord's purpose is By definition, deeply fulfilling. Paul says in Romans 12, It's good, Acceptable and perfect. God Is so much wiser, so much more creative, So Surprising and loving in his

Purpose. All the days Ordained for you were written down in his book Before you Lived one of those days. And God Has prepared for you good works to do Beforehand, That that just takes the pressure off. God has a purpose for you. He has a life for you. You'll Participate in that. You will have decisions to make, But the big weight of who You are and what your destiny and what you should do and uh, and what good Works, that's All been prepared for

You. Now, I know myself Best, so I, it's not like my life is more important than any of yours. It's just the life I know the best. And I've been following Jesus for over 50 Years. So I have a few years to Look back on it. Before I was a believer, If you had told me you're gonna live in Lansing, Michigan, Huh? I think I had been there once in my entire life. You're gonna marry a girl from Niles, Michigan. Say what? Where

Niles, Michigan. You're going to be a Christian musician. Now That In its present form didn't even exist yet. Okay? So I I wouldn't have known what that was. You're going to teach Bible. I didn't like the Bible. Bible was scary At an interdenominational Christian school. A what? And you're going to then become a biblical Counselor Again. Not only would I have not anticipated those things, not only would I not Have, I wouldn't even have known

what they were because some of them didn't even exist yet. But God had a purpose for me. And for 50 years he has graciously been fulfilling that purpose. And I don't know how many more years I have, but I keep praying that prayer, the Lord fulfill your purpose for me. And he promises to do it. No one can stop him. Here's what God says. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint that's me. And to him who has no might, he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary. And young men shall fall exhausted. Exhausted. But they who wait for 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. And so brothers and sisters, we give thanks to God

that in his steadfast love, he will fulfill his purpose for every one of you. Now, there's one last part which is a final request, which we're gonna talk about in just a minute. I wanna make an aside here because I just can't leave this out. It, it's really the most important thing about the Psalm. And I haven't devoted any time to it, but I'm just gonna mention it, okay? If you look at the beginning of the psalm, it says as Psalm

of David, okay, of David. He wrote it, it's about his experience. But deeper than that, it is a Psalm of Jesus. Jesus, the son of God, inspired every psalm. Jesus lived out. Every psalm and the book of Psalms were, were how he prayed. The book of Psalms give us, give us a look into his heart, his inner life, his inner relationship with the Father. So Jesus inspired Psalm 1 38, Jesus lived Psalm 1 38, a life of gratitude.

And he prayed Psalm 1 38 and best of all, through his life and death and resurrection, he made it possible for you to live Psalm 1 38. He made it possible for God to bless you and me unworthy sinners with all his heart. And then he made it reasonable and possible through the power of the Holy Spirit to give thanks to him with all our hearts. So this is Jesus Psalm. We owe this psalm to Jesus. Okay, one last thing. The very last verse, actually the very last line.

Do not forsake the work of your hands. This seems like a strange ending, kind of a, an abrupt change of themes. He's all full of thanksgiving. And then do not forsake the work of your hands. So we ask the question, why does David end this Psalm of Thanksgiving with this request? I think the best answer is that last verse is kind of a reality check as much as we have to be thankful for, and we will hopefully after this faith focus, continue

to press in on all the things we have to be thankful for and to be thankful in all circumstances. But the point is, we're not home yet. Through many dangers, toils and snes, we have already come. It's grace that brought us safe this far and grace will lead us home. Derrick Kidner says, the, the vision of this psalm, especially the worldwide spreading of the gospel and the, and the nations bringing their glory, all of these wonderful things, which is our final destiny,

they haven't have, haven't happened completely yet. They, they wait to be realized. And then he says this and times are hard. So this last little verse is very helpful. We, we actually see the hints of it in verse seven, where he says, though I walk in the midst of trouble, not home, yet you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies not home yet. So it's actually a very realistic and very hopeful way to end.

It's as if we're saying, Lord, I see who you are. I see what you've done. I'm so very thankful and I want to be thankful every day. But Lord, the battle still rages and tomorrow's gonna be hard and I need you badly. That's realism. Paul says in Philippians one, six, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. That's a great hope. John Calvin commenting on that verse says this,

and this is how we make use of this doctrine when we fall or are disposed to waiver in your minds, we will just remember that since God has wrought the beginning of our salvation in us, he will carry it forward to the termination. But now listen to what he says here accordingly. We should take refuge to prayer that we may not through our own nce bar, our access to that continuous stream of the divine goodness which flows from a fountain

that is inexhaustible. So as we think about all these reasons for thanksgiving and many, many, many more, and as we cultivate an attitude of gratitude, giving thanks in all circumstances, and as we recognize that God has done this, he's doing this right now, and he's going to bring a completion that doesn't lead us to apathy or laziness, it leads us to prayer. Lord, you've brought me safe thus far. Thank you. Do it again tomorrow. So here's how we pray.

Lord, we give you thanks for your steadfast love and faithfulness. Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks that you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks that when we call you, answer us and you strengthen us. Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks because the world will hear your gospel respond in faith and glorify your name.

Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks because you know and preserve and deliver each one of us from our enemies. Do not forsake the work of your hands. And we give you thanks that in your steadfast love, you will fulfill your purpose. For each one of us. Do not forsake the work of your hands. I'd like to ask you to stand and we're gonna, we're gonna do this little liturgy or lit little litany that I, that I just read to you,

but we're gonna do it together. Okay? So I'm gonna go through each one of those six. We give you thanks, and at the end of each one, I want all of you together to say, do not forsake the work of your hands. So I'll say, Lord, we give you thanks for your steadfast love and faithfulness, and you'll say, do not forsake the work of your hands. And we'll work through all those six things and then we will have a closing song.

Lord, we give you thanks for your steadfast love and faithfulness. Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks that you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks that when we call you, answer us and strengthen us. Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks because the world will hear your gospel respond in faith and glorify your name to not

forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks because you know and preserve and deliver each one of us from our enemies. Do not forsake the work of your hands. We give you thanks that in your steadfast love, you will fulfill your purpose for us. Do not forsake the work of your hands. Father, we praise you for the shepherd King David who wrote this 3000 years ago, not only to give you praise and to, uh, give people in ancient Israel another way of praising you,

but you wrote it for us. And you remind us of all the ways that, uh, we should give thanks to you with our whole heart, with full devotion, in awestruck humility. But Lord, you, you give us so many reasons to give you thanks, and we praise you and we do pray, Lord, in each one of our lives, that you will preserve us, that you will not forsake the work of your hands, and that even this week you will fulfill your purpose

for us and through us. And we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.