Unveiling True Thanksgiving: A Journey Through History, Hardship, and Healing Psalm 147

In November 1621, after the Pilgrims’ first corn harvest proved successful, Governor William Bradford organized a celebratory feast and invited a group of the fledgling colony’s Native American allies.

For years a day of thanks was celebrated sporadically each year around harvest time.

In 1827, magazine editor and writer Sarah Josepha Hale—author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—launched a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

For 36 years, she published numerous editorials and sent scores of letters to governors, senators, presidents and other politicians, earning her the nickname the “Mother of Thanksgiving.”

Abraham Lincoln finally heeded her request in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, in a proclamation entreating all Americans to ask God to

“commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”

Thanksgiving as we know it today was established in a time of great turmoil and loss.

During the civil war approximately 620,000 lives were lost.

That is over half the population of our state.

The first celebrated thanksgiving was celebrated after a successful harvest, after a time of significant hardship.

Thanksgiving as we know it today was established in the midst of great turmoil and hardship.

Thanksgiving: Just the word evokes an idealized family gathering where everyone is holding hands and in perfect health,

with fully-funded bank accounts, blissful marriages, and children who are always cheerful and obedient.

But that's a far cry from reality isn't it?

No one's real Thanksgiving gathering looks like this. Ever.

This isn’t the root or the history of the holiday either.

Yet we've somehow convinced ourselves that in order for unreserved thanks giving to occur (no matter the time of year), this idealized picture must be present.

We've bought the lie that our ability to give thanks should be based on how close our life matches this perfect image.

If we allowed that that to be the determining factor of our giving thanks though, we would rarely give thanks.

But we read verses like

1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Think on that for a moment.

All circumstances?

All the time?

We may think, really God?

You want me to say thank you when I have lost my financial security?

You want we to say thank you if my child is suffering from a debilitating illness?

You want me to say thank you when I have lost someone I cared deeply for?

You want me to say thank you when I feel like my life is falling apart?

God’s answer to this is simply - Yes.

But for us to understand this, we need to redefine our definition of what thankfulness is.

Giving thanks with a grateful heart doesn't necessarily mean that that we're saying we believe the situation is perfect and that's why we're thankful.

Giving thanks doesn't even have to mean that we're happy about the situation or that we like it at all.

Thankfulness can simply be an offering:

a hope and a faith put in a promise yet to be fulfilled.

It's a faith in believing God's truth that

Romans 8:28 ESV

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

It's persevering through the pain because we trust Him and believe in the promise,

like the example given of many who have gone before us (Hebrews 11).

Thankfulness recognizes that it doesn't have to be exactly how I want it for me to say “amen.”

Instead, the act of giving thanks acknowledges–sometimes with tears–that it doesn't have to be perfect to be good.

I want to turn to the Psalms again this morning to help us reorient and redefine our definition of thankfulness.

I want to turn to Psalm 147 - The ESV titles this Psalm, He heals the brokenhearted.

Psalm 147 ESV

Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you. He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat. He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules. Praise the Lord!

This Psalm is fitting for us as we have been studying the book of Nehemiah together.

Many commentators believe this and the following Psalms were written around the same time the people were returning to Jerusalem form exile.

So they were giving thanks after having endured a time of hardships, a time of struggles and trials.

How could they give thanks in that situation.

Sure they were returning to their homeland.

But they were returning to ruins.

Why would God’s people want to praise Him, even in difficult circumstances?

First of all, according to the Psalm before us this morning, God’s people praise Him because of His power.

Psalm 147 falls into three stanzas (1-6; 7-11; 12-20), each beginning with a call to praise, followed by the reasons for praise.

In each stanza, there are repeated cycles that emphasize God’s goodness toward His chosen people as seen in His grace (2-3, 6, 10-14, 19-20)

and His greatness over all creation on their behalf (4-5, 8-9, 15-18).

Each stanza ends with a contrast:

first (v. 6), between the afflicted, whom the Lord supports, and the wicked, whom He brings down;

second (vv. 10-11), between the Lord’s displeasure toward those who trust in their own strength, versus His pleasure in those who fear Him and wait for His love;

finally (vv. 19-20), between Israel, which has received God’s word, and other nations, which have not.

These three stanzas help us to find reason to praise the Lord especially in hard times.

Praise the God who redeems!

This Psalm begins, as with last week with a call to praise the Lord.

Hallelujah!

As the psalmist says, it is good to sing praises to our God.

The psalmist goes on to use two words to describe our praise we are to bring to the Lord.

Delightful and fitting.

What makes a song delightful and fitting?

A song is delightful and fitting when it expresses truth that accords with God’s word, and affections that accord with God’s worth.

Sing of God’s goodness, his righteousness.

Also his justice.

What makes our songs delightful and fitting is that they express affections or emotions that align with God’s worth.

Paul says in Ephesians 5:19 that we are to “sing and make melody to the Lord with your heart.”

Singing that is delightful and fitting in the presence of the Lord is not only from the mind; it is from the heart

Jonathan Edwards said

The duty of singing praises to God, seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned, why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music, but only, that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move [and express] our affections.

Singing, giving thanks to God in song, moves us in ways that simply reading or talking cannot.

The act of redemption being sung about here, that praise is given for is the Lord’s rebuilding.

Redeeming his people, gathering together the outcasts.

Our psalmist writes that the Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Similar language occurs in Ezekiel 34:16 and Isaiah 61:2,

Ezekiel 34:16 ESV

I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

Isaiah 61:2 ESV

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

In both texts the images refer to the people of Israel who have endured much as a result of the exile and its aftermath.

The psalm was likely written

and even more likely to have been read in a time when restoration seemed all but impossible,

yet the psalmist confesses that nothing is impossible with God

Psalm 147:3 ESV

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

He is the source for understanding and healing and comfort.

He will give what you need when you seek Him for it.

He will guard you and keep you.

He will heal your pain and suffering.

This may not be in physical healing but He will heal you spiritually when you seek Him.

This will be a comfort in the difficulties.

You will be joyful when terrible news hits and pains come because you know God is in control and He is the one who will give you what you need.

Look at verse 4.

Psalm 147:4 ESV

He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.

If you think you are alone and no one cares or no one understands you.

You may think that you are fighting this battle alone and God is too busy for you.

This tells us many things. First do you know how many known stars there are in the universe?

Astronomers now estimate there are up to 1 septillion stars in the universe.

1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

That is a on with 24 zeros.

Estimates for the milky way alone are 100 billion.

Yet God determined the numbers of the stars, and that number is unknown, and He named them all.

If He is that meticulous, I can guarantee that He knows exactly where you are and what you are facing.

When we get back in to Luke we will cover this more but Jesus says

Luke 12:6–7 ESV

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.

God knows you and He knows exactly what is going on with you.

If He knows the exact number of stars and their names and if He knows the exact number of hairs on your head,

He knows what is happening to you.

He knows your situation.

But to find this comfort and strength we must humble ourselves

We must quit seeking our answers from this world and things in this world and find our hope in the strength of God’s love.

If we depend on this world to help us, we will be let down.

If we depend on other people to help us, we will be let down.

If we depend on ourselves, we will be let down.

Our strength is not enough to make it through.

Paul cried out for relief and help during his difficult times and God told him that in our weakness His power rests upon us.

This means that when we humble ourselves and seek God in life and everything in it, we will have His power in our lives.

It is because of this that we can -

Praise the God who cares!

Read 7-11 again with me.

Psalm 147:7–11 ESV

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre! He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills. He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

God cares enough to provide shade,

God cares enough to send rain,

God cares enough to make the grass grow.

God cares enough to feed the wild animals.

Do we care enough to sing back with thanksgiving?

The Lord is not impressed by earthly strength but rather by those who fear him, who hope in his steadfast love and freedom.

Many men and women of great strength and courage have broke at some point because something is too much for them.

You may have heard, God will not give you more than you can handle.

I’m sorry that is not true.

God WILL give you more than you can handle on your own.

To drive you to himself.

No matter how strong you are or how strong someone else is that you depend on, our strength is not enough.

We will break, but God will not.

He delights in us and gives us strength when we express our weakness to Him.

We are resting in His power then and not our own.

We need to focus on Him and trust in Him and place our hopes in Him alone

because only He can sustain us properly

because His love is never ending and steadfast in everything.

We can -

Praise the God who commands!

When we give it all to Him and trust in Him and have our hopes in Him,

His abundance is overflowing and overwhelming.

Look at all the things these last verses says He does.

He strengthens the gates,

He blesses the children,

He makes peace,

He fills with wheat,

His commands swiftly go throughout the earth,

He controls the weather and provides the moisture needed,

He has given His word and rules to those who are His and blessed them tremendously.

This is directed to Israel as this is a Psalm of Praise to God from them but we see God’s provision in it.

What this tells us is that God fortifies and strengthens you to face the grueling and the difficult.

He gives you peace and satisfaction, because He is the all-powerful creator.

We see here that when you are His you have blessings that others do not.

As it says at the end about Israel and how He has not dealt with another nation like He has them.

This is His chosen people and He has poured out special affection on them.

They are the apple of His eye and He has given them things He has not any other nation.

Guess what?

If you are in Christ you have His special affection.

You have His special gift that not everyone has.

You are His and as His He has protection and grace for you.

He has sealed you as His and as such nothing can remove you from that.

You are His and as such He knows you and He knows what you need.

He will provide for you when you have humbled yourself to asking Him and resting in Him and not yourself.

When we rest in Him and trust Him in everything, His pleasure rests on us.

He understands everything that is going on in your life and if you are one of His cry out to Him and make your needs known.

He wants you to give your worries and concerns to Him.

As followers of Christ, we should always have compassion in our hearts.

The holiday season has already begun.

You go into Walmart, the day after Halloween and they are already putting up a Christmas display.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas on our minds, we are staring at opportunities for compassion without even realizing it.

There are people in our church, our neighborhood, our job, everywhere that are yearning for loving connection this holiday season.

Perhaps they don’t have family in the area.

Maybe they don’t have family at all.

It would be a radical act of Christian love and service to invite them into our homes to enjoy a meal and experience deep fellowship.

Even in the midst of everything that is happening around us, we have so much to be thankful for.

It can be so easy with the busyness of our lives to get lost in the drudgery of every day that we forget to be thankful.

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